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Chapter Nine
- Noemi -
IPULLED THE COMFORTERup to my head and burrowed back down into the covers. When Dante brought me home the night before, it had taken all of three minutes for me to notice the frigid temperatures inside the house. Something was wrong with the heater and I didn’t have the time or the inclination to figure it out. I dug through the linen closet, found an electric throw, and hunkered down for the night.
The cold didn’t bother me. My body was still heated from my encounter with Dante. But in the light of day, I was mortified by my behavior. I drank too much. I wasn’t as confident in dealing with that bartender as I had pretended to be. I wasn’t too drunk to not remember the evening, but I was definitely relaxed enough to not guard my words with Dante. We hadn’t been close over the years. He didn’t know about my crush on him and he’d never treated me as anything more than his kid sister’s best friend. In fact, he was hardly around. He traveled for business, sometimes months at a time.
I only had one explanation for my behavior, and it was simple. Me, Pinot Grigio and Dante Calegari do not mix.
Swinging my feet over the side of the bed, I knew I had to fix the situation. I had been home for less than a day. I didn’t need any bad feelings with my best friend or her family. Lilly was part of the reason I chose to come back to Connecticut when I could have chosen anywhere,anywhere, in the world that Dante Calegari wasn’t.
But before I decided how I was going to brave seeing him again, I needed coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.
I’m a shy girl. Confronting Dante was the last thing I wanted to do but I knew I had to. I ran the apology through my head a hundred times while I made a pot of coffee then promptly drank almost half of it. I had brought a few groceries after I arrived. Just enough to make some toast and eggs and maybe some sandwiches later.
While I whisked and scrambled, I went through every variation of “I’m sorry” that I could think of. In my imagination, every single one of them ended with me groveling and Dante standing there looking as hot and implacable as ever. And if I went over it even just one more time, I’d scare myself out of apologizing. What if Dante was angry? What if I wasn’t welcome into the Calegari home anymore? What if I never saw him... wait, what? Why would that matter? I hadn’t seen him for five years. And if we didn’t clear this up now, what would happen the next time we saw each other? Lilly and I would be friends no matter what. Dante and I were bound to cross paths again. How awkward would that be if I just let it go?
Or are my lunatic ramblings just the sign of a desperate woman who couldn’t think straight because her house was too cold and this apology I fixated over was just an excuse to see Dante again? To talk to him, even if it meant opening myself up to humiliation. No matter how much the idea terrified me, my guilt and embarrassment over my behavior won out over my fear.
I put my breakfast dishes in the sink and headed for the shower, dying to seek refuge from the cold house under the hot spray of water. Two things needed to happen that day. I needed to talk to Dante, and I needed to find someone to fix my furnace!
***
LILLY ANSWERED MY “BUSY?” text with an immediate “come on over!”
“I’m sorry,” she said as we sat down for what was probably my fifth cup of coffee. “I was so busy playing hostess last night that we didn’t get much time to talk.”
“Oh, please. Don’t feel guilty about that. I knew you’d be busy. I was just so excited to see your family again. I had to go.” I kept my interlude with Dante to myself. It was not the highlight of my evening and the story wasn’t worth telling.
Lilly stirred some creamer into her coffee, oddly silent before she looked up at me with an unreadable expression. “Dante said he left early to take you home. Was everything okay? I started looking for you and you were gone.”
I shrugged it off, hoping she wouldn’t notice anything. Not that there was anything to notice, right? “I was fine. I had too much wine and instead of leaving me to wait for my ride, Dante offered to take me home when he left.”
Offered? My mind went back on how Dante hadorderedme into his carandthreatened to throw me over his shoulder if I didn’t move. My stomach flip-flopped at the memory of how demanding he had been. I shouldn’t have been excited by that, but I was. I don’t care for being bossed around, but when Dante stood there, quietly demanding that I do as he said, I was like a tuning fork to the tone of his voice.
I cleared my throat and took a swallow from my mug. I had to change the subject. It wasn’t like Lilly and I hadn’t talked in a while. We were on the phone with each other a few times a week. We video called and kept up with each other on social media. We didn’t have five years’ worth of discussion to get caught up on. Because of that, within minutes of sitting in the Calegari kitchen, I felt like I’d never left.
We chatted away for what felt like hours. Mrs. Calegari joined us for tea and invited me back for dinner. I accepted the invitation as naturally as I ever would have before I moved to England. The familiarity of being in that kitchen again relaxed me. I forgot about domineering Dante and the apology I owed him.
“I would love to come back for dinner,” I said as I started to rinse out my mug. “I have a few things to do today but I should be done in plenty of time.”
“What do you have to do? I was hoping we could hang out here today,” Lilly whined.
I opened the dishwasher and started to add the dishes we’d used. “Well, for one, I just have eggs and bread to eat so I need to go to the store. Two, I have to figure out the car situation. Mine’s in the garage but Willis threatened me with my life if I tried to drive it. He said it wouldn’t start anyway.”
“Are you going to buy something?”
I loved Lilly but she was richly clueless about most situations that had anything to do with money.
“No. I’ll get mine to the shop and have it tuned up or... whatever... so I can drive it. Willis wants me to wait until he comes down next week.”
“And how is the Senator from New York doing?” Gabriel’s smooth voice asked as he came through the swinging doors.
I smiled when he came in. I couldn’t help it. Gabriel was easy on the eyes and easy on my heart. He was just like an older brother to me, and truthfully, I missed him in the same sense that I missed Willis. Willis had already moved to New York City before my parents died and had started his political career. Being almost ten years older than I, we didn’t have a whole lot in common. He was the best big brother a girl could ever have, but particularly after our parents died, he took his caretaker role very seriously. Another reason I had decided to give London a try. Distance. By the time I left Connecticut, I needed miles between me and the men that drove me crazy.
Gabriel wasn’t one of them.
“Give me a hug,” he insisted as he came up to me with outstretched arms.
