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He chuckled as he placed them on a cookie sheet, sliding them into the oven before handing Conor a bowl and a knife, pointing out the salad fixings. Harper loved to cook, but there was something very sexy about watching these guys work in the kitchen. “I always wanted a brother or a sister,” she admitted.
“I have a couple of brothers I’m willing to off-load for cheap,” Conor said, though Harper knew it was a joke, given the affection in his tone whenever he mentioned Matt or Gage.
“There’s nothing like a big family,” Luca said. “Those summers here were magic. We fished and swam in the lake, hiked all over the place, told scary stories around the firepit, played hide-and-seek in the woods. One summer, when Layla was in kindergarten, we thought we’d lost her for good. Spent nearly an hour searching the area for her before we worked up the nerve to tell Mom and Dad we couldn’t find her. Mom laughed and said Layla had come inside because she was tired, so she’d put her down for a nap. Didn’t have a clue we’d been playing a game or were freaking out. Those weeks were some of the best times of my life. Then…”
“Then?” Conor prodded.
“We stopped coming after we moved to Baltimore. I was in fourth grade. My dad had started a new job and couldn’t get a lot of time off. Then Mom got sick…and for a couple years, we didn’t go anywhere except to the hospital.”
Harper had learned Luca’s mother passed away from cancer, but it was the one subject he seemed reluctant to talk about.
“How old were you?” she asked.
Luca put a skillet on the stove and started heating some oil. “When she got sick? Twelve. I was fourteen when she died. Ovarian cancer.”
“I’m sorry,” Harper said quietly.
“Funny how it feels like it happened so long ago and yesterday at the same time,” Luca said.
“I get that,” Conor replied softly.
Luca placed his hand on Conor’s shoulder. “You lost your mom when you were pretty young too.”
Conor nodded. “Nineteen.”
Harper waited for him to say more, perhaps tell them how she died, but he remained silent, and she could tell he was uncomfortable with the subject.
Her heart ached as she thought about these two men, just boys when they’d lost their mothers. She suddenly felt the need to call her own mom.
“It was rough for a couple years after she died,” Luca said. “I mean, Dad was struggling, grieving while trying to take care of five heartbroken kids. Nonna and Nonno told him he needed to come home, needed to be with family. That was when Uncle Renzo came up with the idea for Moretti Brothers Restorations. Talked my dad into going into business with him. So we uprooted again, moving from Baltimore back to Philly.”
Conor stopped chopping the lettuce, looking at Luca. “That must have been rough on all of you. So many changes in such a short period of time.”
Luca shrugged. “The moving back wasn’t so bad. I didn’t hate Baltimore, but I hated living so far away from Nonna and Nonno, my cousins. It was just… Coming home didn’t feel the same, you know? Without Mom there.”
Conor looked as if he understood perfectly.
Harper swallowed hard, a lump forming in her throat.
“The first year back was an adjustment. Gio and I were just starting high school. Tony was a senior.” Luca put the steaks on. “That whole school year, we were just going through the motions because nothing felt normal. Dad was working overtime to get the company started, Aunt Berta and Nonna took turns coming to our house to make dinner, both of them doubling down on giving us motherly love. Never been hugged so much in my life,” he said grumpily, though the half smile gave him away, told her he didn’t mind those hugs at all.
Harper had spent an entire weekend with Nonna, learning to make her eggplant parmesan. Luca had hung out a few hours with them, waiting to “humbly” sample his favorite food. Even now, his grandmother smothered him with hugs and kisses, calling him patatino, though why she thought six-foot-five Luca resembled a little potato was anyone’s guess.
Luca flipped the meat. “At Tony’s graduation party, Dad announced we were taking a family vacation, so a few days later we packed up the van and came here. We fished and swam in the lake, hiked, told scary stories, and for the first time since my mom died, things felt okay. We felt like ourselves, like a family again. This place…it’s special to me…and I wanted to show it to both of you. Wanted to tell you why.”
“I’m glad you brought us here.” Harper rose from her chair and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Conor moved closer, wrapping his arms around them. “You’ve convinced me. This is way better than a hotel in New York.”
The three of them finished preparing dinner, eating together just as they had countless times over the past couple of months. Harper recalled the first night the three of them had dinner together at the pub, after the fire. Even then, she’d felt this instant connection to them, and it had only continued to grow as they spent more time getting to know each other.
As a model, she’d always felt like she was playing a part, never able to truly be herself. With Conor and Luca, she was the real deal—not holding anything back.
After dinner, they cleaned up, then moved to the living room. Even though it was early summer, it was still chilly in the mountains, so Luca started a fire. Harper quickly stretched her legs out on the bearskin run, and Conor wasted no time sitting down near her.
Luca walked back to the kitchen, returning with an open bottle of wine and three glasses. Pouring a glass for each of them, he dropped down next to Conor.
She sighed. “This is perfect, Luca. So relaxing. Getting away for the weekend was a good idea.”
