AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She smiled as she heard the garage door open and went to meet him in the kitchen. He looked stressed. She went to him and closed her arms around him. “Hey. I missed you.”
“I’m sorry.” He kissed the top of her head and stepped away from her.
Something was wrong. She knew it. “What is it? Is something wrong at Muse?”
He shook his head sadly. “Muse is fine, it was just a little problem. It’s sorted; I fired him. It’s not that. It’s Marcos.”
“Your brother?”
“Yeah. You know things haven’t been great with him? Well, they’re getting worse. I called him while I was waiting.” He shook his head. “He’s in a bad way. He was drunk. Which isn’t like him. He says he can’t do it. He can’t run the winery. Caterina’s pushed him to his limits.” He came to her and took hold of her hands. “He asked me to go, to be there with him.”
Mary Ellen nodded.
“Do you mind?”
“Don’t be silly. Of course I don’t. He’s your brother, you should be there for him.”
“I know, but the timing. You just moved in, and I don’t know how long it’ll take, and …” He shook his head sadly.
“It’s okay. It doesn’t matter. Life does this, it messes up plans when we make them. We’ll be fine. When are you leaving? I can go home.”
“No!” He looked horrified. “This is your home.”
She touched his cheek. “It isn’t yet, though, is it? I’d like it be, and when you come back, we can try this again. But I don’t want to stay here if you’re not here. I didn’t sign up to be with your house. I signed up to be with you.”
“Then come with me?” He looked so hopeful, but it wasn’t realistic.
She shook her head. “For one thing, you’re going there to spend time with your brother. He needs you. And for another, I have to work.”
He closed his arms around her and blew out a sigh. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Please, will you stay here?”
“I don’t want to. It wouldn’t feel right. I’d rather go back to my apartment for now. When you come back, so will I.”
He leaned back to look into her eyes. “Do you promise?”
She nodded. For some reason, she didn’t want to make that promise. Things might change while he was gone—or was that just the stupid doubts taking hold again? It was. She smiled and planted a kiss on his lips. “I promise.”
“Thank you.” He hugged her close and she relaxed against him.
“When will you leave?”
“Tomorrow, if I can. I need to book a flight.”
She nodded. “Why don’t you get onto that and I’ll go get us something for dinner?”
“No. I was going to cook for you. If this is going to be our last night together, it should be special.”
“It will be.” She nodded, understanding it herself as she said it. “This is our first real chance to work together as a team. To join forces in the face of life throwing us a curveball. We can do this. You take care of whatever you need to do. I’ll go get us something to eat, and then later, after you’re packed, we can relax and hang out and enjoy each other’s company. It won’t work if you expect me to sit around while you have things to do and then sit around again while you cook for me. We want to be a team, don’t we?”
He smiled down at her and shook his head.
“You don’t want us to be a team?”
He shook his head again and landed a kiss on her lips. “I want us to be a couple.”
~ ~ ~
The next morning, Antonio woke early. He hadn’t been able to get a direct flight to Rome. He’d have to fly out of San Francisco at two to get to Chicago. The family jet would pick him up from Rome on Monday morning. He sighed. He’d need to leave here by nine.
