All the Way to Heaven

Chapter 44

His lips pressed together tightly for just a moment, then he said, "I am not worrying too much, Ani. I have seen the way Cosimo Lazzaro looks at you." He didn't sound polite when he said Cosimo's name and I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

"So? Cosimo Lazzaro has no claim on me whatsoever."

"You are his guest, Ani!"

"Actually, I'm a guest of the family. I'm Cosimo's patient." I wanted to shake him. Hard. "Not his girlfriend."

"Even so, I do not want him to think you are the kind of girl who will stay out all night with a man." He remained unyielding. "He has made his intentions toward you very clear."

"His intentions? He's a flirt, Paulo. There's nothing between us. If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times. Flirting is a national pastime in Italy, right?" Granted, I was much more clear about Cosimo's intentions now than I had been a few days ago, but that was water under the bridge as far as I was concerned. I deeply regretted letting him kiss me now, but I'd been a bit off kilter and I'd allowed him to take advantage of that.

"It is just an excuse for people to behave disrespectfully. You do not understand Italian men, Ani," his sighed exasperatedly. "You think flirting is a national pastime here? Well, so is jealousy. We are like animals marking out territory, and we do not like it when another animal gets too close to what is ours."

"Wow. You don't give me much credit, do you?" I muttered, not liking how crass he made things sound. "Or yourself, for that matter."

"Ani, please. You do not understand. I have not behaved responsibly. Not protected—"

"I'm not as helpless as I look," I interrupted. "Even with this stupid broken leg." I tried to pull away from him, but he wouldn't let me, his arm tightening around my back, his fingers curling possessively around my hipbone. "You're not responsible for me, Paulo. I can protect myself just fine. I don't need you to take care of me."

He stiffened and I was immediately ashamed of my words. Need it or not, I craved what he was offering me as a man—to stand by me, for me, and between me and any who would malign me. I was really more sad than angry, though; sad that this day, this glorious day, was going to end like this.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, pressing my forehead to his neck, knowing words spilled could not be taken back. "I shouldn't have said that. I love that you want to protect me. I just think... I think you're worrying too much about this situation."

He took a deep breath and lifted my face to his. "Perhaps you are right, Ani. And perhaps I am right. But we will not know sitting here arguing in the truck while it grows even later."

"Right." I smiled gently.

"So we will kiss and make up, and then we will go face whatever awaits us together, okay?" He brought his hand up to cup my face.

"Yes. To all of it. Starting with the kissing part." I closed my eyes and sighed, my body relaxing into the circle of his embrace.

A few minutes later, he was wheeling me along in the chair, Margarite's nearly empty basket on my lap, my crutches braced precariously on top. The wheels trundled along like an ox cart on the path, rattling the crutches together no matter how firmly I held them, and even our whispers seemed amplified, bouncing back at us off the stone walls of the house. Someone had left a low light on in the kitchen, and between the swath spilled through the panes of the French doors and the still bright glow of the moon overhead, we didn't have too much difficulty finding our way.

When we reached the three short steps leading up to the terrace, Paulo turned my chair around. "Lean back," he instructed, quietly. I did so without hesitating, laying my head back and smiling up at him as he carefully bumped me backward up the steps.

"Hey," I whispered.

"Hey," he echoed, grinning down at me.

"You're pretty amazing, you know that?"

He set the two front wheels of my chair down carefully, hardly jostling me at all, then came around in front of me, hands on the armrests, bending down so his face was only inches from mine. "Amazing is good. But do I still surprise you?"

"I would be really, really, really surprised if you kissed me right now," I giggled, reaching up to grab the scruff of his collar to pull him toward me.

"So you finally decided to bring my guest home."

The voice that rose up out of the darkness sent all romantic notions charging out of my head on the heels of my screech. I twisted in my chair and my crutches clattered to the stone terrace beside me. Paulo straightened and stepped purposefully around me, placing himself between me and the man who moved into the light from the kitchen.