AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No.”
“Oh.” Elodie looked crestfallen, but she brightened again quickly enough. “But she was?”
“Why, may I ask, is this a problem?”
Fiero briefly tilted the camera so his face came into shot, his expression holding an unmistakable warning: play nice.
“It’s not a problem,” Elodie assured him. “It’s just I’m a huge fan of hers. I watch all her videos and when I saw that she’d filmed one from Il Nido, and that it was snowing outside the window, I just presumed…”
“I see,” he muttered, closing his eyes on a wave of bleak amusement. She’d asked before posting the video and he’d assured her it would be fine. But of course one of his family members would have to have seen the clip. Why wouldn’t they?
Gabe tightened his grip into a fist, keeping his expression calm and uninterested.
“She’s someone I know,” he said with a casual lift of his shoulders. “She got caught in the blizzard.”
“At Il Nido?” Fiero prompted sceptically.
“As you can see.”
“This is amazing. Do you think – would you be able to ask her to sign a cookbook for me?”
“She doesn’t have any with her,” Gabe interjected quickly.
“How do you know?” Fiero responded. Damn him, he wasn’t going to make this easy.
Gabe expelled a sigh, his nostrils flaring. “Her car crashed. As you know, mine is the only house for miles. What choice did she have but to shelter here?”
And what choice did I have but to let her? He mentally tacked on.
“Oh, I’m so jealous,” Elodie squeaked. “You have to at least tell her how much I adore her videos. She’s so incredible!”
“This is just because you are both Australian,” Fiero teased from off-camera.
“It is not,” Elodie grinned, and then winked at Gabe. “But it doesn’t hurt.” Elodie leaned a little closer then. “What’s she like in person?”
Gabe stared at the phone, lost for words. How could he describe Isabella?
What adjectives would do her justice? She was kind, interesting, funny, confident, courageous. But none of those captured her spirit and his inability to find just the right word for Isabella was somehow infuriating. “I don’t know. Just like she seems on the videos,” he said, though even that wasn’t completely true.
“Is that it?” Elodie pleaded, so Gabe made a strangled sound that was a little like a laugh.
“What else do you want
me to say?”
“I don’t know. You must have something else…”
She’s beautiful. Fiery. An incredible lover.
He closed his eyes for a minute, acutely aware that somewhere in this huge house Elodie was breathing the same air, hearing the same howling wind, and yet he wasn’t with her. He wasn’t near her. It felt as though he was defying one of the laws of nature by keeping his distance.
“She’s…”
“Yes?”
He compressed his lips, drawing a blank. “I’m sorry, Elodie. I don’t have anything more for you.”
“Oh.” Elodie smiled kindly. “Don’t worry about it. Just have fun.” She snuggled into Fiero so both were on the screen, their love for one another so obvious, Gabe felt an ungenerous desire to disconnect the call. In the last few years, his brothers and cousins had seemingly made it their mission to pair off and get all loved up. He couldn’t go back to Villa Fortune these days without having to witness some overt display of matrimonial contentment.
