Page 48 of Bound to You

Today is another perfect summer day, the sun feels like it’s focused solely on us, making sure to send its beams directly towards us as if we are the only people on the planet, holding all of its attention.

Caio opens up the gigantic front door holding it open for all of us, as we make our way inside.

He was quiet on the drive here, and I haven’t seen him since the fundraiser, but he’s been running through my mind every day since. I can’t ignore the pull between us, and that’s why I’ve been keeping to myself.

Caio is the kind of man I could easily fall in love with, and that’s my problem. I don’t want to run from one guy’s arms straight into another, but more than that, I don’t want heartbreak to taint this experience for me. My focus needs to be on myself, and the more time I spend with him the more I forget about anything other than him.

“Heath!” May runs into the enormous foyer into Heath’s arms as he picks her up, spinning her in a circle before plopping her back down on her feet. Because Heath lives out here, we don’t see him as much as the others, but he and May really clicked that day out on the water, they discovered a platonic adoration of each other in a matter of hours. “I can’t believe you live here.” She says it like a question.

“What can I say? I didn’t come to Italy with the intention of staying, but this place has a way of drawing you in and not really letting go.” I know what he means. “As for this,” he looks around the house, “The lavish life found me. But I don’t really live in here, I stay in a cabin out the back, it feels too lonely in here by myself.”

I can see why. Our voices echo through the grand space, it’s breathtaking, but I couldn’t walk around this empty house every day either. It feels like the kind of place that needs a family to breathe life into it. I can only imagine the energy it would hold with a few baby Heaths running around and making a mess of the place.

“Plus, I’d rather be out there, where I can hear the nature around me,” he adds.

“Get your boots on, son.” Rafael’s absolutely terrible western accent echoes through the building as he walks in wearing jeans and a white t-shirt with a baseball cap resting backwards on his head.

May clears her throat, the sound obnoxious in the wide-open space. Marina and I look over at her, where she’s now looking down at her phone, avoiding eye contact with any of us.

“I’ve got a spare set out in the cabin for you, mate,” Heath says, slapping Caio’s back as he follows behind Rafael to head out.

“Why are we playing dress up?” I ask Heath.

“We are herding the goats into another field. I could do it myself, but the guys like to come out to help every now and then, makes them feel like real men getting out in the fields.”

“Oh, you were serious about the goats?” May says with disbelief.

“Dead serious. I exchange the milk with Bianca in town and she makes goats cheese and sells it, and she always gives me a few blocks in exchange. It’s something my nana used to do with her, and I wanted to carry it on after she passed, even if I was never close with her.”

From what I can gather, Heath moved over here a few years ago after finding out he’d inherited this place from his grandparents. From what May told me, he never really knew them more than birthday cards and Christmas gifts sent over toAustralia when he was a kid, and it had shocked him to find out that this place was all of a sudden his.

I smile at the thought of him swapping cheese with a woman in town as we walk into the massive kitchen.

“And we, ladies,” Marina opens the fridge. “Are having cocktails by the pool.” She pulls out an assortment of drinks and mixes out of the bench lining them all up on the bench in front of us.

Perfect, I can’t wait to absolutely roast in the sun like a lizard.

“Right, well I better get moving, enjoy ladies.” My eyes follow Heath as he moves outside and joins up with the others, I can just make out Caio’s form from here, he’s wearing a similar outfit to Heath and Rafael. Jeans that hug his ass, holding all my attention until he flips a cowboy hat on his head. He looks sexy as fuck.

Jesus. We need to get some photos of them like this and make one of those cheesy calendars, the ladies of Ruby Cove would go feral for a year's worth of these Italian cowboys, and so would I.

I’ve lostany concept of time out here, it could have been minutes or hours I have no idea. All I know is the feel of the sun sizzling my skin and I’m loving it.

I haven’t taken much time to just exist like this since I’ve been here. The only sounds around us are the chirping birds sitting on the branch of the gorgeous big tree that stands over the corner of the pool. They’ve been hopping around up there, flying back and forth, finding solace in the shade of the big leaves above them. While I sit here roasting like a peanut.

“Here we are,” Marina says, coming out with another round of margaritas for us. I feel a next level of relaxation as I take a sip out of the little straw, flicking the little umbrella with my finger as the drink sends a cool sensation through my body.

“Thank you, this is perfect,” I say. “I can see why Nora and your mom are hooked on these.” A giggle escapes my mouth as I recall their latest escapades. I don’t know how Marina can stand it. But from the groan she lets out I know she doesn’t nearly enjoy their shenanigans as much as they do.

This weekend they decided to stand on the tables at Marina’s and dance like they were in the middle of a seventies nightclub when some old song came on that I didn’t even recognize.

It took Marina at least five minutes before she was able to coax them down, the only thing able to get them even considering getting down was offering them another round of margs.

“I really need to start cutting them off earlier in the night,” she sighs, pulling a laugh from both May and me.

“You’ve been quiet May,” Marina says. “Did seeing Rafael looking sexy as sin throw you into a daze?”

“As if.” We both laugh at her obvious attraction. “It’s criminal that someone that attractive is such a jackass,” she says, surprising me that she’d even admit she finds him attractive. “Are we just going to ignore how quiet both Isla and Caio were on the ride over?” She looks at me from the top of her sunglasses, switching the attention away from herself.

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