Marco smiled. She realized he knew her comment for what it was, but he didn’t say remark on it. “It’s a fascinating and frustrating business. It has taken up my entire life so far and will probably take up the rest of my life, too. But, I can’t get it out of my blood. It’s like I’ve drunk so much wine and breathed in the smell of grapes for so long that blood no longer runs in my veins, only Chianti.”
“Would that be such a bad thing?” she asked, smiling.
Marco shrugged. “Aja, tell me what Canada is like. I’ve heard there are areas that make wonderful wines. It’s where you come from and where my father was from, British Columbia. My dad always talked about how he dreamed of taking our rootstock there and starting a new winery.”
“Well, I don’t have any firsthand knowledge, but I know the Okanagan is well-known for its wines. It’s a region in British Columbia or B.C. as we call it.”
Marco nodded. “Yes, that’s the place my father spoke of. I couldn’t remember the name. What’s it like there?”
“Oh, it’s beautiful. It’s not like Italy, though.”
Marco waved his hand, as though pushing away such a silly idea. “I don’t want a place that’s like Italy, just somewhere I can grow grapes and make excellent wine.”
“Don’t you like Italy?” she asked, surprised.
“Of course I like Italy, but it’s old.”
She laughed. “Of course it’s old, silly.”
“No, I mean it’s old in ideas. It’s hard to change the way things have been done for centuries. People are hesitant to try new things. They want to stick with what they’ve always done.” Marco made a frustrated gesture and ran his hands through his hair. “It’s hard for someone like you to understand.”
“Someone like me?” she raised her eyebrows.
“I mean someone who comes from a country where everything’s new. Your oldest buildings aren’t much more than a hundred years. Ours are centuries.”
“But that doesn’t mean I can’t understand. I understand how people end up stuck in a rut and are afraid of change. I see that happening all around me, Marco.”
He looked thoughtful. “I can see what you mean. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound condescending.”
“It’s okay.” She patted his hand on the table and before she could take it away, he curled his fingers around it and pulled it closer to him. Tingles rose up her arm.
“Aja.”
“Hmmm?”
“You’re different.”
“Thanks.” She let out a short laugh.
“No, I mean that as a good thing. You’re so different from other women I’ve met, both Italian and women from North America.” He studied her in a way that caused her to flush and drop her eyes. “I like you.”
Aja didn’t know what to say. The quiet evening, the wine and the personal talk had caused her to feel close to him and obviously affected him the same.
Marco seemed to notice her discomfort. He put down his glass and held out his hand to her. “Can I walk you back?”
As she got to her feet, she wobbled a little and laughed in embarrassment. “I think I had a little too much wine.”
“Why don’t you sleep upstairs tonight, Aja?”
She looked at him with suspicion and he laughed.
“I sleep on the opposite side of the house. It was a purely selfish suggestion so that I can go straight to bed. I’m a little woozy myself.”
Without further comment, she gave in. Marco took Aja’s hand and led her to the stairs. Her stomach jumped as though they were going to bed together. He showed her to the room at the top of the stairs.
“Thanks, Marco, it was a nice dinner and the chat was even nicer.”
He didn’t say anything, just studied her face as though wondering if she were telling him the truth. He put his arm on the wall above her head and leaned closer.
Aja’s eyes drifted shut as Marco pressed his lips to hers. As the kiss deepened, Marco pulled her tight, wrapping his body around her until it seemed they had melted into each other to become one person. She moaned low in her throat and everything intensified. He pushed open the door and they burst inside still kissing, the pace nearly frantic. Their hands undressed each other with their lips still locked together. She was on the bed, Marco poised above her when he stopped. Aja opened her eyes, wondering what was happening and saw him staring at her.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Marco shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m sorry, Aja. I’m sorry to do this to you.”
He got off the bed and gathered his clothes while she stared at him in bewilderment. He wanted her. She wanted him. So what was the problem?
The door shut quietly and Aja turned her back on it, anger taking over where passion left off.
How could he do this to me?
Maybe he really was afraid of her after all. That was the thought that consumed Aja until she fell asleep late into the night.
I should have stayed away from him. I knew better. Typical Aja. Come to Italy and fall in love with an Italian man. Love? No, I wasn’t in love with Marco. Was I?
Chapter 23
Aja got up when she heard Nona’s rooster crowing. She grabbed her clothes and raced across the garden to the women’s house. The shower was hot and made her feel a little better, but she couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened the night before. She was finally feeling like she and Marco might have something, and then he just turned off like a light. It hurt more than she wanted to admit.
The day was a typical one. The babies were calm and Daniela helped to keep everyone amused and happy until the mothers came to pick them up. At the end of the day, after all the children were collected, Aja decided she was getting good at the job. Changing diapers was still disgusting, but she could do it now without gagging or making a worse mess than she’d been handed. She no longer tried to pass each one off on her “assistant”.
As though Daniela would stand for that anyway.
“You do good,” Daniela said with a grin.
Aja was surprised and proud of her for learning a little English. “
Grazie
,” Aja said.
They cleaned up the nursery and went their separate ways. Aja was just closing the door when she heard someone behind her. She turned and met Marco’s dark blue gaze.
“Aja, you’re finished for the day?” He smiled and held out his hand to her, which she ignored.
“Yes. I’m going to town.” Aja walked away, noticing his confusion and wondering why he even cared.
“Aja, stop. What’s wrong with you?”
She whirled around. “What’s wrong with me? As if you don’t know. Don’t even pretend innocence. I’ve never been so insulted in my life.”
“What?” Marco shook his head. “I don’t understand you. I honored you last night by stopping and you’re angry with me?”
“Honored me?” she nearly shrieked at him. “You
humiliated
me. Was I not sexy enough for you? You left me there wondering what was wrong with me.” Aja dropped her head, humiliation again overwhelming her. “Why don’t you go back to Julianna. You liked her enough to make a baby.”
“What!” Marco shouted. “I’m not that kind of man. I don’t take advantage of females. If I hadn’t been half drunk last night, none of that would have happened.”
“So you have to be half drunk before you’d lay a finger on me?” she shouted back.
“Good God, Aja, what is wrong with you?”
“Apparently a lot!”
“What is going on out here?” A very angry voice intruded on their argument. They turned to see Nona bearing down on them, a large rolling pin in her hand. They both backed away, hands in the air. For someone so small, she was quite intimidating.
“The whole valley can hear you two shouting. What’s going on?” Nona shook her finger in Marco’s face, the rolling pin at her side, but still looking very threatening.
“
Spiacente, madre
,” Marco said in a small voice.
Aja was amused to see how she cowed him. That is until Nona turned furious eyes in her direction. “You should know better than to act like a wild woman out here. Is this how your mother raised you?”
“My mother didn’t raise me,” she mumbled.
“
Scusami
?”
“Nothing. No, I wasn’t raised that way.”
“I didn’t think so. Now you two apologize.”
Aja and Marco glared at each other and then he said, “Sorry.” He said it grudgingly and she replied in the same vein.
Nona glared back and forth between them, then seemed to realize that was all she would get from them. She turned and stomped back to her house.
“I’m going to Juli’s,” Aja said and was satisfied with Marco’s wince. Juli was a sore point between them now.
“Aja, please, let’s talk.”
“I’m not interested in talking to you right now. I’m late.” She walked away from Marco and tried her best to ignore the feeling that something good might have happened if she’d just listened to him.
Pietro met her at Cielo Bello’s entrance. He was going to Julianna’s for supper as well and they’d arranged to drive there together.
Aja was quiet on the drive. Pietro seemed to sense that she didn’t want to talk because he wasn’t his usual ebullient self either.
She stared out the car window at the scenery and replayed the night before over and over in her mind. Every time she thought of how Marco stopped in the middle of making love to her and left the room, she could have cried. Never had she felt so unwanted and ugly. It made her hate him for making her feel that way.
“You okay, Aja?” Pietro asked, concern creasing his handsome face.
“I’m okay. I had a fight with Marco. He’s such an asshole,” she couldn’t help but add.
Pietro laughed. “I could had told you, but you not ask. I thought you like him.”
“Not anymore.”
“That good.” Pietro smiled. “You like me now.” He thumped his chest and she couldn’t help but smile.
“I think I would do better to stay away from men for a while, Pietro, if you don’t mind.”
“I not mens.”
“You know what I mean. It’s interesting how bad your English gets every time you’re trying to manipulate me.”
He knew she was right and his only response was a mischievous grin.
Julianna was waiting for them at the door of her
ristorante
. “Aja, come. Message for you.” She waved a scrap of paper at her. “Friend call.”
Aja took the note from her and laughed. It was written in Italian. “Juli, I can’t read this.”
She took it back. “Sorry!” She laughed and then thrust it at Pietro. “Here, you read to Aja.”
Pietro took it and struggled with the translation. “Uh, it say, please call Mia. She say wedding is fat.” He looked at Aja, confusion in his face.
“What?” She grabbed the note from him. “That makes no sense. Juli, can I use your phone?”
“Yes. Right over here.” Aja followed her to the kitchen where wonderful smells were gathering.
Mia answered the phone and Aja immediately asked, “What’s going on with the wedding?”
“Um, nothing, why?”
“Well, the message you left with Julianna. What did you say?”
“I asked how the wedding plans were coming, that’s all. Why? What did the message say?”
“It said the wedding is fat.”
Mia laughed. “That’s not anything close to what I said. Lost in translation, huh?”
“Yeah. Maybe next time just tell Juli to get me to call you. That’s probably the easiest way to handle it.”
“Sure. You sound upset, Aja. Is everything okay there?”
“Well, mostly. I just got in a fight with the boss’s son, though,” she said, turning her back so Julianna and Pietro wouldn’t hear her.
“You did? What happened?”
Aja sighed. There was no way she could keep anything from Mia. “We almost slept together last night.”
“What!” Mia shrieked in her ear. “What do you mean almost?”
“He stopped.”
There was silence on the other end.
“Did you hear me? He stopped. Just before we actually committed the act. How could any man do that unless…” she trailed off, not wanting to actually say it.
“What did he say when you were fighting? What was his explanation, Aja?”
“He said he was honoring me.
Right.
”
“Oh.”
“That’s all you can say? Oh?”
“Sorry, but I’ve never heard of a man saying something like that. It’s pretty nice.”
“Nice? I’ll have you know it wasn’t nice at all. It was actually very humiliating. Especially when he said that if he hadn’t been drunk it wouldn’t have happened. I guess wine makes me look pretty good.”