It Takes Two (Italian Summer Book 1) (8 page)

“It’s not like she needs my help with the baby or anything. Nico provides for her well enough. She doesn’t even have to work.”

“You don’t have to work,” he countered. “I provide well enough for all of us.”

“You’re hardly in the same league, Carlos.” She was careless with her words tonight and instantly regretted what she’d said.

He was silent for the longest time and she dared not say another word.

“When are you leaving?”

“I’m not sure. A week or so. She said I needed to discuss it with you.”

He smiled. “Ava would,” he said softly. They had a good relationship the two of them and it sometimes annoyed her no end. “But you’ve already made up your mind, haven’t you?”

She shrugged. He knew her well enough.

He surprised her when he crouched on the floor and looked directly into her eyes. “I know you’ve been unhappy lately. Things between us aren’t like they used to be.”

She remained silent.

“I don’t know what the problem is.” He confessed.

And
that
was the problem—the disconnect between them. “I don’t know how to fix it, Rona.” He looked uncomfortable. “Maybe with Ava having a baby, maybe if you want to have another one too, we could try …”

Oh. God. No.

“No,” she said quickly, shaking her head.

“Would it really be so bad?” Disappointment painted his face.

She shrank at his words. “Most definitely not. Carlos. I don’t want another baby.”

“Not yet?” He suggested.

“Not ever.”

He got up then and backed away, the hurt in his eyes making her feel as if she’d fatally shot him with her words. “You’re that certain?”

She hadn’t meant it that harshly. “I mean, no for now.”

“No,” he said, hanging his head. “You really seemed sure. I didn’t know that having my babies was going to be such a chore for you.” He walked away and she realized how badly she’d wounded him.

She’d hurt him. It had been careless and rash of her but she couldn’t take it back and she knew Carlos well enough now to know that he wouldn’t melt until the following day.

Chapter 11

Almost ten days later, she left Denver and returned to Italy. Elsa had been pleased, Carlos quieter than usual. Her friends had squealed with delight and Celine had asked her to be on the lookout for an eligible and preferably rich Italian for her. Age not relevant.

Kim had sent her an email wishing her a pleasant stay abroad. Rona had replied by telling her that she hoped she would be able to manage by herself and to email her if she had any problems or questions.

Carlos had begrudgingly accepted that she and Tori would be away from him for almost six weeks. She knew he wasn’t happy but seemed to quietly give in on the grounds that Ava needed her help.

Life was sweet. She was back in Verona and her heart surged with joy. She felt weightless—as though heat radiated through her, as though she had a spring in her step, as though she couldn’t stop grinning from ear to ear.

This is the way life was meant to be lived. Rona could barely stop herself from smiling.

She was back at the Villa Sagranosa—the beautiful pensione set in a large estate bordered by vineyards. It was quiet, but she felt safe here. Safe and at peace.

She’d arrived at the start of July; gorgeous, beautiful, sun-drenched July in Italy. The nerve endings in her body had tingled the moment she had set eyes on the familiar green surroundings. Just the scenery alone had done it for her. She didn’t need anything else and the possibility of running into Ruben hadn’t crossed her mind. Much.

She wouldn’t be able to go out as freely; not like before, unless she took Tori with her. At least there would be no Elsa staring at her with blatant disapproval across her face each time Rona slipped out in the evening.

She had no idea how she was expected to help Ava with a youngster in tow. It remained to be seen what Ava had in mind because her sister had mentioned that she was working on a solution.

Tori gurgled happily on the bed. They’d arrived yesterday and Nico and Ava had both arrived at the airport to pick them up before driving them to the pensione.

They’d thoughtfully stocked the fridge and the cupboards wisely knowing that Rona would be too tired with a ten-month old baby to want to do anything other than rest.

How right they’d been too.

“Ga-ga-ga,” gurgled Tori happily and clapped her hands in delight as Rona slipped a pair of cute red shorts on her.

“Mama working with Aunty Ava. Is Tori going to be a good girl?” Rona cooed, as she slipped first one foot and then the other through the shorts.

“Da-da-da-da,” said Tori. “Dada…”

Rona’s heart sank. “Da-da misses Tori. Tori loves dada?”

Her little girl clapped ecstatically.

“Da-da coming soon.” Rona smiled at her daughter and saw Carlos’s soft brown eyes staring back at her. Tori was a real mix of the two of them but looking at her in this moment reminded Rona of Carlos. She’d called to tell him they had arrived, but he seemed a little reserved. His unhappiness at their departure was evident.

“Da-da-da-da,” trilled Tori.

“Come on,” said Rona, lifting her up and putting her into the stroller. “Let’s go to work.”

“Good morning!” Ava cried excitedly as soon as Rona walked through the doors and into the hotel lobby. She hoped the wheels wouldn’t mess up the marble floor and was grateful to have made it inside. Pushing the stroller up the steps and through the double doors wasn’t easy, and she bet her bottom dollar that Nico would install a ramp once Ava had the baby and they realized how difficult it was.

Tori’s chubby little face spread into the widest smile, baring two brand new bottom teeth.

“How’s my favorite niece?” Ava freed her from the stroller and hugged the baby close to her.

“Did you sleep well?” Ava asked her over the baby’s head.

“Better than Tori,” Rona replied, and exchanged greetings with Gina, the friendly receptionist who always seemed to be on duty.

“Nice to see you again, Rona.”

“It’s great to be back again,” confessed Rona happily. “And congratulations on the promotion.” Ava had told her that Gina was now the manager of the hotel.

“Thank you,” replied Gina, blushing.

“Come on,” said Ava, and took her into her office. “This used to be Nico’s once,” she explained.

“Where’s he gone?”

“Into Edmondo’s office.”

“Come in,” said Ava a little breathlessly. “There’s someone I want you to meet.”

Rona stepped in and saw a young girl, probably no more than in her early twenties.

“This is Lizzi and she sometimes helps us with childcare duties here at the hotel. She’s happy to look after Tori while you and I work.”

Rona glanced at the smiling young woman before her who appeared to be looking at Tori with delight. She felt slightly unsure but knew her sister wouldn’t have hired someone she didn’t trust.

“Hello, you pretty little baby,” said Lizzi, in a cheery, sing-song voice.

Tori immediately smiled and then held her arms out.

“Only if you’re sure,” said Ava. “I trust her implicitly but the decision is yours.”

Rona looked at them both. “Where will they be?”

“Always around the hotel. They have the gardens and the conservatory when it’s quiet, and one of the toilets is set up for baby changing facilities. I suppose at some stage we need to have some sort of children’s play area. But we don’t have that yet.”

It was more than the playpen, thought Rona. A slow smile spread across her face. This was more than enough and she always had Tori close by. She’d been worried about the childcare aspect of things, and any hesitance she experienced at handing her daughter over to a stranger fell away as soon as she saw the way Lizzi and Tori seemed to be getting on. It gave her a good feeling.

“Okay,” agreed Rona. “Let’s give it a try.”

And that was how it had started.

They spoke about Elsa, Nico, Edmondo’s passing and Carlos and how their lives had suddenly changed in such a short span of time and then they spent the morning getting to work.

Ava wanted to know about the way she and Kim processed orders, from start to finish. She seemed more interested in what worked and what didn’t and how it could be improved and she made copious notes ‘for the training manual’.

For the rest of that first week, they followed the exact same procedure. Rona would arrive with Tori at around ten in the morning. Lizzi would take the child for a walk or play with her and keep her busy while the sisters worked at streamlining Ava’s business.

Over time Ava showed Rona how to update the website and how to retouch product images. Daunted at first, Rona felt out of her comfort zone, annoyed at times, often with herself. But Ava wasn’t going to let her off that easily. When she knew she had no choice but to overcome her fear of technology and the unknown, and that it was alright to make mistakes, because Ava has assured her she had a backup, she felt freer to leap in and fail. Within a few weeks she was getting along just fine. What took more getting used to was Carlos’ absence. Even though he wasn’t often home that much, the few hours he did have with Tori helped. Now she had Tori all to herself after a day at work and she felt as though she had no time at all to unwind.

She felt like a single mom these days and it was hard going. At times like this she often wondered how Kim coped.

Sometimes during their day she and Ava would stop and occasionally talk about the impending wedding and the preparations. Rona was surprised to hear that Ava, who had gone over the top with the wedding preparations when she was getting married to Connor, her previous fiancé, was now remarkably relaxed about the big day this time around.

“I have
a
dress,” said Ava when Rona asked. “I think even a blue whale would fit into it. But I don’t have time to worry about things like that just yet. There are bigger problems that Nico’s dealing with.”

“But this is your wedding dress!” exclaimed Rona, aghast. “You’ve been for fittings, haven’t you?”

Ava shook her head. “What’s the point? I inflate by an inch daily. I’ll get it fitted nearer the time.”

It was only by working so closely with her sister that Rona saw first-hand just how hectic Ava’s life was.

Tori had taken to Lizzi and Rona no longer had any hesitations about leaving her child in her hands.

The evenings saw the two of them either eating at the pensione or a couple of times at the hotel. Ava had asked them over a few times, but Tori would be so tired at the end of the day that Rona preferred to take her straight home, bathe her and put her to bed.

Lizzi excelled at her role and Rona wished she could take her back to Denver with her. She felt better able to concentrate on her work not having to worry about child care and knowing that Tori was happy with Lizzi.

She wanted to enjoy this time and the first few weeks flew by with barely time to catch her breath. She hadn’t yet ventured to the town center in Verona or Gioberti’s yet because she’d simply been too busy. She missed Carlos but each day when she called him their conversation seemed so basic, so mundane that she got the feeling he was still holding a grudge from the night she’d told him about Verona. Maybe he was still holding resentment towards her regarding baby number two.

Rona didn’t dwell on it too much because there wasn’t much she could do about it now. They would fix things in due course. They always did.

A few weeks after arriving in Verona she ventured into town for the first time. Taking Tori in the stroller, she walked around the familiar shops that she had once frequented.

She looked her best in her white dress and pale gold sandals. The dress wasn’t clingy but still fitted enough to show off her figure. Ava would have considered her overdressed but Rona decided that she was on a holiday of sorts and that this was no different to dressing up for an evening out.

She’d felt freer and happier than she had in a long time and she felt no guilt either because she was doing nothing wrong. Could it only have been that she needed a change of scenery? Was that it?

She had ceased to think of Ruben or even Gioberti’s anymore. She was simply enjoying the freedom of being in Italy, with Tori, and working. Or did she feel unrestrained, and, therefore, happier because there was no Carlos to argue with?

She wasn’t sure why she suddenly felt freer and happier here. It couldn’t just be because she was alone.
Could it?
Had she and Carlos drifted that far apart?

Her conversations with Carlos were the same conversations that they had back at home. Most of the time she handed Tori the phone because he craved his daughter’s attention above all else. But the first thing Tori ever did was to chew the phone—which was pretty much what she did to anything. New objects went straight into her mouth.

Caught up in these thoughts and trying to make sense of them, Rona soon found herself in the center of town and saw the sign for
Gioberti’s
come into view. She pushed the stroller towards the direction of the familiar restaurant.

The brilliant, dazzling white smile of Gioberti’s captured her attention first. It was hard to miss. He was always on the lookout for young women to entice into his restaurant, always surveying the scene, for that was how he’d caught her the very first time she had stumbled upon his establishment.

She smiled, and could clearly see he was looking her up and down in the white cotton shift dress she wore.

“Ah, Bella, the beautiful summer evening has just been made brighter,” he said, dazzling her again. He kissed her warmly on both cheeks. “Come, come,” he beckoned and cleared the way for her to follow him. “You will be dining here, yes?” he presumed.

“Yes,” she said excitedly, the warm smell of garlic and buttery herbs reeling her in.

“The same table, yes?” he asked and led her over to the table where she used to sit before, tucked away in a corner but with a view of the open area outside.

“Thank you,” she said and moved the stroller with Tori fast asleep in it, up against the wall.

Electric fingers tasered her forearm, and she jumped back, startled, as the sting of static grazed her.