“Yes. For a man like Luca, love, or even marriage, without passion is a sickness, you see?”
“A love built on friendship?”
“Comes after. He believes the heart craves the fire we need in another. A fire hot enough to send two bodies up in flames. Cold love is not his style.”
Even temperate, I wanted to add, but I didn’t. The hot flush burning my cheeks was a testimony to how hot the Fausti men preferred their love.
“I see,” I said. “What shall I tell him then?”
“Whatever you do, don’t tell him I still have feelings for Aberto.”
“I didn’t plan on it.”
“Tell him I’m fine.”
“Fine? He’s not going to believe that. Brando has been telling him that since Positano.”
“Yes,” she said, grabbing my arm and squeezing. “He will. He trusts you, and he reads your face. He’ll know you’re telling the truth. You understand that I’m fine—I’m not physically sick. There’s more to being sick than what comes from the physical sometimes. My heart and soul occasionally feel the sickness Aberto’s death left behind.
“I was exposed to a different kind of…love, for lack of a better word—love out of necessity. Though it could never come close to Luca Fausti, I still had it, Scarlett Gorgeous. And since Luca can’t kill it, it would drive him mad. He understands the truth but refuses to accept it, so he rages when he thinks about it.”
“All right,” I agreed. “But he better not kill me!Myhusband won’t like that.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “He wouldn’t touch you. He loves you. You have become a daughter to him.”
Whatever she saw on my face made her laugh even harder, welcoming Luca over to us with a wide smile.
A natural tenor, he sang a romantic contemporary ballad as he strode toward us. When he sang, he made every hair on my body stand up; his voice echoed in the chambers of my heart. I loved how he broke out in song at unexpected times, his voice coating the moments in magic. He always sang in Italian, too, which made the words even more beautiful.
“Ah,” he said, putting an arm around each of our shoulders. “My two beautiful women. Let us walk in the sunlight.” He shook his head, a bit irritated. “What does he think, daughter? That I will steal you? My father, he told me of my son doing this to him. Would not look away, he said. Now he does it to me!Ah!”
I laughed at his tone. There were times when he could be so…level. Especially when Maggie Beautiful was around. He enjoyed making her laugh. Me too, for that matter.
Brando caught up with us in four confident strides—for a man of his size, he was graceful on his feet, all too comfortable in his skin, and walked with purpose.
Either a man drew attention with his gait, inspiring confidence, or he didn’t. All of the Fausti men inspired confidence and demanded respect.
Luca sighed, long and dramatic, when his son started to speak.
“You forgot her jacket,” Brando said, carrying my jacket over his arm.
“I did not forget,” Luca said. “She does not need it today. It is warm enough.”
“She gets cold,” Brando said, his tone on the defensive.
Maggie Beautiful and I subtly grinned at each other.
“Very well.” Luca waved the hand over Maggie Beautiful’s shoulder. He sang his song for a few minutes, then the air became too quiet with the loss of his voice when he stopped serenading us. He kept his gaze forward as he addressed his son. “I trust you will end your journey with us at Rocco’s villa.”
It could have been poised as a question, but it wasn’t. Brando didn’t even bother answering. He walked close to me, almost scowling at his father’s arm across my shoulder. It itched him to see it there.
Luca had made it clear, though, that this was his time. Brando could claw himself raw for all he effing cared.
Giving in to my own urge to be close, I took my husband’s hand to quell both of our needs as we walked. It took us a few minutes to reach Rocco’s villa, where we left Brando and Maggie Beautiful. I’d given her the responsibility of making sure no one stuffed anyone in a trashcan before I left.
Brando hovered by the door, watching as his father and I took off in a golf cart. For this, I was thankful. Not that I minded the walk, but I didn’t find it all that appealing to walk the rest of the way in new heels.
We made pleasant conversation for the most part. Children, the property, the weather. Men stood to the side of the roads as we passed, giving Luca a wide berth. He gave some of them a stiff wave, and they moved after we passed, like soldier ants doing their duties to preserve the colony.
