Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 134(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 134(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
She gasped and he saw her face go red. “I had no idea.”
“It’s simple. As part of our marriage, you kiss me when you enter and leave a room, and just so you know, I’m standing in the kitchen.”
Tillie opened her mouth and closed it. “Are you just going to spend our marriage making up rules as they suit you?”
“I’ve never been married before so I am making up rules that suit both of us.”
She rolled her eyes and he found it so cute, but then he did get a kiss, and all was well.
Tillie moved away and went back to her pot on the stove.
“So, what is going on with your father?”
“Nothing.”
“You know, considering you helped keep the company in one piece and convinced me to keep him on, working for me, you’d think he would seem a little happier to see you.”
She stared at him and pressed her lips together. “I’m sure he was.”
“Tillie, you looked uncomfortable.”
She dropped the spoon she’d been using and nibbled her lip. “Fine, Dad … he didn’t want me to do what I did, but at the same time, he didn’t have any way of helping or changing what was happening.”
“He didn’t want you to marry me?”
“Dad is kind of old-fashioned.”
“Old-fashioned?”
“Yeah, he believes it’s up to you to provide, and women to be cherished.”
“I thought you were going to say at home, barefoot and pregnant.”
She sighed. “It’s complicated.”
“He has women working for him.”
“Yeah, that is where it gets complicated. He has no problem with women in the workplace, or the whole equality stuff, but I guess he knows … me.”
Okay, now he was more confused than ever.
“Your father knows you, and this upsets him?” Luca asked.
She chuckled. “No, it doesn’t upset him that he knows me. What upsets him is that I … decided to help the company rather than pursue what I wanted.”
Now this did surprise him.
“I thought your father sent you to help soften me up,” Luca said.
“No, Dad didn’t know. David didn’t know. Nor did Uncle Ed. I just, I read about what you did to other companies, and I know how many you have torn apart. I did all the research.”
“And you helped keep the company whole. Trust me, I would have torn it apart to find out what worked and what didn’t, but that doesn’t explain why your father is disappointed.”
She stirred the sauce again. “My grandparents had the perfect, or at least it felt perfect to me, marriage.”
“Okay.”
She took a deep breath and then blew it out. “When I was a kid, my mom wanted to enter me into all these beauty pageants, and I did it for her but I hated it. David told me to tell Dad how I felt, so I did, and he put a stop to it. Mom and I didn’t get along so well after that. So I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. Most of all my grandmother.”
Luca nodded.
“My grandparents had a strong marriage, but my grandmother was a stay-at-home mother. She helped support my granddad by being there for him, by doing everything else for him, and you know, being his rock where she needed to be. They had the perfect marriage and were a united front. No one could come between them. Dad knows that was the kind of marriage I wanted. Ever since I was little, I wanted a marriage like that. To find a husband who loved me, who wanted me to be his rock.” She breathed out. “I didn’t want a flashy career, or to go chasing some other dream, being the first woman to do this or that. I wanted to be a wife, a mother, and to make a home. I know it isn’t as thrilling as what other women hope for, but it’s what I wanted. Dad wanted more for me. He’d hoped I would be by my brother’s side, helping with the company, but it doesn’t work that way.”
Luca looked at her and he noticed she wasn’t quite meeting his eyes.
“Dad didn’t like that he couldn’t give me my dream, and he was upset with that. He doesn’t know how my marriage with you would go, and I guess he feels guilty about it all.”
She finally glanced up and Luca couldn’t help but look at her.
“What?” she asked. “Please, Luca, say something.”
“You only ever wanted to be a wife and mother?”
“Yes.”
“You’re sure?”
She laughed, but it was a forced one that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Yes, I’m sure. I told you, being around my grandmother, I loved her life, but then Grandpa loved her, and she loved him. They had a wonderful marriage.”
Luca heard exactly what she wasn’t saying. Her grandparents had a happy marriage because they wanted to be married, while they did not. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at her, really looked at her.