Chapter Thirty-Two
MILES
PRESENT
Friends. I can do friends. At least for now. If that’s what it takes to earn Marina’s trust then that’s what I’ll do, nothing is more important to me than her in this moment.
It’s been over two weeks since her beautiful lips touched mine, since she told me she wants to be friends. In those weeks, I have barely seen her, but I’m trying to be relaxed about this.
She’s probably busy getting back to her work at the bar, and I’ve been busy working out what my day-to-day looks like here.
So far it’s worked out to be Scrabble and movie nights with the ladies at the B&B—and getting schooled the entire time.
Lots of walks along Main, and spending time with my sister.
Then I have physical therapy twice a week to help with the recovery after surgery, which has been going as smoothly as it can so far.
Today, Isla and I are headed to Luna’s gym so I can sign up for a membership. I know— says the guy in the sling . But the lower half of my body works just fine, and I can’t go six weeks without some kind of exercise. I’m going stir crazy already.
Before Isla came to Italy, we barely spent any time together. I was busy flying around the world, and she was at home in college. Our paths barely ever connected, most of that is my fault.
Coming home wasn’t something I wanted to do too often.
I didn’t want to come home to be coddled and congratulated and shown off by our parents.
Coming home is supposed to be a relaxing time, but it was never that for me, I always left feeling more exhausted.
So as the years went on I went home less and less, until I never went at all.
But now I have the quality time to spend with my sister.
I spent the day after they got back from their honeymoon watching her paint in her studio, talking until the sun went down about what we missed in each other's lives over those years. She’s got a lot more to share than I do, considering my life has consisted of flying and sleeping for the last four years.
She’s asked about Marina, and all I could say is that what I did to her was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.
Isla was just as confused as everyone else when I called her from the hospital and told her I was going to stay and recover here after my surgery.
But when I told her all I wanted to do was earn Marina’s trust back, her voice softened with understanding.
I’ve gotten to know Caio too, spending time with him and Isla at their apartment. I’m surprised the guy is so warm to me considering I broke his cousin’s heart, but I think that’s just the kind of guy he is, willing to give everyone the benefit of the doubt.
It feels nice, connecting with them, feeling like they’ve brought me into their little family.
I know Isla is my family, but it feels like these people are closer to her than I have been for a long time.
I want to change that. This time away from work for me is about fixing my mistakes and mending the relationships I’ve broken.
We walk into Luna’s and her eyes catch on me immediately. “ Oddio , Miles.”
“I’m fine,” I say as she walks over to us, her eyes surveying my injuries from head to toe. The bruising on my face is getting better by the day—well, less purple, more green and yellow .
“I was there that night, and oh my god.” She just looks at Isla, grabbing her hand.
“He gave us all a good scare, didn’t you?” she says, her eyebrows shooting to her hairline. She’ll never let me forget that she told me to bow out, and will never stop telling me that I should’ve listened.
“Well, what are you doing here?” Luna asks.
“He’s come to sign up for a membership,” Isla replies, that same outlandish tone in her voice.
“ Cosa? ” Luna gives me a ridiculous look.
“My legs are fine!” I kick them out in front of me. “See? I need to exercise somehow.”
Luna just shakes her head before grabbing me a form to fill out. I go slow, writing as neat as I possibly can using my left hand.
“This place used to be my father’s, you know?” she says. “That’s why some of the equipment is a bit older than what you might be used to, but it works just as well.”
“I don’t doubt it,” I say. She’s right, the equipment is old, but it’s been kept well, this looks like somewhere I could spend some of my extra time over the next month.
“Have you always liked to exercise?” Isla asks. “Or did you get dragged into it by your father?”
Luna just smiles. “He used to be a bodybuilder back in his prime. I was always so amazed by how strong he was. I used to ask him why girls couldn’t be strong like him, and he just told me that they can, that I could be one day.
I don’t think a day passed since then that I wasn’t working towards being strong like he was.
Not that I want or ever wanted to be a bodybuilder, just strong enough to pick up a man and throw him across the gym. ”
“Have you got there yet?” The glint in Luna’s eye is the only answer necessary.
“Here we go,” I say, handing the forms back to her.
Alright, bucko, you’re good to go. But I swear to everything that is holy if I see you so much as pick up a dumbbell while you’re still healing, you’re done. ”
Isla just smirks from beside me, glad to have someone else on her side.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Well, she was nice,” Isla says, her tone as if she’s won a competition.
I look over to where she’s walking beside me, chuckling. “She was.”
“I’m glad there’s someone else looking out for you.”
“There’s plenty of people looking out for me Isla. In fact, Leo told me if I went to the gym without him, that he wouldn’t share his Scrabble techniques with me, and then there’s Marina…”
Isla stops dead in her tracks, leaving me to do a one-eighty when I realize she’s not walking next to me anymore. “Look, I really don’t want to know things that a sister doesn’t need to know, and you don’t have to talk to me about this if you don’t want to, but do you want to talk about Marina?”
A small smile creeps up my face. I know she’s probably been holding in asking since the day she found out about the two of us and our past.
I nod my head across the road to where the rock wall separates Main Street from the turquoise ocean.
Isla doesn’t hesitate before crossing the road and swinging her legs over the edge of the wall. I mirror her actions, leaving us sitting exactly how we did six months ago on my first visit to Ruby Cove.
“Talk to me. I want to understand what happened.”
I look over to see the stern, but caring look on Isla’s face, and all it does is swell my heart with pride.
My baby sister’s confidence has tripled in the time she’s been with Caio.
I don’t chalk it up to only him, but something about him has made my sister feel safe enough that she can feel this confident.
I love it, even if she’s using said confidence to delicately interrogate me. I start at the beginning.
“About three years after I left aviation school my captain told me he wanted me to take some time off. He felt like I was overworking myself, and looking back on it, I probably was. But I was trying so hard to prove myself, I wanted to be classed as the best of the best. I wanted to be one of the people that was known in the company, and when he asked me to take a step back it felt like a punch to the gut, like what I was doing wasn’t working, but I had no choice.
So I decided to take the break in Sorrento, if I had to be off, I may as well spend it in paradise, right?
” I look to Isla to see her smiling a little smile at me, waiting for the shoe to drop.
“I went down to this bar one night, I picked it randomly, and as soon as I went in I saw her. I was done for as soon as she smiled at me.” I shake my head.
“I spent that summer falling in love. You know me,” I say.
“I never lost focus in school, I never had a high school sweetheart, I was too focused on my grades. But I never had a chance with Marina. Never had a chance to second-guess it. I was so swept up in her from the beginning. I had been off work for over a month, just waiting to hear back from my boss about when I could go back, and when I finally did it was like I had forgotten all about it.” I dangle my feet just above the water, focusing on the splashes of seawater against my legs as I tell my sister everything.
“It was like some sick reality shock. They told me they wanted me to step up, that the company needed someone like me, and that they had given me the break so I could have some time before I was going to be flying around the world every single day, piloting on some of the biggest planes on the biggest flights. And it was like all of a sudden I remembered who I was, what I was doing there. They had just told me everything I wanted to hear, but at the same time all I could think about was Marina. I contemplated whether to even go back, or whether to stay with her in Italy. But who would I have been if I had stayed? I’m a pilot, that’s who I am.
I had worked so hard for what I had, how could I give it all up for someone I had just met?
I felt like being a pilot was all I was worth, it was all I was worried about. What would I be if I wasn’t a pilot?”
Isla grabs my hand in hers. “You would still be you. You are more than your job title, Miles, no matter what our parents think,” she eyes me like she understood what I didn’t say.
“You are kind and generous. You’re funny and loving.
You’re an amazing brother, and I’m so glad you’re here now.
You are enough as you are. Someone once told me that love shouldn’t be conditional on how successful you are. ”
I tilt my head. “Caio?”
She nods. “At the time, I was so worried about being a disappointment because I wasn’t successful like you were.”
“What?”