Chapter 43🌜 Caring Hubby
Zane's POV
"Since then I just developed a connection to this place." I kick the pebble and it drops with a splash of water. "I started visiting here whenever I felt like..." Like I am just not enough. "Like things are not working out as they should be. A tiny trip here, and I'm charged full."
"That special?" I feel the gears in his brain processing it when I nod.
"Have you ever shared this secret place of yours with someone before?
" The subtle but obvious red of his cheeks darken.
"Not that I care, obviously." William's hand on my back twitches a little before he removes it and pushes his hair behind his ear.
I study his face, but he doesn't let me as he looks down, suddenly more interested in his shoe laces. "Are you asking about someone specific here?" He bends down on his knees to tie them back.
William hands pause untying the laces, before they continue opening the knot. "No." A curt, verbal full stop.
I hunch at his level too, pulling the lace he is struggling with. My fingers brush with his and he pulls them like mine burnt him, even though it's his which set every nerve in my body on fire. "I don't think so." I pick the other one up and make a cross with them to tie.
"You don't think so?" He announces the word 'think' like it sponsored him. "How can you not be sure?" I make a clean knot and directly move on to the next shoe. "And you know I can tie my shoes right?"
I don't pick up on his second question, "Yeah. I mean apart from Vance, no one else." His way too rigid shoulders round a little as if I just lifted a weight off of them.
"No one else?" He repeats my words with a voice cracking into an uncertain murmur.
I shorten the space between us, leaning over him to dive into his pretty eyes behind those black alligator frames. The whisper of my words leaves my mouth while I tattoo the sight of them in my heart, "No one else."
For a second he doesn't waver from mine either, "Good." He straightens back up, but I stay right there as I look up on him. The curving of his lips into the tiniest smile possible, leavs me wondering what the fuck did just happen?
"Hmm, good?" I stand up, leaning right on the railing in front of him.
Not letting him escape it that easily.
"Yes, good..." The last word dwindles into the wind. His eyes punish me with icy, narrow almonds. "...to know. Now will you stand straight on your feet and stop slanting over that weak bridge or do you wanna be the next Ms. Mary?"
"I cannot tell if you are trying to be caring or assertive, caro mio." I grin, as I still don't stop slanting back.
"Me caring about you?" He lets out a dry, mirthless laugh as he intently stares at the creaking wood under my weight. "My foot." He waves his hands in the air, "now will you?"
"Aww you are so worried about me." My lips bubble into a tiny pout as I blow a little kiss, but I keep learning back until half of my torso is hanging down.
My words aren't answered by his tongue, but by his eyes as they flicker down on my lips and then slowly meet my eyes.
He adjusts his collar and turns around. "Well damn, stubborn Gattino leaving already?" I shout from behind as the motherfucker leaves me right there.
He doesn't stop for my bait so I give another one. "Leaving me like that?" I move forward. "Oh hubby of mine, what if something happens to me here?" My lips quiver with dramatics.
"You'll be fine." He has almost reached the end of the bridge.
"Cold hearted bastard!" I make a beeline for him, "Can't we stay a little longer?" I knock on his back like it's a door.
"No one is stopping you. You can if you want." He keeps stomping, neglecting the stranger like a pebble in his path.
"Aww shucks... but I wanna stay with you though." The source of courage for these words to actually leave my mouth is unknown. "I mean two is better than one, right?" I try to do some damage control.
He finally stops but doesn't look back at me just yet. "Well I came for just a walk... And what will we even do here now?" The tone he uses isn't the usual shade of his self-preservation.
And like a bone to a starving dog, I eat it up. "Hmm, we can just stand in silence or talk—why don't you tell me about yourself?"
"About me?" His hands fly back to his pockets and bury there as he turns on his heels to me. "What do you wanna know?"
"Anything." Beggars aren't choosers. If I am correct, this is the first time he's willing to open up a little. "Anything you don't mind sharing with me."
"Mhm'kay." He turns back and starts walking again. "We'll talk while walking back."
"Fine by me." I follow behind him. He doesn't appear to start the conversation, so I do, "Okay, so I guess I should start."
"Sure." He agrees.
I ponder about everything I want to ask him. Something that wouldn't freak him out. "Dogs or cats?"
"Seriously?" He clutches his stomach as he guffaws with unadulterated joy. "You took this much time to ask me if I'm a dog person or a cat person?" He wipes the tears under his eyes.
I made him laugh.
Fuck me.
Have I ever seen him laugh like that? Hell no.
Will I jump off the cliff tonight? Probably.
I pinch my forearm to wake me up, gasping when it actually stings.
"Urm, baby steps." I rub the area a little bit.
"You should laugh more, it suits you.
" My eyes linger on the smile lines crinkling when he laughs, leaving my mouth opened with a pure look of awe.
"All that frowning and sneering make you look way too old for a twenty two year old, y'know? "
"Don't call me 'old'!" He thwaps my shoulder with a slap.
"I just did." I see him smoothening his wrinkled forehead with a worried look on his face. "What are you gonna do about it, mm?"
"I hate you!" He announces to the whole forest, as he dozes away. This one wasn't that venomous like his other ones.
"I know." I run after his shadow evanescing in the crisp air.
Just when I stop beside him, a thundering group of dark clouds roars, making us look up as it starts drenching us with freezing rain.
"What the fuck?" He curses the clouds as I pull him to stand under the tree, covering us a little.
"I told you it will rain today! But who am I? An idiot, right?" He screams.
"Not my words." I bite the inside of my cheek to stop the grin from coming out.
He kicks the huge rock embedded in the ground and then turns around to hide it when it hurts him.
The clouds show no mercy as they keep the torrential downpour coming, and all we can do is wait. "Here." I remove my jacket and put it on him. "You are all wet and shivering." I remark. "This will keep you warm."
"I don't-"
"Don't even complete that. You need it and it won't hurt you to accept it.
" My voice rises to keep up with the rain.
"That overcoat of yours is drenched and useless.
And you are wearing a woolen sweater that's basically a sponge.
So unless you want to die with hypothermia and ruin the sweater my mom made with so much love and care—wear it, William. "
A second passes and then two, but he stays motionless until a growl of clouds snaps him out. He zips the chain of the jacket up, only muttering a tiny "only 'cuz of the sweater."
I bob my head side to side, "just the sweater." My own clothes start getting soaked now that the waterproof shell is removed, especially my fleece, making my base layer transy and wrapping snugly around my physique, catching William's eyes.
Having William looking at my torso, I instinctually flex my abs. I am sure they are sticking out pretty well because he stares at the movment of me being an attention whore. "Liking what you see there, Gattino?" I run my fingers through my core like a guitarist playing a note.
"Fuck off." I chortle when he cusses in that husky voice and looks up on the clouds, analyzing something only he knows.
"I like it when you talk dirty and act fiesty, Gattino." I smirk and ruffle my wet hair to get some water out, dripping him in the way—unintentionally of course.
"Oh yeah?" He removes his glasses and wipes the lenses with the handkerchief in my jacket's pocket.
"Yeah. It's kinda nice making the nerd fiesty, after all." He grunts at my words while looking down to wipe it clean.
"Would you mind zipping it for me?" He asks kindly, making me blink twice.
"Urm, no, I won't. But what is it?" I take a look at him, scanning for something that he might be asking for.
Before my "It's your mouth, you stupidfuck!" He zips his own lips with his forefinger and thumb.
"Zzzz" I zip my own mouth with an annoying buzzing sound and then say the word with a closed mouth, "bz-bibbed."
He rolls his eyes back up and scans the sky. "What are you looking at?" He glares when I interrupt. "Well if it's the rain, then it isn't gonna stop anytime soon."
"How do you know? Do you work in the weather forecasting department or something?" He puts his hand above his glasses for better vision.
"Experiece." It rains a lot in Sicily during this time, and after coming to this place a billion times—I am quite experienced how Sicilian rains can be. "We should probably get going, because it's gonna get worse."
William bites his bottom lip in a pout, "But what about you?" He glances at my drenching clothes.
I stand there smiling at his words. I know he cares, maybe a little, but he does. I don't tease him about it this time, though. "I'll be fine until you are."
He opens his arms up for me to see, "I'm good."
"Then how can I not be?" My brain forgets to numb the honest folder of my heart, or maybe it's the beer from the beer pong. But it's true.
William doesn't say anything to that and I don't expect him to. I test my boundaries when I grab his hand, "Let's head back, caro."
A/N??
Damn, I didn't die! Came back with a new chapter and fuck...
It was a full circle moment. My babies are growing up ?? please tell me you get what I'm talking about.
Anyway if you didn't get it... Hmm it's okay ??
Next chapter will have smthg ...??
Read to find out...
Well lemme write it first tho ??
Thoughts on the chapter???
Comments???
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