Chapter 8
JULES
“Are you shitting me?”
As usual, Cole gave me a disapproving glare. I assumed he took issue with my phrasing. Too bad for him.
“Riposo,” I said. “I didn’t think the police station would take a midday break.”
“Ree what?” Parker asked, frowning at the “Chiuso fino alle 15:00” sign on the door.
“Riposo,” I repeated. “Means rest. Like a siesta. But of the Italian variety.”
“Why was everything in town open?” Delaney asked.
Cole watched me like I was some sort of specimen he was attempting to make sense of. Good luck, buddy. My family and friends had been attempting to do that my whole life. I just didn’t fit neatly in any one box. And the older I got, the less I cared to.
But also… like he was fighting off a smile.
“It’s a pretty touristy town. My guess is the further away from the seaside you get, more and more businesses will be closed midday.”
“But the police station?” she asked, incredulous. “How does a police station close?”
I shrugged. “Welcome to Italia. Things are a bit different over here. But that’s the beauty of it.”
“Unless you need to file a police report to make an embassy appointment,” Parker said.
Cole remained silent. Calm. Collected. As if this turn of events didn’t bother him in the least. Or that he didn’t feel the same electric energy whenever our eyes met that I did.
Rude.
“So if we file after three o’clock, there’s no way”—Delaney planted her hands on her hips—“we’ll get an appointment tomorrow. The hotel said in their experience it was usually a forty-eight-hour wait. Unless we want to consider Milan or Rome instead of Florence.”
“Instead of traipsing all across Italy to get out of the country, why not just settle in and enjoy being here. I’m in no rush to get back.” Parker pulled Delaney in to him, draping his arm around her shoulders.
“You’re not? What about the Dennington house? I thought you were already behind schedule on that?”
“I am,” Parker said. “But there’s been another delay on the kitchen cabinets, so we’re waiting for them anyway. The guys can cover me for a few days. No big deal.” He looked at Cole. “Any chance you can hang out a few extra days? Or do you need to get back?”
This was a disaster. Of my own making, but still.
Cole smiled at me. Actually smiled. Never mind he was devastatingly handsome when he smiled, but it freaked me out. He was up to something. I could sense it.
“Actually, as luck would have it, I don’t go back to work until August. With my laptop, I’m good to go in the meantime.”
“There you go,” Parker said to Delaney. “No worries.”
I’d disagree. Vehemently.
“Part of the reason we came here,” Delaney said to me, “was for you to explore some of your family roots. Why don’t we do that in the meantime? Let’s go to that address your mom gave you. Like Parker said.” She squeezed his waist. “Might as well make the best of it.”
I was torn.
On one hand, having always been obsessed with our family’s genealogy, that’s exactly what I wanted to do.
Like Delaney said, it was the reason we came to this town specifically.
On the other hand, I had no money. And unlike Delaney, who had a fiancé here now, I would be mooching off the group which made it feel weird.
It was hard to relax without a phone or wallet.
And then there was Cole.
I couldn’t believe he was in my house. I bet it was the complete opposite of his apartment in Manhattan.
Everyone looked at me expectantly. If we were going to be here for a few days with the guys, I needed to be clear. “We’re keeping track of my expenses, and I will pay you back the second we’re back in the States,” I said to Delaney, willing her to understand.
“Deal,” she said, thankfully not arguing.
“And you”—I turned to Cole—“have to behave.”
He gazed dropped. To my mouth.
“Define behave,” he said, his voice much too low. My knees actually wobbled.
“Onward.” Delaney was in a better mood than I’d seen her since the incident.
I would be too if my gorgeous fiancé, who was actually a nice guy, had come to rescue me from one of the most beautiful countries on the planet.
Unfortunately for me, I got Mr. Stick Up His Ass who looked way too good for comfort.
At least, for my comfort. It had been way too long since I’d been laid, the vibrator he saw in my drawer not counting.
Of course, a vision of that flashed in my mind.
He’d looked at me after that revelation like he knew exactly what setting I used.
Not that he’d probably ever even seen one before.
If there was any man on earth least likely to know his way around sex toys, it was Cole.
Ignoring him, or trying to, I asked Parker to navigate us to the address.
“It’s so strange, not having a phone. So my mom said the last address we got from his cousin who’s into the genealogy stuff more than me is…
” I thought about it for a second, knowing it would come to me.
“Got it. Salita San Rocco, 3. I looked it up before we left and think it’s in this part of town. Seemed walkable.”
Delaney and I crowded on both sides of Parker’s phone trying to decipher the map since the address didn’t seem to be pulling up for him. A few minutes later, Cole’s voice interrupted our map study.
“Monterosso Al Mara is broken up into two main areas. Fegina is the beach area and Centro Storico, or old town, is where we are now. We’re better off heading into the residential area, that way.” He pointed. “I’m assuming. And asking a local.”
All three of us stared at him.
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“Cole does shit like this all the time. He knows everything.”
The hero worship was strong between all three of the guys and Cole. Honestly, I didn’t get what they saw in him.
On the other hand, it was a pretty random thing to know.
“Did you study the town on the plane or something?” I asked.
“Or something,” he said, maddeningly. “I pay attention to things.”
Was it my imagination, or did he use that low, sexy tone again?
“Do you ever give a straightforward answer?”
“Do you want to hunt down your ancestors or continue to interrogate me?”
“I wasn’t interr—”
“Okie dokie.” Delaney linked arms with me. “Let’s go this way and see if you can drum up enough Italian to ask a local for the address.”
After an accidental glance back, I wished I could take back the slip. He was smiling at me. The kind of smile a man made when he knew what you looked like naked.
My stomach did a traitorous swoop as Delaney whispered furiously beside me.
“Careful, Jules, or I’ll start to think you actually like him.”
“Like him?” That was too loud. “It’s just the opposite.”
“She who doth protest too much. Or whatever the quote is.”
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks. It’s from Hamlet,” I said as we slowed to accommodate for the ever-increasing uneven sidewalks.
Every block further from the sea changed the feel of the town.
It was obvious most tourists didn’t venture this way.
Less restaurants. More clothes hanging from the balconies. But just as much charm.
“Scusate.” That perfect Italian accent was from Cole. I whipped around to see him speaking to an older gentleman. “Mi potete dire dove si trova Salita San Rocco, 3?”
“Salite la collina per circa tre isolati e cercate Scusate. Cercate Vicolo degli Ulivi e girate a sinistra, quindi seguite i numeri civici.”
What the hell?
“Grazie mille.”
“What did you ask him?” If my tone was accusatory, it was because Cole was full of shit. Looked up a few phrases on the plane, my ass.
“For restaurant recommendations for tonight,” Cole said, obviously being facetious.
Try again.
“How did you ask for directions, and understand his response, in perfect Italian?”
“Who says I understood his response?”
I looked at Parker, exasperated.
“Don’t look at me. But I told you, he knows things.”
Oh my God. “Okay, Jon Snow,” I tried again with Cole. “Fess up.”
This time his smile was genuine.
“Game of Thrones fan?”
“Oh no,” Delaney groaned. “Please don’t.”
I repressed a smile. “You can say that.”
“Books or show?”
It was my turn to raise a brow. “I was an English major and teach writing for a living. What do you think?”
“Teach writing? I thought you were an author?”
“How about you two get to know each other later?” Parker interrupted. “Did you understand any of his directions?”
Cole looked as if he were contemplating some smart-ass, or maybe just smart, response. Instead, he pointed up the hill. “This way.”
How had he understood? It was one thing to learn a few phrases.
But it was another to actually understand a native Italian who wasn’t slowing down his response for a non-native speaker.
I’d started, and given up, on taking Italian lessons more than once over the years, and it was the interpreting that always got me.
Walking between Parker and Delaney, Cole was talking more animatedly than usual. I followed him, noticing everything. The self-assured stride. Head held high.
Very fine-looking ass.
How about you two get to know each other later?
I could admit the question had made my stomach do a little flip-flop. It meant there would be a later. Cole was staying tonight, and most likely a few nights, in Italy. And I wasn’t entirely disappointed by that fact. Even if I told myself, otherwise.