Renzo (The Ciprianos of Kellington) (11 page)

“Hello, son, I was
showing Jaslyn some of the family photos,” Filomena said flipping another page
as Jaslyn looked on.

He went to sit down on
the loveseat, but his mother said, “Come sit with us for a while.”

“Um, why, Mom? It seems
like you two are enjoying looking at the pictures.”

“But these are pictures
of you, Ren. I especially like this one of you when you were a cute, chubby
little guy.” Jaslyn giggled. Gianni, Simone, and Federico guffawed at his
distress.

“Mom, did you have to
show her the family pictures?” he asked with a groan.

“Oh it wasn’t your mom.
I found this myself while exploring the house. I brought the albums over to
your mom and we just started flipping through. This is the fourth one I’ve
seen. You were a cute kid, Ren, cute and chubby-dubby.”

“I think I’ll go and
grab something to eat in the kitchen.” He walked out of the room full of
snickering to the comforts of the kitchen.

“I’ll be back,” Jaslyn
told Filomena with a wink, getting up from the couch and approaching the men.
“I don’t know why you guys are smiling.
I haven’t gotten to
your pictures…at least not yet.”
Giving Simone a playful punch in the
stomach as she headed to the kitchen, where she found Renzo plating up food.

She came over to him
and sat down on the chair at the island. “You know I was just picking on you.”

“Whatever, you were
enjoying it way too much. Did she show you the picture of me when I was in the
tub as a baby?”

“You have naked baby
tub pictures, no way? Oh, this I got to see.” She smiled quickly getting up to
head back to where his family was. But she found herself stopped dead in her
tracks when he snatched her into his arms. He started to laugh. “Well at least
I got you to smile for a moment instead of being embarrassed, hell my mom does
it too—” His lips joined her own to shut off the rest of what she was going to
say. God, his lips are amazing, she thought, feeling his tongue devouring her mouth.
His arms held her so tightly it felt like she was going to faint from lack of
air.

“I’ve wanted to give
you that kiss all damn day.” Softly he kissed the tip of her nose along with
her forehead. The touch of his lips sent heat through her body.

“Did you mean
everything you told me over the phone earlier today?” She didn’t need an answer
for his smile told her that he meant it. To reassure her, he kissed her once
more to seal the deal. Never had she felt such love by a man, it didn’t seem
real to her. Ever since she met this man, her life was coming undone. She
didn’t know whether it would be for the best or for the worse, but she was
willing to chance it. If she was going to be happy, Jaslyn knew he had to know
her story. “Ren, is there somewhere we can go and talk?”

“We can talk right here
in the kitchen,” he said. When she pointed toward the door, he realized his
brothers had been watching them the entire time, smiling and grinning.

“You know you guys are
horrible for spying on us. Come on,
Ren,
lead the way
because we need to talk.” As she passed the guys, she saw Filomena coming up
the hall spouting something in Italian and the boys followed her back into
living room. All she could do was laugh as Ren pulled her down the hallway.
They came to a door and he dug in his pocket, pulling out a key. “Why do you
have a key to this door?”

“Well this is my room,
plus we all have keys to our rooms here for when we come and visit.” Unlocking
the door, he let her go in first as she walked into a darkened room. He went
over toward the wall and clicked on the light. She saw a king size bed nicely
done up in colors of red, gold, and brown. The whole room reflected
masculinity. “Come sit over here, next to the fireplace.”

Putting two logs in the
fireplace, he added kindling in between and below them. Next, he lit the match
to ignite the kindling. Once the logs started to catch and the flames started
to grow, he added another log to the fire. Soon a nice roaring fire ensued and
after a couple of minutes, he put the fire screen up. He looked over at her
sitting in his antique red arm chair and sat down on the ottoman in front of
her. Holding her hand he said, “All right, we are here all alone, and you have
my undivided attention.”

Just breathe,
sweetheart, she could hear her father telling her and being a daddy’s girl, she
did exactly as told. It seemed to do the trick and she felt a bit better when
she looked back into his eyes. “I think before anything more happens between
us, I need to tell you about myself and what I’ve been through before I came to
this town.”

Renzo watched her try
to talk.

“When I was in New
York, I was doing really well with my antiques…just like here. I really enjoyed
going to parties and meeting new people. I honestly wasn’t looking for a
relationship because my job was my first love. Then one night I went to a party
one of my clients was giving over in the Village. There I met Gerald—tall,
dark, and handsome. He reminded me of Tyson Bedford. I didn’t pay him much mind
because I was interested in getting new clients. But, he would purposely bump
into me with the same stupid line, ‘We really need to stop bumping into each
other like this, you know.’ By the fifth time I told him, ‘You know what you’re
right we need to stop bumping into each other like this.’ That was our first
conversation and instead of me looking for clients, I ended up chatting it up
with him. He was smooth that man was, and then he asked me out on a date. He
wined and dined me. It was probably the best first date I had in years. He
treated me like a princess. After that, he would come to my shop and take me
out to lunch. He was a photographer and did a lot of model shoots. Sometimes
his work was even published in Cosmo and Vogue. He also had photos on display
in some of his friends’ art galleries in the Village and Manhattan. Sometimes
he would take pictures of me working at the shop.” Jaslyn smiled remembering
those first couple of months they were together but then the smile slowly
departed from her lips.

“What, Jaslyn, tell me
what happened?”

Her throat got so dry
and she found it hard to swallow. She let out another deep sigh before talking
again. “We were dating for about six months when the beatings started. At first,
I thought maybe he was angry because he wasn’t selling much of his work. It
started with the name calling, and worked up to belittling me in front of my
friends as well as some of my customers. Then the physical part came with
slapping me in the face so hard sometimes it would knock me down on the floor.
When we were out, he had me sit right next to him. Whenever we were in the
clubs, he had my arm underneath the table in a vice and would wring it so
hard.”

Renzo looked down as he
watched her mimicking the way he had done it. It was too heartbreaking to see.
He closed his eyes for a moment. “No, don’t close your eyes, Renzo. I don’t
want you to close your eyes. You’ve got to see so you can know.”

He looked back at her
nodding. He took her hands once more in his, rubbing her knuckles with his
fingers. “Also, I didn’t mention he had moved into my place at the time. He
didn’t want me going out unless I went out with him. The only time I could go
out anywhere was to work and if I went to work, I had to come back home after I
closed up. He would put me down to the point I felt I couldn’t do anything
without him. I was dependent on him for everything and I didn’t want to make
him angry with me.

“He would punch my
body, never my face except for when he slapped me. I would wear long-sleeve
shirts and blouses during the summer instead of wearing dresses and short-sleeve
shirts like I normally would. My parents and brother started asking me
questions. They knew something was wrong. But I would deny anything was wrong,
telling them it was all in their heads and everything was fine. But it soon all
came to a head. I was late coming home. I had been dealing with calls nonstop
that day with a new big client. I completely lost track of time and forgot to
call to let him know I would be a couple of minutes late. When I got home, he
was on me as soon as I walked in the door. He made assumptions I had been off
sleeping with another man and that’s why I was late. I kept telling him that
wasn’t the case but he wasn’t listening.”

Tears cascaded down her
cheeks in streams as she relived the moment. The sobs began to hurt her chest.
Renzo grabbed hold of her while she continued crying.

“You don’t have to say
another word please, Jaslyn, I hate hearing you like this,” Renzo pleaded. She
fought against him holding her.

“No, I’ve got to keep
going, Ren. No matter what I’ve got to keep telling you,” Jaslyn demanded. He
quickly got up, motioning her to wait a minute. He walked into the adjoining
bathroom and she heard water running. He came back with a washcloth and handed
it to her. She wiped her face with the warm wet cloth. “Thank you.” She smiled
while a soft sigh escaped from her lips. “He ended up beating me up so badly I
woke up in the hospital. I was in a coma for two weeks. My neighbors had heard
my screams and called the cops. By the time they got there, I was a bloody mess
and Gerald was gone. When I had woken up, they asked me who did this. I
couldn’t speak because I had a breathing tube, so I wrote it down even though
my hand was in a cast. It took about two months to find him. During that time I
had physical therapy to walk again, which had been painful as well as hard.
When they had him in custody, he denied ever beating me, but the neighbors told
them that for months they had heard us getting into arguments and such. Why
they didn’t call sooner I will never know, but it took them hearing me
screaming to call. We ended up going to court and that was the hardest time I
had ever had to spend in front of him. He would try and stare me down when it
came for me to talk. I was still using a wheelchair even though I was able to
walk. He only ended up getting a year in a half in jail and five years
probation.”

“A year in a half, how
in the hell could that had happened after making you go through so much?”

Jaslyn could only shake
her head. She could never understand why he got so little time. “He ended up
being released after about eight months, which angered my family and friends,
especially my brother who wanted to kill him with his bare hands. I pleaded
with him not to go do anything to him. We had to move on and I did just that. I
couldn’t let what happen get to me anymore. My brother decided to not pursue
it. One of his friends had a different idea. Harry and I grew up together and
he always thought of me like a little sister. He helped me while I was in
therapy by taking me out to eat or bringing me food when I was too tired. Harry
had plans of his own to make things right. One day, the cops came to my
mother’s house questioning me as Gerald was missing. They said it looked like
there was a fight in his apartment since most of his things were thrown around.
Plus they figured he had been beaten because there was blood. I told them no
because I honestly didn’t know a thing. They questioned all of my friends and
my brother, but no one knew anything.”

“By this time I was
walking with the help of a cane. They did heat massages and other things to
help with the pain since I couldn’t take the medicine. It wasn’t until about
five months later they had found him dead miles outside of town. He had been
beaten up so badly they had to identify him by his dental records. He had been
shot ten times. I went into a state of shock, ending up having a nervous
breakdown to the point that I couldn’t talk for days. My mom took me to a
center where I underwent private counseling for three months. It was there I
gradually healed. I had never endured anything so intense in my entire life,
but it made me a stronger person, both mentally as well as physically. So now
you know my story.”

* * * *

All Renzo could do was
marvel at the woman sitting before him. She indeed had been through hell and
back again. His little dove was a strong woman to contend with, but deep down
when he looked into her eyes he knew that there was love there to give as well
as to receive. He knew he wanted to be the one to give it to her, to put a
smile on her face every day, to make every day with him a pleasant one. Sitting
up on his knees in front of her, he wrapped his arms around her waist moving
her closer to him as she stared down at him with those beautiful eyes. “I know
that you have been through so much, but I think we both have been through a
lot. I haven’t been through as much as you have, but we’ve both been through a
lot with our significant others in the past. I care a great deal about you,
Jaslyn
darling,
I have to admit that I’ve fallen for
you hard.”

“How can you say that?”

“I know it seems
farfetched that I could be falling in love with you. But when you meet the one
person that will make your life complete, you feel it in your heart. You start
to think about that person every second of the day, every little thing around
you reminds you of them. That’s how I’ve felt about you since the day I walked
into your shop and I honestly haven’t stopped wanting to be with you. You have
to be one of the strongest women I’ve ever met, next to Mom. I think that’s
what drew me to you…besides your beauty…it was your strength. I wanted to show
you that even though you’ve built up such strength, you can still love and someone
can love you for who you really are. I want to be the one to love you, Jaslyn.
I want to show you that even with all the gossip you’ve heard about me and my
brothers, it isn’t true about me. My brothers, I have to admit are somewhat
still set in their ways, especially Gianni and Federico. But for me, I have
only wanted one woman in my life.”