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My dad had sent me an email a couple of days ago. He wanted me to visit them in Italy for a while, host a couple of events, help with the marketing over there now that I’d learned so much here in the States. I hadn’t decided if I wanted to go yet.
I’d left Italy to create a life here for a reason—I’d wanted the opportunity to rise above and beyond what my parents had created, above the life everyone had wanted for me when I’d been a teenager.
Now, I wasn’t so sure the life they’d wanted to give me was all that bad. I’d learned a lot. Growing up could be a bitch, and going back to Italy could be a good idea.
“I can’t make that decision for you,” my aunt said. “I want you here, you know I do. This vineyard is your future, I’ve always believed that, and my will shows it, just as Alfredo’s does. Only you know what’s in your heart, and that’s what you should follow.”
“What if my heart leads me down the wrong path?” I asked.
Celine had been on my mind the past couple of weeks. I hadn’t seen her, hadn’t talked to her. I’d hoped if I cut all contact with her, I could forget about her and move on.
That hadn’t happened. I dreamed about her. I ached for her. We’d only spent a few days together, but I missed her in a way I’d never missed anyone or anything before, and it terrified me.
How could I be this attached to someone?
Celine wasn’t just anyone, though. Our story hadn’t been just any story.
It was the reason I’d made the choices I had.
“Your heart always knows what’s best, Lorenzo,” my aunt said, cupping my cheek. “It’s your head that gets in the way sometimes.”
I sighed.
“Someone’s here to see you.”
I frowned. “And you’ve been talking to me all this time? Who is it?”
“I don’t know them. Maybe business, eh?” She smiled at me. I was the business mind behind this place, whereas Gino was more like the muscle, and Zia Luana always came to call me when there was new business to be had.
I nodded. “I’ll be right up.”
It had been three weeks since I’d been back at the vineyard and I felt like I was on autopilot. I did everything that needed to be done, but my heart wasn’t in it the way it used to be. I didn’t know where my heart was anymore.
Fuck, Iknewbut I wouldn’t listen to that.
Zia Luana was wrong when she said that my heart knew the way. She was happily married to my uncle, but they’d met at a different time. Things had been simpler back then.
When I walked up to the reception area, where we often entertained guests who came for wine tastings, two people stood with their backs to me. I froze. I would know her a thousand miles away.
When Celine turned, she hobbled on her crutches. Her leg was in a moon boot. Noah stood next to her, his face grim.
“Hi,” Celine said. Her eyes were sharp, but her features unsure.
Her scrapes and bruises after the falls she’d had in the forest had healed, and she looked put-together. She was thinner than she’d been before, though. Her cheeks were a little sunken. She wore less makeup than usual.
“Hi,” I said.
“I was wondering if I would find you here,” she said.
“Where else would I be?”
Noah cleared his throat. “I’m going to wait in the car. You let me know when you need me, okay?” He hovered protectively over his sister and shot me a warning glance.
If you hurt her…
Too late.
I waited until he walked away.
