Chapter Fourteen
Max
The next morning, when we woke up, it was to an alarm Ben had set before we finally went to sleep.
Luca grumbled as he squinted at my brother accusingly. “I don’t know why we got to be up at this hour.”
“Because we have an appointment to go to before the airport,” Ben explained again while I walked to the bathroom.
I tuned them out as I made myself ready for the day. I felt… light. Excited to go back home. New York had been easier than we’d thought, at least so far, but I was pretty sure being at home would feel like true peace again.
We took turns in getting ourselves presentable and the packing went quickly as well. Since we were up at the proper time, we took our stuff into the baggage room, and then went to have breakfast in the restaurant.
Luca was still full, he’d keep until the plane or even until home, but he liked to watch us eat our fill while he enjoyed some coffee. There were people around us, but we could concentrate on the food and talking amongst ourselves to keep from becoming overwhelmed.
Forty minutes later, we were in the Audi again, this time heading toward Luca’s surprise.
“So, when are you telling me where we’re going?” he asked, glaring at us playfully.
“In about… ten minutes,” Ben said loud enough for the driver to hear.
“Eleven minutes,” the man called back. I saw his profile and could tell he was grinning.
Luca turned his big brown eyes to me. “Maaaaax,” he whined, batting his long lashes. “I wanna know.”
Grinning, I shook my head. “I’m not going to spoil the surprise. It’s been a while in the making, so….”
Then I glanced at Ben, and I could see his expression tightening a bit. We had some concerns.
“Here’s the thing,” I said quietly, taking Luca’s hands in mine. “This might also be a bit tricky. Like… not completely positive at least at first, okay? So just keep that in mind.”
He frowned at me, then looked at Ben. “Okay…?”
“We have the best intentions, baby.”
Luca took a deep breath, then released it. Then he smiled ever so slightly and said, “I trust you.”
“That’s all we ask,” I replied for both of us.
When we finally stopped by the curb of our destination and Ben got out first, then held a hand out for Luca, I held my breath a little.
“Can you wait for a second, just in case he wants to leave?” I asked the driver quietly.
“Of course.”
By the time I had slid across the seat to join them, Luca stood there in front of the guitar store, looking stunned.
I stayed close to the car while I gauged the situation.
“We okay?” I asked, and Luca quickly nodded. I tapped the roof of the Audi so the driver knew he could go.
Ben took Luca’s hand. “I assume you’ve been here before.”
“I have. Just not in a while. I… this is where I bought Dolly.” Tears were streaming down his face.
“I remembered reading that in an article back in the day,” I confessed. “I thought maybe you needed a little push. We can just go look. You don’t have to buy anything, or if you do, we can just take the guitar home for when you’re ready, okay?”
Luca turned to me and grabbed the front of my jacket, then kissed me there in the view of anyone walking past. Someone whistled, but that was it. Nobody expected Luca to be here. There were no paparazzi or fans. Hell, with his shaved head and hood up, Luca could’ve been anyone.
When he let me go, I held out my hand and we went inside.
Bonetti’s was an institution, I’d learned. The man who founded it in the thirties had been the grandfather of the current owner. They made top notch acoustic guitars there, and it was a rite of passage for new, especially local, artists to get a guitar there.
But they also made specialty guitars. And that’s why we were here, even though Luca didn’t know it yet.
“Ah, Mr. Moretti!” the clerk exclaimed as soon as he came out from the back.
Luca chuckled. “Please, call me Luca. You’ve done that before, Primo.”
The two of them clasped hands and did the half hug thing.
Primo, a human in his forties, clapped his shoulder as they let go. “I’m glad to see you looking so good, Luca. The press conference was…” He used the chef’s kiss gesture, which felt different coming from an Italian.
“I tried.” Luca grinned. “So, my partners planned this, I don’t know what’s going on.”
Primo looked at us and smiled. “Yes. Welcome. Ben and Max, right?”
We shook his hand too. “Yes, that’s us,” Ben said. “Thank you for having us.”
“Of course! My grandpa, bless his soul, sold Luca his previous guitar.”
Luca grimaced. “Right. I…. There might’ve been an incident which Dolly didn’t survive when everything went down with the band.”
Primo put a hand on his arm and squeezed in sympathy. “I’m so sorry for the loss of your friend. When going through something like that, it’s not unusual to feel destructive.” He smiled. “You’re far from the first person who has lost a guitar made by us that way.”
Luca made a theatrical gesture of wiping his forehead and said, “Phew….”
We chuckled, and Primo gestured at the shop that was filled with acoustic guitars that mostly looked the same to me but probably weren’t.
“There are many to choose from, if you would like to take a look. But there’s one special one I talked to Max about in our emails.” He glanced at me, then grinned when Luca shot me an accusing look.
“You’re been conspiring behind my back?” Again with the dramatic, playfulness delivered with a gasp. I loved to see him like this. At least he wasn’t upset that we’d held a secret from and sprung this on him.
I held my thumb and forefinger an inch apart, then closed the gap some more. “A little bit.”
He rolled his eyes, then turned to Primo. “Is there even a reason for me to look at anything else but the special one?”
Primo shrugged, grinning. “In my opinion? No.”
Luca whirled to me. “Goddammit, Max.” He was smiling, so I knew he wasn’t actually upset. He turned back to Primo. “Show me.”
We tagged along the two of them as Primo took us to a room in the back.
“Please, take a seat,” he said to Ben and I, gesturing at the couches.
Luca took a seat on a stool with some space around it.
I sat on a loveseat and Ben plopped down next to me.
Primo excused himself to go get the guitar, while Luca smiled at the photos on the wall. There were bands and musicians smiling with guitars bought from here. Then he pointed at one near the wall opposite us.
I got to my feet and went to look. Luca when he was maybe nineteen, holding a brand new guitar. He was beaming in a way that told me everything I needed to know. He’d signed the photo and added a tiny smiley face in the corner. Gods, I loved him.
I went back to sit with Ben, knowing he’d take a look at the picture once he got up.
Primo came in with a guitar case. “So, this one is, like I’ve said, special. I made it myself, finished around New Year’s.” He spoke about things I couldn’t understand as he opened the case and handed over the guitar to Luca, who took it, looking almost reverent.
Luca placed the instrument on his lap and caressed it so, so carefully. “What’s the catch?” he asked, glancing at Primo before ever touching the strings.
“Look at the back.”
Luca lifted it and tilted it away from himself, squinting at something.
“It’s made from The Tree,” Primo explained quietly, his smile almost a smirk as he waited for Luca’s reaction.
Luca gasped, his fingers twitching enough for the guitar to jostle before he caught it again. “No way?”
“Try it out. See how it sounds.” We heard the bell above the door and Primo excused himself.
“What’s the significance?” Ben asked when it was just the three of us.
Luca, still holding the guitar like the work of art it was, turned it carefully so we could see. There was a pattern on the shiny wood, but it looked as if it was natural, not man made.
“The Tree is this giant mahogany some loggers found in like the sixties. It was so big, they couldn’t even fell it at first. Anyway, there’s a whole story about it, you should definitely Google it.
But long story short, it’s unique. The pattern is from a genetic defect, or that’s the theory.
It’s considered the best tonewood in the world.
” He stroked his fingers over the pattern.
“You can get a decent acoustic guitar for a few hundred dollars. Something like this… well, I think it adds on at least two zeros, maybe a bit less since it’s not completely made out of it. ”
It blew my mind that an instrument could cost that much, but at the same time it made total sense.
Then he started to play, and even I could understand how special this was. There was a beauty in the sound I hadn’t expected. Like something… so resonant and pure that for some reason a song I knew—one of Kaiju’s hit ballads—made tears spring into my eyes.
Ben grabbed my hand and I could tell he was feeling the same.
Luca didn’t need to sing. It was as though the guitar was doing that for him.
When the song came to an end and the final notes faded, he lifted a hand to wipe his cheek, then gave us a watery little smile.
Primo stepped in the room, took one look at us all, and chuckled quietly. “I see you’ve found your new friend?”
Luca nodded. “Yeah. I….” He stopped to clear his throat and wiped his cheeks again. “I think I’ll call her Betty.”
Primo smiled. “Betty sounds good to me.”
He sat down to listen to Luca play for a while longer, then Luca glanced at the clock over the door. “We gotta get going, right?”
“We still have some time, but maybe we should get to the airport early, just in case?” Ben smiled.
“Right. Who knows how the traffic will be,” Luca agreed, and ever so carefully put Betty into the hard case that was also fancier than any I’d ever seen without being ostentatious.
Everything in the shop was high end, but there were also beginner guitars in the front. I wandered over while Luca went to the counter with Primo.
A young man, Primo’s nephew, we’d been told, was nearby putting some guitars back on the hook thingies on the wall.
“Do you have anything beginner friendly, but like… interesting looking?” It wasn’t as if I disliked the regular ones, they were just a bit boring.
He smiled and walked over to a wall behind me. “This one. It’s like five hundred bucks if that, you got to check with Uncle Primo, but I think it’s really nice.”
The instrument he picked up was green. I assumed it had been painted or whatever they would do to instruments like this. When he handed it over, I took it a bit awkwardly, but managed to strum the strings once while standing up, so it was a win.
I smiled. I’d always wanted to learn. I was pretty sure I’d had a tiny little kids’ guitar once, but our dad had stepped on it while high or something.
“Baby? If you want it and everything else you need, I’ll add it to my purchases,” Luca said behind me. He had a gentle expression on his handsome face.
I opened my mouth to object. Then closed it. Because what was a few hundred, even a thousand dollars to someone who could just buy an instrument like Betty.
“Okay.” I agreed.
Luca looked over at the kid. “Can you get him a simple hard case, a shoulder strap, and add a couple of guitar stands. Those foldable ones.”
“Of course, Mr. Moretti,” the kid said and gingerly took the cheaper guitar off my hands to go pack it up.
“I can teach you if you want,” Luca said, coming to embrace me. He kissed me softly. “Or I can figure out a good tutorial on YouTube or something.”
I grinned. “I think I’d like for you to teach me.”
“Deal.” He pecked my lips once more, then stepped back. “Let’s go get our guitars.”
We went to the counter where Primo and Ben were chatting about something car related.
I got my wallet out and took out fifty bucks. “Can I tip your nephew?”
Primo smiled. “Of course. That’s very kind of you.”
Ben gave me a smile that was warm and proud in a way that made me blush.
I’d always chased his acceptance more than our dad’s, which wasn’t surprising given what kind of men they were.
I’d also never had trouble feeling appreciated and accepted by my brother.
He was my other half in a way that made very little sense.
I glanced at Luca who was grabbing Betty’s case. Well, it made sense now. With Luca completing us. He wasn’t a third wheel, he was the glue to stick our halves together and make us whole.
As soon as we got off the plane, we saw Rian’s SUV.
Ben grabbed Luca’s bag and guitar case, and we watched as Luca sprinted to hug Rian.
“I keep forgetting they have a bond, too,” Ben murmured as we followed Luca a bit more sedately.
I made a noise in agreement. Especially if vampires stayed around each other after one turned the other, there was a bond between them that only kept getting stronger. It was, apparently, something almost familial.
Some vampires ended up lovers, others in friendships or living together as a family. Covens were still a thing, even though most vampires kind of disliked the old-timey word that made them sound like a weird gang—Rian’s words, not mine.
We gave Rian hugs, too, and then loaded up the SUV to go home.
Gods was I glad to see the familiar scenery. I felt like I’d been gone for a month and not a few days.
Luca sat in the front with Rian, and they chatted about everything that had happened on the trip and the press conference, while Ben and I chilled in the back.
I could sense the tension leaving both of us in a gradual flow.
I now knew we could do a major city if we wanted or needed to, but we were small town boys at heart.
And wolves. Couldn’t forget about that. I idly wondered what wolves living on Manhattan did on full moons. Did they run around in Central Park?
I snorted softly. Ben raised an eyebrow at me. I smiled but shook my head. He smiled back and took my hand, then turned back to look out the window.
When we finally stepped out of the SUV at the house, my knees wobbled.
The sounds and scents were home. That sense of safety that always enveloped me here rushed over me like a wave. My eyes watered, and then Luca and Ben were there, hugging me close.
“I know,” Ben murmured against the side of my head.
“I feel it too,” Luca concluded. “We’re home.”