Secret Pleasure (10 page)

Airlea watched from the balcony as they loaded Dante up in a sedan, and then they all got in and drove away.

Knowing she now had a few hours to kill, she went back to her room, put on her tennis shoes and grabbed a sweater. Today she was determined to walk to the pond.

She went to the kitchen and talked to Rosa and one of the maids as she packed a small lunch in her backpack and grabbed two bottles of water. When she stepped out of the back door, she was pleased to see Lucy sitting there waiting for her.

“Well, girl, it looks like we have most of the day today.”

She enjoyed her daily walks with the old dog and usually set off at a quick pace, but today there was no rush and she decided to take her time making her way to the large pond.

Harvest season was in full swing. She’d seen several workers in the olive grove over the last few days, and today was no different. They had their baskets and ladders and when she walked by, she waved and smiled. Lucy trotted beside her as they made their way towards the hill and the pond.

The sky was clear today and she watched as a flock of ducks flew overhead, circled around, and landed in the pond. She had walked for almost an hour before she finally reached the pebbled shore of the pond. Lucy waded in and started to drink from the clear water. The ducks were still floating out near the middle and Airlea found a spot in the shade under a tall tree to sit down. She leaned her back against the trunk and pulled out a book from her backpack.

A little while later, she shared her sandwich with Lucy and threw some bread out to the ducks, who had ventured a little closer to her. She was standing by the water’s edge when a shiver went up her spine and the hair on the back of her neck tingled. She only felt that way when she knew someone was watching her. She looked around, but didn’t see anyone. She was heading back towards her backpack near the tree, when she heard something to the side of her. Lucy must have heard it too because she started growling and the hair on the dog’s back and neck rose slightly.

“Hello?” Airlea looked around. There were trees and thick bushes that lined the other sides of the pond and she realized she didn’t know if there were any wild animals around. Did the Cardone’s have cattle or horses?

Walking slowly towards the tree, she bent down and picked up her backpack, then started back up the hill towards the house. Lucy watched her and finally started following her.

Airlea kept looking over her shoulder as she walked. Lucy seemed to be doing the same thing, stopping several times and looking back towards the water. Had someone followed her down there? She supposed that while she’d been reading, someone could have snuck up on her. She’d been very engrossed in her book and hadn’t given any thought to watching out for other people. By the time she reached the top of the hill, she was out of breath and had worked up a sweat. She’d been walking at a faster pace since she was feeling uneasy.

She stood at the top of the hill and looked back towards the pond. There was no movement below. She could still see the ducks floating in the blue water and realized it had probably all been in her head. She’d lived in the city too long if simple country noises were spooking her. After all, she knew that rodents and other small animals made noises, too. Shaking her mind clear, she started down the pathway towards the orchard.

By the time she’d made it back to the house and had cleaned up, she was feeling pretty stupid about being spooked. Luckily, the only one to witness her little scare wouldn’t go around telling anyone about it. Lucy had disappeared when she got closer to the house.

Less than an hour later, she stood on the balcony and watched the sedan drive back up the long driveway and park next to her smaller vehicle. Walking down the stairs to help Dante, she could immediately tell that he was worn out. She could see it in his eyes, which were dull looking and a little red.

“How did everything go?” Airlea asked Kathleen as she got out of the car.

“Oh, fine. The doctor seems to think that he is healing fast, and the pins are doing a fine job holding the bones in place. Here,” she held out a few papers, “he gave me these to give you. It’s a list of acceptable therapy tasks.” Damiano took a crutch from the trunk, then he walked over and helped Dante out of the car and gave it to him. “He also gave Dante crutches, but he can only use one because of his shoulder.”

Dante stood up and leaned on the crutch and smiled across the car at her. Just then Florentina stepped from the car and stood between them.

“Shall we get you upstairs and back in bed?” Airlea asked as she walked around the car and helped Dante towards the outside stairs. He struggled with them, but by holding on to the railing with his bad arm and the crutch with his good arm, he finally found a system to jump up the stairs on his good leg. By the time they reached his room, she could see his energy was completely gone.

When he sat down on the side of the bed, she heard him release a sigh of relief.

“How is your pain?”

“It’s fine, I’m fine, just a little tired,” he said as she bent down and removed his shoes. “I can undress myself.”

She looked up at him, “Is that what you want?” She was pleased when his eyes sparked a little.

“No.” Then he smiled slightly and leaned back to watch her remove his shoes. She lifted his bad leg and gently moved it to the bed. He sat back and pulled his other leg up.

“I’ll leave you to rest.” She moved to walk away.

“No, please sit and stay a while.” He motioned for her to sit next to him in a chair. When she sat, he asked, “What did you fill your time with today?”

She sat back and told him about her walk with Lucy. By the time she was done with her story, he had fallen asleep. She snuck from the room, walking out the french doors quietly. She went down the wide stairs and took the path towards the kitchen door. Lucy was there, sitting by the door in her favorite spot. Airlea stopped and bent to pet the dog. Lucy enjoyed being scratched behind her right ear, but when Airlea reached her, the dog started growling at something behind her. Then she heard a loud crash which caused both her and the dog to jump. Something heavy and sharp hit her ankle and she yelped. Lucy whined and ran off towards the garage with her tail between her legs. Airlea looked and saw that a large clay pot had fallen from the top of one of the pillars on the  balcony.

Just then the back kitchen door flew open and Kathleen and Rosa, rushed out, followed slowly by Florentina.

“What was that?” Kathleen asked. Looking around she noticed the plant and she must have seen the shocked look on Airlea’s face. “Oh my goodness, that almost hit you.” She rushed to her side and grabbed her arm. “Are you all right?”

Airlea felt a little shaken. The pot was huge and heavy with dirt and plants. It must have weighted at least fifty pounds. If she had not stopped to pet Lucy, it would have fallen on her head.

Kathleen grabbed her arm and started walking her into the kitchen. “I don’t know how that could have fallen. I had the gardener place them up there myself. He assured me they were steady.” She walked Airlea to a chair where she sat down without saying a word. “My dear, you look like you’re in shock. Quick Rosa, get Airlea a cool glass of water.” The frail woman rushed off as Airlea’s mind ran over what could have happened had she not stopped to pet the dog.

“I – I stopped to pet Lucy.” It came out as a whisper.

“What?” Kathleen patted her hand.

“I stopped to pet Lucy. It would have hit me, but I stopped.”
 

“
Oh my! That’s it. I’m having Kenny remove all those pots from those pillars. We can place them on the ground level. I don’t know what possessed me to place them up there in the first place.”

“We’ve always had them on the balcony,” Florentina said from behind her.

“Oh, look, you’re bleeding!” Kathleen leaned down and took Airlea’s ankle in her hand. “Rosa, get the medical kit.”

Airlea looked and saw a large gash across her ankle. It didn’t look too deep and her ankle only hurt a little.

“A piece of the pot hit it.”

“Well, it doesn’t look too bad. How does your ankle feel?”

“It feels fine. Please, I don’t want to be a bother. I can clean it up myself.”

“All right.” Rosa came back and handed the medical kit to her. “If you need anything…”

“No, thank you. I’ll just go clean up.” Taking the inside stairs she made her way back to her room as the incident kept playing over and over in her mind.

D
ante was sweating for the first time in weeks and he was enjoying it. His father had moved some of his old weights from the garage into his room. Doing curls with his good arm was just one of the small pleasures he could now work on. The doctor had told him he could start lifting light weights with his bad arm, but nothing overhead.

He had spent the last hour doing sit-ups and crunches, working out his arms as much as he could, and even working on his bad leg, all with the help of Airlea. She had even given him some pointers on exercises he could do. Some of them were a little girlie, like leg lifts and some yoga moves. He felt kind of stupid doing them, but had to admit moving his body felt good. The blood flow was clearing his head and he could feel his energy level spiking.

It didn’t hurt that she was doing the moves with him. She’d moved the chair and tables aside in his room to clear enough space for them to work. She had a little pink mat she used and explained that she did yoga every day, which got him wondering if she had a little, sexy outfit she wore when she worked out.

After working out with her, he started lifting weights and she sat back and watched him. This made him want to push himself more so that by the time his sets were completed, he was happily worn out. His muscles would be killing him by tomorrow, but it was worth it. He could feel them burning now and smiled knowing she’d been watching him.

“I’m sure you are used to a more intense work out. You’ll get there. Maybe this afternoon we can go for a short walk in the yard.”

His smile faltered. He didn’t like traversing the stairs, and he was still a little shaky using the crutch to walk around with.

“
You need to get used to walking with the crutch before you move to a cane.”

“I’m not going to use that cane and I won’t limp.”

He watched as her eyebrows shot up. “Then you will need to focus on building the muscles back up around your injury. It will take practice, patience, and a lot of work.”

“I can do it.”

She smiled at him. “I’m positive you can.”

He looked into her eyes and saw that she did believe in him. He smiled back at her and realized she was the first person to believe in him wholeheartedly. Sure, his parents were proud of him, and his aunt had always told him he could do whatever he had desired, but none of them had ever looked at him like he was fully capable.

Even when he’d taken over the office in Portland, his father had sent a team of people to help him through the process. He’d ended up just being the boss’s son who wanted to look like he was doing something important. He had never truly had full power over the company, and he knew it was due to his father’s lack of faith in him.

He couldn’t really blame him. Looking back at it, he’d been just a figurehead in the company. He’d run meetings and handled important connections with high-paying clients, but the important business decisions had been left to be made by the team of people working directly under his father.

He thought about his role in his father’s business and wondered if he still wanted to work for his father. Then he looked across the room at his gorgeous physical therapist and asked,

“
Why are you doing this job?”

That question seemed to set her back. “This particular one or physical therapy?”

“Both.”

“Well, I took this job because I had recently lost mine and our mothers were friends. When they set this up, it fit my needs at the time. I became a physical therapist after one of my cousins was injured when he was eleven. When he broke his leg, I spent the whole summer helping him recover and fell in love with helping people heal.”

“Do you enjoy it?”

“Working with you?” She smiled and he nodded his head.

“When you aren’t throwing things at me, yes.”

“Why?”

“Aren’t you full of questions today? What’s this all about?”

“I’ve been thinking about going back to school. When I found out about my brother, I moved to Portland to be closer to him and my father made me head of his business there. I didn’t really enjoy the work, but it was my duty as his son. He even enlisted my mother to tell me how much they needed me there.”

“Was it something you enjoyed?”

“No.” He looked off out the doors towards the sunny fields.

“What do you want to do?”

He thought about it for a while, then answered, “Well, when I was ten I wanted to be Speed Racer.” She smiled at him and he could see the joy in her eyes. He enjoyed watching the sunlight hit her hair and wanted to touch it, to run it in his hands.

“I was going to college to become a doctor when I left school early.”

“You could always go back.”

He blinked a few times and his mind started whirling. He
could
go back to school. Being injured had only sparked his interest in medicine even more. Watching the doctors and nurses, he’d studied their every move when he’d been in the hospital and had wished to be part of their daily routine.

“Maybe I will.” For the first time in years, he was actually looking forward to something.

This was too much! She stormed away from the open doors and marched off towards the garage. Listening to Dante talk with that girl upset her even more.

Walking over to the back side of the garage, she was happy to see that Gino was already there.

“What happened? I told you to deal with her.”

“The dog was with her at the lake, and she moved right as I knocked the planter over.”

“Well, this is getting to be too much. If you can’t handle her, there is no reason I see for keeping you around.”

“I can take care of her. You hired me to do the job and I always finish my jobs.”

“You’d better. She is getting too close and I don’t like the foolishness she is filling his head with. Take care of her and do it in the next few days.”

“Why don’t you just fire her?”

“Because, you fool, if my brother says she stays, then she stays. He’s the head of the household after all. At least until Dante is ready to take over.”

Dante watched as Airlea walked across the grass towards him. The fall colors were at their peak and she looked like she belonged among the bright red and orange hues of the leaves in the trees around the yard.

He didn’t know how she’d moved into his mind so quickly, but she’d taken up permanent residence there since he’d first seen her over a week ago. Maybe it was the fact that she was the only person he interacted with that wasn’t related to him. After all, it was her job to see to his every need, and lately, he’d had more needs that only she could fill.

He’d enjoyed their little session the other night and looked for every opportunity to repeat it. He was feeling stronger every day and knew that it would only be a few more weeks before he was recovered to the point that she would think about moving on. He didn’t think that she had anything lined up after this job. She’d told him she’d lost her job in Greece, but had yet to mention if she planned on returning there afterwords.

The exercises she had planned for them today were taking a toll on his energy level. His left leg was throbbing and his head was splitting from all the pain, which only messed with his mood even more.

“Pick your leg up, Dante,” she said from across the grass.

“I am picking my damn leg up!” He stood on his good leg and teetered.

“If you fall, it will be your own fault.”

He grabbed for his crutch.