I smiled and kissed his palm. “Stronger than ever.”
“So I don’t have to challenge him to a dual?”
I laughed so loud that a few people looked our way. “A soccer match in Spain or a swim in the Bering Sea? Not today.”
He pulled me to him so hard that I gasped. “Tu sei la mia per sempre,” he said.You are mine forever.
“I know,” I whispered back in Italian. “I’ll always remember. My heart can’t forget, neither can my soul, since both are in your hands.”
“No,” he said, continuing in Italian. “You are in my blood, in my bone, to the marrow. I don’t just hold you in my hands.”
“Even better,” I breathed out,admiring all of the lights, my cheek pressed against his chest.
Then I blinked. I rubbed my eyes. The air was hazy with thousands of bulbs, and I wondered if I was seeing things. Two figures had walked past us, holding hands.
“Brando,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “Is that…?”
The sheriff and… I’d know that cherry-colored hair anywhere. Jane Jones. She had been in love with Brando for as long as I could remember. Obsessed with him, in fact. She’d steal my pictures and then ruin them for fun.
Brando narrowed his eyes. “Yeah,” he said. “It is.”
I knew it was, but I needed confirmation. It wasn’t seeing Jane Jones or the sheriff that had caused me to stare. It was the both of them together, participating in a public display of affection.
The sheriff had never remarried, nor had he showed any interest in any of the women in town. Publicly, that is. Jane Jones was a woman with a short history but a long list of partners. Brando not being one of them, which had driven her mad.
Brando turned to me and I jumped.
“Solid. Isn’t that what you just said to me.”
“What?” I said, feigning ignorance.
“You were watching my face.”
“So?”
“To see how I was going to react to the sheriff and Jones.”
“All right,” I admitted. “I was.”
He smiled, and I resisted the urge to call him condescending. Instead, I smacked his shoulder.
“Are you laughing at me, Fausti?”
“Yeah.” He held me closer, and we both shook with his humor.
“Ha ha,” I mocked him. “Hilarious, Brando!” I went to shove away from him, but he refused to let me go.
“You just told me that I didn’t need to be jealous.”
“I’mnotjealous!”
“No?”
“No! Because your faced showed nothing.”
He put my hand to his heart. “What does this show? Scarlett…Scarlett…Scarlett…” He timed the tattoo of his heart to my name. “This should show you the truth.”
After he received no response from me, he sighed. In all fairness, I didn’t laugh at him duringhismoment. And for the record. Iwasn’tjealous.
