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He picked up the newspaper again. “I’m leaving in fifteen minutes.”
“Okay.” I knew the conversation was over, so I turned around.
“Button.”
I halted in my tracks and felt tears sting my eyes. He hadn’t called me that in over a week, but it felt like an eternity. I stood still, savoring his tone as well as the word itself. “Hmm?”
“Thank you.”
* * *
Crow drove through the countryside on the way to Cane’s house, bypassing the traffic on the busier streets. The scenic route was better anyway. It seemed like we were the only two people in this beautiful land.
He drove with one hand on the wheel while the other rested on the gearshift. He looked straight ahead, not giving me more than a glance. His silence wasn’t as tense, and it wasn’t outright hostile either.
We didn’t try to have a conversation.
I looked out the window and didn’t know how to talk to my own husband. I knew he was still pissed at me. Otherwise, he would hold my hand on the drive. He didn’t want to scream at me anymore, but our fight certainly wasn’t water under the bridge.
We pulled up to the roundabout, and Crow honked the horn.
Adelina came outside a moment later, dressed in black jeans and a white top. Her hair was in loose curls, meaning she got her hands on a curling iron. Maybe Cane bought one for her. She got into the back seat and pulled her seat belt on. “Morning.”
Crow was far nicer to her than he’d been to me. “Good morning, Adelina.”
I almost glared at him. “Hey. Ready for another day at the winery?”
“Yes.” She looked out the window as Crow drove away from the house. “I’m excited. It’s so beautiful there. Not that it’s not beautiful here…but I get lonely when Cane isn’t around.”
That implied she missed him when he wasn’t there. It reminded me of how I felt about Crow in the beginning of our relationship. He was my captor, but I didn’t like it when he wasn’t around. The feelings were difficult to understand.
Crow drove to the winery, turning on the music and playing something Italian. I understood a few words here and there, but since Crow and Lars both spoke English to me, I’d never been pressed to learn it.
A few minutes later, we pulled up to the winery and got out of the car.
“Let me know if you need anything.” Crow dismissed us and walked inside to his office. He didn’t kiss me goodbye like he usually did. He walked away, treating me like I was nothing special.
It hurt.
Adelina didn’t notice the strain. “What should we do first?”
* * *
We finished the last wine tasting for tourists and then closed up for the day. I washed the wineglasses while Adelina corked the bottles and returned them to the small fridge. We wrapped up the leftover cheese and bread and saved them for the following day. Most of the tourists spoke English, and they seemed excited when they encountered someone who could speak their language so well. Only a handful of times had there been visitors speaking Italian and no English at all. In those instances, I had one of the other workers help me out.
“Everything okay?” Adelina dried the wineglasses with a towel then stacked them on the rack.
“Yeah. Why?” I folded the cheese in foil before placing it in an airtight plastic bag.
“Crow usually comes by a few times during the day. But he didn’t come by at all.” She stood on the other side of the bar, her eyes concentrating on her hands.
She was more observant than I gave her credit for. “We…we’re in the middle of a fight right now.”
“Oh…I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Thanks.”
“But whatever it is, I know you guys will work it out.”
“Why do you say that?” Adelina didn’t know us very well. She barely knew Cane since she’d only been living with him for a few weeks.
“I can see how much he loves you. And you wear that same expression for him.” She gave me a smile before she placed each wineglass within the cabinet. The tables in the warehouse were covered with bits of food and stains of wine, so she wiped them all down with a damp cloth.
I hoped she was right. “Yeah…I’m sure we’ll work it out.”
“Do you mind if I ask what you’re fighting about?” She knocked all the crumbs onto the ground before she tossed the towel in the dirty hamper.
Cane was probably going to tell her anyway, so there was no point in keeping it from her. I put everything away then took a seat at random in the lobby. The sun was going down over the hillsides. In the next hour, it would be dusk. “Well…I went to see Tristan in France.”
Adelina blanched at the sound of his name. After she halted for several seconds, she slowly walked to my table and took a seat in the chair facing me. “You went by yourself?”
