This was heaven.
Pure heaven.
He grew quiet, and so did I. Birds chattered in the distance, perhaps chatting about where they would fly to when winter came. Some kind of insect kept flying around our heads, buzzing. The rocking chair against the wood beneath us creaked every so often. The trees seemed to have voices of their own and whispered secrets to each other when the wind would blow.
Other than that, all was silent.
The silence did not come between us but forged us even closer together. I could sit with him—just this way—for the rest of my life.
Perhaps our thoughts were in sync, perhaps not, but in the quiet, in the stillness with him, I reflected on the last week.
I did not know how welcoming his family was going to be. His grandmother…to be honest, I could not see anyone calling her “grandmother.” She had told me her spirit animal was a glittery lioness. Her husband called her his wildflower. She was a mixture of the two that seemed to make her forever young. A free spirit.
I adored her from the first moment. She welcomed me into the family right away, making me feel as if I had always been a part of it. However, I had always been cautious of Luca Fausti. Even when he came to the jewelry store, I would be courteous to him, but I preferred when my grandfather or father would serve him. He made me nervous. I always felt he had it in him to eat one of his young, and if he could do something of that nature, he could do it to me. I did not want to say or do the wrong thing.
However, I noticed how different he was with his wife.
She made him human.
I sighed.
To be honest, thinking back, I wondered if I was…enamored with him as well. The fear made me respect him, but it also drew me in. I had always averted my eyes so that he did not see it. He just seemed to be a man who would know these things about a woman.
Mariano said his Nonno would request a walk with me. He had with Atta, but as of that time, he had not requested the same from me. I felt perhaps he did not care for me, or the situation.
Mariano said if he did not care for me or the situation, we would know it. Mariano felt his grandfather was giving me time. Perhaps to get more comfortable with him.
With women, Mariano had told me, especially beautiful women, his grandfather was merely a man. It was hard to connect the two, but Magpie, as she requested I call her, proved the theory to be true—Luca Fausti could feel.
He even left the situation up toZiaBianca about whether she wanted to invite her father—my grandfather—and her brother—my father—to the wedding. If she did, my family would know Mariano had been at the ranch with me. Fausti men did not hide the truth. However, since the situation was not entirely about the Fausti family, my aunt had the right to tell them or not, since she was estranged from them, which was why it was not the same situation with Atta as it was for me.
I was not estranged. There was no way my grandfather and father would allow the union. Whatever they both said, my mamma would agree to it. My talent was coveted. Marrying a Fausti would not only break tradition, a law, it could potentially cause trouble between the families if the marriage was not a happy one.
My husband and I knew this was not the truth of our relationship, but my family would not be sold on the idea, no matter how much I tried to plead our case.
Mariano’s uncle, Rocco, and his wife, Rosaria, came to mind. I had dealt with Rosaria before. She did not bother me. She was frank and knew what she liked and did not like. This intimidated a lot of people, especially because she seemed to hold weight in the family since she was married to the man who would lead the family someday. I only did as she told me to and then went on with my life. I could tell most of the family did not appreciate her attitude, and things were tense between them. Mariano said there was a lot more to the story.
My husband was not a gossip and left me in suspense after that.
It was Mia who filled me in on all things Rosaria- and Fausti-related. Rosaria had tried to seduce Matteo! Stella, Matteo’s wife, did not appreciate this. More drama unfolded after this.
Seemed as if Rosaria was at war within her own family.
Mia also told me that, if she was not available to fill me in, I should speak to Marciano. He had smiled and waved at me from across the kitchen, where Mia and I had been talking while washing dishes.
Mariano and I had hosted the family, along with Hannah,ZiaBianca, and of course Atta and Angelo to ourcabin for dinner. Both sides of our family suspected something more serious between us. Mariano was not hiding how he felt for me. I did not hide how I felt about him. Still. Both sides were unaware of what, exactly, had taken place outside of the cabin on a beautiful fall day, but they did not pry. I was thankful for that.
However, I did mention I appreciated Mia telling me these things, since her brother was not a snitch. Even to his wife, me, which I did not feel was asnitchy(I was not sure if that was even a legitimate word, but I went with it because it fit) thing to do. What was his was mine, just as what was mine was his, as he was prone to say. I said all of this to him, except for the parts connecting us as husband and wife.
His eyebrows had lifted, and he came at me.
“Mariano!” I screeched when he set his hands around my waist, and whatever he did with his fingers, it tickled the laughter out of me. I oversaw washing the soap off the plates, and the sprayer, not as old as the cabin but needed to be replaced, went wild.
It hit Mia in the face before it hit us. Mariano roared with laughter from behind me. She grabbed a half-eaten pie from the counter and went to fling it at him. He started for the door, but Scarlett was walking through it.
Mia hit her Mamma in the face with a pie.
“Oh shit,” I muttered, then did what I usually did when nerves hit me—laughed.
