It didn’t matter if she had. I didn’t want to feel their emotions or anything that belonged to them. It always felt invasive to me, but I loved having this ability when it came to writing. I felt it gave the characters who spoke to me a realness that made them come alive on the page. Their drive created who they were, whatthey were after, and what they would do to obtain whatever it was they wanted.
Another sigh slipped from my lips. I didn’t have to see Rocco to know he was close, but it was still a disappointment when he couldn’t be found in the group.
Scarlett smiled at me when she noticed me. “You look so beautiful, Ari.”
“You too!” I smiled at her. Scarlett had always been beautiful, and I knew that would never change. She just had whatever made a person attractive. Her soft beauty, all but those eyes, hit with a force that I was sure had stolen a lot of breaths and hearts over the years. I glanced at her husband.
Yeah, to claim that kind of man, she had to have knocked him to his knees.
“I love your dress!” Mia said, coming over to feel the fabric. “It’s absolutely beautiful!” She sniffed around me. “I love your perfume too! What’s the name of it? If this island had a perfume to bottle, that’s what I imagine it would smell like.”
I gave her the name of the perfume, then I explained about the dress and why it was so special to me.
“I love that.” Stella smiled at me. “It’s so nice that you still have something so special to pass on.”
At the rate I was going, a thirty-year-old virgin, I might never have a child to pass it on to. The thought made me sad, especially looking around the room and seeing so many children. Four boys and girl. They were divided up between Mia and Saverio and Stella and Matteo. Mia and Saverio had twin boys and a daughter. I thought maybe Stella and Matteo’s sons were twins too. They seemed to be the same age, and they looked alike.
“Ready to go?” Scarlett took my arm and pulled me close to her side.
“Ready.”
“Teo, Rio, and Papa Brando will walk ahead,” Stella said. “Just in case you need a wall of muscle to break your fall down those narrow steps.”
“I’m pretty sure I’m okay now.” I smiled back at her, giving Pisolino a pet before we started for the door. “I haven’t had any more symptoms.”
Except, on the last step, it felt like I was nearing a height that was so high, even I was wary of the drop. My heart started overreacting. I couldn’t catch my breath. My stomach was anxious. Like I couldn’t even think about eating, but I was ravenous at the same time.
Rocco stood at the door, his eyes on me. At the last step, he offered me his arm, and I took it with a sigh that sent my heart floating outside of my body. Was I imagining him pulling me closer? I certainly wasn’t imagining the warm kiss he placed on my knuckles with those gorgeous lips.
“You are a vision,” he said to me. “A vision powerful enough to sustain me until my dying breath.”
“Grazie mille,” I breathed out, not able to say more. He took compliments to another level.
He took themantellofrom me and held it in his free hand almost reverently.
We walked toward town, the same kind of music—ancient Roman style—seemingly serenading us along the way. The island’s inhabitants had come out to look, like this was a spectacle they didn’t get to see every day. Even Faustis came out, nodding to, who it seemed, was Rocco, like they were showing a sign of respect to their king.
Okay, this felt super formal, like the entire island was all acknowledging royalty.
We collected family members as we moved closer to the church. Rocco and Brando had two brothers, Dario and Romeo. Dario was married to Carmen. Romeo to Juliette. Scarlett and Brando had three sons who were born after Matteo. Mariano, Marciano, and Maestro. Then…Rocco introduced me to his sons.
Amadeo and Ludovico. He explained that Massimo was unable to attend.
Amadeo and Ludovico were both gentlemen, taking my hand,kissing it, saying how pleased they were to meet me. Both men seemed to be younger versions of their father.
Their father.
As we started to near the church at the far end of the island, almost perched over the sea, I couldn’t stop the whirling inside of my mind. Rocco had sons. Was he divorced? As traditional as this family was, I didn’t see that, nor did I see him having sons without being married.
My thoughts stalled on these questions as we met Luca Fausti, Rocco’s father, and his wife, Margherita, outside of the church.
Luca and Margherita had arrived at the church first, which meant they had been the first in line during the walk. Luca Fausti stole my breath. And I couldn’t help but put together his pieces by putting together his sons. All four men were different versions of him, but the reflection was almost the same. Luca took my hand and kissed it, told me what a pleasure it was that I was his son’s guest, and then his wife brought me in for a bear hug. When she finally let go, tears swam in her beautiful eyes. Hazel. A color like mine.
“Thank you for being here,” she whispered.
“The pleasure is all mine,” I whispered back.
Luca Fausti gave me a look of approval when I set the lace over my head, just like the other women were doing, before we entered the dim church. Even though the sun was high and bright, the sunlight was dimmed by the mosaic glass even as it gave brilliant life to all the colors of the stained glass. With the rolls of the sea right outside of the door, it was one of the most beautiful and peaceful churches I had ever been in.
