Where Beauty Lies (Sophia and Ava London) (27 page)

The glasses of the hundred guests all clinked and a cheer went up and Ava turned to Sophia and said, “Is this real? Because I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy in my life.”

“Me either,” Sophia said. She bit her lip. “We should toast the Contessa. I can’t believe we didn’t plan ahead.”

“Do not worry,
stella mia,
” Giovanni said from Sophia’s other side. “That is a toast I will happily make.” He kissed Sophia’s hand and stood.

Sophia looked at him, marveling at the revelations of the last twelve hours. The Contessa had been responsible for his mysterious appearance in Whitney’s hospital room, having sent him there to pick the girls up and bring them to the studio to prep for the show.

He’d whisked them into his Rolls-Royce, and on the way from the hospital to the studio, between kisses, had explained to Sophia that his father had died and he’d inherited the title.

“All at once, I have lost a parent, and my life as I had it,” he’d said. “I do not complain. It is fun, eh, to be the count? Of course. The houses, the vineyard, the boat, the tinier boat, the horses,” he’d said. “Nice. But also I must tell you, it is a lot of work. I think maybe we sell them all but first you come and see and then we can decide.” Ava told Sophia afterward that she’d blushed when he said that, but Sophia didn’t remember. Didn’t remember his words exactly because he’d been looking into her eyes as he spoke and all she was aware of was the feeling that a piece of her she’d been keeping locked away was suddenly free. A piece she hadn’t even realized that she had been hiding, but which now she knew was the crucial, vital piece. The part of her heart that Giovanni had taken months earlier and that was now fluttering like a baby bird just learning to fly.

He smiled down at her now as he clinked his glass for silence and began his toast.

“Five months ago, I met the woman of my dreams. Incredible this one was, you can’t believe it. And also not hard on the eyes,” he said. “But then I was very fast forced by sad circumstances to leave, without saying goodbye. My father in Italy, he dies, and for months afterward my life is upside down. I become the count, something I hoped would happen only when I had gray hairs growing out of my ears.” He shook his head. “So I go to Italy, I lose the girl, my father, my life, everything. I am very sad. And one day I get a phone call from my father’s favorite sister. He always called her Zuzu so for me she is Aunt Zuzu. Even when he is dying, my father talks about Zuzu and almost his final words to me are, ‘When Zuzu calls you to service, you go and no questions. She is crazy like an entire asylum of lunatics, but she has her reasons. Not once has she ever sent me wrong.’ I say, ‘Yes, Father—I mean, to one who is dying that is what you say. And also I figure Zuzu has never called me, why would this happen now? But…” He shook his head ruefully.

“Of course she calls and orders me to New York on such a date at such a time because she has the girl for me to marry, and I say, Auntie, I do not wish—and she says none of the blah blah, you will come. I will fix everything. And if you do not come you will regret it for the rest of your life, I swear on your father’s soul.” He hit himself on the forehead. “What am I supposed to do? So I say, Yes of course, Auntie, my father’s soul, but tell me about this girl. And she says, You will find out about her when you come and meet her. All you need to know now is that she is perfect girl for you, and you two will be very happy couple.”

He leaned forward. “Meantime also I am thinking my father must have been nuts.”

“So here I come to New York to meet the girl. And this morning I go to the appointment and I see a girl and I think my aunt is right. She is perfect. She is the girl for me. Because in fact, she
is
the girl of my dreams from before. The same one. But”—he put a finger in the air—“she is not the girl my aunt has picked.”

A noise like a tiger growling came from the Contessa’s end of the table. “So I make the tiny error. Tiny.” She held up her thumb and forefinger a millimeter apart.

“It is just important to point out that you are not always correct,” Giovanni said. “For my future happiness.”

“Bah your happiness. Look at you.” The Contessa whipped a hand toward him. “There is no question of it. Please stop talking and kiss her already, it is what we want to see.”

“Maybe that I can obey,” he said, and did.

As the rest of the room resumed their conversations, Giovanni put his arm around Sophia and said in a low voice, “I think you will like being the girlfriend of a count very much. I am glad I have something to share with you now. If I was still in my old life, I would not be such good boyfriend material.”

“What do you mean?”

He smiled sheepishly and shrugged a broad shoulder. “I have always had deep feelings for you,
stella
. I could not bring myself to tell you because I was…”

“Because you were what?”

“You know, just a bartender.”

“Wait a minute—
just
a bartender? Is that really what you thought, Giovanni? That it made any difference to me whether you were a count or a bartender or an astronaut or a sheepherder?”

“You don’t seem to understand. Perhaps I say it wrong. What I mean is that you are a very beautiful woman, and you deserve a man who will give you a good life.”

“But a good life has nothing to do with money, Giovanni. I always liked you for
you
. Love has nothing to do with money or someone’s title or what they do for a living. It’s about the person, and I’ve always loved the person you are. We just had some very bad timing.”

Giovanni put his hand to his heart. “
Stella mia,
I didn’t think this would be possible. But I have just fallen even deeper in love with you.” He leaned in and gave her a soft kiss on the forehead. “Now I know you are beautiful both inside and out.”

It was a half hour later, after the toasts were done and people were mingling, when Sophia saw Ava waving to her urgently. Excusing herself from the group of AS girls she was talking to, Sophia crossed the floor to see what was so important.

“Lucille is here,” Ava said, taking her by the hand. “She watched the show on the webcast at home, but she came here now. She’s in the manager’s office and she’s demanding to see us both.”

“Is she angry?”

“It’s Lucille,” Ava said. “How can you tell?”

They found her at the front of the restaurant, her wheelchair parked next to the wide fireplace with a crackling blaze in it. “We didn’t think you would come,” Sophia said when they reached her.

“I’m only here for a moment, I’m not staying,” Lucille answered sharply.

“It’s Cuddles, isn’t it?” Ava said seriously, scratching the dog’s head. “He made you come.”

Lucille smiled ruefully. “No. Not this time. The truth is—I wanted to introduce you to someone.”

She sounded almost nervous, not like any version of Lucille they’d ever encountered before. She gestured behind her and Ava and Sophia saw that there were two women standing there, one about Lucille’s age and the other closer to theirs. “This is my sister, Carlotta,” Lucille said, pointing to the older woman. “And this is my great-niece, Francesca.”

Carlotta put out her hand to shake theirs and then said, “I’m sorry, I need to hug you,” and did. When she pulled away there were tears in her eyes. “Thank you. If it weren’t for you, Lucille would never have called me.”

“They haven’t spoken in forty years,” Francesca, said.

“Why?” Ava asked.

“I was stubborn,” Lucille said, patting Cuddles. “I was waiting for Carlotta to apologize for something and when she didn’t, I wrote her off.”

“What was she supposed to apologize for?” Sophia wanted to know.

Carlotta gave a small smile. “Being happy.”

“Running off with a scoundrel I didn’t approve of,” Lucille elaborated. “Against my better judgment.” She cleared her throat and said in a slightly quieter voice, “Which turned out to be wrong.”

Francesca leaned toward the Londons to confide, “I think that was the real issue. Aunt Lucille did not like being wrong.”

“Bah.” Lucille waved that away. “When did you young people get so smart, that is what I want to know.” She growled it, but her eyes were sparkling.

Ava gave a little giggle but Sophia worked to keep her smile back as she asked, “How did we bring you back together after forty years?”

“Carlotta is the person who gives out accreditations for Fashion Week,” Lucille explained. “I wanted to help you—”

“So she swallowed her pride and called me,” Carlotta finished her sister’s sentence, the way that Ava and Sophia finished each other’s. “Finally.”

“You did that for
us
?” Ava said. “Why?”

“Because you two bring out what is good in people. You make everyone want to be better versions of themselves. Even an old cynic with a heart as black as pitch like myself.” Lucille leaned forward and both her voice and her expression softened. “It’s a rare gift. Don’t lose it, and don’t squander it.” Then she leaned back and said in her regular gravelly voice, “And of course it was good for my business. Your line is selling like hotcakes.”

“Of course.” Sophia nodded seriously. She bent to hug Lucille, taking advantage of the proximity to whisper, “There’s a tear on your cheek.”

“Don’t you dare tell anyone,” Lucille whispered back.

Sophia pulled away and smiled at the woman. “You know me far better than that.”

“Thank you,” Ava said when she’d hugged Lucille, too. “For saving us again.”

Lucille looked at Carlotta and Francesca. She took a deep breath and said, “Actually I think this time you saved me.”

They refused to stay, but everyone else did, and it was nearly midnight before Giovanni was able to get Sophia alone. He grabbed her on her way between two tables and said, “I have to tell you a secret.”

He led her onto the patio, where heaters had been set up. It was beautifully still and the pure white expanse of the snow-covered lake glowed in the moonlight.

“What’s your secret?” she asked, laughing.

“I want to tell you my favorite part of today,” he said. “Besides, when I knocked Hunter out with the tray.”

“That was very exciting,” Sophia granted.

“And the part where you got so angry with me for leaving and not telling you that you stamped your foot and your hair came lose and you looked like one of the Furies.”

Sophia made a face. “That wasn’t my favorite part.”

He spent a moment gazing at her, his hand on her cheek. “My favorite part,” he said, “was when you and Ava walked out on the stage at the end of your show. It was amazing. Of course you do not need me to tell you, the applause, the reviews, the orders, say this alone. But I look at you, so beautiful and talented, so wise and kind—” He stopped.

“Yes?” Sophia asked.

“Madonna,
stella mia,
how you make my heart roar to deserve you. I think a lot about what you said, that you would have loved me even if I was not a count. And I realize that even though I am a count now, that is still not enough. I must still work every day to be worthy of you.”

The breath caught in Sophia’s throat. She had just heard words she had been longing for her whole life without knowing it.

“So that was my favorite part of the show. Knowing I would spend the rest of my life working to be a good man, because that is what you deserve.”

She felt like someone had just tapped her on the shoulder and shown her an entire world of possibility that had been right inside her all along but invisible. There, waiting for her to see it.

She was ready.

There was a knock on the glass door behind them and Lily appeared, pointing at her wrist. “It’s time,” she said, grinning. “Let’s go.”

LonDOs

Lily

MM

Sven

Sam

Lucille Rexford

The Contessa

Toma

Giovanni

Popcorn

Charming

My
sister

My sister

The AS Girls

Whitney Frost

Elnett Hairspray

Pomegranate Mocktinis

Warm little cheese puffs

Boys who make you feel like you’re breathing for the first time

Midnight surprises

LonDON’Ts

Listening to doubters

Being too stubborn

Forgetting to breathe

epilogue

i’ll take madhattan

“Why do I have to be blindfolded?” Ava asked. “Where are we going? You know it’s cold outside. This coat isn’t very warm.”

“Do you want me to get a gag?” Lily asked. They were in the backseat of Giovanni’s Rolls, with Ava sandwiched between them. Everyone else had gone ahead because they were a little late.

“No,” Ava said. “I—”

“I wasn’t asking you,” Lily told her.

“Not yet,” Sophia said. “We’ll see if she improves.”

“Wait, Sophia, you’re here too? What’s going on? Where are we—”

“We might need a gag,” Sophia said.

“I’ll be quiet,” Ava said. “Although if you’d just— Never mind.”

The car stopped and Ava felt herself being led down a pathway and through some doors. There was noise, a bunch of different voices, but nothing she recognized. Then Lily sat her on a hard seat that felt like it had been covered in carpet.

“Take off your shoes,” Lily ordered.

“If I do I probably won’t be able to get them back on because my feet are so tired so, unless—” Suddenly her mouth was full of something that tasted a lot like chocolate cake.

“Keep talking, toots, and next time it will be socks,” Lily said in her ear. “I’m not messing around.”

Lily pulled her shoes off and she felt her feet being bent into … ice skates?

“You know, it’s not safe to ice skate blindfolded,” she said. No one answered. “Hello?” Nothing.

Was she supposed to do something? Had they forgotten about her? Maybe she should take off the blindfold. She was reaching for it when a voice said, “Hands down.”