To Tuscany with Love (40 page)

“I never saw that coming.” Phillip smiled. “Hate is a kissing cousin to love, you know.”

“I had to find out,” she said, “now that we’ve forgiven each other, how I feel about you.”

“What did you decide?”

“There you are, Phillip,” Rune’s voice boomed out from behind Bella, “mind if I interrupt?” His voice was jovial, but wrinkles creased his forehead.

Of course I mind, she thought. Her last admission would be the toughest. She would bare all. Tell Phillip he had a son, a son named David. Now that would to have to wait.

“No problem,” Phillip said. “What’s up, Rune?”

“I hate to bother you, but you, ah, volunteered to help me with the cost of my surgery. It’s OK if you change your mind—it’s a boatload of dough.”

“Of course I’ll help. What do you need?” Phillip asked.

“I called to get on the schedule for surgery, since they’re booked out at least three weeks. But as I don’t have insurance, they won’t do anything until I make arrangements for payment.”

“I’ll come with you now.” Phillip rested one hand on Bella’s shoulder. “Let’s finish this after I’m done helping Rune.” He stroked her cheek. “For the record, I’m a huge fan of your testing method. I’ll come find you, OK?”

Bella nodded. Phillip followed Rune into the palazzo. Bella gazed at the sunset. The oranges had given way to a deep red, with the dark evening sky imposing on the last of the color. With a whirlwind of conflicting thoughts, Bella turned and walked toward the mansion. It was time to meet Stillman for that glass of wine and conversation.

47

B
ella saw Meghan and Giacomo sitting at a table by the espresso machine. They waved her over to join them. Lee had found them and had shared with them how she had accomplished the impossible—securing his coveted spot in the maestro’s class. They both congratulated Bella on her success.

Meghan patted Giacomo’s arm. “After we got back from Radda,” Meghan said to Bella, “Giacomo took me to meet his family. He has the cutest nephew.”

“If he’s the one I saw earlier today,” Bella said, “he is a cutie.”

Giacomo beamed. “He is like my own son. It was no surprise,” he said, gesturing to Meghan, “that he fell in love with this beautiful woman. He is very much like me in that way.” Giacomo leaned toward Meghan and kissed her cheek.

Meghan’s face flushed pink. She stood up and looked at Bella. “Please excuse us. It’s not time for dinner yet. I’m going upstairs to my room.” She held out a trembling hand to Giacomo. “Would you like to join me?”

Without a word, Giacomo stood and took Meghan’s hand. They walked, side by side, to the stairway that led to the guest rooms.

I guess that answers the question, Bella thought, of whom Meghan had chosen. She walked to the entry where she was to meet Stillman but he wasn’t there. Bella saw a folded paper on the center table with her name on it. Stillman had written the note, saying he’d be waiting for her in the library.

Approaching the second-floor library, Bella heard laughter, from Stillman and a woman. Entering the high-ceiling room, she found Hope standing near Stillman. Hope had one hand on her stomach and was wiping tears from her eyes with the other.

“It’s obvious I missed some fun,” Bella said.

“Hope was sharing some of the crazy antics of her daughter,” Stillman said. “Hilarious stories. And we started with such a serious subject, too. How did that happen?”

Hope gestured for Bella to come closer. “I pitched the movie man here on coming to Colorado. Boulder’s a breeding ground for documentary films, and I think a documentary on abuse in marriage is overdue. Somehow we veered off the subject, and next thing I knew, I was explaining exactly how Erica and her friends cheated in the Frozen Dead Guy races in Nederland.” She gave Bella a meaningful look. “You don’t really want to know how they did it. It’s nearly as disgusting as what they did in the outhouse races in another mountain town.”

Bella laughed. “No, I don’t think I want to know.” She thought of Hope’s clothing in a heap on the street. “On that other subject, where will you stay when you go home?”

“I’ll stay with my neighbor, the one who rescued my clothes. She’s a feisty widow with a spare bedroom and attitude enough for both of us. That way I can keep an eye on my house and make sure the asshole doesn’t burn it down or something. By the way, Bella,” she grinned, “you look fabulous. And with that dress on, it’s obvious I’m the third wheel. So I’m outta here. I’ll see you both later at dinner.”

Stillman gave Hope a hug and said, “Let’s talk more about your documentary idea this week. I’ve never spent much time in Colorado.”

After Hope left, Stillman offered Bella a glass of Vernaccia di San Gimignano. Toasting her glass with his, he said, “To new beginnings.” He took a swallow of the wine and then placed his glass on a nearby table. He made a show of checking her out, including having her turn in a circle so he could have a view of the back of her dress.

“Spectacular,” he said. “You are absolutely breathtaking. Come, join me on the sofa.” He retrieved his wineglass and motioned to the sofa in front of the lit fireplace.

Bella sat beside him and took a sip of wine.

“Earlier today, you were sad about not seeing David,” he said. “I have a solution. When the reunion is over, instead of you returning to New York and me to Prague, let’s go to Africa together. I’ll arrange everything. We can see David.

Maybe even take in a safari.” He gave her a meaningful nod. “It’s time for you to finally introduce me to your son.” It was as if a knobby-fingered gargoyle had clutched her throat and squeezed. She bit her bottom lip. “I don’t know if it’d be right. Maybe not yet. You and I haven’t been together for years. It’d be confusing. Complicated.”

“Shh.” Stillman’s fingertips silenced her lips. “That part about you and I not being together, well, I’d certainly love to remedy that.” He leaned forward and brushed his lips over hers. “That was objection one, the ‘confusing’ argument. And as for ‘complicated,’ it isn’t complicated at all. Coincidentally, Phillip isn’t the only one involved in charity work. I’m on the board of a foundation—which means I’m one of their major donors—and we actually fund some projects in Africa.” Stillman’s voice was calm and even. “Here.” He found a picture on his smartphone and held it out for her to look at. “Take a look at one of the projects we fund.” The picture showed the early stages of construction of some kind of building.

Bella’s throat was dry. “I don’t know if I can get away.”

“If you don’t have time for the safari this trip, we can limit our trip to seeing David.”

“He’s always so busy, telling me it’s not a good time to visit. I’d have to e-mail him first.”

“I’ve already done that.” Bella stared at him in shock. “With the Internet, it’s not hard to research people. I know a great deal about David. His clinic’s coming along nicely. See?” Stillman flipped through more pictures on his phone. When he found the one he was looking for, he held it for her to see.

It was a photograph of Stillman with his arm over David’s shoulders, standing in front of the African clinic. The background of this picture was identical to the one he had shown her of his foundation’s project. “We’re friends, you see, David and I.”

Questions pummeled her brain, but she couldn’t speak.

“It started as business, when our foundation donated the money for the clinic. After a few trips to inspect the progress, we became friends.”

“You were the anonymous donor?”

Stillman nodded, with a pleased expression on his face. “It was easy to locate him. The challenging part was waiting for a plausible reason to go visit.”

This was surreal. She blinked and looked again at the picture on Stillman’s phone. Handsome David—a younger version of Phillip—standing next to Stillman.

“I have to admit, his looks nearly cost him the donation, but I got over it.”

Bella choked.

Stillman patted her back. “Are you all right?”

Her mind reeled. “Why? Why did you do this?”

Stillman cleared his throat. His words were slow and precise. “After you turned down my proposal, I was angry and hurt. I left the States and immersed myself in work. Eventually, I wondered if you had turned me down because of David, that for some reason you were afraid to let the two of us meet. So I searched him out and then waited for an opportunity to fly to Africa and meet him.”

“Does David know our history?”

“No. I wanted him to know me without the burden of our collective past.”

Two conflicting emotions swirled inside Bella. Relief that she didn’t have to keep David hidden from Stillman any longer and fury that he had gone behind her back and basically bribed her son into liking him. Mostly, though, it was fury. “Our collective past? Quaint expression, but one that certainly doesn’t do justice to the truth. How dare you bribe my son?”

“You’re upset for only one reason. I went off on my own and made friends with your son. Phillip’s son. By the way, my dear, it’s obvious that Phillip’s still hot for you. Have you told him that you have a child and that he’s the daddy?”

A noise behind them made Bella and Stillman turn toward the doorway. Phillip stood there, ashen-faced, with a bottle of Prosecco and two glasses in his hands. Without a word, he turned and stomped down the hall.

48

B
ella raced after Phillip. She caught up with him in the garden. He had abandoned the glasses and wine nearby on the ground. Phillip faced the twinkling lights of Florence and didn’t acknowledge her when she ran up beside him. She placed her palm on his back. He stepped away from her touch.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I should have told you. But I was devastated when you dumped me. And so very angry. I didn’t want you to be with me merely because I was pregnant. I was too damn proud for that.” Tears tumbled out of her eyes. “I hated you for abandoning me, for abandoning us.”

Phillip didn’t move and didn’t speak.

“What you did to me pales in comparison, though, to my sins. I kept your son from you and wronged both of you in the process. It’s inexcusable, but please don’t take it out on David. He is your son, and although it should have happened years ago, he deserves to know his father.”

Still facing the horizon, Phillip asked, “What’s he like?”

“Handsome. Intelligent. Motivated. Athletic, generous, caring, and quick-witted. He’s like his father. Like you.”

“If I hadn’t been there to eavesdrop, would you have told me?”

Bella moved to stand between Phillip and the retaining wall he faced, blocking his view of Florence.

“Yes. I came to Italy to tell you about him, about everything.”

He gazed into her eyes, but she couldn’t read them. “Why did you kiss me?” Phillip asked.

“Because, damn you, every touch and every look from you took me back to that weekend in Castellina, and I wanted to love you all over again. I had to find out, by kissing you, if it was real or my imagination.”

“And?”

Bella nestled his face in her hands and kissed him like it was their last night together, which, for all she knew, it was. Never again would she be too proud to fight for someone she loved. Her pride thirty years ago had cost them all too dearly. She pulled away first.

“I love you,” she said. “I never stopped loving you, even when I hated you more than anyone on Earth, I still loved you.”

“What about Stillman?”

She looked him squarely in the eye. Bella was done with lying. “Do you remember when the two of you asked me to choose between you?”

He nodded.

“I couldn’t, because I was attracted to you both. Well, the truth is, I know now that I love you both.”

His eyes lowered.

With one hand under his chin, she lifted his face and made him look at her. “I love you both, but in different ways. I knew that thirty years ago, and it’s still true. It’s you that I want to be with, and spend my life with. Only you. That’s why I kissed you. I needed to know if that was still true, and it is.”

Phillip’s lips slowly broke into a smile. Then he wrapped his arms around her and there, under a sky filled with stars and the lights of Florence on the horizon, he kissed her, and thirty years of time and mistakes fell away.