“Nanna was always the drive for our family, and Nanno was her engine. And, you know what?”
“What?” Nicolo asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
“That man never had an unhappy day in his life that he spent with her,” Leonardo declared, and it was true. “He trusted her. He gave her the reins of the family because she was focused on the present, the past and the future. She saw it all. She saw how it was all connected. And when he didn’t agree with her, he still did what she wanted because her finger was on the pulse of the family—and family is what it’s all about. She was his anchor. She was his home, Nicolo, and now you’ve thrown your home away.”
Nicolo shrugged his shoulders as if his brother’s words didn’t matter, but they did. Less than two days after his dinner with Adeline, Nicolo had no longer cared that she had manipulated his pride. Actually, he hadn’t even cared from the very beginning. It was his ego being taken down a peg that had made him so upset. He had not thought that his pride was such a blinding part of who he was, but she had taught him that it was himself he could not trust. That had hurt. That had taken time for him to learn how to accept.
“She won’t take my phone calls,” Nicolo finally admitted. “All of this time, it’s her who’s thrown me overboard, not the other way around. She’s done with me.” His throat tightened as his heart skipped beats. He was no longer a whole man without her. She had made a space for herself inside his heart, and with her gone there was an emptiness there. He’d even called her place of work and had asked to be patched through to her, but they had told him she had taken an extended leave of absence.
“It’s not that large of an island, brother. Find her.”
“I will,” Nicolo said, making the promise to himself even if tracking her meant traveling to Spain and searching its every corner.
Their call ended, and Nicolo made his way to Adeline’s home. Bounding up the stairs to her second-floor apartment, he knocked with one hand while holding a large bouquet of yellow sunflowers in the other. He’d chosen sunflowers because they were Adeline’s favorite but also because she was the light of his life. While the sunflowers didn’t shine as bright as she did, they were at least a token gift representing how he felt about her.
There was no answer. So, he surmised, she was either still refusing to speak to him, or she wasn’t at home.
Nicolo leaned forward and held his ear close to the door to see if he could hear movement inside. All was silent. From the floor below, however, he heard the shuffle of feet and then the closing of a door.
Heading back downstairs, Nicolo examined the door options o
f the nearby apartments and chose to knock on the one closest to the building’s entrance. If he wasn’t mistaken, it would be the home of the building’s landlord.
No sooner had he tapped his knuckles against the painted wood than the door opened to reveal an elderly lady with her gray hair pulled into a bun atop her head and glasses worn on the tip of her nose. She took longer looking Nicolo over from head to toe and back up again than she’d taken to open the door. A slow smile lit her face when her gaze came to rest on the bouquet of flowers.
Nicolo looked from the landlady to the flowers and back again. Then, arming himself with his most charming smile, he bent low and presented the elderly lady with the bouquet.
Taking the flowers, she cradled them in her arm like a baby, and her smile grew all the brighter.
“I am looking for Adeline Peluso, signora. Would you know where she is?”
The landlady’s mouth pursed and her eyes drifted up in thought before refocusing on him to answer. “It’s Tuesday.”
Nicolo waited for more of an explanation, but none came. “I’m sorry, signora. What happens on Tuesday?”
“Adeline likes to study on Tuesdays.”
She’s taking classes? Nicolo was beginning to feel as though he hadn’t known her at all. Did I make the entire relationship about me?
“Can you tell me where she studies?”
“Mmm,” the woman answered with a nod. “Concetta’s… in the square. But her study will end soon. Where she goes after that…” The woman shrugged.
“Grazij,” Nicolo said, bending low to kiss her free hand. She waved him off as he ran out the door.
He didn’t bother to get in his car and drive the distance but opted to run instead. He darted down narrow alleyways, up streets that wound uphill, and through an open-air market before reaching the town square. There, tucked away in one corner, pushed back and almost invisible to allow for a street entrance, Nicolo found Concetta’s.
The door chimed as he pushed inside. He was still a little out of breath, but he was catching his wind fast.
The space inside the small shop was cramped, and on every available surface hung every type of lace he could ever imagine. The work was intricate, complex, and beyond exquisite.
“May I help you?” asked a tall, slender woman whose body seemed younger than her crinkled eyes hinted.
“I am looking for Adeline Peluso.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, everything about the woman’s countenance changed. Her mouth tightened, her eyes narrowed, her shoulders went back, she stood taller, and she clasped her hands before her.
“Oh.” She looked him over from head to toe and back up again, just as the landlady had done. “I will ask if she is available to be seen.”
“Wait,” Nicolo said quickly as the woman turned to make her way into the back of the shop. This was his one shot. He could feel it in his gut. If he got turned away without getting to talk to Adeline this time, she would find a way to be gone from his life forever. “Please, give her a message. Tell her that I am…” He swallowed, then blurted. “Tell her that I’m not a fool, but that I’m her fool.”