It Takes Two (Italian Summer Book 1) (7 page)

“Can’t Kim do that?”

“She’ll be doing the orders and dealing with customers.”

It looked as though she wasn’t going to get out of it. “Do you think Kim can handle it by herself?”

“I think so.”

“Do you trust her? With your apartment and Connor’s garage?”

“Of course. She looked after my business when I first went to Italy. Why don’t you think about it and discuss it with Carlos, then let me know?”

Rona was far too excited. “When did you want me to come over?”

“I was hoping you could come in the next few weeks, whenever you are able to.”

“I’ll have to bring Tori with me.”

“Of course,” said Ava, in a what-else-did-you-think voice.

Rona’s heart leapt for joy. Verona
was
within her reach…and summer days beckoned. Perhaps even the allure of love and romance again...

The way she saw it life was giving her a second chance to make the most of her opportunities.

“A few weeks?” She was looking good. She’d just had her hair done; maybe she could go shopping for summer clothes, with the extra money she had earned.

“Obviously you’ll need to discuss it with Carlos.”

“Obviously,” Rona replied, already feeling like a bird let out of a cage. As far as she was concerned she was going. Whatever Carlos thought or said didn’t factor into her final decision.

Chapter 10

Carlos had noticed a subtle change in his wife.

Sometimes she was so up and down that he couldn’t work out the cause of her mood swings. He couldn’t put it down to her periods since she was constantly miserable, the slightest thing set her off
and
it lasted more than a week.

If he thought about it, she was like this most of the time. She would be moody one minute and then happy the next, demanding one minute then distant the next.

It was as if she couldn’t make up her mind how she wanted to be. He’d noticed this change ever since her return from Verona. Sometimes he suspected that she had something on her mind but when he questioned her she didn’t say anything.

Nothing had changed as far as he could tell. But at the same time something
had
changed. He was lost and mystified, and none the wiser. He couldn’t figure out what he was doing wrong since he worked harder than ever just so that he could provide for them all.

His wife liked nice things, not too fancy, because they couldn’t afford real fancy, but a few nice clothes for her and the baby, some evenings out, her hair appointments and that was about it. She didn’t ask for much.

But he still liked to give her what he could.

She’d been mad at him for missing out on that date night she’d planned, but the thing was, he’d completely forgotten about it and he’d already agreed to help out with the party booking that night. Truth was, most days he was so exhausted by the time he got home that he fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

She got mad at the smallest of things—even when he hadn’t noticed her latest haircut. She looked good—to him she always looked great.

He tried to come home early some nights so that he could spend more time with his girls. It seemed harder to find that time lately especially with Rona working for her sister. His days off were spent looking after Tori and while he loved having her to himself, it meant that the time he and Rona had together became even more limited. At first it started off as being a couple of hours but lately, she seemed to spend the whole day there.

This newer, moodier, discontent Rona was hard to live with. He wished she’d go back to being the feisty little tigress he’d fallen in love with. She wore the pants around the house, only because he let her think she did. She could be a little thoughtless at times but he knew her bark was worse than her bite. Though her being so downright moody and miserable had got him thinking. Maybe news of Ava’s pregnancy had gotten her feeling broody again. It was something to consider.

He was determined to get to the bottom of it and had decided that he’d order a takeout when she got back. Meanwhile, he’d bought her favorite wine and had straws. She had this thing about drinking it through a straw because she didn’t want to stain her teeth.

So he got Tori fed and bathed by the time she would be back. He didn’t know what time that would be because whenever he called her she’d be so busy and tell him she couldn’t talk. She had too many orders to sort out.

In the end, sensing her irritability he left it to her. He could wait.

~ ~

Rona was tired. She’d done a long day just to catch up with the orders, and she’d wanted to prove that she could work as hard as Kim, if not harder.

Hours of packaging up orders and moving boxes around and then taking them to the post office had taken its toll. To recover she’d taken a good forty-minute break and had caught up with the latest episode of ‘
The Young and the Restless.
’

She hoped Carlos had fed and bathed Tori and that she would be ready for sleep by the time she got home. Was it too much to expect him to have cooked dinner? The only thing she wanted was to sprawl in front of the sofa and do nothing.

And dream about her next visit to Verona.

Did she dare to dream?

It wasn’t only that she was excited by the chance of seeing Ruben again, or spending her evenings at Gioberti’s—any excuse to go to Verona was good for her. A change of scenery would do her good.

But her elated mood sank to the floor, hitting it hard as soon as she walked through the door. Toys littered the floor and the sofas in the living room. Compared to this Ava’s apartment didn’t look so bad.

Her deflated spirits sank further the minute she entered the kitchen. Plates and glasses were scattered all across the countertops, which was the only reason the sink was empty.

He’d bought her favorite wine, too. The idiot. He obviously had high hopes for this evening.

Carlos was normally good—he was used to keeping the working areas clean and she wondered what had gone wrong. It had only been the two of them all day. How many people had he cooked for? And why so many pans when she suspected all he’d done was boil pasta and vegetables.

So much for coming home to rest.

She stared at the mess and her mouth drew into a straight line. Opening the door to their room, she found Carlos snoring loudly with Tori lying peacefully in his arms. Rona’s heart melted at the sight of her daughter looking sweet and peaceful in her lilac Dora pajamas.

All thoughts of flopping onto the sofa disappeared as fast as the smile on her face had, and she closed the door quietly and returned to the carnage in the rest of the house. She set to washing the dishes and clearing up the toys.

Ordinarily she wouldn’t have done this, but rage propelled her into action. She wasn’t house proud by any means, not like her crazy sister. Rona could happily live in a state of disarray for a few days, but she did, as a rule, keep the kitchen sink empty and the living room tidy at the end of the day.

Otherwise, it felt as though she never got to relax in a child-free zone.

She got busy tidying up the mess, and her temper calmed down a little due to her energy being used up.

By the time she put her feet up, she was drained completely like a used up battery. She poured herself a glass, got herself a straw, put her feet up and turned on the TV.

But she didn’t focus on a single program as she flicked back and forth looking for a nice, sentimental and romantic film to lose herself in.

Instead, she drank her wine and thought about Verona. She would be there soon. But as she settled down and flicked through the TV stations, she heard the door to their bedroom open and a few seconds later a groggy Carlos appeared in front of her.

“Hi, honey,” he said, pinching the corners of his eyes. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
She glanced at him once before turning her attention the TV and continued to sip through her straw.

“I see you found the wine?” He gave her the kind of smile that had once captivated her heart. Only now it made her want to throw something at him. She lay sprawled out across the sofa taking up the seating space. Carlos had nowhere to sit—unless he sat on the other couch. Instead, he moved to the bottom end and sat on the few inches of cushion that was available to him by her feet.

She sensed his reticence, his sheepishness and caught him examining her face. “I thought we’d order take-out. You know, from the restaurant.” His voice was light and airy, full of apology and expectation.

“I’m not hungry.”

“How come?” he asked, squeezing her calf. “Did you already eat?”

“No, I’m just not hungry.” She sipped some more wine. It was good, and it flowed through her veins like liquid happiness.

He made a noise that sounded like disappointment turned loud. “I waited for you. I thought we might have gone out tonight, you know, because I messed up the last time. But I didn’t want to ask Elsa to babysit again.”

“Good thing you didn’t. Ava thinks we already overwork her.”

“No?” he asked, in surprise. “Did she actually say that?”

“She sorta implied it, in a roundabout way.” She couldn’t work out why Carlos grated on her and even though he was trying to get on her good side by giving her calves an unasked-for massage, she wanted him to go away.

A wall of animosity had come between them—for her at least. It hadn’t suddenly appeared either. This had been a few months in the making. Possibly even since Tori had been born. Their relationship had become strained and she wasn’t sure what it was. Could sleep deprivation be that big a factor in divorce?

He asked her something, but she was pretending so hard to be dismissive and aloof—something that had become her new normal—that she really had switched off. She’d barely looked at him, either.

“Hmmm?” she said, sipping on her straw.

“Rona?” he said sharply.

“What?” She finally and begrudgingly directed her gaze at him. He looked as miserable as hell.

“Just put that down would you?” He sat forward on the couch, restless. The sombre tone of his voice immediately grabbed her attention and she pulled the straw out of her mouth. The air crackled with tension.
Not now, please
. She didn’t want another row—not now when she had some news for him. She wondered when to break it to him.

“Do you think we could ever have a proper conversation? Why is this so hard?”

“Why is what hard, Carlos?”

“Why are we always fighting? Why are you always so pissed off when you see me?”

“I just got home about half an hour ago. I had to clean up the kitchen and the living room. And now I’m unwinding in front of the TV. You don’t have to do any of that when
you
get in from work. It’s one or two days a week. I thought you’d be able to manage, because I do. And when you don’t, of course I’m going to get angry.”

“You’re always angry. It’s not just one or two days a week.”

“You misunderstood what I’m trying to tell you.” But she was too fed up to try to get her point across and she wasn’t in the mood to perform an autopsy on the relationship right now.

“I’m sorry I fell asleep. I was putting Tori to bed, she’s fed and bathed by the way—” he paused, as if waiting for effect.

When she barely acknowledged his feats of accomplishment, he continued. “I thought it would be nice for us to spend the evening together. Eating together and talking—the way we used to. You worked a long day today,” he said and reached out to lay his hand on her calf. “We don’t get to spend as much time together.”

“You’re always working. I’m used to it and maybe you should be too.” She wondered if now was the time to slip in the news about her return to Verona.

He blinked. “You’re talking as if you don’t care anymore.”

“Rona?” he asked when she said nothing.

“What?”

“We still have to make time for one another.”

“Yeah?” she said sarcastically. She’d often tried to.

“If you’re still mad at me. If this is your way of getting back at me—”

“For what?”

“This,” he said, throwing his hands up in the air and surveying the room. “That’s what you want to show me, isn’t it. That you had to come home and clear up. I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry.”

“I have something to tell you.” She put her wine glass down and sat up.

He watched her carefully, his eyebrows drawing closer together as though he had an idea it might not be news he liked.

“I’ve been asked to go to Verona a few weeks earlier.”

“Why?” His forehead creased. “The wedding’s not until August.”

“It’s not for the wedding. Well,” she looked away and scrunched her hair into a small bun at the back. “I suppose I could help with the wedding once I’m there but—”

“But why earlier?” She could instantly see that he didn’t like this one bit.

“Ava asked me. She wants my help. She’s finding it hard what with the wedding and being pregnant.”

“How can you help?” Carlos looked puzzled and decidedly unhappy.

“She wants me to update the website and get involved in the inventory and stuff like that.”

“
Stuff like that
? Don’t you think you should find out precisely what is expected of you?” He was asking more questions than she’d asked Ava. She’d immediately signed up for it, none the wiser as to what exactly was required of her. But she was fairly confident she could handle whatever Ava threw at her. After all, how hard could it be?

Rona shrugged. “Ava wouldn’t ask me unless she thought I could handle it.” She wrinkled her nose.

“How long for?”

“Obviously until the wedding at least.”

Carlos stood up and placed his hands in his pockets. “You and Tori will be gone for almost two months?”

She smiled, but not too widely when she saw his scowl. “It’s to help Ava. I told you the pressure is beginning to get to her. Apparently she says Nico is getting stressed out with the new hotel too. They have a lot going on.”

Carlos appeared somewhat appeased when she put it like that. She’d forgotten his unswerving fondness for Ava. That girl couldn’t do a thing wrong.

“I guess if she really needs you,” he said, resting his hand on the back of his neck. He voice trailed off.