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She was laughing and spluttering when he surfaced. “You goofball, what did you do that for?”
He shrugged and shook the water from his hair. “You wanted to know if we can still have fun together.”
She laughed again and splashed water in his face.
He splashed her back and went after her, making her squeal and swim away. He caught her easily and wrapped his arms around her as she struggled to get away. He planted kisses in the curve of her neck while she struggled. “I’m not letting you go.”
She turned and looked up into his eyes. “I guess we’ll see, won’t we?”
He nodded and hugged her to him. “And don’t worry. It wasn’t a way to avoid your question. What do you want to know?”
She blew out a sigh. “I’m not sure I want to know, but I need to know.”
He waited while she chose her words.
“Did you even want me to go with you?”
“Yes!”
Her eyes widened, but he wasn’t sure if she was shocked by this answer or by the vehemence with which he said it.
“Molly. I begged you to go with me.”
She blew out a sigh. “You said all the right words, but Marcos, if you knew me at all, then you knew that Molly’s was my life. You knew there was no way I could leave it. I’ve never understood why you asked me to. Over the years I kind of convinced myself that you didn’t want me to go, but you had a great excuse, you could make out you wanted me to and even ask me to—because you knew I wouldn’t.”
He shook his head sadly. “I did want you to go. I wanted you to go with me more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life. I was such a stupid boy. I couldn’t see it.”
“See what?”
He shook his head sadly. “I couldn’t see that your life was as important to you as mine was to me.”
“But why? And why was the Sicilian part of your life more important than the Napa part? I only have one Molly’s, one place I belong in the world. You have two. I know you told me how important the family business was and keeping the legacy going and all that, but I never understood why it had to be in Sicily. You could have done the exact same thing in Napa, but you chose to leave and to leave me.”
“I didn’t want to leave you, Molly. I thought I was testing your love for me. I was stupidly idealistic. You know my dad gave up his life in Napa to go and be with my mom in Sicily.”
She nodded, looking confused.
“I thought that was a real, true, undying love.”
Molly frowned. “So, you thought I didn’t love you enough because I wouldn’t go?”
He blew out a big sigh. “I did. I was so hung up on all those old traditional ideas, and I mixed them in with a bunch of crazy idealistic notions, and I convinced myself that you didn’t love me the way I needed to be loved.”
She looked horrified. “I didn’t even know that. I honestly believed that you wanted to be done with me and that the easiest way for you to do that was to go back to Sicily.”
“I never wanted to be done with you, Molly. I still don’t. But I believed I had to go back there. I knew Antonio wouldn’t. He might have gone and played at it, but he wouldn’t have wanted to stay and make a life there. I thought I had to continue the family name. I thought I had to take a wife and have a family.”
Molly was shaking her head. “So, your idea of what you were supposed to do was more important to you than I was?”
He nodded. “I’m not saying I’m proud of that, but yes, it’s true.” She looked so sad, it hurt his heart, but he couldn’t help adding, “And if you think about it, what you thought you were supposed to do was more important to you than I was. You wouldn’t leave Molly’s to go with me.”
She nodded. “You’re right. I can’t hold it against you. If I did, I’d be saying the same thing that you thought—that because you wouldn’t give it all up for me, it wasn’t true love.”
“It would.” He tucked his thumb under her chin. “And we know better than that now. It is true love, Molly. It’s survived all this time. It’s never gone away.”
“But you married Caterina.”
He’d known they’d have to talk about it; he knew it must have hurt her. He blew out a sigh. “I did, and that was the second biggest mistake of my life.”
