“Sorry, am I in your way?” he asked.
Yes,she thought.
“No.”
“I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“You didn’t interrupt, Cristiano. We were talking about her bridesmaid dress,” said Graziella, turning back to Ellie. “Did you figure it out? Did you love it?” She clasped her hands together and smiled. Cris coughed.
“Not yet. I—I got interrupted. By a phone call. On my phone. While I was trying it on, and I didn’t really—finish. But I do love it. I do!” Ellie stammered.
“It’s the perfect color for her. She’s really going to look beautiful,” said Graziella.
“She is,” said Cris. “Once she has it on all the way.”
“Graziella!Andiamo a fare il bagno. Vieni anche tu?” Maria Elena was clearly getting impatient and was trying to round up the ladies for the afternoon swim.
“Si, dai. Fa troppo caldo,” said Lucrezia, her gravelly voice wavering in the heat. She fanned herself dramatically and moved deeper into the water.
“Ragazzi!It’s time to swim, okay?” Graziella said, backing into the sea and beckoning them in.
“In a minute, Grandma, I’m coming,” said Ellie. Chiavari did not have a traditional sandy shoreline. Instead, the beach was made up of small stones of various colors and shapes, each one of them conducting its own tiny blast of heat as they baked in the sun. Ellie’s feet were starting to scorch, so she edged closer to the water where the wet stones would be a cool relief.
“I probably shouldn’t have launched immediately into asking you to let me be a guest practically before saying hello.” Cris grinned.
“I do believe we said hello earlier at your grandfather’s house,” she said, concentrating on the tiny bubbles that formed as the tide pulled against the stones.
“Um, yeah. I’m sorry about that. Again. And probably a lot of other things.”
“You don’t need to apologize.” Did she mean it? Or was it easier to immediately close whatever door might open up after an apology from him? Either way, this was way too much gray area for Ellie. She had to focus on the issue at hand and entertain his idea about coming on the show. He clearly needed a boost to his image, but she had to admit that he was coming at it from a slightly different angle. He wasn’t trying to get back into everyone’s good graces so that he could negotiate a bigger contract or earn a starting position on a field. He wanted to maintain his reputation and then fade off into the sunset. Despite his obvious reluctance to take the spotlight, he still had some kind of magnetismthat kept the press hounding him. Maybe it had something to do with the number of women who suddenly became swimming fans. Or it could have been the number of young kids crowding community pools all over the States since he’d grabbed everyone’s attention. Cris had something special, whether he wanted it or not. It was why he was a champion. It was also why he was going to get taken down without damage control. He needed help.
It so happened that she was good at helping—usually. She was also possibly still in a position to give him a platform and at a moment when she needed it, too. It could work out well for both of them. All she had to do was put their past aside and pretend he was like any other guest. She got a little zing of excitement thinking about telling Omar. Except, could she stand working that closely with Cris? She’d have to snuggle up to every sad memory and fear that she had shoved into a box for years and then get over every last bit of it. And no matter what she did with the past, there was the real issue of having to be physically near him in the present. She watched a couple of beads of sweat chase each other down the hollow at the base of his neck for a second longer than she wanted to. If this was going to work, more ofthatwould be out of the question. She frowned.
“Ellie, the last thing I want to do is upset you.”
“You don’t upset me,” she said, snapping her eyes back up to his, where they belonged. See? She could control herself, no problem. She felt a little spark of optimism light up in her chest. Yes, this was good. She could do this. It was not personal, it was business. “Look, let’s not make this any harder than it has to be. I think you have a compelling story. I might be interested in having you come on the show, if you are interested in telling it,” she said.
“Yeah? Okay. This is great! How do we do this? Do you want to know the whole story, or is it better if we just wing it live?”
The last thing Ellie wanted was to wing anything, ever again. “Well, since we are here togeth—at the same time, we could probably meet a few times to get some notes down and see what takes shape in terms of the narrative. I know we’re in the middle of a family event, but we can keep it professional and make it work.”
“Professional.”
“Yes, Cris. We can have a few conversations about strategy and how to set up your key points to the listener. You’ll be defending yourself against a lot of gossip, so you’ll want to take full advantage of the time and hit all of the hypotheticals. It’s important to have a plan.”
“Ragazzi! Dai! Venite!” Maria Elena waved her arms at Ellie and Cris as Pina waded in from farther down the beach. To them, Cris and Ellie were probably just silly kids who didn’t have the sense to get in the water on a day so hot you couldn’t think straight. The ladies were all lined up, floating on their pastel-colored pool noodles with the jutting ends popping out of the water. It was the preferred way to stay cool and exert little effort, with the added bonus of not getting their hair wet. They looked like glamorous, tanned carousel horses.
“I’m in,” he said. “So, how do we do this?”
“Well, if you’re innocent, first you’ll have to practice by convincing me,” she said, looking into his eyes. Her belly jumped. The heat was really getting to her. It must have been getting to Cris, too. Her eyes flicked down to the thin material of his T-shirt, which was now transparent with sweat and clinging to the cavern between his pectoral muscles.
“That’s not going to be hard. I have nothing to hide,” he said.
“I admire your conviction. That’s a great place to start. If I learned one thing doing my show, it’s that whatever secrets people think they’re keeping always come out at the end of the story.”
“I’ll remember that,” he said, holding her gaze for a moment. He turned toward the water and waved back at the ladies.
“You should,” she said, still looking at him.
