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How could she just leave Monte Calanetti? For nine months they’d treated her as one of their own, made her part of their family, and she didn’t think they cared? Did she truly think so little of them?
He felt betrayed. “If you think so little of us that you believe we would let a few gossip articles sway our opinion, then perhaps you should go somewhere else,” he said. “After all these months, you should now have realized that people in Monte Calanetti are smarter than that.”
“That include Dominic Merloni?”
The banker? What did he have to do with anything?
“He canceled our meeting as soon as the news broke. He won’t be the only person to cut me off. Just the first.”
“Dominic Merloni is an arrogant bastard who thinks everyone in the village should worship him because he once played football for Genoa.”
“That’s not what you said about him this morning.”
“This morning I was being polite.” But if she was going to be irrational, then there was no need to keep up the pretense. “I’m talking about the people who matter. Like Dani, your supposed best friend. You think she is so petty?”
“Of course not,” she replied. “But Dani loves everybody.”
“Yes, she does, but you were going to leave her without saying goodbye anyway.”
“I already told you, I’m—”
“Yes, yes, doing the village a favor. Let us start organizing the benediction. Saint Louisa the martyr. Abandoning Palazzo di Comparino for the good of the people.”
Louisa stood with her arms wrapped around her as though they were the only thing holding her up. As far from the woman he’d come to know as could be. Where was the haughty American who challenged him on every turn? The hornet who threatened every time he poked her nest? “I don’t know why you care so much,” she muttered.
Nico didn’t know either, beyond the emotions that continued squeezing his chest. He shouldn’t care at all. He should accept the change in circumstance as another one of life’s upheavals and move on.
He couldn’t, though. All he could think about was how the more he watched her retreat into herself, the more he wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake the fight back into her. He wanted to...to...
He stalked back to the bookshelf. Grabbing a clean glass from the bar, he poured two more glasses of fernet and walked back to her. “Here,” he said, holding one of the glasses out. “Drink. Maybe you’ll start thinking more clearly.” Maybe he would, too.
“I don’t need to think clearly,” she replied. Nonetheless, she took the drink. “I need to leave town.”
“And go where?”
“I don’t know. Africa. New Zealand. Someplace where they can’t find me. I’ll figure something out. I just know I have to leave.
“No, damn it!” he said, slamming the bottle on the shelf. “You can’t!”
The air between them crackled with tension. Nico looked at Louisa cradling her glass with trembling hands and grew ashamed. Since when did he yell and slam objects?
Taking a deep breath, he began again, this time making sure his voice remained low and level. “Leaving town is the worst thing you can do.”
“How can you say that?”
Again, Nico wasn’t entirely sure. Several answers came to mind, but none of them felt completely whole or honest. The true, complete answer remained stuck in the shadows, unformed.
“Because the town needs you,” he said, grabbing the first reason that made sense. “You’ve become an important part of our community. Whether you believe in them or not—” she turned away at his pointed dig “—the people here believe in you.”
“Besides,” he added in a voice that was even lower than before, “if you run away, the press win. People will believe what’s written—the stories will start to sound true. Is that what you want? To give Luscious Louisa life?”
“No.”
“Then stay, and show the world you’ve got nothing to hide. That what the press is saying is nothing more than gossip.”
He let his reasoning wash over her. For several minutes, she said nothing, all her concentration focused on an invisible spot inside her drink. When she finally spoke, the words were barely a whisper. “What if you’re wrong?”
“I’m not.” It hurt to hear the doubt in her voice. Damn her ex for killing her trust. “Whatever happens, you already have three people on your side.”
“But last time...” She shook her head.
“Last time there was a trial, no? This time it is only gossip. In a few days the press will have moved on to a new scandal and forgotten all about Luscious Louisa. Then you go back to your life. Surely, you can handle a few days of whispers, can’t you?”
