be Gianna. He’s been writing to her, and I’ve been answering.”
“Carina, why would you do something like that?” Graham snapped.
“Because I knew she wouldn’t, and I think they would make a really great couple. He’s just as nerdy as she is.”
“But he hasn’t been building a relationship with your sister, Carina—he’s been building one with you,” Franco said, crossing his arms over his chest.
Carina shook her head. “That’s not true. Every word I sent, she wrote. I copied them out of her journals.”
“You read your sister’s journals?” Her father’s look was disapproving.
“I’ve been reading her journals since we were twelve. Besides, I am her personal assistant. I’m supposed to answer her mail.”
“I don’t think that’s what your sister intended, daughter.” Franco shook his head from side to side. He went back to chopping the bulb of garlic that rested on the wooden chopping board. “Gianna is going to kill you!”
Graham laughed. “She is definitely going to kill you,” he said.
Carina rolled her eyes at her husband. “Thanks for the support.”
“So, what do you know about this guy?” Graham asked. “How do you know he’s not a psycho?”
“He teaches at Tulane University in New Orleans. He comes from a big family, and he reads the same boring stuff Gianna reads.”
“So he is a psycho!”
“He’s very sweet and a bit of a romantic. He’s exactly what Gianna needs.”
“So, tell me,” Graham said, turning to stare at his wife, a wooden spoon waving in his hand, “exactly when were you going to tell Gianna about this guy?”
“I hadn’t figured that out. I thought I had a little more time until he decided to come to Italy to meet me... I mean her.”
Graham continued to eyeball her. “I’m having some issues with this,” he said. “You’ve been having a relationship with another man for weeks...”
“Months actually,” Carina interrupted, her tone casual.
Graham paused, his eyebrows raised. “Months?”
His wife nodded as she gave him a quick shrug. “I was building a friendship between them. That takes time. And I was going to tell her. I think.”
He shook his head. “You’ve been building this relationship for months now, but I’m supposed to believe that you did it for your sister, when you didn’t even know if you were going to tell her?”
“You’re making it sound worse than it is!”
“It sounds the way it sounds, Carina, and it’s not kosher! It’s not kosher at all!”
Her father moved from the tomato sauce he’d put on the stove toward the door. “I’ll let you two have a minute,” he said. “Watch my pot while I’m gone, please.”
Carina blew out a soft sigh. She locked gazes with her husband, noting the disappointment and confusion that gleamed from his eyes. She didn’t have the words to explain how she’d rationalized what she’d done. All she knew was that in the beginning, it had made all the sense in the world to her. And that even in that moment she knew beyond any doubt that she’d done the right thing.
Since the publication of Gianna’s first book, Carina had stepped in to do those things Gianna neglected to do for herself. From managing her fan page to answering reader questions, Carina had been her sister’s personal assistant and marketing guru, maintaining her Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts. When Donovan’s first email message had come, there had been something in the tone of his words that had caught her attention. His comments had been thoughtful and provoking, his words laden with emotion. She instinctively knew he was exactly what her best friend in the whole wide world needed.
Her response had been all Gianna, the wisecracking, tongue-in-cheek retorts her sister was known for. As their emails had gotten lengthier, she’d pulled lines and paragraphs from Gianna’s personal writings to respond, wanting him to know her twin the way she knew her, in her sister’s own words. And it had worked because now he wanted to meet the woman he’d befriended. Admittedly, Carina hadn’t thought her plan through to the end. She’d imagined that once she’d vetted the man, she could have told Gianna and passed on the reins. Despite hoping that her twin would be happy to step in and take over, Carina knew that happy was probably going to be the last thing Gianna would feel about the situation.
She felt her husband still staring at her, and she lifted her eyes back to his. “Donovan likes Gianna. Everything he knows, he knows about Gianna. He doesn’t know me or anything about me! And when she finds out and gets to know him, she’s going to like him, too. I’d bet my last dollar on it. I just wanted her to be as happy as you and I are, and you know she wouldn’t have done anything like this on her own.”
Graham shook his head from side to side. “So when do you plan to tell Gianna?”
“Tell Gianna what?” Gianna asked as she moved into the room. She looked from one to the other. “What’s going on?”
Carina moved too quickly to her husband’s side, leaning against him for support. The two exchanged a quick look, a wave of nervous energy palpable around them.
Moving to the counter, Gianna dropped her bags against the wooden top. Her eyes were still locked on her sister and brother-in-law. The bubbling pot on the stove interrupted the moment as tomato sauce suddenly spewed over the sides and down to the stove top.
“Oh, hell!” Carina exclaimed, moving to lower the heat on their father’s meal.
Gianna watched with one hand on her hip as she waited for the duo to clean the mess. When the last dishrag had been rinsed, the pot back on simmer, she asked a second time, “So what is it that you have to tell me?”
Mumbling, Graham leaned over to kiss his wife’s cheek, then moved toward the door. Without another word, he disappeared through the entrance, leaving the two women alone. Gianna moved to stand in front of her sister, her arms crossed over her chest.
“What’s going on, Sissy?”
“Why don’t we sit down? Did you find everything you needed at the market?”
Gianna shook her head, her index finger waving in front of her sister’s face. “Oh, no, you don’t! You are not changing the subject, and don’t you move until you answer my question!”
Carina took a deep breath and then another. “I found you a boyfriend,” she said, and then she spewed out the story, not bothering to take another inhale of air until the last word had spilled past her lips.
* * *
“Open the door, Gianna,” Franco commanded. “You can’t hide in there forever.”
“I’m not hiding!” Gianna yelled back. “I just don’t want to talk to anyone.”
“Now, daughter!
