“Wine!” Gino said, coming up to the table and uncorking the bottle. He poured some for Jason to taste.

He enjoyed the flavor and nodded. The older man filled each glass. The restaurant was starting to fill up, and he was glad they’d made it here in time to snag his favorite, more isolated table.

“Would it be okay if I brought out the house special?” Gino asked. “My Rosa would love to treat you and she cooked it with love.”

Faith smiled at the older man. “That would be fine with me,” she said.

“Me, too.”

Gino strode off and Faith met his gaze. “So tell me, Jason Dare, what is your situation with women? You haven’t wanted to introduce any to your mother, and these people are like close friends and they’ve never met one of your dates. I know you’re not gay. What are you hiding?” Faith tucked her hands beneath her chin, grinning as she put him on the spot.

He’d been prepared for this question, and he chose the easiest issue in his past to admit to. “My father’s a bigamist. Or as close to being a bigamist as one can get without marrying both women at the same time.”

He hated talking about Robert Dare. The man had raised Jason and his siblings, had been there for them, and he’d thought they had a great family … only to discover the truth.

“I’m sorry … what?” Faith asked, stunned as any rational person would be.

“My father had another family with a woman he was legally married to, and five kids, including me, while he had an affair with my mother and raised me and my siblings with her. She knew, or found out, and stayed with him anyway.” A pain throbbed in his temple as it always did when this subject came up. But it was nothing compared to the pain of losing his best friend, so as much as it hurt, he would stick with this part of his past for now.

“Wow. That’s … awful. I’m sorry,” Faith murmured.

He nodded. “It’s complicated. He married Emma St. Claire as part of a merger of two families. It wasn’t a love match, and instead of trying to create one, my father, Robert, met my mom and fell in love. I think that’s how he justified what he did.” Jason shook his head. “Although we didn’t know it at the time, he told his other family that he was traveling on business for his hotels when he was really with us.” He swallowed hard. “He missed major events in their lives like graduations and birthdays but came to ours. Again, justifying it because he was in love with my mother and not theirs.”

“What a pig,” Faith muttered honestly and Jason managed a laugh.

“Truer words were never spoken,” he said.

“How did you find out?”

He took a long sip of wine and she did the same. “Well, that’s where Sienna’s illness comes in. She had been diagnosed with leukemia. Chemo and treatments didn’t work, so they wanted to do a bone marrow transplant. None of us were matches, so Robert decided to go to his other family and ask them to be tested.”