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Make up your mind, Louisa. What do you want?
Nico, a voice whispered. She shut the voice off. What she wanted was to stop feeling as if she’d been kicked in the chest. Nothing she did seemed to curb the ache. Every day she immersed herself in cleaning and home renovations, working herself to the point of exhaustion. There wasn’t a piece of wood she hadn’t polished or a weed she hadn’t removed from the back garden. But despite collapsing in a deep sleep every night, she woke in the morning feeling the same emptiness inside.
The doorbell rang. “Go away,” she called to whoever was on the other side.
“Louisa!” Nico bellowed from the other side of the door. “Open up. I need to talk to you.”
Careful what you wish for. The anger in his voice could mean only one thing. He’d found out about the Realtor.
He pounded on the door again. “Louisa! You let me in this minute or so help me I will kick the door in.”
Nothing like a threat to kill her self-pity. Anger took over and she reached for the doorknob. “If you damage so much as a speck of dust, I’ll...”
Dear Lord, he looked awful. One of the qualities she’d noticed from the beginning was Nico’s robust appearance. The man on her doorstep looked tired, his healthy color turned pale and sallow. His eyes, while flashing with anger, were flat and lifeless beneath the spark. He looked, to be blunt, as bad as she felt.
“Is it true?” Without waiting for an invitation or answer, he stomped inside, toward the main staircase. There he stood at the foot, arms folded across his body, waiting.
“Tell me you’re not seriously thinking of selling your home.”
“You got the call, didn’t you?”
“But why?” he asked.
“Seriously, you have to ask?” He and Monte Calanetti were irrevocably entwined. How was she supposed to stay in the village and live her life when every corner she turned would present some reminder of him?
“I thought it would make things easier,” she told him, walking into the living room. Maybe if she dismissed him...
Of course he followed. “For who?” he asked. “You?”
“Yes.” And for him. He wouldn’t be forced to share his hometown with an ex-lover as his neighbor.
Nico didn’t say a word. Instead he crossed the room, to the cabinet where she stored the fernet. At first she thought he might pour himself a glass, but he put the bottle back on the shelf.
“Amazing,” he said, shaking his head. “You do like to run away from your problems, don’t you?”
“Excuse me?”
“Well, you ran away from Boston to Monte Calanetti. You wanted to run away when the paparazzi came and now you are running away from me.”
Louisa couldn’t believe him. “I’m not running from you,” she said.
“Oh really? Then what are you doing?”
“I’m...” She was...
Starting fresh again. In a new place. Away from Monte Calanetti.
All right, maybe she was running away. Maybe she needed to run away in order to save her independence. “What I do or don’t do is none of your business,” she snapped. “If I want to sell the palazzo, I will.”
“Is that so? And here I thought I exercised such control over your actions.”
Damn him. Who did he think he was, twisting her words? “If I am leaving Monte Calanetti, it’s because you tried to take over my life, and you know it.”
“I did no such thing.”
“Oh yeah? Then what was calling Dominic?”
“A mistake.”
A damn big one, too. She was tired of having this argument. As far as she was concerned, they’d already had it one too many times.
Unfortunately, Nico thought differently. “It was wrong of me to call Dominic without telling you. I was excited to be able to help you, and I didn’t think about how my help might make you feel.”
Louisa had liked the conversation better before. Anger was so much easier to oppose than this softer, conciliatory tone.
She stared out the window. The Tuscan hills were starting to turn. Shades of brown mixed with the green. In another few months, it would be a year since her arrival. Seemed like only yesterday she and Dani had met on the bus from Florence. And she remembered the first time she’d met Nico. He’d sauntered through the front door without knocking and demanded proof she owned the palazzo. Here’s a man who insists on being in charge, she remembered thinking. Her insides had practically melted at the thought, and that had scared the hell out of her. Because she didn’t want to be attracted to a strong man.
“Scared,” she said, her breath marking the glass.
“I don’t understand.” He replied.
