There were shadows under her eyes. More, he mused, would be shading her thoughts with worry about Serendipity. Still more would be darkening her spirit with guilt because of her association with Gregory. There was much he didn’t know about her, much still to discover, but he’d discovered one thing. She bled on the inside, where no one who didn’t know her well enough could see. Where no one would be able to detect that the confident, always-had-her-act-together woman she presented to the world could be vulnerable.
“Sorry about all the teasing. If you hang around here enough, you get used to it.” She dropped her gaze, rested her head on his shoulder. It surprised him how much he liked having it there. How right she felt leaning against him, warm and trusting.
“It doesn’t bother me. Remember, I’ve got two brothers. We rib the hell out of each other but don’t let anyone else try.”
She nodded. “Yeah, I get that.”
“What I’m more interested in right now,” he said, hoping to lift some of the shadows from her mind, “is how you’re planning to see to me.”
“What do you mean?”
“You told your sisters ‘I’ll see to Liam.’ So, how are you intending to see to me?”
“Well, you can choose. We have two open guest rooms this weekend, so you’re welcome to try to get some sleep in one of those, or you can bunk with me.”
“I’m probably not going to get any sleep if I share a room with you,” Liam said, glad she’d chosen to detour down the very road he hoped she’d go.
“You’re probably right.”
“Right. Because you’re probably going to keep me up the rest of the night demanding I satisfy your unquenchable need for my manly body.”
“No. Because I’ve been told I snore like a bear.”
“Say it isn’t so.”
“Sorry, you’ve been warned.”
He sighed. “That does shoot a hole in the fantasy.”
She shrugged. “I believe in honesty too.”
“Okay, you know what, I’ll muscle through.”
“A manly man would.”
He bent his head and kissed her. “Let’s go to bed,” he whispered against her lips.
“Let’s.”
CATERINA WOKE SLOWLY, cocooned in a blanket of warm skin. She felt dreamy. She felt sublime. She felt…safe. Her eyes drifted open to find Liam watching her.
“Good morning, beautiful lady.” He smiled, a little crooked, and a lot sexy. Cat’s heart swelled. Not because he’d called her beautiful. It was the way he’d said it. It was the warmth in the words behind the smile. It was the steadfastness of his gaze. The emotion she glimpsed in the blue-green depths of his sea-glass eyes, eyes that told her he cared about her, maybe even as much as she’d come to care about him.
“Good morning.” She stretched her arms back, over her head, to try to release some of her morning grogginess, then let them fall back at her sides. “How long have you been awake?”
“About an hour.”
“What have you been doing for the last hour?”
“Watching you sleep.”
Caterina snorted. “That must have been riveting.”
“More than you might imagine. I also copped a few feels while I waited for you to wake up. You seemed to enjoy it.”
She had trouble not smiling.
“You especially seemed to like it when I did this.” He cupped a breast, brushed his thumb over her nipple.
Cat’s breath hitched in her throat. Lord, don’t stop, she thought, arching against his palm.
“If you insist,” he said in response to her nonverbal plea, and lowered his head to capture a trembling bud between gifted lips. His tongue and mouth teased, while his thumb and fingers tugged and rolled the other in delicious torture.
He’d tapped into a vein of desire she’d never known ran so deep. And he’d done it in under a minute. He either had an excess of talent, or she was excessively horny. Maybe a bit of both, she thought.
After another minute, she couldn’t think, not clearly. Urged on by her own desire, she yielded to the feelings, the sensations, the magic of Liam’s touch.
He drove her up. Took her higher. Higher. She moaned, and he caught it in his mouth, gave it back to her when she raked her nails down his back. She was hot and wet and needy, and when she grasped his hips, he answered the call.
Liam slid into her with a rumbling groan of pleasure that sounded as if it had been born in the depths of his very soul. He held himself still a moment as it echoed over her. Then he began to move, and Cat lost all sense of control. She gave herself up to all he offered. Surrendered to him. And in doing so, took him hostage.
“WHAT TIME IS it?” Caterina asked, when she finally roused herself from the beautiful cloud she’d been floating on in the aftermath of their early morning lovemaking.
Liam lifted his head and looked at the clock on the nightstand. “Six fifteen.” He rolled onto his back and then pulled her on top of him, wrapping her in his arms. “Do you need to get up soon, or can we be lazy?”
“Normally I’d be down in the kitchen by now getting breakfast together for guests. My sisters are covering things today, though.” She turned her head, so she could see his face. “The three of them decided I should take the morning off.”
“Lucky me,” he said.
“I think that was their intention.”
Liam laughed. “I really like your sisters.”
As he got ready to leave a short while later, Cat glanced at his hands and gasped.
“Oh my God, Liam, your hands. I forgot about the burns…when we were making love, I forgot—”
He hushed her by putting a finger over her mouth. “They’re fine. That stuff Lucia put on them helped a lot. They don’t even hurt anymore.”
She took them in hers, turned them over. “They’re blistered. You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”
“Cat, they’re fine, seriously. And I wanted to make love to you. I would have been upset if you stopped me because of a few minor burns on my hands.”
She frowned. “Well, I’m not going to let you make me so mindless in the future that I forget things I shouldn’t forget.”
“Yeah, well, good luck with that.” He grinned. “I plan to try and make you mindless every opportunity I get.”
A short while later, after he’d finished gathering his things, Cat went downstairs with him to see him off.
“I’m going to ask my sister-in-law if I can pick Riley up later this afternoon. I want to go over to the site this morning to see if I can get in there and assess the damage on my own.”
“I want to go with you.”
He rested his hands on her shoulders, waited for her to look at him. “Let me check things out first. I promise I’ll give you a full report. There’s nothing you can do over there, and even though I think the damage was mostly contained to that one section, seeing it will probably only upset you.”
“I still—”
“Hey, Liam, I’m glad I caught you before you left.” Antonio, who had entered the reception area from the solarium, approached them. “Have you talked to the fire inspector yet to see when he’ll be coming to the site this morning?”
“No. I was going to call from the truck. I want to get in there as soon as I can to see what we’re dealing with.”
“Okay. Let me know what you find out, and I’ll meet you there.” Antonio glanced between Liam and Cat. The corners of his mouth twitched. “By the way, there’re warm muffins and sconces in the kitchen if either of you need some sustenance after, umm, well…if you need to refuel for any reason.”
Cat draped an arm around Liam’s shoulder. “Do you need to refuel for any reason, Liam?”
“I do, but I don’t think a muffin will do it. I’ll stop on the way home for a couple of bacon, egg, and cheese bagels and some hash browns.”
He brushed his lips over hers and then opened the door. “I’ll call you later. And listen to me about the site, okay?”
Rather than risk an argument, she nodded, and waited until he’d jogged down the porch steps before closing the door.
“I’m going to find my sisters. And to refuel,” she said to Antonio and hooked her arm through his, pulling him along with her as she walked across reception. “Oh, and just so you know,” she said, “it’s scones, darling, not sconces.”
“Really?” Antonio furrowed his brow. “I wondered why someone would name a pastry after a light fixture.”
THE LAST SEVERAL weeks had been so hectic, Cat had spent almost no time trying to find out more about Rosa. She’d intended to, and it was unlike her not to follow through on her intentions. She’d told her sisters that she’d spearhead the research effort, and if she said she’d do it, then she should do what she said she would.
Feeling guilty for dropping the ball, she decided to spend some time that morning in her room, emptying out the old trunks. It would also give her something to keep her mind off the fire and what was happening over at Serendipity.
After she finished getting something to eat, she took a cup of coffee up to her room and, settling in, started going through the first of the two trunks. It contained an assortment of boxes and bags, some belonging to her aunt and uncle, and some to Rosa’s parents.
There didn’t seem to be any logic to what had been packed inside. Old newspapers, a box of receipts, some old photographs, and letters from her grandfather to their uncle Gino were stored away with a wooden jewelry box and miscellaneous knickknacks.
She suspected that at some point someone had decided to consolidate it all into the trunk to save on space. Some of it might have been kept for sentimental value, like the photos and her nonno’s letters. Some of it might just have been put in there to go through at another time, and then forgotten.
Reaching into the very bottom of the trunk, Cat pulled out a long box that looked like it had been covered with flowered wallpaper and tied together with a pale blue ribbon. She set the box on the floor and ran her hand over the top of it.
The paper felt thick. It had a vintage look. The background was creamy with a golden hue. Caterina wasn’t sure if that was due to age, or if that was just the color. The pale pink and powdery blue roses decorating the paper in a baroque floral pattern suggested it had belonged to a woman, most likely Rosa or her mother.
Cat looped her fingers around the ends of the ribbon and loosened the bow. She had to untie an extra knot, which took a bit of doing as it had been doubled and tied tight, but she managed to get it undone without having to get a nail file or some other tool to work it free.
After removing the ribbon, she lifted the lid off the box. Inside were several small books, like journals, most with leather covers, some with carved designs. A few had thick, paper jackets with a pretty garden print or some idyllic scene. All of them were tied shut with either leather cords or ribbon that had been incorporated into the cover for that purpose.
She picked up a soft, buttery-yellow leather one, and loosened the cords. Opening the front cover, she started reading.
Dear Diary,
I’m going away for a while. To Italy. My best friend Claire invited me to come for a visit. She used to live here in Virginia, but her family moved there over ten years ago. I’ve only seen her a couple of times since she moved, when she came back to see her grandparents, but we write every month.
I don’t know exactly how long I’ll be there, perhaps a month, or possibly more. I just don’t know. Claire said I could stay as long as I need to. She’s been trying to convince me to come visit for several years, and I kept saying I would, but you know how that goes. She has an apartment of her own now, and she said she has an extra bedroom, so it won’t be a problem.
I told David and my parents I wanted to go because I missed Claire, and that with David and me getting married this fall, I might never get another opportunity to go to Italy to visit her. David’s not happy about it, and my parents are a little concerned about me going off on my own to another country for several weeks, but I’m twenty-eight. Certainly, old enough to look after myself!
I don’t just want to go. I must go. I need to put some space between David and me. I’m so confused about my feelings for him. What if marrying him is a mistake? The closer we get to the wedding, the more doubtful I become. I thought I knew him, but after we got engaged he seemed different somehow. Little things. And maybe I’m just imagining the change in him, but it makes me uncomfortable.
Claire’s the only one who knows. I told her how confused I was in one of my letters, that I just wished I could get away for a while to sort out my feelings. That’s when she told me I should come for a visit. I’ve spent the last few days making all the necessary arrangements, and I’ll be leaving next Monday.
I hope I’m able to find some answers while I’m there.
Yours, Rosa
June 28, 1982
Cat held her breath, pulled out another journal. She untied it hurriedly, flipped it open, ran her finger down the entry until she got to the signature. She checked two more, doing the same thing.
“Oh my God,” she said excitedly, “these are her diaries. I’ve just found Rosa’s diaries!”
She got up from the floor where she’d been sitting in front of the trunk and gathered an armful of the books. She couldn’t wait to show her sisters what she’d discovered. If they were going to find a clue into their aunt’s psyche, any reason she might still be hanging around the family home, chances were they’d find it in one of these.
When she got downstairs, Lucia was talking to a young couple who’d checked in Friday afternoon. They’d said they were celebrating their anniversary and were on a getaway weekend—their first time away together since their son had been born two years ago. El was in the solarium, setting up for the noontime tasting, and there was no sign of Marcella.
Cat ended up sending them all a text that she’d found something of Rosa’s she wanted to show them and asked what time everyone could meet that afternoon.
The earliest they’d all be available at the same time wasn’t until five, and Eliana only had an hour because she’d be doing a tasting at six. After the tasting, she was going out for a late dinner with Damien. The two of them had spent a lot of time together that week. They certainly seemed to have hit it off. Cat wondered if they’d keep in touch with Damien checking out today, or if their week-long romance would fizzle out the way most of her sister’s relationships did after the second or third date.
With a little over four hours to kill before she could show her sisters the diaries, Cat took them back up to her room. She was tempted to go over to the site, but Liam was probably right. She should wait until he and Antonio could determine how much time and money it would cost to repair the damage first. It would still upset her when she saw it, but knowing they had a plan to fix it would help her focus on moving forward.
She also felt the edges of a headache. Going to the site and getting upset might make it worse. With the fire, and almost no sleep last night, it was a wonder she didn’t have a full-blown migraine. She rolled her shoulders, felt the tension knotted there and in the back of her neck.
She didn’t want to lose tonight to a migraine. As susceptible as she was to them, she decided to take some preventative measures.
Going into the bathroom, she took a couple of pills, then went back into her room. She lay down on the bed and closed her eyes. Twenty or thirty minutes should do the trick. Just long enough to let the pills take effect and hopefully prevent it from getting any worse.
She hovered on the fringe of wakefulness. Gentle fingers caressed her temples. Caterina sighed softly and then fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
“Tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers.”
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
The next few weeks sped by in a blur—filled with special events at the winery, the plethora of parties December dependably brought, and the usual hectic holiday whirlwind that typically escorted one from Thanksgiving into
the New Year—in what seemed the blink of an eye.
January had dawned bright and white, under a six-inch blanket of snow. They’d gotten a few more inches last night, and if the weather reports were correct, it wouldn’t be letting up soon. The wind blustered over the Blue Ridge, whistling and moaning a wintery tune that carried over the rows of now-dormant vines that had, in time, yielded the fruit that helped Bonavera Winery produce their award-winning wines.
After Cat had told her sisters about finding Rosa’s diaries, they’d all agreed it would be better to wait until they got through the holidays, when the mid-January lull set in, and read them together. It would give them something to look forward to, and the holidays were such a busy time at the winery that they didn’t need to heap any more on their already overflowing plates.
Caterina stood at her bedroom window, gazing out over the vineyard. Everything looked so fresh and clean. She didn’t like the cold, but she could appreciate the pristine loveliness of the scene below. Snow carpeted the fields, draped heavily over thick, green pines, and etched the face of the foothills that marched in the distance, grounding all she knew.
She couldn’t believe it was a new year. So much had happened over the last one. So much had happened just in the last month!
After the fire, Liam’s crew had removed the damaged section of the left wing, taking the area down to the foundation. For now, it remained that way, with plywood and tarps temporarily covering the opening where it joined to the rest of the building.
Liam wanted to wait until the weather turned to continue work on that area, but once it did, they’d be able to frame and seal the new wing in quickly. Until then, work progressed on the rest of the project.
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