Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Millie’s lashes fluttered closed. Kara closed the book, carefully removed herself from the bed, and tucked the girl in.
Nicholas had fallen asleep with his book still open on his lap.
Kara took the book from his hands, set it on the nightstand, then pulled his covers up as well.
She turned off the lights and closed the bedroom door.
She found Alessia and Dante helping Angelo’s parents in the kitchen putting away leftovers. Alessia offered a weary but grateful smile.
“Thanks for handling the kids. I was beat.”
“You’re welcome. They’re so sweet. It’s been a while since I’ve been around children.” She’d once babysat for a coworker at a retail shop in southern Maine. She’d loved those kids, and it had hurt to leave them.
Dante chuckled and handed Kara a glass of red wine. “Don’t tell them they’re sweet.” It was now close to 10 PM, so she didn’t mind having a drink if everyone else was. She gladly accepted the drink and sipped it.
“Why not?”
“It will go to their heads.” They went to the dining room table where Dante retrieved her new cell phone.
“I added everyone’s phone number into the contacts, even Jared’s and our other brothers Renzo and Faro.
” He pressed the phone into her palm. “Angelo is right at the top. I dropped off his cellphone at the hospital. He wants you to call him before you go to bed.”
“Thanks.” She glanced around everyone else. “Is everyone else going to bed?”
“Yes,” Francesca said. “We’ll get up around eight tomorrow morning. Sleep in as long as you want to.”
Kara left the dining room, clutching her phone, and headed up to the next floor where she poked her head into the first empty bedroom door. Her suitcase and backpack sat on the floor by the bed. She blew out a sigh of relief. She hadn’t known which room was Angelo’s, but this must be it.
The room had a massive California king bed with a dark cherry wood headboard that was both intimidating and strangely inviting at the same time.
The walls were painted moss green and oil paintings of Italian landscapes with rustic gold frames decorated the room.
It created a strange mixture of serenity and warmth inside her, like she was in the shade of a dark forest with magic windows that looked out on sun-soaked Italian hills and quaint village streets.
It reminded her of her favorite book, The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis. In that story, a boy fell into it enchanted woodland where there were hundreds of pools of water on the ground. If a person stepped into a pool they would travel to a different world.
This felt like a sacred space, a beautiful space, one that reflected what she was beginning to understand was the essence of Angelo.
“Angelo…” His name escaped her lips in a whisper. She felt the sudden intimacy of being in his bedroom in this space, even though he wasn’t here with her.
She looked at the white comforter and green sheets.
Flashes of his face as he entered the soup kitchen teased her mind.
This is where that Italian God slept, where he stretched out that lean, muscled body.
Did he sleep in boxers or briefs? Or…nothing?
Kara stifled a giggle. She never giggled.
Yet somehow in this room, she felt safe to just be herself, a person she forgot she could be.
A woman who could laugh, who could smile, who could giggle.
She placed a hand on the bedding. It was soft as a cloud. She’d never felt anything like it. Her lips curved up into a smile as she imagined sinking into the plush bedding to sleep.
“Goodbye lumpy mattress,” she said to herself with relief.
She studied the rest of the room. He had two cherrywood nightstands. One had a tower of mystery novels, and the other had a stack of cookbooks marked with sticky notes.
“A chef who does his homework,” she mused. She could imagine him sitting up in bed, studying the pages with a frown of concentration, tabbing important pages with brightly colored sticky notes. Again, she found herself smiling. How could Angelo have such an effect on her when he wasn’t even here?
There was a large dresser on one wall and a seventy-five-inch TV mounted above a short and wide bookshelf.
It too was filled with fiction. Her hands ached to pull half a dozen books off the shelf and sit on the floor to read them.
She loved reading, but she couldn’t risk getting a library card.
She moved around too much and had to keep her profile low and library cards would be one more thing to tie her to a place she’d have to flee.
Her current favorite was tucked away in her backpack.
It was an enemies to lovers romance, her favorite genre.
Kara noticed a door at the far end of Angelo’s bedroom, just past the bed.
Curious, she opened it and found a large walk-in closet.
Beyond it, a pocket door opened to a private master bathroom.
White and gray granite countertops accented the room and a huge glass shower filled the back wall, large enough to accommodate five or six people.
There were two sinks side-by-side and a large gold framed mirror dominated the wall above the counter.
She let out a dreamy sigh, wondering how it might feel to use the bathroom.
Wait. She could use the bathroom!
Kara rushed back to the bedroom to retrieve her bag of toiletries, then returned to the bathroom, eager to shower.
She stripped out of her clothes, carefully folding Alessia’s borrowed sweater and setting it on the counter.
As she bared her skin, she discovered smears of dried blood along her arms and her belly.
Angelo’s blood. It was still on her. Flashes of the fight in the alley came back and she had to control her breathing to stay calm.
It’s over. You’re safe. Angelo is okay.
She repeated the mantra over and over and then touched tender fingers to the faint bruises forming on her neck and face. Hopefully, they wouldn’t darken more.
Despite how cold it was outside, Angelo’s water got hot in less than a minute. She couldn’t stop the moan of pleasure she gave as she stepped beneath the large powerful shower head. It was heaven, pure heaven.
Pressing her face into the spray, she let the water wash away Angelo’s blood still on her skin. He was alive. He was okay. And she was in a hot shower with a full belly in a house full of people who had been incredibly kind to her.
All because of a lie she’d told to the ambulance driver. But she had no regrets.
Even after twenty minutes, the water was still hot against her skin.
She only left because her hands had started to turn pruny.
She dried off with a dark green bath towel and put on an oversized T-shirt with her favorite pair of boxers.
She padded barefoot back into Angelo’s bedroom and pulled back the sheets on his bed.
She was about to climb in and go to sleep when she remembered that Dante had said to call Angelo. She picked up the cell phone and climbed into bed, cuddling up in the softness of the pillows before she found Angelo’s number and hit the green call button.
“Hello?”
“Angelo?” Kara’s heart jolted at saying his name.
“Kara,” Angelo breathed. A shiver ran beneath her skin at the caressing sound of her name on his lips. “Are you all right?”
“Am I? You’re the one who one got stabbed. Are you okay?” She said this with a bit of annoyance. His concerned tone made her feel all warm and fuzzy, and that made her feel guilty. She wasn’t used to someone worrying about her. She was always fine. She had to be fine.
“Tesoro mio,” he sighed, but there was mirth in his weary voice.
“You said that before. What does it mean?”
“Tesoro mio?”
“Yeah, that.”
“It’s just an endearment,” said Angelo. “Like honey or dear. And to answer your question, I’m fine.”
“Good.” She needed him to be okay.
“Dante said he made you pack up everything and move in with me.”
A flash of panic made her vision blur. He must be thinking she was overstepping, that she was taking advantage of his generosity.
“Yeah, I’m so sorry… I didn’t mean for that. But your brother… he just sort of commanded me to do it.”
Angelo laughed. “He feels bad about that, but he was concerned for safety. Englewood is…” he didn’t finish that thought and she was glad. They both it was a rough place to live. “But Dante means well.”
“Well, the moment your parents are gone, I’ll move right back to my place.”
“Kara, I don’t have a girlfriend, and I’m not seeing anyone. There’s no reason for you to rush. Why don’t you stay until we stage our breakup? I don’t want you going back to that place, not after what Dante said it looked like.”
“But Angelo—”
“Just think of it like an extended vacation. And in the meantime, I can find you a better place for when this is all over. I know people.”
That seemed unlikely. Better places required background checks, security and fancy contracts. She had to stay under radar. The landlord of her current place asked no questions as long she paid her rent on time. But Kara couldn’t tell Angelo that.
“Did you have fun with my family today?” he asked.
“I did.” She smiled despite her worries. “You have a wonderful family.”
“I’m sorry I missed dinner, and not just for the company. I’ve had nothing but juice and pudding since I got here. But I’m glad you were there. My mother didn’t ruin my dishes, did she?”
“No,” Kara chuckled. “Your father kept her in line.” She’d seen his mother more than once try to re-heat the dishes, but Matteo had told her he could handle it and did all of the re-heating himself.
“She did heat up one of the sauces for one of the pasta dishes, but I tasted it before she served it, and it was fine.”
Angelo laughed, then she heard him curse under his breath.
“Are you okay?”