Rocco didn’t seem to mind, though. He was patient, maybe because we were talking the entire time. Finally, I asked him what we were doing in Piemonte, which he told me was close to the Italy/Switzerland border.
He gave me a cheeky grin and wink. “We are almost there, curious kitty.”
Speaking of kitty, I felt bad for leaving Pisolino at the royal winery in Tuscany. He wasn’t that kind of cat. He was morestreet smart. So, whatever our business in Piemonte, I didn’t want to leave him alone the entire night.
Maybe he’d get used to servants, but…the thought made me kind of jealous. Pisolino was mine. I wanted to feed him and take care of him. I’d vowed it to him before we left the island.
Rocco directed me deeper into Piemonte, and close enough to our destination, he directed me up another rising peak, almost reminiscent of the one in Tuscany with its lines of cypress trees, and on the slanting hills, more vines plump with swollen grapes.
As Apple Blossom easily took the height of the hill, we became silent, and even though my husband was holding on to the overhead bar, he seemed content. And when “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me” by The Miracles began to play, I turned up the volume on the radio, remembering how much Nonna had loved the song.
She was a huge Dino fan, but she loved music in general. She loved to hum.
Maybe because Rocco noticed how much I loved to sing the song, he began to sing with me. Even though his voice was perfect, and quite honestly, intimidating, we still became a duet, and when we finally reached the end of the road in a cloud of dust, it felt like maybe we had climbed to heaven together.
Not only did dust cloud the car, but actual…fog, which reminded me of clouds that had made their way down to the ground and were eager to touch us.
Once the dust cleared, and the fog began to cover the car, and a gorgeous apricot colored villa appeared out of it all, all I could do was stop and stare. This high up, the views of the slanting rows of grapes would be spectacular. The villa…farmhouse…whatever its title was…was a… home. So different from the estate.
I was never surer of anything in my life except for the feeling that the man next to me was mine—per sempre.
Wehadclimbed to heaven together.
I knew it was fog, but I preferred to call them clouds as they drifted past the house, as if they were floating in heaven. The bright house pulled my eyes in, along with the green shutters and a door that matched the color of the cypress trees. The windows were square. The door was rounded, with a light-colored brick surrounding it. A few cement steps were before the door.
“Are we in heaven?” I whispered.
“Is this your idea of heaven, Amora?” My husband’s voice was whispered, but with that rasp that made goosebumps appear on my skin, as if I could physically feel it against my flesh.
It was then that I realized he had turned the radio off, and his eyes were on me.
My eyes slowly left the vision in front of me and met his. What I found made me breathless. The guilelessness in them stole the air from my lungs. I would never be able to claim my husband’s eyes were innocent, but in that moment, he was being completely vulnerable with me. Like he was giving me a gift he’d never given another woman before, and he was waiting to see if I’d accept it from him. A gift that meant the world to him. Something that, maybe, in another’s eyes wouldn’t be worthy of the love he felt for it.
Tears came to my eyes. “Sì,” I whispered, “but only as long as you’re with me.”
He reached over, drying my tears with his fingertips, then rubbing them against his lips. “You. You are my heaven. I understand this now. How a man feels he can get into the gates of heaven by the love of his woman alone.”
As Apple Blossom was accustomed to doing, even though her radio had been shut off, music began to play again. “Nothing CanChange This Love” by Sam Cooke. At first, it had creeped me out when it happened, and I had even been thinking about taking her in to get her “bug” fixed, but I never had the chance. In that moment, I was never so thankful for her quirk.
Rocco leaned in, and after he kissed each of my eyes, he whispered in my ear, “Fate is at work—this is why this song plays now.”
Before I could respond, he cleared his throat and got out of the car. I didn’t even have a moment to catch my breath before he opened my door and slid me out of the seat. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and after he took the steps with ease, he opened the front door.
He gently set me down, though his hands came to my hips. He stood behind me, and whispered in my ear, “Tell me, where are you, Amora.”
We both knew it wasn’t a question. It was a statement that would echo inside of our hearts for eternity. There was not even a second of hesitation. Only pure conviction and trust—a decision that had been made for me even before I realized there would be this life-altering moment. Like when I’d said yes to Rocco, we both knew we’d be together beyond our lives.
It was the love my husband spoke of, and how strong it was between us.
Something that could never die.
And this, I thought,is why we have faith, why we believe that we shall always live in love.
That was how meant to bethismoment felt to me. This place…this place was a physical manifestation, representation, of who we were for each other, who we became together.
“Home,” I whispered. “Finally. I am home. Heaven on earth. With you.”
Chapter 14
