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His mother was a beautiful woman—very beautiful—and she had built her initial fortune by modeling around the world. She was savvy and shrewd, and she had listened more than talked when on the arm of an important businessman discussing matters with other business moguls. By the time Nicolo had entered her life, she’d had a small fleet of private planes, offering unique and private services to the rich and powerful. She became the hostess who could turn the most tenuous of business meetings into a sure success, and that talent had made her wealthy beyond measure and independent as well. While she had started out as a young Sicilian girl, she’d eventually claimed the world as her home, and she never stopped anywhere long enough for roots to take hold.
It was a lesson that Nicolo had learned well. Like his mother, he never stopped traveling. He didn’t allow the roots of his past to anchor him down, and all new roots were ripped free as soon as he took to the skies again. He needed no one, and he certainly didn’t need the tie to his past that Ms. Peluso was attempting to harness him with. The Romano del Mare was a burden he didn’t want and didn’t need. She would simply have to accept that.
“Ms. Adeline,” Nicolo said, closing the binder. This time when he closed it, he left his hand resting on its top so that Adeline could not throw it open once more. “I appreciate that you are so passionate about my family’s resort. Maybe if it had had someone like you seeing to its care instead of the horrific management company that ran it into bankruptcy, the Romano del Mare would still be the gem of Sicily that it once was. But,”—he shook his head, allowing his personal sadness to show through—“that is not where we are today. I can see it is unlikely that we will be on the same page as to how to proceed with the sale of the resort, and while I have been assured that you are the most capable of handling its sale, I think it is best that I request another agent to manage it.” Adeline’s lips pursed and her eyes narrowed, clearly unhappy.
Nicolo extended a hand to Adeline as an offer to help her stand. To his relief, she accepted by sliding her slender fingers over his palm. Giving in to the risk of offending her, Nicolo leaned forward and kissed her knuckles while he kept his eyes locked with hers. She didn’t quite smile when his lips pressed themselves against her soft flesh, but there was a twinkle in her eye that gave him hope that she might someday see him as something more than a business adversary.
Once Adeline had regained her feet, Nicolo stood as well. Instead of offering the binder to her—thereby giving her the chance to refuse it—he instead placed it upon her desk.
“You can, of course, transfer me off of your service,” Adeline said, “but you must make and follow through on one promise first. After that, if you decide that you still want to work with another agent, I won’t fight you.” Twisting at the waist, she picked up the rectangular tin from the desk. Even though it was small, she held it in both hands as she offered it to him.
There was something in the way she stood and in her expression. It was as if she were giving him the most fragile, precious gift anyone could ever give, and a part of him found it unfathomable to reject it. So, he took the small tin from her hands and held its edge pressed against his chest.
“Don’t look at it now,” Adeline said, taking a fast step away as if to get herself out of arm’s reach so that he would not be able to give the small tin back. “Look at it when you’re in a quiet place, when it’s just you and you can give some time to it.”
There was nothing left to say, and Nicolo knew it. Adeline Peluso had won this battle. He would win the war, though, and he would see the Romano del Mare sold off for eventual demolition. It was a prime location and would be an excellent property for the right developer—but not for him. There were too many memories there. There was nothing he could do with the property besides try to make it into what it once was, but those days were gone.
It was best that he walk away from the best memories of his life, just as it was best that he walk away from the beautiful Adeline Peluso.
3
Nicolo
As soon as Nicolo entered his room at the Verdura Resort, he began stripping out of his clothes and he did not stop until he was dressed in a pair of jeans and a black designer tee that buttoned up the front. Both fit him like a glove, the jeans because he had worn them so much that they had molded themselves to the shape of his body and the tee because that was what it was designed to do.
With his suit hung up, he headed out to his private balcony to give his brother Leonardo a call with an update regarding the selling of the Romano del Mare. Inter-woven, woody stalks of mature grape vines filtered soft light over a small breakfast table. The vines’ large leaves provided ample shading against the growing heat of the afternoon sun, and when the season was right, the vines would provide a ready treat of grapes for anyone who stayed in the room.
Nicolo took a moment to appreciate the artistry of it before propping up his iPad on the small round table before him, putting the small tin Adeline had given him to one side. The table itself had a mosaic top made from broken ceramic shards laid in a pattern to depict the harvesting of grapes. It was a nice touch, but the resort’s eye for detail was a personal reminder to Nicolo of his family’s failure. It was not in his nature to walk away from a challenge—let alone accept failure—but it was in his nature to make business decisions with his head. Allowing his business acumen to be charmed by the wishes of his heart was not what his mother had taught him. His father had been a foolish man when it came to business matters, and he would not follow in his footsteps.
Nicolo would do what needed to be done, and he would do it with the welfare of his family in mind. It just was the way it was. It wasn’t personal; it was business. He wasn’t sure that it was a sentiment that his grandfather would have approved of, but it was the only way he knew to succeed in life. Simply put, failure to sell the Romano del Mare could cost the brothers millions. It was a price too steep to pay simply to honor his heritage.
Nicolo navigated the iPad’s interface and then initiated a call. A moment later he was greeted with the image of the oldest of his two older brothers, Leonardo.
“Ciao!” Nicolo said in greeting with a quick and easy smile.
“Ciao,” Leonardo said, suave as always. If it could be argued that one brother was more handsome than the other, Leonardo had a chance of edging Nicolo out. Tall, lanky, and leaner than his brothers, age had given his features a little more definition with light creases around his eyes, but it somehow added to how handsome he was rather than took away.
“How is Sicily, brother? Is it as beautiful as I remember?” Leonardo asked.
“To find that out, you’ll have to come see for yourself.” Nicolo chuckled.
“But you are
my eyes and my ears, little brother! I trust you.”
Nicolo’s face fell.
“What is it?” his brother asked.
“It is every bit as beautiful as you remember. I could argue that it is even more beautiful. The air… it’s so clean here. The people, I get smiles and claps on my back as if I’ve lived here all along. I hate to admit it, but I’ve missed this place.”
Leonardo gave a one-shoulder shrug. “Then stay,” he said, emphasizing the words with an upturned lift of his hands before him. “You’ve been jet setting for too long. It’s time to stay in one place for a while, fix your internal clock to one time zone for once.”
Nicolo laughed. “I have no problem with my internal clock. I sleep at night, wherever that may be.”
“Okay then, why the long face if you have no interest in staying a while?”
Nicolo looked out over the landscape before answering. His resort was outside of town, so his balcony afforded him a sweeping view of the landscape. It was arid and rocky, but there were trees and closely grazed meadows too, in which he could make out the fluffy outline of sheep. They looked like slow-moving cotton balls from where he sat. “There was this girl,” Nicolo finally answered, returning his attention to the iPad.
