Sudden Legacy (22 page)

“Yours will be the only reason to come to port at all,
Chérie,”
he murmured softly. Just then my tears spilled over and ran silently down my cheek. He kissed them away. “These tears,” he whispered, “These tears will start me crying too. It is you who insists on leaving, Lara.” His voice cracked, betraying his emotions. I clung tightly to him, letting myself go, and sobbing into his chest. “Shhhh. Shhhhh,” he tried to soothe me, though I could hear his own tears in his voice. “We will see each other again soon. I am coming to your American Thanksgiving, remember? And let us not forget the Oscars.” I half giggled at his mollifications.

Reaching down to the waistband of my shorts, I released the small carabiner holding my mother’s little bear. “Here.” I sniffled, handing him the tattered key fob. “I want you to hang on to Gus for me.”

Surprise lit Julien’s eyes. “You are giving me your little traveling companion?”

I shook my head. “Not forever. Just until I come back for him.”

Julien accepted Gus with great reverence. “Thank you,
Chérie
. I will take diligent care of him.” He set Gus atop his cellphone on the nightstand and turned back to me with a soft smile. “Now, let us not waste the short time we have left. I intend to memorize every square centimeter of your beautiful body before you go.”

I rewarded him with a watery smile and pulled him down to meet my kiss.

It was early afternoon when we touched down in Perugia. The flight had been roughly thirteen hours, and coupled with the nine-hour time difference, we had essentially lost a day.

There was a bevy of people awaiting our arrival. I marveled at the organized chaos unfolding around me as bags were taken and paperwork attended to. Watching the efficient way Julien’s staff handled each task made me wonder how they would handle a crisis. What would they have done if the four of us hadn’t taken a Disney cruise to Mexico last year, and consequentially didn’t have up-to-date passports? As the customs agent waved us thorough with deference I had a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn’t have been too challenging a problem.

The last time I had traveled to Europe I had had the pleasure of waiting in countless lines and hauling my own heavy bag through the terminals. I much preferred Julien’s way of doing things. Yeah, money can’t buy you happiness, but it sure does make travel easier.

We were headed for Julien’s family estate in Terni. The drive would be around an hour. Nan and Pops took the first car with Dr. Fleischman, Mr. Martin and Signore Passarelli. They would stop in Pantalla to let Dr. Fleischman off, then catch up to us in Terni. I was to ride with Julien and Alex. Noting that a car seat had been installed in the back seat of our sedan, I took the seat next to Alex while Julien settled into the front passenger seat.

Alex wasn’t in the car five minutes before he fell into a jet-lagged coma. His face lolled against the side of his car seat, his curls damp with sweat. For the most part we rode in silence, due to a combination of shyness in front of the driver and nerves over what lay ahead. I settled into my seat and watched the beautiful countryside pass by out the window. Alex was still asleep when we pulled off the road onto a private drive. The car idled quietly as we waited for a pair of tall iron gates to open and let us in, then it purred up the driveway, coming to a stop in front of a large villa.

It was clear the prodigal son had been expected. No sooner had the driver cut the engine than the great front door opened and several people came spilling out down the stairs to greet us. Most of the welcoming committee was in uniform and swarmed around the backs of the vehicles to spirit away our luggage. Julien flashed me a reassuring smile and opened his door. He was immediately engulfed by a stocky Italian woman, hugging him tightly to her ample bosom, tears of joy glistening on her sun-weathered face.
“Nipote mio!”
she chanted as she gripped him like a vice, her voice sounding muffled to me through the barrier of the window.

A beautiful dark haired woman stood just behind them watching the reunion with a watery smile. Julien’s mother. I knew Julien had spoken to his mother, but I wasn’t sure exactly what he had told her about us. Obviously he had told her about Alex. And about being shot as well I assumed based on his teary reception and the way his mother was gesturing to his arm. Suddenly the three of them turned toward me as one. I smiled shyly and opened my door, sparing a glance at Alex to see if he was still sleeping. He was.

Julien extricated himself from the women and reached out to me, pulling me close beside him and keeping his arm around my waist. “
Maman
,
Nonna
Vera, I would like you to meet Lara.” He looked down at me then. “Lara, this is my mother, Élodie, and my
Nonna
Vera.” I loved the way their names sounded on Julien’s tongue;
Aay-low-dee
and
Nonna Vedda.
I smiled again and offered Élodie my hand. She took it with a warm, firm squeeze, a welcoming smile on her pretty lips that reflected a delighted curiosity in her beautiful cornflower blue eyes. “
Enchanté,
” she said. Next I turned to Nonna Vera. She also took my hand, but rather than shake it, she pulled me from Julien’s side into a fierce hug. Finally releasing me just before I blacked out due to a lack of oxygen, she cupped my cheeks in her warm hands and crooned unintelligible things to me in Italian.

A uniformed man was watching my exuberant welcoming. When I caught his eye he smiled at me and inclined his head in a show of deference. In a heavily accented voice he asked, “The child? Would you like me to take the child?”

Both Élodie and Nonna Vera looked past me into the car, rapt with wonder. Alex stirred, as if sensing the extra eyes on him, but he didn’t wake. He shifted his head from one side of the car seat to the other, his damp curls framing the cherubic curve of his cheek. I could tell from their awestruck faces that both women wanted to scoop Alex into their arms, but they remained still, neither wanting to breach the sanctity of a sleeping child.

“I will take him.” Julien’s voice cut through the fog of maternal lust. “I don’t want him to become startled, waking up in a stranger’s arms.” Élodie and Nonna Vera nodded and watched as Julien deftly unclipped the car seat restraints and lifted Alex onto his shoulder. They studied my son’s beautiful face as if trying to commit him to memory and comparing his dark lashes and pink bow lips with the specter of the toddler Julien once was. Clearly they found him to be a startling match. Nonna Vera said something in hushed Italian, and Élodie answered her with equal reverence, “Yes, just like him.”

“We readied a room in the east wing,
mon fils.
I thought you would want him near.” We followed Julien up the steps to the villa like obedient ducklings. The entry hall was a grand, circular, two-story room in a warm colored stone. Rather than seeming ostentatious it felt welcoming and homey. Julien walked easily through the house, intent on delivering Alex to his waiting bed. I kept pace with him, my eyes darting around rapidly trying to take in my surroundings. Our small caravan came to a halt in an upstairs hallway. Élodie opened a door and stepped aside to allow Julien to pass through into the suite.

It was a long room with several large, arched, floor to ceiling windows along the far wall. The bedding on the four-poster queen sized bed was a cornflower blue that reminded me of Élodie’s eyes. A door at one end of the room opened into a bathroom. Élodie gestured toward a closed door in the wall opposite the bathroom. “This connects to your suite, Lara.” I smiled and nodded in gratitude.

Julien gently placed Alex on the bed, hovering over him a moment in case he should wake. When it was obvious that the boy was still in deep slumber Julien grabbed two pillows from the head of the bed and placed them on either side of Alex’s little body to serve as bumpers in case he rolled in his sleep. I smiled at the act. Julien was such a natural father. I noticed Élodie and Nonna Vera share a look. They too were enjoying watching Julien with his son. Julien straightened and began turning towards us when two small metal vehicles on the nightstand caught his attention. He plucked one up and ran his thumb over the details of the door.

“We thought Alex might like to play with them. They were your favorites,” Élodie said softly.

Julien smiled and flicked a nail over a tire, sending it spinning. They were old toys - a car and a truck - sturdy and unbreakable, if not a little sharper and more sinister looking than their modern American counterparts. “I remember. I’m sure he’ll love them.” He set the car back on the nightstand and turned his attention to me. “Come, Lara, I’ll show you your room. I’ll leave the door open so we can hear Alex when he wakes.”

We exchanged pleasantries with Élodie and Nonna Vera and they left us to ourselves.

“I am there, just across the hall from you. And Nan and Pops will be there, next door down.” He indicated the door and turned a shy smile on me. “I hope you don’t mind the separate quarters.”

I shrugged, trying to downplay my disappointment. “I’ll wear thick socks to keep myself warm.”

Julien chuckled and pulled me into a tender kiss. “Or wear nothing, and
I
will keep you warm. The separate rooms are just a show of respect because we are not married.” He paused for a beat with his eyebrows raised expectantly. “But I am more than happy to brave the dark hallway at night to keep you at a comfortable temperature.”

I put my hand on the knob to his bedroom. “This is your room?” He nodded. “Since you were a kid?” He nodded again.

“Since I was a boy of ten or so, though it looks a good deal different now than it did then.”

I pressed the handle down and pushed his door open. He waved me in ahead of him, leaving the door open in case Alex should wake.

Julien’s room was tasteful and understated. I didn’t know what I had been expecting, but somehow I wasn’t surprised. It was masculine and unfussy, but comfortable and beautiful at the same time - like the man.

The room was clean, which I would expect in a house with a full staff, but it was conspicuously void of clutter or personal touches. His writing desk was neat and tidy with a leather cornered blotting tablet centered on top. The dresser held only a small framed black and white picture of Élodie and a man that could only be Julien’s father based on the strong resemblance. The sole piece of art on the wall was a beautiful oil nude done in earth tones to match the bedding. The nightstand held a small reading lamp, a vintage inspired alarm clock, and... Gus? I gasped.

“Gus!” I scurried over to the nightstand and grabbed the threadbare little bear. “I can’t believe you still have him! You kept him all this time.”

Julien crossed over to me by the nightstand. “Of course I kept him. I said I would. You were supposed to come back for him, remember?
Tu es en retard.
”

My surprise and excitement over his having kept my little bear seemed to hurt him.

Gently he cupped my face in his palm. “I called you, Lara. I must have left a dozen messages those first few weeks. I told you about my father’s stroke, how much I missed you, and how devastated I was to be missing your American Thanksgiving.” He ran his thumb softly across my cheek. “I was hurt and confused when you never returned my calls.”

I could feel tears threatening, but I blinked them back. “Why did you come to my house? After thinking I rejected you, why show up like you did?”

He smiled shyly and shrugged a bit to give the impression of being aloof even though we both knew he was anything but. “It is one thing to ignore my phone messages
Chérie
. It is another thing entirely to ignore me in the flesh, no?”

I couldn’t argue with that.

“I was in the country for business anyway, and it was a small matter to find you. I had to fly under the radar for a few days, remember? It was my plan to sweep you off your feet, and, failing that, at least understand why you had been so quick to change your mind about us.” He looked away for a moment, then returned his bright green eyes to my face, a hint of sadness in their depths. “You haunted me, Lara. When things had finally settled down at work, and at home, it was fear of rejection more than anything that kept me from coming. Being so near and having a few days of freedom was too perfect to be a coincidence. It gave me the courage I needed to finally face you again. If I had only known-” His breath hitched, but he quickly got himself under control. “I hate myself for my cowardice. If I had come sooner I would have known about Alex right away!”