Leaning over and kissing her cheek, Alex said, “I think she finally understands how much I noticed her.”
Sofia made fun of his romantic move with loud kissing gestures, making Alex roll his eyes.
“I was telling Alex that your mom always made these wonderful cookies whenever I was here, Sofia. I’m not sure if I mentioned it back then, but my mom’s name is Maria also,” Aria said.
“Really? I didn’t know that,” Alex said, his eyebrows raising high.
“Yes, I remember that! Oh, those cookies were the best, weren’t they? She loved baking them for who she calledspecialpeople,” Sofia said, her smile faltering slightly.
Leonardo said excitedly, “Wait a minute, wait a minute.You’rethe girl that Maria told me about. Oh, my goodness. I just remembered that she told me about a girl who would often come to study with Sofia, but it wasAlexwho she noticed enjoyed the girl's company even more. So, she always made sure she baked the cookies for those visits. She didn’t make them often, so it had to be you.”
“Yeah, Mama made them every time Aria came over,” Sofia said, suddenly excited.
All four of them sat there in stunned silence. Both Alex and Aria were on the brink of tears. She didn’t know what to say, but she had an idea of what she could do.
Standing up and offering Alex her hand, she said, “Let's go into the kitchen.”
Confused, Alex asked, “What?”
“Let's go make your mom's cookies, together,” Aria said as she looked at him and then at Sofia and Leonardo.
Nodding their heads in agreement and looking around at each other, Leonardo said, “It’s a wonderful idea. I think it's time.”
In the kitchen, Sofia took down her mom's antique wooden recipe box and smoothed her hand over it. Filing through the many handwritten cards, she pulled out the cookie recipe, the card stained and bent in the corners. The trio set out to find all the ingredients listed and began to assemble the batter.
Thirty minutes later, with Italian pop music in the background, flour was spilled everywhere, no one owning up to the mess. The four of them laughed at Leonardo who was trying to roll out the cookies without pinching his finger. He slapped Alex's hands away as he tried to eat all the chocolate chips.
With some effort, they successfully put a batch of Maria's famous cookies into the oven.
“Alex, you're cleaning this mess up,” Sofia said defiantly. “I have to get the flour you threw at me out of my hair. Aria, thank you so much for this. I’ll never forget it.”
Aria pulled her into a warm hug, and they giggled as some of the flour transferred to her clothes.
As they waited for the oven timer to go off, Leonardo took Aria by the hand, kissed it and said, “Thank you, Aria.”
When he walked out of the kitchen, Alex drew her into his arms and spoke softly to her.
“You’re the most beautiful thing in my life, Aria. You amaze me every single day. Thank you, for this,” he whispered, his voice heavy with emotion.
“You’re welcome.”
Leaning back to look in her eyes, he shook his head.
“What?”
“I just can’t believe.” He swallowed, his eyes misting. “She knew. My mom knew, even back then.”
Aria held him tightly and nodded. No words were necessary in that moment. The revelation was more than either of them could vocalize.
When Alex brought her home later that afternoon, he parked, turned off the car and turned to face her.
“I can’t thank you enough for what you did for my family today. You'll never know what that meant to us,” he said sincerely.
“I do, actually,” she said with a sad smile. “My mom would force me out of the house on days when I couldn't get out of bed. She’d make me take a walk along the coast because Nicholas loved to do that. He loved to sit under the pine trees and watch the boats pass. It was a special place for us. She knew that I needed to draw strength from the good memories.”
“Tell me more about this place.”
“We honeymooned here in Positano and loved the laid-back culture. There’s a stretch of pines trees in a park near the edge of Positano right before Ravello. We went there just about every day for a picnic while we honeymooned. We loved our childhood in Rome, but we wanted to live somewhere near the water. When we moved here, we went to that park every Sunday we could get off from the office.”
