“You’re the one making up your bedroom to impress a boy,” Elana teased as she ran her hand over the bed’s cream colored coverlet. “Tell me more about him.”
“You know that I’m doing this for the hotel and not for Nicolo,” Adeline insisted, but then she relented. She made her wa
y across the room and sat down next to Elana, then as one they both flopped backward so that they could stare up at the arching ceiling. “He’s so handsome,” Adeline began. “He makes my toes tingle when he kisses my hand.”
Elana rolled onto her side so that she faced Adeline. “That is a good sign. If he can make you tingle just by kissing your hand, think of where else he can make you tingle.”
Adeline remained on her back but turned her head so that she could see Elana. Then she, too, twisted so that she laid on her side. “He’s a good man, I can see it, but he also seems to be a little lost. It’s like he’s a man and a little boy all at the same time. He makes me think of a child who’s lost his way from home so long ago that he’s stopped trying to find it. It makes me sad.”
“Mmmm,” Elana murmured, “but does he make your heart happy?”
Adeline’s smile was small and tentative, the same as her feelings for Nicolo. “I think so. I mean, we haven’t spent very much time together, but everything about him feels… right. When he’s near, I feel like anything is possible. I feel like I’m on the best adventure of my life!”
“Could it be,” Elana asked, reaching out a finger to tickle Adeline’s middle, “could you have found love?”
Adeline snorted. “No! No.” She paused as she reflected. “Lust maybe, but love.” She shrugged. “It’s too soon… Besides, I’m leaving for Spain.”
“I don’t believe it! You wouldn’t leave me. I know you wouldn’t.”
Adeline sighed heavily. “It’s true, I don’t want to. I’d rather stay. But if they tear this place down, it’ll break my heart. I can’t be here and watch that happen.”
Elana nodded sagely. “Then I’ll visit you in Spain.”
“You’ll come live with me in Spain!” Adeline corrected.
“And run away from Sicily! Ha! Never. My Nanna would come after me and drag me home by my ear.” She laughed. “No, no… Sicily is my home. It’s where I’ll live, and it’s where I will someday die. I don’t want to grow old anywhere else.”
A clamor of noise and swearing reached their ears from outside the room. A moment later, Felice appeared, loaded down with goods. Strands of twinkle lights adorned his arm all the way up to his shoulder on one side and an enormous ladder was tucked under his other. A bag of fresh flowers hung from a belt looped around his neck, an enormous and tightly stuffed backpack sat on his back, and he was pushing a small, round table forward with his foot. “I’m here!” he announced unnecessarily, looking more than a little proud with himself.
Elana sat up and then smiled brightly at Adeline. “Maybe you aren’t in love with him, but after he sees these rooms tonight, he’s going to fall madly in love with you. He’ll be helpless to do otherwise.”
“Oh, hush,” Adeline said but couldn’t stop her grin. The thought of Nicolo falling head over heels in love with her was exciting, even if it was ridiculous. But, it was also a complication she didn’t need or want.
“It has already happened. He is in love with you, and all that is left is for him to realize it.” Turning to Felice, she clapped her hands. “Bring those things over here. We have so much work to do.” Then, to Adeline she barked, “You! Go! Get cleaned up and rest. You have a man’s heart to tame tonight. You’ll need your strength.” And with that, she gave Adeline another big, slow wink.
What have I gotten myself into? Adeline wondered as Elana shooed her to the door. She gave one last glance at the room behind her, and guilt niggled at her conscience. What she'd done—and planned to do—with the fake buyer wasn't nice, but tonight, she would try to make Nicolo see what it was that she saw when she looked at the Romano del Mare. Elana was right, she was trying to get Nicolo to fall in love—but not with her. She wanted him to fall in love with what this place could be again.
She wanted the Romano del Mare to be the sparkle on the Ionian Sea’s gem.
7
Nicolo
“Adeline! Where are you?” Nicolo called as he made his way up the long, curving stairs to the Romano del Mare’s second floor. Adeline had sent him a text saying to meet her there, but she had refused to tell him why. He didn't know what she had planned, but the beautiful woman threatening to steer his desires to her whims needed to learn how to let things go. Soon enough the Romano del Mare would be nothing more than piles of rubble. He would make her see that… and accept it.
Outside, the sky had already turned dark and had given way to stars. Nicolo didn’t like the thought of Adeline being in the abandoned resort alone at night. While the building’s power had been turned back on to accommodate the inspectors various buyers would undoubtedly hire, many of the light fixtures had burned out or had simply stopped working due to issues that had developed in the wiring over time. So, as he made his way through the building, the rooms and corridors were more full of shadows than they were of light.
Reaching the stair’s top landing, he turned to make his way down a long hallway. She had said to meet her on the top floor but hadn’t said where. Then he spotted a glow emanating from the open door of one of the rooms, covering that portion of the hallway in a soft glow.
“Adeline?” he called, starting to wonder if he was about to meet a ghost from his past. Possibly his Nanna or Nanno had come to tell him how disappointed they were in his eager willingness to sell his birthright.
Nicolo’s steps paused and he took a deep breath. His grandparents had worked all their lives to make the Romano del Mare a place that instilled joy in all those who visited. To this day, generations of family spoke of the resort—and his grandparents—with great affection. As long as his grandparents had been at the helm, the resort had thrived. It wasn’t until they stepped aside that it started going downhill. That had been when Nicolo was around fourteen years old. He hadn’t known about the mismanagement that had followed his grandparent’s retirement, but even if he had, he wouldn’t have been equipped with the tools he'd have needed to save the resort.
Within a year of his grandparents stepping aside, the Romano del Mare stopped resembling the charming resort everyone wanted to visit. In four more years, the resort had closed its doors. It was not until their grandparents had passed away last year that Nicolo and his brothers realized the incredible fines that had been lodged against the property. In just over a decade, those fines had doubled and quadrupled until they equaled nearly eighteen million euro. It was a weight under which the building itself seemed to be crumbling. The cracks in the plaster walls and concrete foundation were a testament to its tired existence. Nicolo didn’t want to see the Romano del Mare demolished, but it needed to be demolished.
A shadow moved through the cascading light pooling into the corridor as someone in the room shifted. Nicolo quickened his step. He still had not heard Adeline’s voice, and worry gripped him now. He didn’t know of any connections that the mafia had to the Romano del Mare, but with the hefty fines laid against it, anything was possible. Who knew whose pockets the payment of those fines would fill.
If someone has put hands on Adeline… If someone has hurt her… Nicolo couldn’t finish the thought, and it was with a startling realization that he recognized that she meant more to him than he had known. Focused on reaching her as fast as he could, he broke into a run only to freeze when he rounded the corner into the room where the soft light glowed. “Adeline,” he whispered.