“Shit, Hayden. So you’ve come to the yacht so he can’t spy on you?”
He squeezed my hand, acknowledging the connection between us. “Yeah. To buy this company I know he’d steal from under me if he got the chance.”
“It must be awful to still be so bitter after so long. Did he ever marry?”
Hayden shrugged. “Yeah. He did. I guess it wasn’t about love. It was about power.”
I got the feeling there was more he wasn’t telling me, but he’d confessed so much I didn’t want to push. I liked the idea that he hadn’t grown up with money—it made his lack of focus on certain things make sense and why he found it so odd that I would offer to unpack for him. I wanted to know more, but I wanted him to enjoy the few hours he had off rather than focus on the reason he was working so hard, so I swallowed my questions.
We walked up and down hills, hand in hand, for hours as if we were just two tourists, enjoying everything Taormina had to offer—dropping into shops, admiring various vistas. It was everything I’d expected and just a little bit more because I was sharing it with Hayden. He was surprisingly interested in the details around us—the people who all seemed to be in such a good mood, the way some of the houses slanted so much it looked as if they were about to collapse.
The road opened up into a small square with trees in the middle and tables from the cafés dotted between them.
“Coffee?” he suggested.
I nodded, and we found a spot in the shade.
“Due caffè americano per favore,” he called to the waitress as he held out my chair for me.
“You trying out your Italian to impress me?”
“Is it working?” he asked, leaning back in his chair, regarding me intently as if he were a painter and I was a bowl of fruit.
I narrowed my eyes as the waitress set our drinks down. “Are you fishing for compliments?”
He tipped his head back and laughed from deep in his belly. “I wasn’t, but it did sound a little needy, didn’t it? I can order a coffee and a glass of wine but that’s about where my Italian begins and ends. The UN isn’t going to be calling me up to offer me a career as a translator any time soon.” He stroked his jaw with his knuckles. “You’re feistier on solid ground.”
“This is me. My uniform’s back on the boat.” I took a deep breath, then I held out my hand. “Avery Walker, nice to meet you.”
To my surprise, instead of shaking it, he held it in his and didn’t let go. “Hayden Wolf. What you see is what you get.” Was he jibing me, accusing me of being a fake?
“My job requires me to be professional, to not always say what I think, to suck it up when guests annoy the crap out of you. That’s just life.”
He didn’t respond right away, just stared at me as if he was taking it all in. “I know. I just like Avery Walker better.”
I smiled. “Me too. But I do what I need to in order to succeed at my job. You should understand that—you’re in the middle of the ocean for two months to be good at yours.”
He raised his arm, resting it on the back of the empty chair next to him, and stroked his thumb across the wooden slat. “I hadn’t thought about it like that. I guess it’s just a different kind of sacrifice.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes, being on a luxury superyacht traveling down the Italian Riviera is such a sacrifice.”
He smiled, and the way he scanned my face showed he was smiling because I was laughing, as though he took pleasure from my happiness rather than because I was teasing him. Joy bloomed in my chest.
“You sound like my brother,” he said. “And it’s definitely beautiful, but it’s always a sacrifice when you’d rather be somewhere else, doing something else.”
I blinked and turned away. I didn’t want to talk about sacrifice or what I’d rather be doing—the life I’d thought I’d have before my brother’s accident. “Is he like you, your brother?”
“No, not at all. He’s the brawn. I’m the brain.”
My gaze darted down to his muscled arms, strong thighs and tight abs covered by his white linen shirt. “If you’re the brain, I’d like to see his brawn.”
“Did you just ogle me?” He sat forward in his chair, his eyes narrowing.
I lifted a shoulder. “Bite me. You said it—it’s my day off. You’re not my guest today.”
He chuckled and sat back.
“So your brother didn’t end up like you in a corporate job?”
Hayden shook his head. “I guess he wanted a worthier life.” He paused and squinted, vulnerability flashing across his face, though I wasn’t sure where it came from.