I awoke with a start as something shrieked just above our heads. It was only an owl, but the strange surroundings had me momentarily grasping for reason. Paulo, too, had stiffened violently at the night bird's call, and we both sat up, staring at each other in shock.
"What time is it?" I whispered, my voice still trying to catch up with the fact that I was awake. I rubbed my hands up and down my arms, trying to warm them; my clothes were slightly damp from the heavy night air. Isa was right; the weather was shifting and the winter rains would be here soon. The moon hung low in the sky, still full and bright, but nowhere near where it had been the last I remembered.
Paulo pulled out his cellphone and made a distressed sound in the back of his throat. "It is nearly 3 o'clock in the morning, Ani. I must get you home." In a flash, he'd leapt over the side of the truck and was reaching up to help me down. Not waiting for me to use my crutches, he scooped me up in his arms and deposited me, rather unceremoniously, on the passenger seat of the cab. I tried not to laugh at his obvious concern, but he was being a little over the top about it, I thought. When he'd returned the wheelchair to the truck bed, he climbed in behind the wheel, tucked the blanket around my legs without even asking if I wanted it, then explained gruffly, "It is cold and the heater in my truck does not work well. You will have to sit close to me to be warm."
"Oh. Well." I poked him gently in the ribs. "I suppose we'll have to suffer through that, won't we?"
He only grunted, started the truck, and stepped on the gas, the front wheels spinning a little on the gravel before the truck surged forward, leaving a billowing cloud of dust in our wake.
"Hey. It's okay," I said, laying a soothing hand on his forearm. "I don't have a curfew."
"It is not okay, Ani," he countered firmly. "I have kept you out much too late. I do not want you to get sick again, and I do not want your hosts to think of you... that you and I.... I have taken advantage of their hospitality by keeping you out so late."
"It's okay," I repeated, frowning over how upset he was over this. "Claudia told me they'd leave the back terrace door open for me if I got in late. I'll just sneak in quietly and no one will even know what time I got in. It'll be fine."
He turned to look at me, his own brow furrowed in frustration. "And what if they forgot to leave it open? What then, Ani?"
"Then we'll apologize profusely and humbly to whomever opens the door, be a little embarrassed, then you'll go home to your bed and I'll go crawl in mine."
He snorted. It wasn't a funny sound.
"Paulo. Really? I don't understand why you're so worked up over this." I was beginning to feel a little defensive now and I wasn't sure why. "I mean, it was an innocent mistake. It's not like we've been out all night partying. I think our mothers would both be proud of the way we behaved with each other today."
We'd reached the driveway and he slowed significantly, the sound of the tires on the gravel obnoxiously loud. We pulled in next to Gerardo and Isa's Fiat and he turned off the engine. I could see a soft glow behind the shutters of my bedroom window, but other than that, the house looked dark. We sat in the ensuing stillness, neither of us speaking for several minutes.
"Listen," Paulo finally began, sliding an arm around me and pulling me up against him. "It does not matter what we have been doing all night. What matters is that I have brought you home too late and have risked your reputation with the Lazzaro family. What matters is that I have not been responsible for you. That I have not been careful to protect you."
"Protect me from what?" I asked, trying not to laugh. I leaned back enough to be able to look him in the face. I smoothed the hair back from his forehead and kissed the tip of his nose. "We're not kids, Paulo. They're not going to send me to my room." I smirked. "Well, actually, I hope they do, because it's super late and I'm tired." By the look on his face, he didn't think I was funny. "I'm sorry," I murmured. "I just think you're worrying too much about nothing."
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.