It Takes Two (Italian Summer Book 1) (9 page)

His touch was more than a little familiar, and she recognized his voice before she’d even had time to look up at him, before she’d even had time to recover.

Ruben.

Chapter 12

“Rona?”

Goosebumps tickled her skin as she looked up to eyes that shone as much with curiosity as excitement.

“Ruben.” Her eyes widened and she felt the rush of heat to her face. Just looking at him brought up more memories than she would ever own up to. Happiness beamed out of his face and he ran his gaze over her, and then to Tori sleeping quietly in the corner.

“Is this your daughter?”

She nodded, still reeling from the fact that he was actually here—in the flesh and no longer an old memory. She couldn’t deny the way her heart fluttered right now, at this very moment.

Just seeing him made her breathless, rendered her speechless and took her back to prom night. She shook her head, trying to get a grip on herself.

What are you doing?

His fingers still lingered on her arm, and his smile still burnt into her soul, and everything she had sought to keep down and hidden in the depths of her being had now burst to the surface.

“She’s beautiful,” he said, craning his neck over to get a proper look at her. “Beautiful.” His eyes were shiny as he said it.

“Thank you,” she said, accepting the compliment and knowing that he wouldn’t say it, but the way he looked at her he didn’t need to.
Just like her mother.

Theirs had been nothing but a connection on an emotional level. He’d neither sought more nor had she indicated that she was looking for anything more. Yet their conversations from before, often lasting until closing time, meant they had shared so much of their past that they knew more about one another than people who hadn’t known each other that long ought to.

And here they were again.

He stood awkwardly at the table with a small bag in his hands. A take-out bag. Disappointment drenched her new found exuberance as they faced one another, suspended in silent wonder for a few moments that were filled with so many questions.

“It’s great to see you again, Rona. When?” He looked perplexed, “When did you get here?”

“ A few weeks ago.”

“A few weeks ago?” His brow creased with unasked questions.

“I didn’t know you were coming back.”

“I didn’t know I was coming back so soon.”

He waited for her to explain. “I like your hair,” he said, casting an appreciative look at her.

“Thanks.”

“It makes you look different. It brings out the green in your eyes more.” He’d noticed way more than her husband ever had. She ran her fingers through her hair self-consciously.

Even as she sat at the table, hovering between asking him how he was and whether to ask him to join her, she weighed up the options and wondered about the dangers of dancing perilously close to the flirtation that was still new. Despite what either of them had labeled it as.

She knew he sometimes passed by because his brother worked here.

“I didn't think I’d ever see you again,” she said. “I mean…” What did she mean? It was stilted, and slow and awkward, this new conversation of theirs, as though they were strangers again. She didn’t know for sure whether she would ever see him again, but she had thought about it many times. The what if’s…

He seemed bemused by her hesitancy, and she stared at him, seeing him finally, and again, the way she always remembered him, with his deep blue eyes burning into hers with an intensity she had forgotten.

“Since you left I’ve only been here a few times. You won’t believe me, but it’s true.”

He hadn’t bothered coming here after she’d gone?
She let out a smile as she remembered their meetings here at this same restaurant only a few months ago when she’d come to Verona for the first time. Getting out alone in the evenings had been her salvation back then and Elsa hadn’t minded looking after Tori.

She’d come here, in the beginning, just to enjoy a meal by herself. Gioberti’s, with its nearness to the center of town and its mouth-watering and affordable dishes—not to mention the owner’s easy banter—had been the ideal place. Gioberti had a way of making her feel special but after one evening too many his attention had begun to grate on her.

It had been sometime around her third time here that she had noticed Ruben. A couple of times he’d seen her alone and they’d acknowledged one another with a casual nod of the head. A friendly nod, there had been nothing more to it. Nothing serious. But it had been enough to make her curious to know more about him.

They got to talking, and it soon moved from casual greetings to something more; the conversations became longer, the curious desire to know more about one another took hold and just like that they’d fallen into it—their friendship. The anticipation of running into one another in the evenings soon became a reality. It had lasted a few weeks, and it was a secret that Rona had kept to herself. There hadn’t been anything to hide, after all, they hadn’t done anything but talk, and they hadn’t crossed any boundaries. They hadn't exchanged numbers or contact details—there had been no need to. This wasn’t going to go anywhere. They didn’t have a future point to reach. He knew she was married and that she had been—not unhappy, more that she was discontent. She had mentioned that her husband had returned to the US and that she was here with her sister and her mother. He’d told her about the girlfriend he’d recently broken up with. Talking about their significant others somehow made it seem not so wrong to meet up. Soon she found herself looking forward to her evening visits and she had a feeling that he did too, though neither of them would openly admit to such a thing if asked.

It was obvious, now that here she was again and alone, that her situation remained. He didn't ask any questions which came as a relief to her.

“Is that your dinner?” She asked and nodded at the bag in his hands.

“I haven't eaten and I was passing by. This is today’s specials, apparently.” She nodded, and looked at the menu she’d been toying with.

“I haven’t ordered yet,” she confessed.

“I could have this with you if you don’t mind?” He appeared hesitant and she wondered, in that same moment, if life was nudging her in a direction that seemed exciting and unsure and therefore promised a step into the unknown.

“I don’t mind.”

He turned to one of the waiters who disappeared with his bag of takeout, presumably to plate it.

She ordered her small helping of antipasti, assuming that the slices of meat, anchovies, and artichokes might help with her diet. The five-two diet had become the seven-zero diet ever since her arrival in Italy. She wisely left out the wine, figuring that control was needed in this situation: she'd reconnected with the man with whom she had poured out her heart.

Of course nothing could come of this. She wasn’t that type of woman. She wasn’t. She loved Carlos. Forever. But sometimes in those empty moments when the disconnect between her and Carlos had become too severe she sometimes reminisced and wondered what Ruben might be up to. And what might have been, had her circumstances been different.

Ruben’s food arrived soon after hers and they caught up as they ate; talking about safe things and discovering what they’d both been up to these past few months. She told him about the work she did for Ava, and he told her interesting anecdotes about the customers he met in his job as an Account Executive selling software solutions to corporations.

This time they both avoided talking about their significant others.

“Did you enjoy your meal?” Gioberti asked as he stopped by their table after the waiter had cleared their plates away. He usually did this, making his customers feel at home and finding out whether they had enjoyed their meal or not. He was a very hospitable host, albeit that he also had a roving eye.

“It was lovely, as always. Thank you,” Rona replied.

“The dessert menu has been changed for the summer. I suggest you at least take a look at it.” And with that, Gioberti left them alone.

She watched him hurry away and when she brought her attention back to Ruben she found he’d been watching her. She felt the color rush to her skin and hoped it wasn’t too obvious. Warmed by the food and emboldened by the fact that Tori was still fast asleep, she stared back at him.

He leaned in across the table. “Why is it that here you are and all alone again?”

Her muscles stiffened because she found herself suddenly in unfamiliar territory. She felt suddenly vulnerable.

“I’m helping my sister,” she replied, at the same time wondering if she’d somehow attracted this—an evening out with
him
into her life. Had she dreamed of this moment during some of her lowest points with Carlos? Had she taken the memories of their shared evenings and grabbed them as if they were a life buoy in her darkest times? She suddenly felt guilty that she was here at all, just him and her –even though she had not orchestrated any of this.

She’d worn her white dress and sandals
just in case,
but she hadn’t really thought she might see him. Not really.

“Helping your sister?”

She nodded. “She’s getting married in a few months and she needed my help,” replied Rona keeping it vague.

“This means you will be here for a long time? More than a few weeks, hopefully?”

Hopefully?

“A month or more.”

He raised an eyebrow, dipped his chin, and considered her words. “I hope we run into one another again.” He was intense. Especially the way he was looking at her, with his deep blue eyes pushing into her green ones.

She did a double take and wondered if she
should
risk running into this man again. She’d already revealed far too much of herself before and already her heart was fluttering in a way it hadn’t for a long time.

This might not be such a good idea at a time when she and Carlos were drifting apart.

“You look happier,” Ruben commented when she didn’t say anything.

“Verona seems to bring out the best in me,” she said. “The open fields, the lush countryside. I feel freer.”

“Freer?”

She wasn’t ready to start having that conversation, of opening up to him again. Yet the undivided attention he’d given her at a time she’d felt down: when Ava’s romance with Nico was blossoming, and she and Carlos were fading away. Ruben had made her feel special.

“If you ever decide to come here again and you need company, maybe you could give me a call? I don’t come here that often.”

“It’s not as easy for me to get out in the evenings.”

“Not like before?”

She shook her head.

“Bring the little one. It doesn’t matter,” he said, smiling.

She felt color burning her cheeks.
The color scarlet, for a scarlet woman
. Now would be the moment to stop this but even as she thought about what to say, how to let him down gently, how to tell him she wasn’t that kind of girl, he scribbled something down on a scrap of paper and handed it to her.

“Here’s my number,” he said. “In case you ever want to meet up again. His words scared her as much as they excited her. He really wasn’t leaving anything to chance again.

“Just friends,” he said, appearing to notice her reticence as she stared at the paper blankly.

“Just friends,” she repeated as if the need to say it would make it so.

Chapter 13

“How are you?” she asked Carlos.

“The same as always,” he replied, a little testily.

“And what’s that?” she asked, wondering why every conversation with Carlos was so difficult. Was he still mad at her for coming to Verona?

“Are you still working all crazy hours?”

“Why would I stop?” He sounded sullen. “It’s empty at home. I’ve been working most days.”

“That’s not legal,” she countered, not wanting him to work every single day. He wasn’t invincible, even though he thought he was. The man needed to take a break every now and then. Couldn’t his family see how hard he worked?

“Not much else to do on my days off,” he said, gruffly. “I miss having you both around.”

An admission, at last. She felt guilty especially in light of how she’d spent her evening last night, at dinner with Ruben. A mountain of guilt emptied over her. She considered saying something about how much she missed him when he asked her. “Put Tori on the phone, would you? I miss her.”

Disappointment silenced her and she turned her attention to Tori, putting the phone to the little girl’s ear. “Da-da. Tori it’s da-da. Say ‘hi’,” Rona coaxed her. Instead her daughter gurgled and strands of spit trickled down her double chin. She clung to the phone as though it was a new toy. Rona could hear Carlos talking to her in his soft voice reserved only for his princess.

“Here, honey. Let mommy have it,” but Tori gripped the handset harder than a teething ring.

“Tori, give me the phone, please.” But Rona’s insistence was going nowhere. Her daughter thought it was a game until Rona gently released it from her fingers. “Hey, Carlos I—” but the line was dead and he’d hung up.

She felt her mouth set in stone. “Come on, baby,” she lifted Tori up. “Time to go to work.”

This morning not even her sister suspected the raging sea of turbulence that rocked inside her.

For that evening and for the next few evenings after that, Rona steered clear of Gioberti’s and cooked at the pensione.

A few days ago she’d gone over to Nico and Ava’s for dinner. They had insisted on more than one occasion and it was getting embarrassing to refuse all the time. Nico had looked exceptionally tired; his face gaunt, he looked as though he’d hardly slept. Apparently he had just returned from another couple of days in Ravenna and he seemed to have a lot on his mind. She didn’t stay too long but had been glad to have a distraction after work. Otherwise she was left to her thoughts once Tori fell asleep and the evenings alone were long. She’d often end up thinking about Ruben.

Seeing him had unnerved her. He’d brought up feelings in her that she knew were wrong, but she couldn't help them anyway.

She’d called Carlos almost every day since she’d arrived in Italy but since running into Ruben she’d called him a few times a day, even though she often got his voicemail. Speaking to Carlos helped suppress the feelings about Ruben which had begun to resurface. She desperately needed to know that whatever difficulties she and Carlos were going through, that their differences weren’t so bad as to make their relationship unsalvageable.