The Year of Luminous Love (27 page)

Arie was a jangle of nerves in the airport waiting area with Eden. “He should be here by now.”

“Give it rest or you’ll combust. You know it takes a while to get through customs.”

Arie asked, “Haven’t you ever wanted anything so bad that it hurt?”

“I have,” Eden confessed, knowing that Arie’s adoration of Jon should have been expected. The girl had longed for a boyfriend all through high school. What didn’t make sense was Eden’s suspicion that something was going on with Ciana, an undercurrent she felt after Arie’s bombshell about Jon coming for her birthday. Ciana wasn’t the kind of person to begrudge Arie—especially Arie—anything.
Puzzling
.

Just then the doors from the inner terminal slid open and arriving passengers poured into the waiting area. Arie stood on tiptoe, searching the crowds for Jon, her heart pounding with anticipation. When she saw him emerge, she rushed forward, wanting to throw her arms around him, but suddenly she became self-conscious. Maybe he didn’t want her to hug him.
Jon grinned down at her and hugged her first. Relieved, she returned his hug enthusiastically.

“Nice to see you,” Eden said from behind Arie.

Jon gave Eden a friendly squeeze too. He glanced around. “Didn’t three of you come to Italy?”

“Ciana’s waiting at our hotel,” Arie said. “Come on, we’ll take you there.”

“I didn’t get reservations at your hotel,” Jon said.

“We’ll take you to your place afterward,” Eden said. Her sharp eyes hadn’t missed his momentary disappointment over Ciana’s absence. “I know Ciana’s anxious to see you.”

“Let’s go.” His voice and expression were noncommittal.

Arie hooked her arm through Jon’s. His other hand gripped a worn leather duffel. Eden followed, watching the two of them carefully. Arie was obviously in heaven. Jon was a question mark.

Ciana had showered and applied makeup. She was standing on the suite’s balcony when she heard the door open and Arie call, “Hey, girlfriend, guess who’s here?”

Ciana took a deep breath and reminded herself to smile and stay calm. She turned just as the threesome walked onto the balcony. With an ease that shook her, Jon’s gaze found hers. Her breath caught as his green eyes lit up her heart.

He came forward, hands in his jean pockets, and looked her up and down. “Howdy.”

“Buon giorno,”
she returned in her best Italian.

“That the way people say ‘howdy’ over here?”

Ciana nodded. “And ‘good day.’ I think the language is pretty. Don’t you?”

His green eyes held hers. “Italy looks good on you, Ciana.” He slid his arms around her, pulled her close.

He smelled of leather and spice and Tennessee. Home. She closed her eyes and forced down a lump in her throat and pushed away. “You must be tired.”

“I slept on the plane.”

“No one sleeps on the plane,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“I did.” He flashed Ciana a heart-melting smile. “I just slid my hat over my eyes and zoned out. Next thing I knew, the pilot was talking about landing in Rome.”

Just then the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” Eden said.

“It’s room service,” Ciana said. “I ordered up some goodies, coffee and sodas.”

“Thoughtful of you,” Eden said, scoping out Ciana’s body language. Then she felt the undercurrent once again.

Arie breezed in from her bedroom, where she’d brushed her blond hair and applied fresh lipstick. Her face glowed whenever she looked at Jon. Having him at arm’s length was intoxicating.

Room service set up the delivery on a small table on the balcony, which overlooked the busy street below and the hills surrounding Rome far in the distance. Ciana had ordered olives, prosciutto-wrapped melon balls, bruschetta and marinara sauce, and hot espresso that Arie rejected. “Too strong for me.”

Jon looked over the food tray. “No salsa and chips?”

They laughed. “Try it,” Ciana said. “It’s good.”

“So what’s going on in the boonies?” Eden asked, skittish about asking yet anxious to know whether Tony was hunting her. If he was, she wouldn’t go home again, an option she hadn’t discussed with her friends. She could take a job in Italy. Somehow she’d manage to get one, perhaps here in Rome.

Jon sipped his espresso, then set down the cup. “That’s part
of the reason I came over. To talk to you and tell you some things that went on after you left.”

Arie’s sense of exclusiveness over his visit dulled. “What things? I email my folks all the time and they never mentioned anything unusual.”

“It was agreed that nothing would be said until you all came home, but now that I’m here, I can tell you face to face.”

Eden’s stomach went queasy. “What’s happened?”

“Tony didn’t take to your running off. Mean bastard, you know.”

“I know.”

Jon leveled a look at Eden. “The night you left, he paid a visit to your mother.”

Eden’s heart seized. She and her mother had a prickly relationship, but she’d never have wished Tony on Gwen. “Is … is she all right?”

“She left town.”

“Not surprised.”

“But not before she sent him down a rabbit trail. Told him you’d gone to Greece via Nashville International and only had a short head start.” Jon chewed an olive. “That took guts, lying to him with a straight face. He knocked her around but took off after you all, thinking he was only miles behind you and you were driving Ciana’s blue truck.”

“And my mother? Was she hurt?” Eden’s voice quivered.

“We don’t think so. Before leaving, she called your mother and yours”—his gaze bounced between Arie and Ciana—“and warned them. It gave them time to prepare.”

Ciana dug her nails into her palms. “But they’re all right?”

“It was ugly for a while.” Jon grimaced. “Tony came back when he realized your mother had pulled a fast one and was gone. He trashed your house, Eden.”

Tears brimmed in Eden’s eyes. She’d never loved the place, but it had been her home all her life. “But Mom got away?”

Jon nodded.

“What about
our
families?” Arie asked, feeling betrayed that her parents hadn’t mentioned a single thing about what had happened. She wasn’t a child! They should have told her.

The corners of Jon’s mouth lifted in a smile. He looked at Arie. “Your family really stepped up to the plate. Round-the-clock guards on your property. Someone on your front porch all night long. Tony made the mistake of driving by late one night, stuck a gun out his car window. Guy on your porch took out two tires in the dark. The car went away and didn’t come back.”

Arie nodded. “That’d be my uncle Cecil. He was once an army sniper, and he hunts every season. Why, he can shoot the eye out of a wild turkey at two hundred yards.”

Jon, looking respectful, said, “I’m thinking Tony and his goons figured that out.”

“What about my mother?” Ciana asked. Alice Faye was no match for Tony. “What about Bellmeade?”

“She’s a Beauchamp,” Jon said matter-of-factly. “Cops protected her and your farm.”

Intuiting there was more to the story than he wasn’t telling her, Ciana asked, “And you?”

“He stopped by one night with his posse for a short visit. Knocked me around.”

“Why you?” Ciana asked, feeling queasy.

“I guess he thought I knew something about your leaving because I trained Arie’s horse. Guy was crazy.”

“Did he hurt you?” Arie asked, her voice trembling.

“I ride broncs. I can take a few licks. That and Pickins showed up with a shotgun to persuade them to leave,” Jon said with another wry smile.

Ciana sagged with relief. Jon and their families were guiltless and hadn’t deserved Tony’s wrath for something she had engineered.

“So Mom and I have no house to come back to?” Eden’s heart filled with hate for Tony.

“But you do. Arie’s kin fixed the place up.” He looked at Arie. “Your dad and brother mostly. They didn’t want Eden coming home to a mess.”

An act of kindness. Except for Ciana, no one ever had treated her with pure kindness. She closed her eyes as tears swelled. “And Tony? Did he leave all of you alone after that?”

“That’s another reason I came to talk to you face to face. You don’t have to worry about Tony anymore. He’s dead.”

Dead
. Jon’s last word hung in the air. No one moved.
Dead
. Ciana and Arie cut their eyes to Eden, who looked ghostly white. Jon asked, “You okay?”

Eden’s mind spun backward in time, to days less chilling, to when she’d loved Tony and had walked on clouds feeling safe and secure, loved and wanted. He had been her first love, her first and only lover. And he’d morphed into a stranger, a possessive, controlling, demanding, and selfish tyrant who dealt drugs and hurt people, perhaps even had some killed. She let go of the finer memories, let them tatter and tear in the wind of regret that blew through her head in the fine bright sunlight of Italy. “I’m sorry he’s dead,” she said in a soft voice. “But I’m glad everybody back home is safe.”

Fearful one of her relatives had taken him out and gotten caught, Arie asked, “How did he die?”

“Drug deal gone bad. In Memphis. And his goons with him. A cartel from Mexico, according to the cops. Didn’t like him pushing into their territory. There was a big shoot-out. By the
time the Memphis cops arrived, six men were dead, including Tony. Story made all the papers and national television news.”

Jon’s soft Southern drawl smoothed over the words, the ugliness of the images planted in Eden’s mind. Tony had died as he’d lived—on the edge. And from the scene inside her head, Garret’s face emerged, his unruly head of curly hair, blue eyes, and charming smile. Another chance. “So now Windemere is safe for all,” Eden said under her breath.

“It is from Tony.”

“I’m sorry you got roughed up, Jon.” She stood. “Think I’ll hang in the bedroom for a while.”

Filled with concern, Arie watched her leave.

Ciana announced, “I’m glad he’s gone. Tony took part of her life.”

Arie shot Ciana a disapproving look, then rose from her chair. “I’ll be right back,” she said, and headed off to be with Eden.

Arie knocked lightly on Eden’s closed door. Not waiting for an invitation to enter, she eased inside. Eden sat on the bed, shoulders drooping, staring at the wall. She was dry-eyed. Arie eased onto the bed beside her. “Talk to me.”

“I’m okay,” Eden said. “You don’t have to stay with me. Go out there and be with Jon.”

“I will in a minute. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

What Eden was thinking was how the shoot-out might have gone down. She heard phantom explosions and saw Tony’s body ripped by bullets. “I’m thinking that I’ve seen too many Hollywood movies about how people die.” Eden patted Arie’s hand. “Don’t worry about me.” Without warning, Eden broke down and began to cry.

Arie slipped her arm around her friend and held her tight while her tears flowed.

Alone with Jon, Ciana shrugged. “Guess I’m not being sensitive, huh?”

“His dying didn’t upset me that much either. He hurt people.”

She crossed to the rail of the balcony, and Jon followed. He braced his forearms on the railing, leaned outward, his face toward the distant hills. “What do you think of Italy?” she asked, changing the topic.