Chapter 3 #3
“Thanks. I was, too. I missed Mom deeply, but it was only then that I realized just how close she and Dad truly were. I always knew they loved each other. They had been childhood sweethearts. But I hadn’t understood how desperately they needed each other.
Losing her nearly destroyed my dad. After she died, he couldn’t return to Italy to visit our families there without her for almost four years.
” He gave her a small smile. “It was there, in Sicily, that they’d fallen in love, back when they were just teenagers.
He often told me that if he hadn’t had me to look out for, he didn’t know what he would have done. ”
He shook his head slowly. “As far as being a loner, I honestly don’t consider myself one.
I’m surrounded by too many people. I have two younger godbrothers, and I make it a point to play an active role in their lives.
I make myself available to them any time of day or night.
And I have a huge family in Italy that I enjoy spending time with, as well. ”
She nodded. “So, not exactly a loner. But you are a confirmed bachelor then?”
“Since I don’t plan to ever get serious about a woman, there’s no need to start something I have no intention of finishing.
That wouldn’t be fair to her. So, yeah, I guess you could say I’m a confirmed bachelor.
I’m selective about the company I keep, and I make sure that anyone I engage with understands my position on matters of the heart. ”
Marti took the time to mull over everything he had said, before asking, “So, you’ve never been in love?”
“No. Falling in love is great for some people, but not for me. But what about you, Marti? You said you prefer non-committed relationships. But have you ever been in love?”
She needed a moment to think about what she was going to say, so she sprawled out on the towel, too, lying on her back to stare up into the sky. That way, she wouldn’t have to look at him when she answered. “Yes. When I was twenty-four, I was madly in love with a guy.”
“And?” he prompted when she went quiet.
Of course, he would want to know more, she thought. Glancing over at him, what she saw in the dark depths of his gaze nearly took her breath away. It wasn’t anything sexual. Instead, she saw inquisitiveness. But then she also saw an even higher level of strength, protectiveness, and reliability.
She shouldn’t be surprised. After all, he had rescued her from the ocean so many years ago, and the notorious Edgar just today.
But as she stared further, she saw something else in his gaze.
Something she hadn’t seen in a man’s eyes in a long time, if ever.
Emotional maturity. He was a man who intelligently played the cards he was dealt.
“And he betrayed me in the worst possible way,” she finally said softly. “For that reason, I will never give my heart to another man.”
She would leave it at that, knowing he’d probably assume another woman was involved.
That would be a logical assumption, but one way off the mark.
“I’ve stayed out here long enough. Definitely longer than I had planned,” she said.
She didn’t want Dante making any further inquiries into her personal life.
They had shared enough information for now.
Marti eased to her feet, and he did so as well. “Thanks for coming to my rescue, Dante. For the second time.”
Her breath hitched when his lips curled into a smile. “I’ll take an encounter with Edgar over having to save you from drowning any day. That was a nightmare I don’t want to ever relive.”
She nodded as she put on her hat. Neither did she. “Was it hard for you to go back into the water after that day, the way it was for me?”
He shrugged. “It might have been, only Dad wouldn’t allow it.
He told me that if I let fear consume me, I’d be ruining my life.
So, I went back into the water, with Dad beside me, in the beginning.
And I returned here every summer with Dad, even after I left for college.
However, this is the first time I’ve come back here since I lost him. ”
And she hadn’t returned to this beach until a few days ago, Marti thought. Fear had been the reason she hadn’t wanted to come back to Wild Rose Point, and it was fear of a different source that had driven her back.
“Dad made this place special for me,” Dante said, penetrating her thoughts.
“Knowing the summers were mine to enjoy here made me look forward to working hard during the school year and while attending Harvard. Although we would split our time between here and Italy, Wild Rose Point became my stable summer place.”
She never had what she considered a stable summer place. Her parents liked to travel, and each summer they would haul her and Kara to different destinations for sightseeing and, as her mother would say, ‘cultural enrichment’. She began to think fondly of those trips as adventures.
“Got plans for dinner?” he asked, once again cutting into her reverie.
She glanced over at him and saw that, as she’d been gathering up her water mug, the book she never started reading, and the rest of her snacks to put into her tote bag, he had folded up the beach towel. “No, I haven’t made any plans. Why?”
“I plan to grill tonight and want to invite you over,” he said. “Will you come?”
Did she dare? “That sounds wonderful. Yes, I’ll come.”