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“Yes.”
That hurt. The two men had always been as tight as brothers, but she never expected that Glen would keep secrets from her.
“Tell me about your brothers.” She didn’t know what to make of all these revelations.
“We’re triplets. I’m the middle one.”
“Two brothers and a sister,” she murmured.
Who was Nic Alessandro? At the moment he looked nothing like the overworked rocket scientist she’d known for years. Although a bit wrinkled and worse for wear, his khaki shorts and white short-sleeved shirt had turned him into an ad for Armani’s summer collection. In fact, his expensive sunglasses and elegant clothes transformed him from an absentminded scientist into your basic, run-of-the-mill European playboy. The makeover shifted him further out of reach.
“Is there anyone else I should know about?” Despite her best efforts to keep her tone neutral, her voice had an edge. “Like a wife?”
“No wife.”
Brooke almost smiled at his dark tone. Once upon a time she’d taken great delight in teasing him, and it should have been easy to fall back into that kind of interaction. Unfortunately, the first time he’d kissed her, she’d crossed into a deeply serious place where his rejection had the power to bruise and batter her heart.
“Who takes care of all this when you’re not here?” Keeping the conversation casual was the only way to keep sadness from overwhelming her.
“We have a caretaker who lives in town. She comes in once a week to clean when we’re not in residence, more often when we are. She also cooks for us, and her husband maintains the gardens and the boat, and fixes whatever needs repairing in the house.”
Brooke looked over her shoulder at the outdoor terrace with its informal wood dining table and canvas chairs. A set of three steps led down to another terrace with more lounge chairs. Potted herbs lined the three-foot-high walls, softening all the concrete.
“What’s upstairs?”
Nic stood in the middle of the living room, his arms crossed, a large, immovable object. “Bedrooms.”
“One I can use?” she asked in a small voice.
A muscle twitched in his jaw. “There are a number of delightful hotels in town.”
“You’d turn me out?” Something flared in his eyes that brought her hope back to life. Maybe she hadn’t yet heard the complete explanation for why he’d broken off their relationship. She faked a sniffle. “You can’t really be so mean as to send me in search of a hotel when you have so much room here.”
Nic growled. “I’ll show you where you can shower and grab some sleep before you head home.”
Although it stung that he was so eager to get rid of her, she’d departed California suspecting he wouldn’t welcome her intrusion.
“Then, I can stay?”
“For the moment.”
Mutely, she followed him back out through the open French doors and onto the terrace. He made a beeline toward the duffel bag she’d dropped beside the stairs that lead up from the beach.
“I can’t get over how beautiful it is here.”
“Most people are probably more familiar with the islands in the Aegean,” he said, picking up her bag. “Mykonos, Santorini, Rhodes.”
“I imagine there’s a lot more tourists there.”
“Quite a few. Kioni attracts a number of sailors during the summer as well as some people wanting to hike and enjoy a quieter island experience, but we’re not overrun. Come on, the guesthouse is over there.” He led the way along the terrace to a separate building.
“You should take me sightseeing.”
“No. You are going to rest and then we’re going to find you a flight home.”
Brooke rolled her eyes at Nic’s words and decided to take the fact that he kept trying to be rid of her as a challenge. “My return ticket is for a flight a week from now.”
“Don’t you have a lot to do to prepare for your students at Berkeley?”
“I don’t have the job yet.” Though Brooke held a position at UC Santa Cruz, teaching Italian studies at Berkeley had been a dream of hers since her sophomore year in college. And then she and Nic had begun a relationship. Soon the distance from San Francisco to the Mojave Desert had become an impediment to what she wanted: a life with Nic.
He shot her a sharp look.
She shrugged. “The interview got postponed again.”
“To when?”
“Not for a few weeks yet.”
In truth she wasn’t sure when it was. There’d been some scheduling conflicts with the head of the department. He’d already canceled two meetings with her in the past month. Not knowing how many people were up for the position she wanted gnawed at her confidence. Few shared her research credentials, but a great many had more experience in the classroom than she did.
