Shayla Black - Forever Wicked

No, she couldn’t look at it that way. She refused to lose him again because of her fears or to save her feelings. It reeked of cowardice and self-doubt, and she would not be that woman. Even if she disappointed her parents, she had to believe they would never stop loving her. She owed it to them to come clean. And she owed it to Jason to try making him a part of her family.

“Let’s go.” She grabbed her purse from the floorboard and shoved open the car door, shaking from head to toe.

They walked through the shadowed parking lot. Jason took her hand, holding her father’s professionally wrapped gift in the other, leading her to the door. He opened it for her, and the heavy wooden thing squeaked on its hinges. Delvecchio’s wasn’t big. The small bar area and takeout counter sat to the right, doing a steady business already. A dining area big enough for maybe fifty people lay beyond the hostess stand in front of a half wall just inside the foyer.

Gia swallowed, her palms turning sweaty as the familiar hostess turned to her. “Hi, Renee.”

“Gia!” The Delvecchio’s youngest daughter, only recently graduated from high school, called out to her with a little squeal. “I haven’t seen you in forever.” She eyed Jason not so discreetly. “Your parents said you weren’t coming tonight. They’ll be surprised to see you.”

Completely. That filled her with an anxious dread, but she wasn’t backing down.

“What corner did you sit them in? You know they’re going to be loud, right?”

“Mila warned me.” Renee winked. “They’re in the big booth right outside the kitchen. Need a menu?” she asked Jason, looking a little star struck.

“I’ll wing it.” He gripped Gia’s hand more tightly.

She flipped her gaze up to her husband. He’d pushed to make this meeting happen…but he was nervous. This mattered to him, and Gia found that endearing. Maybe she should still be mad at him. God knew she was so worried, she probably looked a charming shade of green.

“Can you have your brother bring a bottle of that Cabernet I like?” Gia asked the girl.

“Sure. Nick will take care of you. Holler if you need anything else.”

She nodded at Renee and figured it was time to stop hiding behind the hostess stand.

Sucking in a deep breath, Gia led Jason around the partition concealing the restaurant from the front door. Instantly, she saw her family in the corner. Longing buckled her chest. Dad laughed. Mom held his hand. Mila rocked the baby while smiling at her folks. Tony Jr. played with a pair of plastic cars on the table, crashing them together and making explosive sounds. He looked so much like her brother sometimes that it hurt.

The boy looked their way, his dark eyes piercing, then they lit up with recognition. “An’ Gia!”

As he clambered from his chair, nearly toppling it and his booster seat over, he darted across the restaurant toward her. Jason released her so she could crouch and welcome the happy child into her arms. The moment the little boy crashed into her, Gia reached back to right her balance and laughed. Automatically, Jason braced her with a hand on her back. She sent him a grateful glance before she turned back to Little Tony.

“How’s our big boy? You been good for your mama?”

He nodded earnestly. “I helped.”

“Of course you did.”

“Colleen helped, too.” The little boy grinned.

From his smile, Gia had no doubt that he liked the woman Jason had hired to help Mila and the kids during her absence. “That’s great.”

As she stood and ruffled his hair, Jason took her hand again and nudged her forward. She looked up to see her parents and sister-in-law all gaping and silent.

She held up her palm in greeting as she closed the short distance between her husband and her family. “Hi.”

They all gave her the once-over before their collective gazes slid over to Jason. They studied him unabashedly. Her father frowned.

Her mother stood. “Hello, dear. Mila said you wouldn’t be here. I’m glad you could make it. You brought a…friend.” She smiled wanly. “Why don’t you introduce us?”

Here went nothing.

“They’re not just friends, Sil,” Mila corrected her mother-in-law gently.

His frown morphing to a scowl, her father stood and looked Jason in the eye. “You dating my daughter?”

Gia sighed. “Daddy, be nice. If you’ll give me a minute—”

“No, sir.” Jason held out his hand and waited until her father shook it. “I married her.”

What the hell? She turned a peeved glare at Jason, but he just sent her a cool glance.

Maybe it didn’t matter if he’d blurted the truth. There was no good way to drop this bombshell.

Her mother gasped and blinked at her. “You’re married to Jason Denning?”

He cleared his throat, and they looked around to see most of the restaurant staring at them. She recognized a girl she’d gone to high school with. Their neighbors down the street sat two booths away. She and Jason had managed to keep this marriage secret for nearly a year. Between crazy Twitter peeps and gossipy folks in the neighborhood, the truth would travel so fast, they might make the local ten o’clock news.

“Why don’t we sit down, Mom?” She looked pointedly around her.

Mama pursed her lips. Her short dark hair didn’t quite hide the flush of her cheeks. “All right.”

Her father followed them. Mila just stared. This meeting wasn’t going down as she’d hoped.

Awkward prevailed as they pulled up spare chairs. Gia lifted Little Tony and set him in her lap, glad to hold him again and have a buffer. “Mom, Dad, Mila, you’ve obviously heard of Jason Denning. He’s my husband and he wanted to meet y’all.”

“Why didn’t you do the proper thing and ask me for my daughter’s hand?” Daddy scowled.

Her mother looked uncertain. “Do you love her?”

Mila frowned. “How long have you been married and how did we not know about this?”

Gia slapped a hand over her face. “Can we skip the interrogation, please? Dad, we chose to elope. Mom…” She sighed. “Can you let me handle the whole love thing? I’m a big girl.” Then she turned to her sister-in-law. “We married the night before Tony’s death. When I got the phone call with the news, Jason and I were in Vegas. When we returned, everything was crazy, and I couldn’t bring myself to lay more upheaval on any of you…so I made the choice to live separately from my husband while you needed me.”

Her father’s scowl deepened, then he leaned across the table to glare at Jason. “You supported this decision?”

“Not in the least. She slipped through my fingers for a while, but no more. I’ve been trying to convince her for nearly two weeks that we belong together. She’s proving a little stubborn, but I intend to persevere.”

Her father seemed to like that answer. A little smile lifted the corner of his mouth. “Good.”

“Happy birthday.” Jason set the present on the table between them.

Gia watched the exchange, stunned. Her father hadn’t growled or thundered? She turned to her mother, keenly aware of the woman’s confused stare. She also looked a bit hurt.

“I didn’t marry him to upset you,” Gia vowed.

With a tilt of her head, the older woman acknowledged that truth. “He’s not Italian.”

“Men of other nationalities can be equally wonderful,” she pointed out.

Mom looked at her husband of thirty-two years. “Perhaps. I might be a little biased.”

“I’m not Catholic, either, ma’am,” Jason jumped in, sending her mother a reassuring expression and placing his hand over hers. “But I assure you that I’ll always take care of your daughter and any children we have for as long as she’ll let me.” He smiled. “I’ll probably do it even when she fights me kicking and screaming.”