Walking from the kitchen, I rubbed my forehead, just wanting to lie down. “I will listen to your babble later.”
“No more, Angelo. Let her in.”
My brows bunched as I stopped walking. “I have. Look what I’m doing for her.”
His jaw locked. “I’ve grown up by your side. That makes me an Angelo expert.”
“Well, you sure don’t sound like one right now.”
“Oh yeah? Then explain what happened in there.”
I was getting aggravated. “You were there. You saw. I helped her with a nightmare.”
“You. Shut. Down.”
My hands opened and closed. “What are you talking about?”
“You care for her.”
I gestured. “As do you!”
“Not like that, Angelo. Not like that. I see a damaged girl. You see life.”
My eyes blinked in dismay. “Can you please get to your point? I want to sleep.”
Sal adjusted his stance and planted those bare feet as if preparing for battle. “You don’t think you are good enough for her—”
“I’m not!” I froze when my response registered.
Sal pointed. “And there it is.”
My eyes slid shut. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Oh, it is, my friend.”
I gripped the back of the couch. “What I meant is, I am doing what I am being paid to do.”
“Yes, and you are superb at your job, but there is also the fact that you are falling for her.”
“She just reminds me of her mother, that is all.”
“And we’re back to running.”
“I’m not running!” I started to pace, trying to calm myself.
“Zeta was wrong, Angelo.”
That name set my nerves afire. “She has nothing to do with this.”
“She was a bitch who knew nothing of our line of work.”
“She didn’t have to. She doesn’t even have to work. She’s in the class of Giordanos. One I will never belong to.”
“Scarlett isn’t.”
“Now, who is insane?” I pointed to her bedroom. “She is Italian royalty.”
“She is a woman who cares nothing about such things.”
I yelled, “We don’t know that yet! She has so much to learn!”
“Her lack of education has nothing to do with the beautiful soul inside her, and you know it.”
I sneered, “How do we know that being born a Giordano hasn’t snuffed out many beautiful souls, Sal? Most of them seem like assholes to me.”
He took a step back, his mouth gaping. “You’re afraid.”
My own mouth opened. It closed. Opened again.
“Angelo, you have not let one woman in your heart since Noemi.”
“I have fucked plenty.”
“Never looking them in the eye.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because you have never fucked a woman without me by your side.”
I was a thirty-one-year-old man who had never laid with a woman without his best friend fucking her, too. “It doesn’t matter. Neither of us will ever be fucking Scarlett. When the coast is clear, we are to take her to her family. We are dispensable employees.” I walked toward my room. “That is something you need to remember.”
Even after paying another month of rent for the home, Sal and I had plenty of cash stowed away. All there was to do was to protect and focus on Scarlett. We all sighed when her bandages were removed, for good. It felt like we were succeeding in protecting her. No new physical scars would be made
Once her stomach started accepting more types of foods, she spent a lot of time with Sal in the kitchen. I told myself I was fine with that because Scarlett being entertained kept her away from me. I hoped twenty feet of distance would help sever the tie I had to her. So, when I turned a corner and saw her in his lap, his feet propped on the coffee table like he was a king, it shouldn’t have bothered me.
Naïve, Scarlett innocently waved. “Angel! A book!” And pointed. “Sal is reading it to me!”
I had been the one to show her the house’s small library—a bookcase of books. But it was Sal who was reaping the rewards, totally forgetting my crucial advice for him to remember he is merely an employee.
I shouldn’t have been jealous.
But I was.
Burying deeper into my heart, Scarlett looked absolutely adorable, trying to imitate my flaring nostrils. Letting her go, when it was time, was going to wound me.
Sal, poking fun at my glare, just smiled. “Angelo! Who was I to say no?”
Needing space and to get away from the beauty in Sal’s lap, I walked out the side French doors for some fresh air, all the way mumbling, “You hardheaded fool. You will get us killed.”
On the suspended balcony, a cool breeze rushed over me. I inhaled and leaned my elbows on the railing, begging for clarity.
I heard the door open behind me but didn’t hear Sal’s heavy shoes. I didn’t even hear her bare feet pattering. She was so quiet. I only knew it was her when I saw her delicate arm reach out next to me, wanting to touch the mountain view. “I have never seen a mountain up close before.”
Before us, all she had seen up close was cruelty… Now she’s seeing up close a man trying to ignore her because she was capturing his heart.
“Have you?” she asked, her voice sounding more womanly than I preferred because I wanted to hear that voice for the rest of my life.
Life… That fucker got me again. “Yes.” I sighed. “Yes, I have. Different countries. Different mountains.” All while searching for you.
“Maybe I will get to see them with you someday.”
That will never be, Giordano Princess. You will soon be homebound. And I will have to watch you marry and live a life—Life. “You will see Italy’s soon enough.”
As soon as I returned her home, I was going to give a sincere apology to Isabella and let Sal take the reins of Scarlett’s security so I could start a life I was permitted to live. “Go back to Sal, Scarlett. Go finish the book.”
Time kept passing by with no word or sign from Italy. Sal and I were still running on little sleep due to waking at every little noise, along with caring for Scarlett during her nightmares. That’s why, if either of us held still long enough to watch TV with Scarlett, we usually fell asleep.
One evening, I woke on the couch to her sniffling. She had been in one of the captain’s chairs—which blew her mind and Sal’s theory of a non-moving chair—but was now sitting on the floor beside me. “Scarlett? You okay?”
It was dark, with only the glow of the TV shining against her perfect face. Her knees were to her chest. She wiped under her slender nose then pointed to the TV. She was watching Dumbo. It was the part when the mother elephant, in captivity, was cradling Dumbo within her large trunk that had slid through the bars of her cage.
Facing us, Sal was sleeping in the other captain’s chair as Scarlett began to softly hum along with the song, “Baby of Mine.”
As more of her tears dripped, my spirit cried in remorse for all she had lost. This was no longer a child in a woman’s body. This was a mother wanting her son.