29. Leo
Leo
Two Hours Earlier
Watching the car pull away from the villa, it was all I could do to contain the tears until they were out of sight. But the moment the car dipped beyond the next hill, they were flowing, hot and angry down my cheeks.
I barely made it inside before my legs gave out completely.
I sank onto the bottom step of the staircase, my whole body shaking with sobs that I couldn’t seem to contain.
Three days. Three days of pretending everything was fine, of smiling through meals, of watching Alex look at me like I was a stranger.
And now the man I’d fallen in love with was gone.
The worst part was knowing that I’d done this to myself.
I’d bought this villa, I’d invited him here, I’d let myself believe that maybe, just maybe, something could work between us.
That it all hadn’t been just some strange mistake in the dark during the storm.
And then I’d allowed him to sacrifice it all for his comfort.
But that’s who I was, right? I was Leo, the guy that always tried to make everyone else happy. Forget about my happiness or feelings. They didn’t matter anyway. They never did.
I pulled myself up after a few minutes, my face blotchy and wet. The house felt enormous around me, every room suddenly full of echoes and emptiness. I made my way to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of wine, then another. By the time I’d finished the second glass, the sun was high in the sky.
Outside I heard a pair of tires pull up to the villa, crunching in the gravel. For one brief moment my heart soared. He’d come back for me. Alex had finally grown a pair and came back.
But when I glanced out the window, my hopes were crushed once more. It was Matteo’s truck, and he was all alone.
I watched him climb out of the truck, tool belt slung over his shoulder, and I had to force myself to paste on a smile. The last thing I needed was for Matteo to sense how utterly destroyed I was. He’d already seen too much.
“Leo!” he called out, waving as he made his way toward the front door. “I’m here to check the roof. Storm’s coming in tonight and I want to make sure everything’s sealed up good.”
“Oh, right,” I said, my voice sounding hollow even to my own ears. “I forgot you were coming.”
He gave me a concerned once-over as he approached. “You okay? You look upset.”
“I’m fine,” I lied, turning away before he could see my face any more clearly. “Just tired. Alex and his parents left this morning, and I didn’t sleep well.”
It wasn’t entirely a lie. I hadn’t slept. I’d spent the night staring at the ceiling of my bedroom, listening to the villa creak around me, thinking about how Alex had looked at me like I was nothing. Like everything we’d shared meant nothing.
“Well, I’ll be quick,” Matteo said, moving past me toward the door to the back garden. “Won’t take long.”
I nodded, grateful for his presence and simultaneously desperate for him to leave. Being around anyone right now felt suffocating. Every breath felt like it required conscious effort, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could maintain this facade of normalcy.
It took approximately thirty seconds for me to give up on trying.
I couldn’t stay in that villa right now. Not with every corner of it reminding me of Alex. The whole point of the villa was to start a new life in a new place without bad memories around every corner.
I’d royally fucked that up. And now I couldn’t just walk away from the villa I’d sunk everything into. I tossed my phone onto the kitchen table and headed for the door. I needed to get out, just for a little while at least.
“Matteo?” I called up toward the roof.
“Yeah?”
“I’m going into town,” I said. “Down to the water for dinner or something.”
His head poked over the edge of the roof. “Okay.” He paused, looking me over once more. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah.”
I didn’t wait for him to ask another question. I raised and hand and turned away, needing to be out of there.
The walk into town helped clear my head slightly, though it did nothing to ease the ache in my chest. I found myself drawn toward the water, toward the marina where I could sit and watch the sea churn and roll with the promise of the coming storm.
The wind was picking up, carrying the salt smell of the ocean and the promise of rain.
I settled onto the low stone wall that overlooked the rocks, dangling my legs into the empty air, and let myself cry. Not the angry sobs from before, but quiet tears that seemed to come from somewhere deep inside me. Tears for what I’d lost. Tears for what I’d never have.
I don’t know how long I sat there. It might’ve been minutes or hours. But the sun was bleeding orange and pink across the water when I thought I heard a voice calling my name.
For a moment, I thought I was imagining it.
Grief did strange things to a person. It made you hear voices that weren’t there, see things that couldn’t possibly be real.
So when I turned and saw Alex standing there on the street, his chest heaving like he’d run the entire way from the villa, I was absolutely certain I was losing my mind.
“Alex?” I breathed, not trusting my own eyes. “What are you... you’re supposed to be on a plane.”
He was standing there in the fading light, his blonde hair disheveled, his blue eyes wild with something I’d never seen in them before. He looked desperate. And terrified.
I stood up to face him and all I felt was anger.
“I turned around,” he said, his voice rough. He took a step toward me, then another. “At the airport. I got on the boarding line and I just... I couldn’t do it, Leo. I couldn’t leave.”
My heart was hammering so hard I thought it might break through my ribs.
This had to be some kind of cruel hallucination brought on by grief and wine.
Things like this didn’t happen in real life.
People didn’t turn around at airports. They didn’t sacrifice their lives for someone they’d told meant nothing to them.
“Alex, what the fuck are you talking about?” I growled, that anger welling up inside me far quicker than I anticipated. “You’re going home. You told me I’m nothing to you. That what we have means nothing.”
He took a step closer, reaching out a hand. “I didn’t mean it,” he said. “I… I was scared and I—”
He didn’t get to finish his sentence. Probably because the moment his hand made contact with my shoulder, I reeled back and fucking decked him in the face.
The punch connected with a satisfying crack, and I felt the impact reverberate up through my arm. Alex’s head snapped back, and he staggered a few steps, his hand immediately going to his jaw. A part of me wanted to apologize and make sure he was okay.
That part of me could shut the fuck up.
For a moment, we both just stood there. Me breathing hard, my knuckles throbbing, and him checking his mouth for blood. I could see the shock in his eyes, the way he processed the fact that I’d actually hit him.
“You deserved that,” I said, my voice shaking with rage. “You don’t get to come back here and pretend like you didn’t just destroy me. You don’t get to waltz back into my life and expect me to just forgive you.”
“I know,” he said, and there was something in his voice that made me pause. He wasn’t defensive. He wasn’t angry. He just sounded... broken. “I know I don’t deserve forgiveness. I don’t deserve anything from you.”
“Then why are you here?” I demanded, tears streaming down my face again. “Why would you turn around? Why would you come back?”
He stepped closer again, moving slowly like he was approaching a wounded animal.
Which, I supposed, I was. “Because I’m in love with you,” he said simply.
“Because I got to that gate and I realized I couldn’t spend the rest of my life without you.
Because you matter more to me than any job, life, apartment, our parents’ approval, or anything else. ”
I wanted to believe him. God, how I wanted to believe him. But the last three days had taught me that Alex was capable of saying whatever he needed to say to make things work for him.
“You told me I was nothing,” I said, my voice breaking. “You told me it was just an experiment. That you didn’t care about me.”
“I lied,” he said, and the pain in his voice was so raw, so genuine, that I felt something crack open inside my chest. “I lied because I was terrified. I was terrified of what our parents would think, of what the world would think. And I took that fear out on you because you were the source of that fear.”
“You destroyed me,” I whispered, my voice cracking.
“I know.” He reached out again, slower this time.
And I didn’t pull away. His fingers brushed against my cheek, wiping away one of my tears.
“I know, and I’m so fucking sorry, Leo. I’m sorry for hurting you.
I’m sorry for being a coward. I’m sorry for making you feel like you didn’t matter when you’re literally the only thing that matters. ”
The wind picked up around us, carrying the salt spray from the churning sea.
Storm clouds were gathering on the horizon, dark and ominous, but I barely noticed.
All I could focus on was Alex standing in front of me, his jaw already starting to bruise from where I’d hit him, his blue eyes wet with unshed tears.
“How do I know you won’t do this again?” I asked, needing to understand. “How do I know that the moment things get hard, you won’t just push me away again?”
“You don’t,” he said, and the honesty of it was devastating.
“You don’t know that. All I can tell you is that I’ve spent the last three days absolutely miserable without you.
I’ve spent the last three days realizing that none of the things I thought mattered actually do. Nothing matters except you.”
He took my hand, pressing it against his chest where I could feel his heart hammering against his ribs. “Feel that?” he said. “That’s what you do to me, Leo. That’s what you’ve been doing to me since I got here. You make me feel alive. You make me want to be better. You make me want to take risks.”
“Alex...” I started, but I didn’t know how to finish.
“I know I fucked up,” he continued, the words tumbling out now. “I know I hurt you and I know I don’t deserve a second chance. But I’m asking for one, anyway. I’m asking you to let me stay. I’m asking you to let me build a life here with you, and I’m asking you to believe that I mean it this time.”
I looked at him standing there in the fading light, his blonde hair catching the last rays of the sun, his face open and vulnerable in a way I’d never seen it before.
This was the real Alex, I realized. Not the corporate version, not the bitter divorce version, but the man underneath all of that.
The man who was terrified but brave enough to turn around at an airport, anyway.
The one I’d fallen in love with.
“If you hurt me again,” I said quietly, “I will make Amanda’s threats look like a love letter.”
A surprised laugh escaped him, slightly wet with tears. “Fair enough,” he said. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
“And you’re not staying at the villa just because you’re scared of being alone,” I continued. “You’re staying because you want to build something real with me. You’re staying because you’re willing to figure out who you are without all the other bullshit.”
“I am,” he said, stepping closer. “I swear to God, Leo, I am.”
I reached up and touched his jaw where the bruise was already forming, feeling a small surge of guilt mixed with satisfaction. “I’m sorry I hit you,” I said.
“Don’t be,” he replied, catching my hand and holding it against his face. “I deserved it. I deserved worse.”
“I love you too, you know,” I said softly, still holding him. “I have since that first night in the storm.”
“Me too,” he replied, leaning down until our foreheads were pressed together. “I didn’t know what it was just then, but I do now.” He pressed his lips softly to mine, kissing me in a way that proved he was telling the truth. “I love you so fucking much.”
The first drops of rain started to fall, big and heavy, promising the storm that Matteo had warned about. But I didn’t move. Neither did Alex. We just stood there on that stone wall overlooking the marina, letting the rain soak through our clothes, our hands still intertwined.
“Come on,” I finally said, tugging him toward the street. “We should get back before this gets worse.”
“Leo,” he said, pulling me to a stop. “I need you to know something before we go anywhere.”
I turned back to face him, rainwater streaming down his face. “What?”
“I told our parents,” he said, and there was such certainty in his voice that it took my breath away. “I told them that I’m in love with you, and I don’t care who knows it anymore. I’m done hiding. I’m done pretending. I’m done being afraid.”
I kissed him again, hard and desperate, pouring everything I’d been feeling into that kiss. All the anger, all the pain, all the love that I’d been trying so hard to suppress. He kissed me back just as fiercely, his hands coming up to grip my waist like he was afraid I might disappear.
When we finally broke apart, both of us gasping for air, I was smiling despite the tears still streaming down my face.
“Let’s go home,” I said.
And this time, when I said it, I meant it literally. The villa wasn’t just a place anymore. It was home because he was there. Because we both were.
Because this is where my new life began with the man I loved.