Page 69 of The Honest Affair

Lucrezia handed the phone back to me, looking from me to the screen, then back at her sister. “She looks just like Rosina. Just with blonde hair.”

I nodded. “She resembles both of you quite strongly, I think.”

The girls both nodded, but then awkwardness descended again.

“Look,” I told them, ignoring the way my heart was racing now. “I realize it’s a lot to take, learning you have a half sister on the other side of the ocean. She doesn’t know about you, but she will, soon. Which is why I’m telling you about her first. Because I know my daughter. She will want to meet you. And I thought if you had some time to think about it…maybe you would consider meeting her too. One day.”

The girls were quiet for a long time. Seconds passed. Then minutes. Matthew shuffled next to me, rubbing his fingers together, and vaguely, I wondered if nervous anticipation was making him want a cigarette again. I certainly felt like it might help.

Finally, Lucrezia spoke. “It is a lot,” she agreed. “I think my sister and I, we need to talk about it. Perhaps…maybe we could take your phone number?”

“Would you let me take yours too?” I asked.

With a quick glance at Rosina, Lucrezia nodded. “Yes. Okay.”

Relief washed over me as the girl took out her phone and we traded contact information. It wasn’t much. But it was also better, maybe, than I had anticipated.

Afterward, the girls walked Matthew and me both outside. They were clearly eager for us to leave—ready to discuss the bombshell I’d just dropped in their laps, beyond the prying eyes and ears of strangers. But I felt, well, if not good, then at least somewhat hopeful.

“It’s just a thought,” I said as I stood at the open passenger door, peering back at the farm. “But if you need some help with the taxes, perhaps I can be of service. You wouldn’t have to sell. Not immediately, anyway.”

“Oh, no,” Lucrezia began. “We could not accept—”

“Oh, please,” I pushed. “It’s the least I can do, and it would be no trouble. You can have some time to decide what you really want to do with the place. And perhaps if I bring Olivia to Florence—if you’re willing, of course—you could meet her here. I think she would like it, meeting her sisters on the farm your shared family has owned for so long.”

The girls glanced at each other. Rosina didn’t bother to hide her pleading eyes.

Lucrezia turned back, looking defeated, but also a bit relieved. “Okay. We would appreciate that. Very much.”

I smiled. “I’ll be in touch.”

The girls waved goodbye, and Matthew and I got into the car.

“You’re going to buy that villa for them, aren’t you?” he asked as the girls went back inside.

“I don’t need to buy it for them,” I replied. “It’s already theirs. But if they are willing, I might be interested in going into the olive oil production business. Help them replant, if they like, or rehabilitate the land so it’s at least sustainable.”

Matthew glanced back at the farm. Something remarkably close to jealousy sparked in his eyes. “So you want to keep coming back here, don’t you?”

I softened, then slowly reached out and turned his chin back so he was looking at me again. Vulnerability shone through those deep green eyes. I wanted to kiss it all away.

“I don’t want the farm for me,” I said. “My time here was fleeting. Beautiful for a girl of twenty, but I don’t need those memories anymore. I have new ones. Much better ones now.”

The jealousy flickered, but it was a flame that was going out.

“I want it for Olivia,” I said softly. “So that when she is ready, she will have a place to see her family’s history. To meet her sisters, if they want. To know her father in the only way she can. She’ll need that, don’t you think?”

Matthew was quiet for a moment. Then he lifted my hand and pressed his lips to my knuckles.

“You are a wonderful mother, Nina,” he said. “It’s one of the many reasons I love you.”

The simple words lifted my heart. They truly made me fly.

Once again delightfully uncaring of who might be watching, I placed my hands on either side of his beautiful face and pulled him in for a kiss—delicate at first, but one that eventually spoke of the longing that both of us had for closeness. Matthew’s tongue twisted around mine, and I opened to the kiss, suddenly needing to be closer than I had ever been before.

With no small effort, I broke the kiss, pecked one more on the tip of his slightly crooked nose, and smiled.

“I love you too,” I whispered. “Now, please. Take me away from my past. From here on, I only want my future.”

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