It Takes Two (Italian Summer Book 1) (11 page)

She pushed the thought to the back of her mind. This was different. Ruben was a friend. Just a friend. Suitably satisfied that she was doing nothing wrong, Rona felt content to stay there. She sipped her wine with a determination to enjoy the evening.

She had worked hard, after all.

“Do you find it odd that I’m here without my husband?” Gioberti’s comment still played on her mind and she had to know what Ruben thought. He placed his hand on his cheek, his elbow on the table and appeared to give it some thought.

“I find it odd that a beautiful woman like you is here on her own. Again.” The way he stared at her with that intensity, simply took her breath away. He knew what he was doing and she squirmed with delight and unease. Being faced with the raw words was not as easy as hiding behind innuendo.

“However, you have already told me that your husband is busy. So to answer your question: no, I don’t find it odd that you’re here alone.”

She nodded.

“You’ve come early for a reason—to help your sister and he will be coming over soon?”

The last was a question and she nodded in answer.

“Gioberti finds it strange.”

“Finds what strange?”

“That I’m seeing you for dinner, most evenings.”

“It isn’t most evenings,” said Ruben. “Once a week, if that, isn’t most evenings.”

“You’re right. It wasn’t what he said, in as much as the way he said it.”

Theirs was a friendship that hinted at the edges of something more—but neither of them crossed that line. She was in charge, she controlled it and as long as she did, nothing would go wrong.

Ruben shook his head slowly. “He is simply being nosy. He is Gioberti, after all.” When he smiled his eyes twinkled but there was a question in the way he looked at her.

“It was nothing. It’s me being paranoid. I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”

“No,” he said, stirring his coffee and tapping the spoon against the white porcelain cup. “I’d rather you did. It’s one of the things I like about us.”

“Us?”

“The way we can talk easily, like friends.”

“That’s what I think, too,” she said, staring at her mint tea.

His deep blue eyes burned into hers again. “Don’t worry about what he said. We are simply two friends meeting for dinner.” But the way he looked at her contradicted everything he had just said.

“If I was here with some girlfriends, talking about the same things we’ve talked about then nobody would look twice. But because it’s you and me, a man and a woman.”

“People think we can’t be friends.” He finished the sentence for her.

“That’s exactly it.”

“I think it can get complicated.”

“How?” She asked, curious to know. “This doesn’t feel complicated.”

“Because you’re married and because there’s a line we won’t ever cross, and because I am still getting over Celeste.”

His words smacked into her like a bucket of ice thrown at her.
He was still hung up on that woman?

“You’re still not over her?” she asked, sitting up. “You broke up a while ago, didn’t you?”

“A few months ago but we got back together again, for a few weeks.”

A small sharp pain stabbed at her as he spoke.

“It didn’t work out the second time?”

“If you knew Celeste, you’d know why.”

“How would I know her?”

Her sharp reply caught him. “Of course you wouldn’t. It was just a comment, Rona.”

She smiled, tried to laugh it off. “I know.” Tried to make light of it.

“She’s wasn’t serious, and she felt that she wasn’t ready for a long term commitment.”

“Is that where you were—getting ready to make a long-term commitment?”

“I’m not sure,” he said, looking at his full cup of coffee. “Perhaps I was testing the water. Sometimes women say one thing when they really mean something else. I liked her; I think I even loved her.”

She felt a tiny sting, almost as if an ant had pinched the skin on her wrist.

“Now that I think about things looking back, I don’t think it was anything like that. Being apart from her, I saw things much more clearly.” His eyes moved to meet hers. “You see, that’s the sort of conversation I couldn’t have with a male friend.”

Rona laughed. “What conclusion would your friends make?”

“They would tell me that what I really missed was the sex.”

The word hung freely in plain sight and yet was hard to dismiss, like a two-bit hooker on a street corner.

“I think men and women can be friends,” he said. He picked up his cup, getting ready to drink from it. “But I don’t think it can be easy, except for us.” His answer gave her relief mixed in with irritation.

He was right, of course, he was right. They were getting on just fine; just as friends were supposed to.

“You said things were awkward with your husband last time. He returned to the US before you did, didn’t he?”

She was jolted back to thinking about Carlos again. How odd that Ruben seemed to remember everything she had told him. How lucky for the woman he would one day spend his life with.

“Awkward?” she asked, wondering if that had been her exact word.

“You said things weren’t so great between you two.” It was the first time he’d asked anything so pointed about her and Carlos’ relationship.

“I’m not sure,” she said and looked down at her cup with its green mint leaf submerged in water.

“But he’ll be here soon—for the wedding?”

She looked up at him. “Yes, for a week. He was going to try to take a week off for the wedding.”

Ruben’s lips inched up slightly, his face apologetic, his gaze understanding. “He must miss you both.”

She swallowed and smiled. “He does. Very much.”

He nodded his head, agreeing with her. “Shall I get the bill?” he asked. “You said you needed to be back by nine.”

She almost jumped in her seat as she glanced at her watch. Time had slipped through her fingers again, the way it always did when she was with Ruben. It was already quarter past nine. She pulled out her cell phone, her heart beating and then relaxed when she saw she had no calls from Ava. She let out a breath.

“Don’t worry,” he told her. “Let me pay and I can drive you back. It won’t take long at all.”

“Thank you,” she murmured and got out her purse, slipping him her credit card. “Halves, as always.”

At least that way it wouldn’t feel as though it had been a date.

She gave him the address to Ava’s place and asked him to drop her off just at the entrance of the large gates, to save him from going into the long driveway that led into their opulent home. She prayed that Ava would be so pre-occupied by Tori that she wouldn’t be waiting by the windows. Otherwise, she would have a lot of explaining to do.

“If you could just drop me off at the main road,” she said and hoped he wouldn’t ask too many questions.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” she said firmly. “I’ll probably stay for a while and catch up with my sister.”

He smiled and left her to it. Their journey back was unusually quiet, with neither of them having anything to say.

He didn’t bat an eye when she asked him to stop just before the gated entrance. As if he understood her need for subterfuge he parked away from the gates, reversing back a little so that his car was completely invisible to anyone looking out.

Leaving the engine running, he fixed her with his sultry gaze. This was the awkward part. She clutched her bag with one hand and had the other on the door, ready to get out.

“Thanks for a great evening,” she told him. He looked at her and gave her a smile that sent her heart rate soaring.

“Thanks for calling me. You made an otherwise boring evening unforgettable.”
Just friends,
she reminded herself. She got out smiling and reached the gated entrance just as he drove off.

Ava came to the door with a still very much wide awake Tori in her arms. She looked happy, if more tired than usual and though they had talked for a while, Rona didn’t stop for long. She was thankful when Ava hadn’t asked many questions of how she’d spent her evening. She reached home in the taxi that Ava had called for her, grateful that Tori had fallen asleep during the journey home.

That night, when Rona went to bed, she purposely avoided answering the missed calls she’d had from Carlos and instead lay down and relived her evening with Ruben.

Chapter 16

“That should do it,” said Carlos, securing the child safety locks onto the cupboards.

“Thank you, Carlos,” said Elsa.

“If you thank me again…” Carlos gave his mother-in-law a warm smile. He always had time for Elsa. He and Rona already owed her more than they could ever repay, just having her at hand to look after Tori whenever they needed was priceless.

“I
appreciate
you taking time out to fix this for me, Carlos. Tori will be walking soon and before long she’s going to be in all my cupboards.”

“Don’t mention it,” he insisted. Trust Elsa to always think of her granddaughter’s best interests.

“She’s going to be a year old soon. I can’t believe it. My granddaughter,” recalled Elsa proudly. “I remember her being born only yesterday.”

Carlos nodded and took his own walk down memory lane. He recalled being so frightened seeing Rona in such pain during her contractions. He swore he’d never put her through that again. But he would never forget the tears of joy he’d cried when they’d told him he had a beautiful and healthy little girl.

“Rona says Tori’s having an amazing time.” Elsa commented, “They have a babysitter for her during the day and Rona says Tori loves her. Her name is Lizzi, I think.”

Carlos shrugged.

“Have you spoken to her lately?” Elsa asked.

“Yesterday,” he said, stiffly. “It’s hard, what with the time difference.” He could see the worry in her eyes as she analyzed his response.

She had aged, he thought. Her hair was grayer, the lines more pronounced around her lips and eyes. He didn’t recall her looking so weak before. But Ava had said she’d been devastated by Edmondo’s death. His heart went out to this woman whose life seemed touched by tragedy.

“It’s not my place, Carlos. But I know it can’t be easy for you, being without the two of them for such a long time.”

She was obviously feeling around, trying to discover how things were between them. Maybe Rona had said something to her mother? He hadn’t been the only one who’d noticed Rona’s recent change in temperament. If the cracks in relationship were wide enough for others to notice, then it was time to do something about them.

“It’s not,” he replied, moving over to the cupboards under the sink to work on those. “I miss them, both of them,” in case she doubted how much he loved her daughter. “You know what I’m thinking?” he stopped and put down his screwdriver. He hooked his thumbs into the loops of his jeans.

“I think I’m going to surprise them.”

Elsa’s smile widened. “Surprise them?”

“Instead of taking a week off, I told my dad I needed the whole month off.”

“A month?”

Carlos nodded. “He agreed. He said I needed to take some time off. That family suffers when you don’t.” Perhaps his family too had also noticed the cracks, or had wondered why Rona had returned to Italy so soon. Perhaps they’d been worried that things between them weren’t so good. He never spoke to anyone about personal matters, but maybe others weren’t as blind as he assumed.

“Carlos, that’s the best thing I’ve heard for days. I think it’s a wonderful idea.”

He nodded. Rona had seemed happier out there and lately she’d rung him more and left messages when he’d been unable to pick up the phone. She missed him. Maybe she missed him more than he thought she might.

Unfortunately, the irritation and mood swings he’d observed in Rona when she’d been here had rubbed off on him lately so that when she called he couldn’t help but be surly back. He was still hurting from the way she had reacted when he had suggested they try for another baby. He had merely suggested it; he hadn’t expected her to give birth within the year. While he understood that she might not want to put her body through that again—and he would have respected her wishes if that was the case—he had a feeling that there was more to it than that.

There was a lot they had to work through and with her being away, he’d had time to think about the state of things. He figured it was about time he put his family first and got him and Rona back to where they had been. Strong, solid and together.

“I think I took them for granted when they were around, and it took them being away for me to realize that I was busting my ass off working but all that really matters is spending time together. You don’t need money to be with one another.”

Elsa couldn’t stop beaming at him. “She loves you, you know that don’t you?”

He knew. “I think having a taste of Italy, maybe the idea of romance and seeing things working out for Ava might have got to her—not in a bad way,” he hastened to add. “But maybe it made our life seem dull by comparison. I don’t know.” He thought about it some more. “I rushed back last time because of the business and left her and Tori out there when we could have had a great family vacation. I can’t put my family second anymore.”

“I don’t think you ever meant to, Carlos. You thought you were doing what you needed to do, to earn and provide a living. All she wanted was your time and attention; she wanted more of
you
.”

“And I’m going to give it to her.” He would. No more derailments. “Did you want to change your ticket?” He asked her. “We could fly out together?”

“I think it’s better for me to stick to my date and go just a week before the wedding. You go earlier and spend time with your family, Carlos. I only just got back.” But he could tell from the way her eyes glassed over that there was more to it than she was letting on. “It’s just not the same without him,” she whispered. And he knew. She was always strong with her daughters, but with Carlos Elsa’s guard always came down.

He put his big arms around her and held her.

The unbearable pain of loving someone who had left this world was something he couldn’t grasp. And, he hoped, it was something he would never have to experience in his lifetime.