He stopped the stroller at the top of the hill and turned to face her while Jo-Jo babbled at her favorite view. There were cows in the distance and sometimes people walking. The baby seemed to love this vantage point.
Carlo brushed Annette's cheek, the soft leather of his glove making her shiver a little. "This is about making a lifetime commitment to build a family. You are agreeing to it because you are pregnant with my child. That makes it no less real and lasting."
"How does a prenup change that?"
"It gives us a prescription for the way out if things get hard."
"And you don't want that?"
"No. Like anything else worth having, I want to work for our marriage, in the good times, but also the difficult ones."
"You say you are not a romantic." Annette's voice was clogged with emotion. Darn hormones again.
"I am not, but even I recognize that marriage is not a business contract."
"Last time…"
"I did everything expected."
"I still don't see why that is bad."
"It wasn't." Left unsaid was a truth between them: but it hadn't worked.
And in Carlo's mind, it wasn't enough to change how he handled decisions about their lives together, he had to change everything leading up to the wedding.
"You can be a little irrational," she pointed out.
"I am perfectly rational," he said, affronted.
Said the man who had written up that ludicrous sex contract.
"Okay. I will draft the prenup, but don't come whining to me if you don't like some of the clauses."
"I assure you, I will not."
CHAPTER 16
He was singing a different tune two days later.
Annette, Alceu and Valentina had pounded out a prenup that satisfied Alceu for the safety of the Messina empire, Valentina about her son's future fatherhood in the event the marriage did not last and Annette about how that marriage and their family life would be conducted.
"You have put limits on the number of hours I may work and how often I can leave the family for business trips."
"There are also limits on the number of trips you can expect us to take each year with you for the sake of business," Annette agreed serenely. "You'll notice there is also a limit on the number of hours I spend working, or volunteering."
She'd put a forty-hour cap on hers because honestly, Annette had always wanted to work only part time when her children were in school, but she didn't want to work extra hours later either. She wanted balance in life.
Carlo's sixty-hour max was generous on her part, but she didn't think the tycoon would countenance any less. However, there were other family centric provisos. Like both of them attending their children's events at least half of the time. Annette had every intention of being there for everything she could, but she expected Carlo to make an effort too.
"It is not reasonable to expect me to make a football match in the middle of my workday, or go to every dance recital."
"It's only half, not every, and why not? You know what I never heard you say when you were talking about the resentments you held toward your mother for not being there when you wanted her?"
"What?" Carlo asked, warily.
"Any resentment toward your father for missingallof them."
Arrested, Carlo stared at her. "I…he was running the company."