AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Rafael stares down at the bloom. I can see him register what it is and is trying to remember. “Breeze on my face. The car stops. Fuck. I think Nico went to get it for me. I could barely stand on my own.”
“Promise me you won’t drink like that again.”
“I promise, Bella. I was glad the pain stopped at that moment.”
“I know. I understand.” I reach up and trace the damp hair away from his face. My fingertips glide down the side of his cheek as our eyes lock together. “No more lies, Rafael. I can’t and won’t take it.”
“Never again, Ava,” he sighs as he turns into my palm.
I close my eyes with our contact. My mind begins to race, in a different way, through all the memories I’ve been trying to let go of the past few days. One I hadn’t remembered until now takes hold and won’t let go.
“Rafael, what was that phrase you said to me? I asked you what you said and then you said….”
”Ask me again later.” His hoarse and husky voice connects with my ears as our eyes find each other in the dark. “Voglio avere tutto con te,” he whispers again.
“I’m asking. What does it mean?”
“I want to have everything with you.” My heart clenches and I think I might have even stopped breathing for a second or two. “Tell me you love me. Please?” he begs with an enormous longing and desperation that’s nearly a third person in the room.
I do love him. I always have.
He can name the moments, so can I.
It wasn’t when he opened the door for me to the coffee shop. It was that unexpected moment on the sidewalk when all he did was speak. It was that first hug. It was the first time I held his hand. His smile makes the world right. He cares for me first and himself second. His laugh warms my soul. When we make love, the entire world falls away.
“If there is something more than love, that’s what I feel for you. There are no words in this world that can accurately describe how much you mean to me. I need you. I love you. I love you so much. Let me take you home, to our home, the one you bought for us. I want to see it. I want to be there with you. We have so much to say. I want to say it there.”
I feel a tear roll down over my hand just before his lips ghost over mine. They tremble softly before we break, and our foreheads come to rest together. “Let’s go home.”
Chapter twenty-one
Ava
Six months later
The sun warms me as the cool air hits my face while we drive. The breeze is the only thing chilly about being here. I insist Rafael leave the top down as we cruise from Florence to his hometown of Lucca. The foliage is about what it would be in November in Chicago. I tilt my face toward the sun and simply clear my head of everything.
Rafael’s left hand guides the car as his right lies lazily across my thigh. I stretch my fingers high above my head and let them cut through the air. Every second since we stepped off the plane in Rome three days ago has been magic. We slept off our jetlag in a hotel in Rome for a day before heading to his apartment in Florence.
I don’t know why I’d expect anything different, but his place here and our place in Atlanta are incredibly similar. They are monochromatic and minimalist. The only thing that sparks color are the pieces of art on the walls and the plants that stream inside every window. Those same windows fill more than half of every wall. With the shutters open, the wind blows the curtains through the room like clouds in the sky.
The oversized bed faces the east, so the sunrise is the first thing we see if our eyes are open at that time. Our second night, we fell asleep to the rising of the sun. Rafael and I moved around each other in the small space like we have done it forever. We either eat our meals in bed or at the cozy café table just outside the kitchen. The intimacy of the space suited us.
Today in the car, even though I should be anxious, I’m not. We’re on our way to meet his parents for the first time. I could have done it in video chat, but I wanted to give them and myself, the meeting we deserved.
“You seem more content than usual,” I tell him.
“Do I?”
“You seem at home in Georgia, but here I really see it.”
“Home is where you are, Bella.” He doesn’t glance over. However, the smile he radiates would light the sky if the sun wasn’t already doing it.
“Keep saying things like that and we might not make it to your parents’ house.”
“Don’t tempt me with such things, Ava.”
“Let that simmer in your mind.” I pull his hand to my lips. “I hope they like me.”
