Page 6 of His Vow
It’s mesmerizing when he directs that cheeky bad-boy smile at me, but over the years, I’ve managed to build up enough of a resistance. My eyes roll so dramatically they nearly end up back inside my head. “One day, I’ll get the last word.”
He barks out a laugh, and I join him, willing to concede to keep the peace, but not without extracting a favor in return.
“I need a refill,” I declare, waving my empty glass in front of his face.
“Of course. One more, then we’re going for a swim.” That’s the thing about us; he knows exactly what I need almost before I do. I’m at my happiest floating in the refreshing waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea; it’s where I do my best thinking. And this weekend, I’ve got some thinking to do.
A short time later, with the pleasant buzz of alcohol still flowing through my body, loosening my limbs, we’re doing just that. My mind wanders back to my earlier thoughts about relationships. It was something Pierre said to me before I left him at the Ritz in Paris.Lucia, you need to be open to love if you want to fall in love.
I’m still not sure what he meant. I wasn’t in love with Pierre, and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t in love with me.
Cool water laps around my ears like a soft caress, and I tilt my head slightly to the side where Antonio bobs about in the sea beside me. “Do you think you’ll ever fall in love?”
I don’t think we’ve ever spoken about love before, and I’m curious if he sees himself settling down with a woman and having a family someday.
He considers my question for a moment. It’s one of his best traits, the way he listens to every random thought that pops into my head and spills out of my mouth soon after.
“Maybe one day. Why do you ask?”
“Remember that second summer you and your brothers came to Capri, and we hiked to our cove on the other side of the island? Just the two of us?” His smile tells me he does. “And we talked about our hopes for the future. I said I wanted to be married with two children by thirty.”
“We were only kids.”
“I know, and even though I’m thirty-two, I don’t regret my relationship decisions, because I’ve never been in love with any of them.” I look up at a couple of fluffy clouds drifting by in the otherwise clear blue sky. “But I do still want that one day, with a family of my own.” The admission comes directly from my heart with no filtering.
Back then, my need to earn Papa’s love heavily influenced my dreams. My fingers ached from hours of practicing the piano because he liked to hear me play. Pretty dresses filled my closestto bursting so he could parade me in front of the media as his perfect daughter. And bile rises in my throat when I think back to how willingly I complied despite the dread that filled my stomach every time.
Then came the summer of my seventeenth year, when I realized I would never earn my father’s love that way. All along, his plan was to transform me into the perfect ornament, a wealthy man’s wife. He sent me away to boarding school in Switzerland, and I never spent another summer with Ant. At the time, it broke my heart to be torn away from the only person I thought understood me.
“You’re a beautiful, intelligent woman, Lucia. I’m sure you’ll find the love you deserve, and you’ll be a great mother one day.” His words are reminiscent of what he said to me that day, the sweet teenage boy still buried in the man’s heart. And not for the first time, I hope we’ll always share these moments.
I flip upright from my back, treading water. “Thank you. Now I just need to find a good man like you to fall hopelessly in love with.”
A chuckle bursts from him. “Good luck with that, as I’m one of a kind. You should know that by now.”
Filling my hands with water, I throw it at his grinning face. He coughs and splutters before sinking beneath the surface, and I know he’s coming for me. I start swimming toward the shore, gasping for breath through peals of laughter. We’ve reverted to our teenage selves, and my heart feels lighter than it has in a long time.
A tug on my toes makes me kick harder, but it’s hopeless. Antonio always was the stronger swimmer. His arms circle my waist, and then I’m soaring through the air to land with a splash into the crystal-clear blue. When my head resurfaces a body’s length away from him, I’m grinning. This was a game we used toplay, taking turns to launch each other into the air until I could no longer lift him out of the water.
Any residual sadness from my recent breakup washes away with the time spent being silly with my best friend, reliving happier childhood times.
Being sent away to school in Switzerland wasn’t so bad, as it made me realize I deserved more than my father had planned for me. I spent the next few years building up my resilience and starting a career in fashion. Until one dull, cold weekend in Paris when I remembered Antonio and our summers in Capri. On a whim, I reached out to him through social media, and our friendship returned like we’d never been apart. He’s become a perpetual summer in my busy life, and I don’t know what I’d do without him.
“Let’s hike to our cove tomorrow.” Antonio grins back at me, and memories of the time we spent at our cove flood my head until it’s impossible to resist the idea.
Chapter three
Antonio
Green eyes sparkling with laughter capture mine over the rim of the bright yellow coffee mug. I want to hold this moment in my memory bank forever.
Lucia is a natural beauty with flawless skin, high cheekbones, and full lips. All features that most women spend hours and thousands of dollars emulating, and that were passed down to her from her mother, a former Miss Italia.
Auburn waves, which usually fall in a thick curtain down to the middle of her back, are pulled into a plait for today’s hike to the cove. It’s been years since we’ve had the luxury of time to visit the hidden pebbly beach.
Buzz, buzz. I glance down at the two phones on the granite counter. It’s Lucia’s bouncing across the smooth surface, demanding attention.
She scoops it up, a frown line appearing between her brows almost instantly. It’s like someone turned her happiness down to low beam. Without a word, she turns and walks out onto the terrace.
