AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How’s it going so far?” I asked. “Seems like the party’s in full swing. Did you rent out the whole place?”
“Actually, a friend of mine did. The woman I worked for when I stayed here. Pulled some strings, as it were.”
Gian had traded odd jobs at a local resort with a friend of the family for an extended stay, which was when he’d met Mazzie last summer.
“Nice. Looks like I need to play catch-up.”
“Hell yeah.” Nate nodded to the bar. “Go grab a drink.” Then, as I was about to walk away, “She’s on the beach with Zoe and the girls.”
I stopped. Turned to look at Nate and Gian, who both grinned knowingly at me. Playing dumb, I pretended I had no idea who they were talking about. “She?”
The two of them burst out laughing. Ignoring the pair of the guys, I grabbed myself a Peroni since it looked like they already had fresh drinks. Making my way to the edge of the deck, I took in row after row of bright blue umbrellas. Beyond those, blue and white striped ones marked a different beach lido.
It always amazed me when people talked about Italian beaches. To me, though the country was absolutely beautiful, the packed beaches weren’t a selling point. I preferred to spread out a bit. But there was a certain beauty to the crystal-clear water of the Tyrrhenian Sea with hordes of umbrellas and beachgoers that gave it a distinctly Italian flair.
Or Sicilian, rather. The two were not the same.
There she is.
As I watched, Natalie and the other ladies began to pack up their belongings. Damned if the woman wasn’t wearing a white bikini, her tan giving evidence to the fact that she’d been here a few days. Hair piled on top of her head, Natalie was a total knockout. I imagined myself grabbing that waist and pulling her toward me. Imagined lifting her so Natalie’s bare legs wrapped around me.
She looked up.
It was, as always between us, as if we were the only two people in the world. The party, the beachgoers...everything faded away as Natalie stared at me, and I at her. A second later, she snapped out of her surprise and turned away, giving me a very enticing view of her backside just before pulling a sundress over her head. Also white, with spaghetti straps.
As the women made their way toward the deck, I wondered if she’d come over to me. The silent question was answered a few seconds later when she made a wide circle around where I stood and headed toward the bar.
“You two have the strangest relationship,” Gian said, joining me.
“It’s a strange situation,” I admitted. “Every day we get closer to the sale, the more pissed she is at me. Plus...” I looked at him, wondering how much the girls talked. “There’s the whole matter of a bet between us.”
Gian’s expression gave away the fact that he knew of it already. “Mazzie may have mentioned that.”
“I’m sure she did.”
Now with drinks in their hands—looked like Aperol spritzes all around—the women all stood in a circle. Drinking. Laughing. But Natalie did not look my way.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. Was a little busy this past week or so.”
“Understandable. You nervous?”
“Nah. Mazzie’s the one for me. No doubt about that. I can’t wait to call her my wife.”
I couldn’t help smiling. “Not words I ever thought would come out of Gian DeLuca’s mouth.”
“Love does strange things. Like putting a huge land deal on the line to get a girl to talk to you. That sort of thing.”
“I am not,” I said that last word emphatically, “in love.”
“Maybe not. But there’s no doubt something is brewing between the two of you.”
That I wouldn’t deny.
She did look then. I raised my beer bottle, and for a second, I thought she’d do the same, in a silent toast. Instead, Natalie scrunched her nose as if something smelled bad and turned back to her friends.
“I take it things aren’t going well between you at the moment?”
“Understatement,” I said, finishing my beer. “I’m trying to convince her to let the sale go through. She’s been through all of the paperwork and knows the environmental impact will be minimal. And I’ve spoken to the potential buyer who will allow her to keep the rowing program there throughout the summer so it’s not displaced. And offered to find a new spot for it.”
