by Penelope Sky
He was in black jeans and a gray t-shirt, an affectionate smile on his lips. “I was in the neighborhood and thought I would stop by.” He circled his strong arms around me and placed a kiss on my forehead.
It was nice having this relationship again, to feel happy when I saw my father. I missed his affection, missed how natural things felt between us. “You were not.” I pulled away, grinning. “You just stopped by to check on me.”
He didn’t deny it. “How are you, tesoro?”
“I’m okay.” A part of me wanted to lie and say I’d never been better, but that lie was too easy to spot. I’d stopped crying all the time, so that was progress. But I didn’t mention that to him. “What about you?”
“Good. The house is quiet now that the wedding is over.”
“How’s Conway?”
He shrugged. “Not sure.”
“You haven’t spoken to him?” I asked in surprise. Father constantly kept tabs on both of us.
He shook his head. “I’m not calling my son when he’s on his honeymoon. We’ll talk when he gets back.” He turned his gaze to the painting I was photographing. “This is nice.”
“Thanks. I have a client who lives in New York. He asked me to take pictures of my new inventory when it comes in. I’ve started a mailing list, and I’m surprised how many paintings I sell that way.”
“That’s great, Vanessa.” He kept looking at the painting. “I’m very happy to hear that.” Sincerity was in his voice, along with fatherly pride.
“Thanks.”
“Do you have some time for coffee or lunch?”
I had stuff to do, but my father had come all the way out here, and I wouldn’t blow him off. “Yeah. Just let me finish with these pictures so I can send them off. With the time difference—”
“I’ve got all the time in the world, tesoro. Take your time.” He drifted away to the other side of the gallery, stopping in front of my painting and examining it with his back turned to me.
I picked up my phone again and resumed the pictures, getting a few good ones with the natural light. Less than a minute later, the front door opened again. I had a few customers throughout the day, but most of them came in after lunchtime. I put my phone in my back pocket and turned around to welcome a prospective client.
But I came face-to-face with Antonio instead.
Shit.
He didn’t wear that charming smile he usually had. His eyes were exactly the same as the last time I saw him, focused on me like I was a target he wouldn’t allow to escape. In a buttoned-up shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows and dark jeans, he looked as handsome as every other time I saw him.
I thought this moment had passed, but I guess it hadn’t.
He stopped when he came close to me, and then he stared.
I stared back.
I hated this. I hated this obvious connection. It was impossible to stare at someone like this without it being hostile, but somehow, we made it intimate…when we didn’t even know each other. I had the same connection with Bones, and I never wanted to have it with someone else.
But I did.
After a long bout of silence, Antonio spoke. “Have dinner with me.” He cut right to the chase, bypassing all the small talk since it seemed pointless. His arms rested by his sides and he kept a few feet between us, but that didn’t seem like enough distance. It seemed like we were pressed right up against each other, our lips almost touching.
I stared at him without breathing, unsure how to respond. He didn’t even ask me a question, just told me what to do. It didn’t seem like he was giving me a choice in the matter. If I’d met this man a year ago, this situation would have unfolded differently. I wouldn’t have waited three days to ask him out. I would have asked him then and there. But that wasn’t what happened, and I was still in love with the man I’d lost. “I can’t.”
Antonio didn’t react to my rejection. “Why?”
My father was hovering nearby, listening to every word of this conversation. It was bad timing. I didn’t know how to answer Antonio without boring him with my life story. I didn’t want to get into the details of my heartbreak, not when it still brought me to tears. “I’m not dating right now.”
He hadn’t blinked once since this conversation began. His stillness suggested he wasn’t going anywhere, not until he got what he wanted. “Then I’ll wait until you are dating.”
I did my best to control my reaction, but I couldn’t. Surprise stretched across my face.
“Have coffee with me. As friends.”
Even that was too intimate for me, not when I felt this throbbing heat between us. “I can’t…I’m sorry.” I was the first one to break eye contact, the first one to flinch at the power radiating between us both. My heart was still full of one man, full of the love we shared. Even if we weren’t together and we never would be again, Bones was the only man I wanted. To even try to be with someone else right now was futile. And it wouldn’t be fair to Antonio, who would have to compete with a man he could never defeat. “It’s not gonna happen. You should go…”
He stayed put, his eyes slightly shifting back and forth between mine. He hadn’t moved since he’d stopped in front of me. His eyes sped across the surface of my face, flying by at a high velocity. He seemed to be thinking about his next words carefully, how to navigate the intense subject he’d just broached. He probably thought asking me out was going to be simple, just the way it was with all the other woman he picked up and took to bed. He was handsome, artistic, charming, sexy…everything. He never had to lift a finger to get a woman. He never could have anticipated this kind of rejection.
Instead of saying anything else, he turned around and walked out of my gallery. But his silent departure wasn’t full of finality. I knew this conversation wasn’t over. It was simply paused for the time being.
He would be back.
Father and I went to the bakery down the road, the very one I painted.
He got a black coffee and a salad, and I got a cappuccino and a sandwich.
Even though Father heard every word of that conversation, he didn’t mention it to me. He sat across from me at the table and sipped his coffee, his eyes directed out the window most of the time.
It was awkward between us since we were both thinking about the same thing at the exact same time. If Antonio had known my father was there, he would have chosen a better time to make his move.
We made small talk about Mama and Conway, but that conversation ran out quickly. Neither one of us participated in the discussion much because our thoughts kept returning to the man who asked me out in the gallery.
Father must have been waiting for me to bring it up, and when I didn’t, his patience waned. “Who was the young man?”
I looked down at my cappuccino, seeing the same shade of warm brown in the coffee as I did in Antonio’s eyes. “His name is Antonio Tassone. He has a gallery a few blocks down the road. He’s an artist as well.”
Father drank his coffee, his eyes turning to me. “He paints?”
I nodded.
He didn’t ask anything else, hoping I would say more on my own.
“It’s a bit ironic…he came into the gallery and bought one of my paintings. About a week later, I went into his gallery and bought one of his…but neither one of us knew they were paintings we’d made. Neither one of us knew we were artists.”
He gripped his coffee mug with his fingers. “That’s an interesting coincidence.”
“Yeah…it is.”
“He’s a good-looking young man.”
I tried not to smile. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say anything like that in my life.”
“What?”
“Call a man good-looking.”
“I’m just saying…” He looked into his coffee and took a drink.
“I’m guessing that’s your way of telling me you like him.”
He looked out the window and shrugged. “I liked what I saw.”
“You don’t kn
ow anything about him. I don’t even know anything about him…”
“But I liked the way he approached you. He was confident, taking control of the conversation and saying what he wanted. When you resisted, he didn’t press you. Not only did he not press you, but he said he would wait. He sounds like a gentleman, Vanessa. But a gentleman who’s also strong, authoritative, and confident. The fact that you’re both artists who enjoy each other’s work indicates you’re compatible, have a lot in common…and understand one another. Honestly, I don’t see a single issue with this man.”
“The issue isn’t him…and we both know that.” I dropped my gaze, unable to look him in the eye once I mentioned Bones.
“Nothing wrong with getting to know someone new.”
I didn’t want to get to know someone new. “I’m not ready.”
“It’s been—”
“I’m not ready,” I repeated.
My father turned silent.
“I love Griffin as much as I did before. I miss him every day. Getting to know Antonio wouldn’t be fair to Antonio. He shouldn’t date a woman who’s still in love with her ex. And I don’t want to force myself to move on from Griffin if I’m not really there. I don’t want to rush this. If I rush it, it’ll just make it worse.”
My father gave a slight nod. “I didn’t mean to press you, tesoro. I just thought Antonio was a nice young man.”
“I’m sure he is…”
Father rested his hand on mine on the table. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, Father. I’m sorry that happened when you were there.”
He pulled his hand away. “It’s a little strange to listen to a man ask out your daughter, but I’ve come to realize you’re a grown woman. You’re at the time of your life when you’re looking to settle down. That’s exactly what you should be doing…looking for someone. And I hope you find a great man, a man who loves your artwork as much as you. Because your artwork is a pathway to your soul, and if he understands that…then he understands you.”
Ten
Conway
When our honeymoon ended, we drove north from Positano, through Naples, and back toward Florence. The drive was too long to make it in one shot, so we decided to stay with my parents on the journey.
Muse and I spent our time exploring the village, eating lots of pasta, and fucking after dinner. Every day was the same as the previous one, but it felt like a new adventure every time. If she weren’t already pregnant, I would have knocked her up by now.
We were thirty minutes from the house when Muse spoke. “Con?”
“Yes, Muse?” I drove with one hand on the wheel, my other hand resting on hers on the center console.
“I love Verona. But…I love it here.”
“Where’s here?”
“Florence.”
I turned to her, still aware of the open road ahead of me. “And what does that mean?”
“Remember when we talked about moving here? To be close to your family?”
“Yes.” That was a long time ago.
“Well…how do you feel about it?”
Did it really matter how I felt about it? She was my wife now. She got to call all the shots. “Everything is settled in Verona, including stuff for the baby. My land is there. It’s close to work. Moving right now would be an ordeal.”
“Moving is always an ordeal…”
“Muse, if you want to move, just tell me.”
“No, I want your opinion. Do you want to move?”
I shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind being close to family. It would make my parents happy, especially since Vanessa is so close now.”
“I love Verona too, but I want to be close to your family—”
“Our family.”
She smiled. “Our family. I would love to be close to them. When you’re at work, I can always spend time with them with the baby. Vanessa is close by, and she’s always been my friend. Carmen is there too, along with your aunt and uncle. If we’re going to build a family, I want to be close to family.”
It didn’t sound like this was a discussion anymore. Muse was asking me to give her what she wanted. When I wasn’t around, she wanted some other kind of comfort. She wanted to raise our family with family. In Verona, I was her only companionship.
“I thought you could make a studio here and drive or fly to Milan when you need to…but I know that would make your job less convenient.”
Yes, it would be less convenient. But I would be happier knowing my wife was happy. “Let’s do it.” I turned my eyes to the road, missing her reaction.
She let out a quiet gasp. “Really?”
Hearing the happiness in her voice took away all my doubts. The process of moving everything to a new place would be a lot of work, especially when we had a baby about to join us. Even if we hired people to do it for us, we would still have to sort through everything. But that seemed irrelevant in light of her joy. “Really.”
She clapped her hands together. “That makes me so happy. And your parents will be over the moon when they hear the news. All they want is for both you and Vanessa to be close by. Now that Vanessa is down the road, you’ll all be together again.”
“Yeah. But too bad Vanessa is so down.”
“That won’t last forever. She’s a strong woman. She’ll make it through.”
“Yeah…” I still hated her depression. It seeped into my skin and penetrated my lungs.
“I can’t wait to tell your parents. They’ll be so excited.”
I remembered the sadness on my mother’s face each time I returned to Verona. It broke her heart every single time, made her miserable. Both of my parents wanted the four of us to be united, to be together all the time. I didn’t want that when I was younger, but now that I was older, I didn’t mind. My father and I had become friends in addition to father and son, and Muse found a good relationship with my mother. “Yeah, they will.”
We greeted my parents, talked about the honeymoon, and then had dinner together in the dining room. Lars had prepared a feast that neither one of us needed, but it was so good that we didn’t restrain ourselves.
Muse had a much bigger appetite than before, so she always seemed to be hungry.
When I held my wineglass, I felt the bite of the metal from my wedding ring dig into my skin. I still wasn’t used to wearing it, to feeling the metal grow hot and cold with my body temperature. It had a significant weight to it, a weight I still hadn’t become accustomed to. Completely black, it would match the color of my suits. My father wore a similar ring, but that wasn’t where I drew my inspiration.
“How’s Vanessa doing?” I asked.
The happy banter between the four of us died away. Mom’s smile faded, and instead, she pressed her lips tightly together in the form of an unhappy grimace. Father looked down into his wine, composing his sentence in his mind before he spoke aloud. “Overall, she’s better. But she’s not great.”
I wanted Vanessa to get over this guy as soon as possible, not so I wouldn’t have to deal with her sadness, but so she would be happy. I didn’t like my sister like this, a shell of the person she used to be. So full of life and joy, she was wonderful to be around. She had a spark that could start a forest fire. She had a smile that was brighter than Christmas lights. But all of that faded away once she lost Griffin. “That’s too bad…”
“There’s this handsome young man who’s showed interest in her,” Father said. “But she didn’t reciprocate his advance.”
“Handsome young man?” Both of my eyebrows rose off my face when I heard what my father said. He never talked about potential suitors for Vanessa, and he certainly didn’t describe other men like that. He mentioned Muse was a beautiful woman once, but that was the most I’d ever heard him say.
Mom’s smile returned. “Your father likes him.”
“Wait,” Muse said. “Did you meet him?”
“No.” Father drank his wine then set it down. “I was in the gallery when it happened. He didn’t see me because
there was a painting in between us. He walked in and asked her to dinner. He has a gallery down the road. Apparently, he’d come in and bought one of her paintings, unaware that she was the artist who created it. And then she bought one of his, not knowing he was the one who’d made it.”
“Really?” I asked. “What are the odds of that?”
“That’s what I said,” Father said. “They seem perfectly compatible. And when she said she wasn’t ready to date, he said he would wait.”
“Aww…” Muse’s eyes softened.
“And he said he would like to see her as a friend,” Father continued. “He was a perfect gentleman, but he wasn’t weak either. He’s good-looking, confident, and successful. I dug into him after I left and liked everything I saw. He’s one of the biggest painters in Italy, and he has galleries all over the world. He’s self-made, which I respect.”
“He sounds perfect,” I said. “I like him already.”
Mom shrugged. “But Vanessa doesn’t…”
“I don’t think that’s the case,” Father said. “I think she does like him…which is why she doesn’t want to see him.”
I hated Griffin for coming into our lives. If he hadn’t, Vanessa would have met this guy and let him sweep her off her feet. She’d be happy right now, finding her perfect match. But she was still hung up on a criminal.
“She’ll figure it out,” Mama said. “In her own time. Heartbreak and healing can’t be rushed. She’s smart for going at her own pace. It’s only been two months.”
“Only?” I asked incredulously. “That’s a long time.”
“She was pretty infatuated with Griffin,” Mom said. “I’m not surprised. I think she needs another month and then she’ll be ready.”
I never understood what Vanessa saw in Griffin. They say women have a thing for bad boys. Maybe that was the explanation behind it. “Well, we’re over halfway. I want my sister back. I even miss how annoying she used to be…”
Mama smiled, knowing I didn’t express my true feelings about Vanessa. “She’ll be here soon.”