Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Isla
The next few days blur together in the best possible way.
Most of our days are spent tangled in the sheets, but Knox takes me out every night, insisting on showing me something new.
We visit different restaurants, where we enjoy the best cuisines.
We find hidden corners of the town that feel like magical gateways to another world.
Then we enjoy moonlit walks along the beach, where he holds my hand and we simply savor each other’s company.
Every night feels like an adventure.
Every morning feels like waking up in a dream.
At the end of the week, we start what Knox calls our “Italian tour”.
We drift from city to city, staying a night or two in each. We explore Florence, Rome, Siena, Bologna, Milan, wandering through cathedrals, open-air markets, and narrow streets that feel like postcards.
When the week ends, we take a break and stop in Verona to visit Aunt Maureen at her vineyard.
She has horses here, too.
At our engagement party, she talked our ears off, but spending time in her home with Knox made me more intrigued to hear her stories.
It doesn’t take long for me to immerse myself in her home that has the same escapism vibe I’ve felt throughout our stay in Italy.
For the first time in a long time, I feel happy.
Uncertain, terrified, confused, but happy. God, even my grief for losing my father has eased substantially.
Everything that’s been going on sidetracked me, but being here has healed some of the broken parts of me.
On Saturday afternoon, Maureen holds a wine tasting with a few friends.
We slip away the moment Maureen is distracted. Knox takes my hand, and we escape before anyone notices.
He pulls me toward the quiet stretch of river behind the vineyard. Dusk slides over the water in a soft shimmer, and the hush between us tightens with anticipation. It feels like the night itself is urging us to disappear into it and get lost in each other again.
We walk along the bank, and I stare at him, piecing him together.
He smiles back at me and cocks his head. “What? Still trying to figure me out, love?”
“Of course, I am.” I giggle.
He gives me a sidelong stare. “I assure you I’m not that interesting.”
“Sure, Knox Vale, Harvard and Princeton graduate, renowned linebacker for the Harvard football team, and one of the youngest billionaires on the Forbes list.” I raise my brows. “No, those aren’t interesting at all.”
He chuckles deep. “Since you seem impressed, maybe we should leave it at that.”
“I’m not taking that for an answer. Those are all details I Googled. I want to know stuff you can’t look up on the net.”
He looks me up and down, then seems to decide to loosen up. “Okay. Let’s play.”
“Play? I’m never playing a game with you again, Mr. I swear you only made me play that game because you knew I’d lose.”
“Of course, I knew you’d lose.”
My mouth falls open. “Ugh. I knew it. You’re such an asshole.”
He whirls to face me and taps his heart. “But I’m your asshole.”
He says that so easily, like he really belongs to me. More and more, I find myself wishing it.
“How about we just talk, and you can tell me about yourself without playing a game?”
Knox places a finger to his temple, pretending to think. “That’s way too boring. But I’ll meet you halfway.”
“What does that mean?” It sounds like another trick.
“I’ll answer your questions, but you have to answer my questions, too.”
Sounds simple enough. “That’s it?”
“That’s it. Fire away, love.”
There’s so much I want to ask him, but I think of the little things first. “The whole love thing.”
“Love thing?”
“You know what I’m talking about. You call me love, and you say things like knackered, bollocks, wanker, gutted, and old nan—which I assume is some British slang you use in your family. You lived in England, didn’t you?”
He smiles as if remembering fond memories. “Yes. I did. My brothers and I lived with my grandparents for three years from when I was twelve. We called my great-grandmother old nan. Although, nan is usually your mother’s mother.”
I love that he’s speaking so freely. “That’s really cool. Did you enjoy living in England?”
“I did. It was different. Freeing, I suppose.”
I’m intrigued he actually lived in England for so long, but I find it strange that he’d need to live with his grandparents when he had parents.
If memory serves me right, I believe they got divorced when Knox was twelve.
The divorce isn’t strange. What’s odd is that Knox and his brothers lived away from his parents for so long. It makes me wonder about his mother again.
Where was she in the picture?
“You’ve been to England, too,” he adds. It’s not a question. He knows. He must have gotten that intel from my files.
“I did. For college. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I got to work with a number of notable artists.”
“Now, that sounds cool.”
“Thanks. Over the years, I wanted to return, but something always came up.”
“How about we go together? I’m due a visit.”
“Really?” Excitement bubbles within me.
“Of course.”
“I’d love that.”
“Then we’ll do it.” He smiles with a twinkle in his eyes. “Any more questions?”
“Of course.”
“Fire away.”
“Football. Did you ever want to play pro? All the articles online raved about you. Sounded like the Monster was really good.”
He chuckles quietly. “Feels like another life that happened a lifetime ago. But yes, I was good, and I wanted to play pro. It was never going to happen, though, because I’m the eldest Vale son.
It was my duty to take over from my father.
Basically, I trained to be him.” Sadness creeps into his voice. It tugs on my heart.
“Couldn’t something have been arranged?”
“No. That’s not how it works. It’s part of the inheritance stipulations my great- great-grandfather left behind.
I knew how important it was to follow in my father’s footsteps.
Especially to him. So, I decided I’d take football as far as I could then leave when I was supposed to leave.
I was lucky. I got fifteen years out of it. ”
“You’re so good at being Knox Vale of Vale Global, no one would ever know you wanted to do anything else.”
“I guess I create a good illusion, love.”
“Do you ever…play? I mean, just to touch base.”
“Every month, I get together with my old teammates from college and we play.” He smiles wistfully. “Some of them are in the NFL, so they play a mean game. It’s amazing. We also run a summer camp for high school kids during the last week of the summer.”
That lifts my spirits. “That sounds like fun.”
“It is. And I guess it’s something. It feels like I didn’t completely let go.” He nods and runs a hand through his hair. “My turn to ask questions.”
“Fire away,” I borrow his words.
“Chad. You know you could have always done better than him. Right? Why didn’t you?”
I practically opened myself for that sort of question. “Maybe I didn’t know that I could do better.”
“So, you agree?”
I smirk. “I agree. But I wouldn’t have thought so at the time.
” I pause for a breath to reflect on how I was all those years ago.
I guess I was little more than a robot. “We’d always known each other, and it felt like we were just supposed to be together.
I’d never been with anyone else until we broke up. ”
“Would you have married him had you not broken up?”
There’s that question again. “I don’t know. Sometimes I think the answer is no, but I’m biased because of everything that’s happened. At other times, I think I would have because I didn’t know any different.”
It’s strange talking to Knox so openly about Chad. Stranger that he’s allowing me to. Then again, he was the one who asked the question.
“Do you still love him?”
“Not as a boyfriend. Just as an old friend.” I glance up at him, realizing he’s trying to see through me. Maybe checking if I’m lying. “Thanks for not rubbing our breakup in my face.”
“You don’t have to thank me for that. What he did was low down dirty. But it doesn’t surprise me.”
I give him a thin stare. “Are you saying that because you don’t like him?”
“Yes and no.” His boots grind against the pebbles on the path, like he’s stomping on Chad.
“Guys like him don’t appreciate good things when they have them.
They wait until they lose it, then they try to save it.
But it’s always too late, and you can never guarantee that they won’t do the same things again. You can’t trust someone like that.”
Well said. “I agree. He thinks I’m just being difficult and that it’s as simple as forgiveness. It’s not.”
“I know, love. I know.” He sounds like he really does know the inner workings of my emotions. Maybe he does.
“How do you know?”
“I told you. You grew up. You became a woman and left the boy behind. That’s why he’s been friend-zoned.”
“I think you’re right. Friends is all we’ll ever be. Maybe not even that one day. It’s sad, I suppose. He was one of the first people to support my artwork.”
“He was good for something, then.”
I roll my eyes at him. “He wasn’t all bad.”
“Please don’t tell me he encouraged you to work in that rundown theatre. By the way, I noticed you’re still on the books even though I told you to quit.”
“Chad didn’t encourage me to work there.” I frown, cutting him a hard stare. “And I can’t just quit. It’s good to keep something going for my resume, so I’ll stay until I find something else. I also like working.”
“I understand the resume part, but not the working in a dump part. I gave you a card with a hundred grand spending limit, and you haven’t spent a cent.” He tugs on the inside of his lip and tightens his grip on my hand.
“I don’t plan to spend any of that money.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s yours and… it doesn’t feel right.”
He cocks his head, giving me a once-over. “What’s mine is yours, love.”
I’m in awe at his words, but spending his money will never sit right with me. “That still doesn’t make it right.”
“Because of your father?” He holds my gaze.
“Yes.” I blow out a ragged breath.