My wings.
The wings that had carried me there.
28
My routine didn’t change much over the coming days. In the mornings, I’d help Monica out at the florist, then go home and eat with Lucas. We’d watch TV for a while and drowse on the sofa, knocked out by the heat of a July that was almost over.
In the afternoon, Lucas would go to the restaurant and wouldn’t be home until late. I would take a new book out to the lemon fields with me, then come back and share what remained of the day with all those people there who were starting to become a part of me.
One day I opened my eyes, dying from the heat and looking up at the ceiling fan that was spinning round and round with a slight hum. I heard something, then turned and found Lucas next to me, his head leaning back, his mouth open.
I was surprised at first, but then I remembered he didn’t have to work that day. I looked at his square jaw, his straight nose, his thick eyebrows. His five-o’clock shadow made his features look a little harder and framed his luscious lips. I loved his freckles, abundant but so small and light you could hardly see them. On his left cheek were some that I’d swear formed an M if you looked at them right.
M. Like Maya.
Could I be any more ridiculous? That was the kind of thing a teenage girl would scrawl in her notebook.
His voice surprised me, and I brought my hand to my chest, startled. “If you keep looking at me like that, I’m going to start thinking you like me.”
“I wasn’t looking at you.”
With a lazy grin, his eyes just slits, he said, “Hey, I don’t mind. I look at you, too.”
“I wasn’t looking at you! But wait… What do you mean, you look at me?”
He held up his index and pinkie fingers and pointed at his eyes and then at me. “Don’t think I don’t notice. There’s nothing wrong with it.”
“Speak for yourself.”
“You speak for yourself. You were watching me sleep. I know you were. But…I like it.”
His voice was soft, suggestive. I got up, my heart pounding, feeling the blood rush to the surface of my skin. I remembered what Matías had said about me falling in love, and I felt almost dizzy. I tried to get up, but Lucas took my hand.
“Sorry, I’m a disaster when I try to be seductive,” he said.
“And lots of other times. But who’s keeping track?”
He laughed and pulled me down next to him, bending over me, and said, “Tell me more.” I tried to think of something funny to say, but couldn’t. Of course, he was anything but a disaster: He could captivate me effortlessly. He had a gift for it, and everything he did or said I found fascinating. I looked down at his lips, burning with desire. I hadn’t sensed it coming, and it had taken hold of me intensely. Like a storm, a whirlwind, taking over my body.
“What would you say to a trip to the beach?” he asked.
“In this heat… Yeah, let’s do it.”
He stood, and I gathered my composure, and a few minutes later we were getting into his car with a backpack with bottles of water, some munchies, and a towel. Lucas drove toward Amalfi. It was five thirty in the afternoon and the sun was blazing. With the air streaming in through the windows, I couldn’t hear the music from the radio or Lucas’s voice, so I distracted myself by looking at the landscape.
Thirty minutes later, Lucas parked on the side of the road and we walked a half mile on a dirt path toward a steep hill. It was a gorgeous place, full of vegetation, and the views of the sea were incredible. Soon we reached a stone staircase carved into the hillside, and he told me, “Be careful. They’re wet and it’s easy to slip and fall.”
I told him, “OK,” but that didn’t keep me from stumbling a few times, maybe because I couldn’t stop looking up at the cove ahead of us, small, hidden between cliffs and the ruins of an old Roman villa. We set down our towels on the tiny pebble beach. There wasn’t much room for us, but who would want to lie down when we could sink into that crystalline water shimmering with reflections of sunlight as if it were made of diamonds.
I left my clothes by the backpack and adjusted my bikini. Lucas was pretending not to watch, but I knew otherwise. I felt a little nervous, exposing myself to him. And that’s exactly how I felt: exposed.
“Will it be cold?” I asked.
“Just a little bit. Come on.”
I followed him to the water’s edge, and when a wave lapped my feet, I jumped back. It was freezing.
Lucas jumped right in and started floating on his back, looking over and asking, “Do you want me to come get you?”
