“Sorry to disappoint you,” she says as she buckles herself in. “But I don’t have my brother’s taste in cars.”
“No, it’s a relief,” I tell her. I don’t even know what kind of model hers is, it just looks old and reliable. “This is a car I can relate to. I can’t relate to Claudio’s collection. I feel like a bull in a china shop.”
“I know that expression,” she says as we quickly reverse out of the driveway and onto the narrow road, the rear of the car nearly smashing into the chapel, but we stop at the last minute. She drives like her brother, though. “Except the china isn’t worth a million dollars.”
My eyes nearly bug out of my head. “His cars are worth a million?”
“Not all, but that one is,” she says, gesturing to the Ferrari out front as we leave Villa Rosa in a plume of dust.
“Wow,” I say, unable to wrap my head around it.
“My brother is very successful, yes?” she says, smiling at me. “I can see from your expression you weren’t sure how much.”
“No,” I say shaking my head. “I mean, I know he’s successful. That is obvious. It’s just … that’s a lot of money. He never seems to, well, give off the impression that he has that much.”
“That is part of his charm, I suppose,” she muses. “But that doesn’t mean other people don’t know. A lot of women have thrown themselves at him, do you know that?”
A hot coal of jealousy flares up inside me.
I swallow. “I can imagine.”
My mind goes back to Marika, to Angelina. Who knows what other gorgeous women are out there that have tried in vain to win Claudio’s heart?
“They throw themselves at him, because they know he is rich,” she goes on. “They are gold diggers, a lot of them. Or they fall in love with the idea of falling in love with an artist.” She lets out a dry laugh. “Little do they know, but loving an artist isn’t so easy. Of course, some say he is handsome too, but that is not for me to comment on.”
I feel her eyes on me briefly, something on her mind.
She adds, “But these women, they don’t have my brother’s best interest at heart. You see, he’s a very open person and I’m always so worried when I see them going after him. I don’t want him to get hurt.”
“I’m sure he takes care of himself,” I say quietly.
“He does. Doesn’t mean I don’t worry.”
I give her a look. “Well, I can assure you that I’m not one of those girls. His money means nothing to me. As for him being an artist, well it just means we have something in common.”
I’m not about to add that I find her brother ridiculously hot and that the sex is absolutely wild.
She observes me for a moment, then brings her eyes back to the road, nodding. “I know that. I can tell. I just wanted to make sure.”
“Is that why you’re taking me out?”
“Yes,” she admits, no qualms in being honest. “But also, I want to get to know you. You mean so much to my brother and, well, I just wanted to welcome you into the family.”
I stiffen up at that.
“What is it?” she asks me.
“Not everyone in the family knows,” I tell her. “Your parents do, and you do, and I’m sure your sisters do.”
“I am sure everyone on Elba knows as well,” she adds.
“Right. But there are two people who don’t. One is Jana.”
Now it’s time for her to go stiff. “She is not part of the family.”
“Not to you, but she is to Vanni. And Vanni is the other person. We haven’t told either of them. We’ve been putting it off because it’s just so new and, until now, it was just a vacation romance. We didn’t know if we would have a future together. But now we have to tell them. I just don’t think either of them are going to like it.”
Maria starts to laugh. Her laugh is a lot like Claudio’s, loud and boisterous and taking up space. If I wasn’t so confused, I’d probably find it infectious.
“What?”
“Nothing. I’m just picturing Jana’s reaction. Okay. Let us just get some drinks first, shall we?”
To my surprise, she doesn’t take me to the walled city of Lucca, but to the space just beyond it, parking beside a restaurant that overlooks the Serchio River. We get a table outside overlooking the water, and the