The helicopter flew us over the ocean until the city was nothing but a speck on the horizon. I looked over at Camillo and found him staring at me, his hand tickling Ana’s stomach while his eyes scanned my body. I wasn’t sure what he was looking for or what he might’ve been thinking, but I felt my skin prickling underneath his gaze while Cassie kept the boys entertained.
Suddenly, we began making a sharp descent. Ana giggled at the sensation as she put her hands over her ears and the boys were trying to make themselves yawn so their ears would pop. Cassie looked over at me with excited eyes, her happiness no longer containable as the helicopter descended onto an island.
An island that had nothing else on it except for a massive home, a smaller set of quarters off to the side, and what looked to be a fire pit.
It was literally a private Italian island.
I gawked even as the descent made me woozy.
His estate was enormous. The grass was green and the birds were chirping in the random clumps of trees that peppered the island. His massive mansion sat on one end of the island with the back porch dumping right out onto the beach. There was a smaller house situated on the western end of the island, about one hundred feet away from the main house. I saw people pouring out of its front door and heading to the house.
The helicopter landed on the southern tip of the island, the massive house covered up by the trees and island foliage as we all poured onto the beach. The boys were practically jumping out of their skin as I clung to Cassie’s hand and Camillo climbed out behind all of us, with Ana giggling in his arms. A couple of Jeeps pulled up, driven by men who were nicely clad in work suits and they both began loading up our stuff onto the vehicles before we all climbed on and headed toward the mansion on the hillside.
We were ushered into the building by a warm and welcoming man who sat us all down at a table. There was already a spread being set out for lunch while wonderful smells poured from the kitchen. The staffers who drove the Jeeps were hauling our luggage into various parts of the house and Camillo guided them with his smooth Italian tongue as decanters of wine and carafes full of water and juice descended onto the table.
“For lunch, we have a choice of fresh salmon or homemade, in-house pasta,” the chef said through his accent.
“Pasta!” the boys exclaimed.
“The salmon sounds fantastic,” Cassie said, smiling.
“I’ll have the salmon, too,” Camillo said. “Rose?”
I was so overwhelmed with all that was going on that I couldn’t even formulate the words for my damn lunch order.
“She’ll partake in the salmon as well, chef,” Camillo said.
We all dined and drank ourselves into oblivion while Ana stuffed her face with pasta. I moaned at how easily the white wine slipped down my throat, providing a smooth aftertaste to the lemon-peppered salmon that had been set in front of me. The vegetables had been steamed perfectly, the french fries had a wonderful crunch to them, and before I knew it, Ana was playing with her pasta instead of eating and the boys were finding it harder and harder to swallow the food they were stuffing down.
“Who wants to spend the day on the beach?” Camillo asked.
“I do!” Kevin exclaimed.
“Where’s our stuff to change?” Junior asked.
“That’s actually a really good question,” Cassie said.
“If you all want to follow me, I can show you to your rooms,” one of the workers said.
Cassie had her own room and sprawling bathroom, complete with a jacuzzi tub I knew she would love. The boys were right across the hall from her, excited about sharing the same room as they ran and jumped onto their beds. Kevin started bouncing up and down on the mattress while Junior was rifling through his luggage. Soon, Camillo’s hand descended onto the small of my back and I turned to look at him.
“Come on,” he said. “Our rooms are upstairs.”
I ventured up the stairs with him while Cassie simply smirked at me. She started gathering the boys up and helping them get changed, wrangling their energy before they ran out the back door and right down onto the beach. Camillo led me into an absolutely massive room, with a four-poster bed sitting against the wall and, immediately, the memories of that first night came rushing back to me once more.
“This is your room,” he said.
“Wait, just me?” I asked.
“Well, Ana can sleep in here as well, if you’d like. She has her own room down the hall, away from everyone except us. But her crib is easy to move.”
I found myself disappointed in the fact that he wasn’t going to be sleeping in the same room as me.