Chapter Twenty-Four
MILES
PRESENT
I walk through the doors of The Sugared Plum, and the first thing I see is Vanessa’s smile. “ Buongiorno Miles! Come stai? ”
“Bene, grazie,” I respond with a smile. And if she is surprised I can answer a basic question in Italian, she doesn’t show it.
I ended up learning more than the basics while I was living in Sorrento that summer.
I spent hours with Marina learning anything she was willing to teach me, though I’ve forgotten most of it now.
“Black no sugar?” she asks, knowing my order now that I’ve been here a few times. It makes me wonder how many locals’ orders she has living in her head.
“Yes, please. And a lemon tart if you have one, I need something to sustain me today.”
Vanessa yells something in Italian into the kitchen behind her that I don’t catch before her attention is back on me. “Well, a lemon tart will do exactly that. Are you going to get your girl back?” she asks, her voice dropping to a whisper.
The idea that I can somehow win Marina back in the next few days is a fairytale dream.
She doesn’t want to hear what I have to say, she made that very clear that day in the water.
And if I can't explain things to her, if I can’t get close enough to show her my intentions, I don't know what is left except some grand gesture to tell her just how much I love her, and what a colossal mistake I made leaving all of those years ago.
But I feel like that would do more harm than good.
Winning back Marina’s trust is going to be a slow burn, and I don't have that much time, not right now, not when I'm due back at work in a few days. If I weren’t captain, I would simply extend my leave.
I've got enough of it. But I just got this promotion. I can’t disappear as soon as I get the job, that's not fair.
Instead, I've been looking at my calendar, trying to determine how long an appropriate time is before I can be back on a plane into Ruby Cove.
I chuckle, not knowing how to sum that up to Vanessa. “No, I’m actually going to do some boxing. I’m hoping to get into a tournament the day after tomorrow, but it might be a bit late notice.”
“A boxing tournament?” She places my coffee in front of me. “Isn’t that dangerous, bambino ?”
“It can be,” I nod. “But I’ve been fighting for years. I’ll be fine.”
She gives me a look that says I’ve done a poor job of convincing her.
“After the tournament, I’ll be heading home, well, back to the States.”
Her face drops. “Oh no! Well, you come and see me before you go, okay? I’ll give you a little something for the road.”
A smile breaks out on my face. “ Grazie .”
At that moment, a head of dark curls comes bounding out of the kitchen.
“Here, Ma, I—” Marina stops in her tracks, staring at me.
I can’t pinpoint the look in her eyes. The same way I couldn’t read her when she asked me about the tournament at Isla and Caio’s.
She seemed worried for a second there, but then it was gone. “What are you doing here?”
She talks as if it’s suspicious that I’m here getting food and drink at the most popular place in town. I hold up my takeaway cup. “Getting a coffee.”
“You two know each other?” Vanessa asks, her gaze flicking between us like she’s watching a tennis match. She must catch onto the energy between us because the look in her eyes changes. “ Oddio , is your girl my girl?” she asks me.
“What?” I look between them, and I can’t ignore the similarities. The curls paired with tan skin, the bright smile, and warm energy.
“Ma, this is Miles, Isla’s brother. Miles, this is my mom.” I watch Vanessa’s face as she puts the puzzle pieces together just as I am.
I sat here talking about how I hurt someone, someone I was trying to win back. Vanessa told me that everyone deserves a second chance. I wonder if her answer would’ve been different if she knew that we were talking about her own daughter.
“And I’m assuming this is your lemon tart.” Marina drops a brown paper bag on the counter that separates me from the two of them.
“Yeah, uh…thanks. I better get going, thanks, Vanessa.” I can count on my left hand the amount of times I’ve escaped a building so quickly.
It’s lucky I'm going home after the tournament, because the list of places I need to avoid to keep on my side of the boundary line is getting longer with each passing day.
I take a breath when I step out into the fresh air, inhaling the smell of salt on the breeze.
“Well, don’t you look like you’ve seen a ghost?” Leo’s voice calls from where he’s sitting on the stone wall across the street. He looks the most casual I’ve ever seen him in a lightweight T-shirt and basketball shorts.
He stands up, walking over to meet me. I look back to the bakery. “Yeah, um,” I shake my head. “Never mind.”
Leo just chuckles like he knows something I don’t. “Luna’s gym is just around the corner. I asked her about this Boulder guy when I saw her at the market yesterday and she said he’d be around today.”
“Perfect. I’m not feeling too optimistic that I’ll be able to get in, it’s only two days away.”
“And in Sorrento,” he says.
That piques my attention. “Oh really?”
“Yeah, they’ve got a big gym there that can host all of the audience.”
Makes sense. “Well, that makes it easier for me, it’s on my way to Rome.”
A small frown pulls his dark brows together. “Where have you been staying, anyway?”
“The Lost and Found.”
“Oh, have you been to Scrabble night yet?” he asks.
“Nah, not yet.”
“Oh, you have to go. It’s insane. You think it’ll be this lame night with a bunch of old ladies,” he shakes his head. “But you will get your ass handed to you on a silver spoon, at least I did.”
I chuckle. “You were staying there?”
“I only just moved out, you’ve probably got my old room.”
“Top floor, blue and yellow stained window?” I ask.
“Pale blue quilt that is softer than heaven?”
“That’s the one,” I laugh. “Why were you staying there? Don’t you have a place here?”
He runs a hand through his dark hair as we turn a corner.
“No, actually my parents had a place here when I was a kid, and when they moved away, they passed it down to me so I’d have a place to stay.
But when I eventually moved away to Sorrento to start my business, I sold it.
So The Lost and Found has been home for the last nine months. ”
“Wow,” I say. “That’s a lot of Scrabble nights.”
He chuckles a laugh. “Oh yeah, it’s like a secret weapon how good I am at Scrabble now.”
I smile. “How come you moved back? ”
He stops in front of a dark brick building, opening the door for me to walk in first, as if prolonging his decision of whether he wants to say something or not.
When I walk in, I see the boxing ring that takes up the majority of the space, with other gym equipment dotted around the floor. Machines that I don’t use and don’t know how to.
“I had a kind of thing happen at work,” he says vaguely, his eyes focused on nothing at all. “And it, uh…just made me second-guess if that was the best thing I could be doing for myself right now. So I came home to kind of figure that out, I guess.”
“Like an incident?” I pry carefully as we move further into the space.
He fiddles with the hem of his shirt. “Yeah, I guess you could call it that.”
“Right,” I nod, not wanting to poke any further into his business. “So where are you staying now?”
That vacant look in his eyes disappears as he says, “Rafael’s old place. Now that he and May are shacked up in her cottage, it left his place vacant for a squatter like me to move in.”
“That must be a step up from thin walls and creaky floorboards at the B&B.”
He raises his brows. “Having an entire kitchen to myself is a luxury I had forgotten existed. I do miss that quilt though.”
“I’m sure we could ask Donna to make you one for your place,” I say.
He turns to face me. “She makes those?”
“Yeah.”
“No shit. There is nothing that woman can’t do,” he says with wonder in his eyes.
“Well, I heard she’s single if you’re that enraptured by her.”
He throws a light punch to my shoulder with a laugh. “Nah, I’ve got my sights set elsewhere.”
All of me wants to ask where, or more like who, but I don’t. Instead, my eyes fix on the small woman walking towards us. “Leo, hey. ”
“ Ciao Luna, this is Miles, the guy I was telling you about.”
“Right,” she nods, her short hair falling in front of her eyes. “Nice to meet you, Miles.” She flicks it out of her way before shaking my hand.
“Hi.”
“You guys want to meet Boulder, right?” Leo and I exchange a look that must look like a yes to her because she yells across the gym in Italian, and not a second later, a hulk of a man is striding across the gym towards us.
His head is shaved, and he’s got muscles the size of an entire continent, making it look like it’s hard for him to simply get over here.
Leo and I exchange a glance, and the look in his eyes tells me he’s never met this giant before either.
“I’m Boulder,” he says as a way of greeting. Very fitting.
Leo puts his hand out in a gesture. “Hey Boulder, I’m Pebble.” I can’t contain the snort that escapes me as Boulder looks down at Leo’s outstretched hand and swallows it up with his own enormous one in a handshake. “We heard you’re holding a tournament this weekend.”
“You heard right.”
I speak up, interrupting the two of them who are still locked in an awkwardly long handshake. “I was wondering if you’ve got space for one more.”
“I’ve got space,” is all he says. “You got a way to get to the city by tomorrow?” I just nod, I’ve got my truck. “Then you’re in.” He finally lets go of Leo’s hand.
That was oddly easy. He’s not even going to ask anything about my skill level? He’s just going to throw me in?
“Will he be fighting you?” Leo asks, attempting to shake his hand out subtly.
“Well, that depends on if he makes it past the first round, Pebble .”
Leo’s eyes narrow as he looks Boulder up and down, surveying him and his huge muscles. He gives me one sideways glance before saying, “We’re in.”
“We?” I ask, as Boulder gives a terse nod before walking away.
“Well, you’re gonna need a cornerman.”