I grinned. “A real Mediterranean-inspired one. A grotto. Oh! And if we’re going to play this game…” I led him back to the dead gardens. “What if I planted forget me nots, like your mom has roses? I could add roses too. So romantic! And then I could plant vegetables over there.” I pointed to another spot. “Oh! And fruit trees of all kinds! I could send the neighbors things they don’t have.”
We went over the property again, playing the game ofif this was ours,this is what we’d do with it. By the time we were finished, we were both sweating, but in our heads, we had this entire vision of the villa we’d both put our touch on. We were only missing the visions of the inside of all the villas. It even had a building to store lemons in the winter.
“Shhh,” I whispered, putting my pointer finger to my lips. “The lemons are sleeping.”
Matteo grinned. “That’s a clever way of looking at it.”
“When I was little, my mom would do that. Put her finger to her lips and go,shhhh, the baby is sleepingwhen I was being too loud. I had no idea where this sleeping baby ever was, but I never asked. We’d just laugh in a whisper, and I’d tone it down a bit.” I smiled, even if the crack in my heart grew deeper. It was like the smile widened it.
His hand tightened around mine, and he rubbed my palm with his thumb.
I willed myself not to cry at his gentle but firm touch. It was a touch that said so much, but mostly,I’m sorry for this thing that I can’t change, and I’m going to kill whoever hurt you like this.Itucked a strand of hair behind my ear and got it together. It was warm and windy, which felt so nice against my skin, even if it was hot out. I asked to change the subject, “What do you think the inside of these places look like? Should we play that game?”
Before he could answer, the sound of hooves hitting dry earth echoed in the distance, and so did the sound of a dirt bike. Mariano seemed to ride out of a cloud of dust on his horse right before Marciano appeared behind him on his bike, which was throwing up about the same amount of dust. I waved my hand in front of my face until it drifted off with the next breeze.
Matteo seemed to hold my hand even tighter as both brothers dismounted. Marciano seemed to be waiting for Mariano. He was pumping water from a well, filling what Matteo called a “horse trough” with it. Mariano took an apple from his pocket and gave it to his horse. He’d settled him in the shade, and the horse looked content with his water and snack.
The two brothers met up and started to walk toward us. Both brothers were sweating, their hair saturated, and dust seemed to stick to their faces because of it. When they smiled, their teeth were neon white, even in the day. As they grew closer, their scents seemed to mingle with Matteo’s, and it caused my heart to flutter like a butterfly in my chest.
I wasn’t shy around Matteo’s brothers, but all together, they were a bit intimidating.
Mariano smiled and winked at me. “Good driving, lil’ star.”
Marciano laughed, and it was raspy. “My dirt bike doesn’t have anything on that Vespa. What’d you do, Matteo? Give it some speed?”
Matteo narrowed his eyes at his brothers as they laughed. But they softened when he looked at me and I was laughing too.
“He definitely gave it some speed,” I said, wiping my eyes. “But when it goes, it needs a little morevroom. It was light on that.”
“You don’t want morevroom,” Mariano said. “Take your opponents by surprise.”
“Mariano has a point.” Marciano grinned. “No one will expect you to leave them in the dust.”
After a second, the three of us—Mariano, Marciano, and me—exploded with laughter. Because that was exactly what they allowed me to do. Leave them in the dust. Matteo grinned, but his hand on my shoulder was a little heavy, like he was letting them know I was his. No matter where we were, or who was around, it always felt like he was proud that I was his. I couldn’t even put into words how much that meant to me. I wanted him to always know how proud I was to be his too.
I set my hand over his and asked his brothers what they thought about the property. We started to walk it again, leaving out our vision, but a few times I noticed Matteo and Mariano make eye contact. It was like they were talking but without words. I was about to call them out on it when onebamp!from a horn came from where I’d parked the Vespa. We all turned in the direction of the noise, and I set my hand over my eyes, trying to squint to see.
Saverio was driving a fast, dark car with the top down. Mia was sitting next to him, her hair pulled back like an Italian moviestar. She wore dark glasses that only reinforced the point. Even though the car was small, it had a back seat. Chloe sat behind Mia, clutching what looked like a suitcase, and Maestro sat behind Saverio.
Mia waved our way, and I waved back.
Matteo said something to his brothers in Italian. It sounded serious. The tone of his voice was firm, the look in his eyes intense. He started to make his way toward the waiting car.
“Finally.” Marciano smiled. “We get some alone time with Sissy.”
“Isn’t that what Romeo calls your mom?” I asked, but I knew the answer.
“Yeah, it’s catchy.” He smiled like the sun came out on a rainy day. These men were all so good looking—sogood looking—it should have been against the laws of nature.
“I like it.” I returned the smile.
“What I call you is more original,” Mariano said, all proud.
“Yeah, because we’renota traditional family.” Marciano was being sarcastic, and Mariano gave his head a little slap.
Marciano laughed it off, fixing his hair. Not that it seemed all that tame. His time on the bike had messed it up. Mariano’s wasn’t much better, but it seemed like neither one of them cared. They were all wild in ways that were unique, but down to the bone, they were all distinguished lions. That was the only way I could think to describe them in that moment.
I also couldn’t help but fall in love with them both as brothers—actually, all three brothers and their sister. Actually, the entire family. I smiled at the thought, and both of my newly crowned brothers gave me a slow smile back. I had no idea how the women of this world could ever be safe from these Fausti men.
