She looked mortified. He hadn't known Hazel long, but he'd never seen her cry, and he had a feeling she didn't cry often, which was why he was so stunned to see tears in her eyes. A stab of pain went through him, and he realized again the depth of his feelings for this woman. He'd do anything to make her better.
“Oh God, I’m sorry Dean. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you.” She reached up and cupped his face in her hand and then leaned forward and kissed him. Her lips on his were like ice on a burn. Everything felt better. He hoped it was working for her too.
But, after the kiss, the day had gone on much as before. Everyone was quiet and holding their breath around Hazel. Hazel was stomping and glowering around the house. There was something going on for sure but she wouldn’t say a word. Just kept telling him it wasn’t anything for him to worry about.
Now he was back in his room at the townhouse considering if he should surprise her and take her out to dinner, or whether she would just rather be alone? Just as he was about to get up, and take a hot shower and shake off this day, his phone rang. He picked it up, distracted, not even bothering to look at the caller ID.
“Hey, buddy!” the voice on the other end boomed.
“Adam?” It was the first they’d spoken in days.
“Dude I have some exciting stuff to tell you about your contract, but best we discuss it in person. Flying out tomorrow.”
“You're flying here? Tomorrow?” Did he hear that right? Adam was coming here?
“Yep. Gotta go now, buddy. I’ll text you when we land.”
“Wait… Adam!” But it was too late. Dean sat with the dead phone in his hands racking his brain. Why would Adam be coming out here right now? And did he say we? Was the director coming? This was horrible timing. Hazel needed him right now. He didn't want to see Adam. He didn't want to think about his contract or his career. He wanted to be back at the picnic spot next to the river holding Hazel in his arms. Dean located the recent call and pressed re-dial. Adam didn't answer.
36
Hazel
Hazel was amazed that she had held off until today to call Liz. Despite Indigo’s surprise (Really? More like disastrous announcement!) yesterday, they had accomplished a ton. They were a good team. She'd been crappy company though. Her head was spinning with anxiety about everything; the money, her feelings for Dean, her job, Samuel. She'd said hardly a word to anyone and had even snapped at Dean, which was the last thing she ever wanted to do. Hopefully, he wouldn't hold it against her.
At least today was Friday; just one more day to get through. Then she would declare Saturday a free day and she could spend quality time with Dean and make it up to him. But first she had to sort out this money situation. Indigo and Stefano had gone out on a grocery run after breakfast this morning and Dean wasn't due for another half hour. Now was the perfect time to make the call.
“I was going to call you later,” Liz answered. "I spoke to the Board."
“Forget about that for a minute, Liz. Sorry, but something has come up. Do you think the company would forward me an advance?”
Liz sighed a huge ominous sigh which echoed through the phone. “You really don't get it, do you, Hay? Things are a lot more complicated than you think, okay?”
“Okay.” What did that mean? They wouldn't give her an advance? They'd done it before. Liz knew she was good for it. She hated being in debt.
“I’m in the office now, so I need to be quick. I found some stuff out and it’s not good. I need to talk to you about it in person.”
“In person? Why?" How would that work? Was Liz expecting her to fly back to Jax? She realized with a sinking feeling she didn't even have the money for a plane ticket. "I can't come over Liz. I'm totally broke. It's Indigo, again, she's messed..."
“Ssssh! Just listen. I can’t talk.” Hazel heard voices in the background. Wait! Did Liz say she was already in the office? What was she doing in the office at 5:00am? “I have a meeting in Florence on Monday. I wasn’t supposed to leave until tomorrow, but I’m leaving today. I switched my flight to Pisa. Can you meet for lunch tomorrow? It’ll be quick, I have a client dinner tomorrow night, but I need to see you.”
Liz traveled often to meet clients in Europe, but hadn't mentioned coming to Italy. “You’re coming here? What’s going on Liz? What did they say when you showed them all that stuff? They fired him right? I thought you'd need me to take over the project when I got back? Why can’t you tell me now?” She sounded frantic even to herself, but this wasn't the way things were supposed to be going. Everything was falling apart.
Hazel heard a door slam in the background and the other voices faded. “Did you keep the printed emails?” Liz whispered urgently. “Tell me you have the print outs.”
“Of course I have the print outs. Are you okay?” What the hell was going on?
“I’m fine, Hay. I’ll text you my arrival details. See you tomorrow.” She hung up.
This couldn't be good. Liz sounded like some secret spy agent, all frantic whispers and slamming doors. And why was she asking if she still had the printouts? As she reshuffled her weekend schedule in her mind, she realized she would have to cancel her date with Dean. That was such bad timing considering she'd been such a bitch yesterday. She'd explain it all to him when he got here though. He'd understand. Maybe he'd even want to come to Pisa with her and meet Liz. The thought of having him with her, holding her hand, made her jumping heart rate slow considerably.
Her phone rang in her hand and made her jump.
“Hazel?”
“Dean?” Hazel laughed out loud in relief. “Why are you calling me? Won’t you be here in, like, two minutes? You missing me?”
“Hazel, I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to work today.” His voice was unusually quiet. Plus, it was missing that gentle lilt that his voice took on only when he was talking to her.
“Are you okay? Are you ill?”
“Yeah, no, I’m fine. I have some stuff to think about and I need to have a clear head. You tend to muddle it a little.” She could hear the smile in his voice but she wasn’t smiling. She'd upset him with her moodiness. She wasn't surprised, she'd been unlikeable, back to her pre-Dean, controlling, and ultra-focused self. Maybe he'd realized she wasn't who he thought she was. There was no way she was good enough for him.
“I’m sorry I was moody yesterday. I just have a lot on my mind." She realized she sounded a little desperate so she put a smile into her voice. "I was looking forward to seeing you today. Promise I won’t be grumpy.”
“I can’t. Sorry, Hazel. I’ll see you Monday though, okay? Stefano has enough to be getting on with and he’ll manage fine without me.” He hadn't even heard her. It was like his head was somewhere else completely. And what did he mean, Monday? They lived five hundred feet away from each other for goodness’ sake.
“Monday? Won't I see you in town this weekend?”
“No, I think I'll stay in for a few days. Like I said, I have stuff to figure out. It turns out my manager might come over. He wants to talk about a few things with the movies. It looks like it could be good news, so…” Ahhah! So here was the explanation for the distance. Dean was preparing to go back to his job. He was preparing to say goodbye.
“So, you’ll be heading back to LA then. That's what you're telling me.” A statement, not a question. You'd think if he only had a few days he'd want to spend the time with her. Hazel’s heart sank.
“I don’t know what’s going on yet, Hazel, okay? That’s why I need a few days. But I’ll be there first thing Monday morning. I’ll even get up early.” He laughed at his joke but it sounded hollow and insincere.
“Okay,” Hazel swallowed a lump in her throat. This was turning into a crappier day than yesterday. “I have stuff to do too. I needed to cancel our date for tomorrow, anyway.”
“Okay then,” Dean didn’t sound too convinced, “that works out fine. See you Monday.”
So Dean was having second thoughts about their relationship, which they
hadn’t even labelled as such, and something was going on with her job that was making her hands shake. Or maybe it was thinking about not seeing Dean for three days that was making her hands shake.
I mean what did she expect? She'd always known he'd be going back to LA. Her stupid daydreams about taking over hotels and staying in Borgotaro had been just that, stupid. What made her imagine, even for an instant, that they could continue this... thing, beyond the summer. She was a boring, corporate hack from Jacksonville and he was a big-time movie star, even if he didn't seem that way to her. Standing alone in the kitchen, she burst into tears.
37
Dean
Dean’s heart was pounding. That was a tough phone call. He wanted to be with Hazel every minute of his life but he couldn’t stand to be around her anymore without telling her the truth of everything he knew. The conversation he'd had with Indigo this morning had been… enlightening? Shocking was a more appropriate word. And if he wasn’t confident that Indigo’s heart was in the right place, especially when it came to Hazel, then he would have been angry with her. Plus, Stella had sat with her and held her hand while she spilled her guts and cried her eyes out and every time he felt himself heat up, he got daggers from Stella’s eyes. Stella knew when people needed protecting, and right now Indigo needed protecting as much as Hazel. He just hoped that he could get this weekend over with and get back to Hazel so he could be with her when this entire thing blew up. And blow up it would. He was sure of it.
He was headed to the shower when the doorbell rang. The doorbell had never rung once the entire time he was here. The Italians preferred the rhetorical call of “Permesso?” before just letting themselves in. It had taken him a while to get used to it, but now the doorbell shook him as much as those early visitors had. There was only one person who would ring a doorbell, and it was Adam. He was here. He hadn’t texted him as promised. And why would he ring the doorbell? This was practically his house. Sara had told him how he'd bought it for her mother when she refused to leave after her father died. Adam had wanted to move them to a grander location. Maybe a big house in town, or even a house with property on the outskirts of Borgotaro, but Stella had refused. He hurried down the stairs. He wanted to get a glimpse of who “we” was so he could prepare himself. If any of the big wigs were here he'd need his "Dean McLean" businessman alter ego prepared. In the hallway Sara grabbed the door handle, a tentative smile on her face. How long had it been since she had seen her husband? It must be months. Dean stood to the side, wanting to give Sara and Adam some space. She pulled the door open, and her smile dropped.
“Oh, Sara darling, you look exactly as I remember you. A little tired maybe but I hear babies do that to a person, as well as abuse a woman’s body, right?” Isabella sashayed into the foyer. Isabella! What the hell? She spotted Dean. “Dean darling, how I’ve missed you. You look positively scrumptious, as always.” She moved toward him like a predator, her manicured talons reaching out to grab his forearm, her painted lips below her huge sunglasses landing just to the right of his own. He could feel the smudge of oily lipstick she left on his face. She was nervous. He could tell that much. She hadn’t dressed for comfort on the long flight but was in her usual uniform of tight dress and four inch heels and a gigantic Chanel bag flung over her arm. Dean knew from experience that the bag was bottomless. It held an endless supply of potions, oils and lipsticks, and a wallet fat with the cash she constantly requested from him, “just in case.” Unbelievably she was wearing a small fox fur flung over her shoulders. It was July. Her superficiality was as plain as the nose on her face. She was so transparent in her fawning. How had Dean missed it? How had he ever believed he loved this woman?
“Isabella. What are you doing here?” Dean felt panic flutter in his tummy. She knew it was over. Why would she come? And why would Adam bring her? He glanced over Isabella’s shoulder, half expecting to see Hazel standing across the street, arms folded across her chest, but Adam stood behind her. Of course Hazel wasn't there. Hazel had a tough day of work ahead of her. Without him at the house to move things along, today’s renovations would drag on into the evening. He felt a rush of guilt followed by a rush of relief when he realized that running into Hazel today would be unlikely.
“She’s here because I thought you were getting a little too comfortable out here in this little corner of nowhere. We've come to drag you back to LA. Once you've signed the contract updates of course.” What contract updates? And really, why was Isabella here? Adam hated Isabella. How is it they'd traveled across the world together without killing each other?
“Hello babe!” Adam had turned to Sara and went in for the kiss. She stepped backward out of his reach.
“Hi Adam.” She was on the verge of tears.
Dean cringed when he heard the pain in Sara’s voice. When he had told her that Adam was coming she had seemed surprised but excited. She didn’t seem either surprised or excited right now.
“You remember Izzy, right? Where’s the baby, babe?”
Izzy? Did Adam just call Isabella Izzy? She hated that name.
“He’s, um… he’s sleeping.”
“Hello darling, like I said, so nice to see you again.” Isabella stepped away from him now and he felt sweet relief fill the space she vacated. She crossed over to Sara and grabbed her hand even though it was plain that Sara was physically recoiling from her touch.
“Hello, Isabella. What a surprise to see you here.”
“Is it, darling? Is it really?” A look passed between the two of them that Dean couldn’t translate. Sara extricated her hand from Isabella’s grip.
Something big was going on here. Dean suddenly felt it was something so big that it would change the course of his life. If only he could figure out what it was.
It was hot. What a difference between the stuffy liquid air here in Pisa and the fresh mountain air in Borgotaro. They'd left the limousine to find parking and now strolled through the main square around the famous leaning tower. Dean was miserable. He still hadn’t figured out what Adam and Isabella were doing here in Italy, but at least he’d gotten them away from Borgotaro, and from possibly running into Hazel.
Adam had complained from the minute he'd arrived. He'd complained about the house, about the fattening food that Stella prepared for lunch, about the baby crying when he was trying to make a phone call. Had Dean never noticed how entitled and insufferable he was or had he become this way over the past few weeks? More likely the former. Sara was angry, shooting scowls at Isabella and rolling her eyes at Adam. He’d had to get them out of there.
“How about a trip today?” he’d proposed as the lunch dishes were being cleared away. “Isabella, haven’t you always wanted to see the Tower of Pisa?” Isabella had leaned back in her chair and clapped her hands like a toddler, earning another scowl from Sara.
“Yes! The Tower of Pisa! I love it. Is it close?”
“About an hour away.” Dean had answered, “we can take the train. It would be fun.”
“The train! OMG! I can’t think of anything worse, can you, Adam? I’m not taking the train.”
Adam had been texting on his phone, which was what he'd been doing pretty much constantly since he’d arrived. “Hmmm?” He looked up and gave Isabella a brilliant smile. “Whatever you want, Izzy.”
Izzy again. What was with the ‘Izzy’? Yes, Adam had a penchant for pet names, even for virtual strangers, but no one called Isabella, Izzy. Except Dean. Dean was surprised she wasn’t jumping down his throat.
“Well, I doubt Adam wants to come. He probably wants to spend time with his family, right Adam?” Dean asked.
“Sara and the baby will come too. Get outside for a while.” He looked around and scrunched up his nose. “This house... this town, can be truly stifling.”
Sara stood and started clearing the lunch plates. “It’s July daaaarling (she dragged the word out, making a point). I don’t think July is the ideal time to take a baby, only a few months old, into stiflingly, hot Pisa.
Do you? We won’t be going.”
Adam went back to his texting. “Well you’ll miss out then. We’ll have fun, won’t we, guys?”
Dean looked back and forth between his best friend and his wife. This was not going well. “Well you won’t want to come if Sara and the baby aren’t going. Isabella and I will be fine on our own.”
“What? And miss the Tower of Pisa? I’m coming. Sara doesn’t have to come if she doesn’t want to.”
And that's how Dean found himself strolling toward the Tower, in the stifling heat, with his best friend and his ex-girlfriend.
“Do you have the tickets?” Adam asked. “Total bucket list item, right buddy? Climbing the Tower of Pisa? Let’s get this over with and then we can have a long chat over lunch. It’s time we talked about getting you back home.”
Surprisingly the line wasn't long on this summer’s day. Adam had connections, he always did, and had phoned ahead to get the tickets. Normally you had to purchase the tickets and then wait for your allotted time slot, but Adam wasn’t interested in waiting. He was more interested in lunch.
Isabella had grabbed Dean’s hand as they turned into the circular stairway to begin the climb to the top of the Tower. Maybe it was the sudden entrance into the cool shade that made Dean shiver, but probably it had more to do with his body rejecting her touch. Over the past few hours he'd marveled over how he could have ever had feelings for this woman. He now realized that her every move was calculated. She'd always had him wrapped around her finger, making him believe she was madly in love with him, stroking his ego, controlling him. Hazel was the first woman who'd ever challenged him. Every other woman he'd met during his time in Hollywood had been all over him, giving him what he wanted, striving to please. None had ever been honest about their true feelings in any moment they were with him. But that wasn’t Hazel. What you saw was what you got.
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