Page 173 of Ricardo
“It looks worse than it is.”
“That is such a ridiculous thing to say.”
“I am all right.”
“You are bleeding.”
“Barely.”
“Dante punched you.”
He looks back out the window. “Yes.”
The word is too calm for my liking.
A tear slips down my cheek before I can stop it.
He catches it out of the corner of his eye and turns back to me.
“Cuore mio,” he says softly.
“No.” I pull my hand back and wipe at my face. “Don’t. Please don’t be kind to me right now.”
“I have no interest in being cruel.”
“I know. That’s the problem.”
He says nothing.
I look away because if he keeps looking at me like that, I will fall apart, and I have already done enough falling apart tonight.
Dante’s face keeps flashing in my mind. The look of anger and hurt. The way he looked at me before walking out. The door closing between us.
“I ruined it,” I whisper.
Ricardo’s brows draw together. “You did not ruin anything.”
“I did.” My voice shakes. “I knew he would be angry, but I thought if I told him myself, if I was honest with him, if I gave him the truth before he found it somewhere else—”
“You did the right thing.”
“He left.”
“He needed distance.”
“He said he couldn’t look at me.”
Ricardo’s jaw tightens, and then he winces almost imperceptibly when the movement pulls at the split in his lip.
That tiny wince does something to me.
I step closer and take the towel-wrapped ice from the desk.
“Sit down.”
His eyes flick to mine.
“Julia—”
