The Year of Luminous Love (31 page)

Ciana returned to the villa early, unable to get into the camaraderie of the evening. As usual, Eden chose to stay with Garret. Ciana parked and came inside, hoping that Arie had gone to bed earlier, but that wasn’t the case.

Arie sat on the low sofa bench, wrapped in her pink fuzzy bathrobe and painting her toenails. “Hey,” she said to Ciana. “Want a cup of hot tea with me?”

Ciana felt awkward alone with Arie, still unable to manage her unresolved feelings toward both Arie and Jon. “No tea,” she said. “Think I’ll just head upstairs.”

She’d only taken a few steps when Arie said, “Wait. Please. Sit down and talk to me. I … I know something’s wrong between us, Ciana, and it’s eating me up.”

Ciana halted, Arie’s plea ice-picking its way through her feelings. In all their years of friendship, they’d never had such a chasm between them. Ciana knew that the current rabbit hole was all hers. Self-consciously she sat, propping her boots on the cocktail table. “Sorry, I just have a lot of things on my mind.”

“Tell me. I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve done something to upset you. You’re my best friend.” Arie screwed the top back on the nail polish bottle, taking her time, wanting to say what was in her heart. “Before you came along, no one wanted to befriend the ‘sick girl.’ You held that fund-raiser in fifth grade and … and helped my family. And then you became my friend. So now I … I hate thinking we’re not in harmony. Please tell me how I can fix things.”

This was Ciana’s moment to come clean, to tell Arie the truth about her and Jon. Ciana watched Arie’s face, saw the dark circles under her eyes, the planes and angles that made her skin look too tightly stretched over her cheekbones. Emotion clogged Ciana’s throat. She realized she couldn’t tell Arie
the truth. She simply couldn’t. So she dredged up a lesser matter, certainly a true one, but not nearly so paramount. “Jon told me that some developer was looking to build a subdivision in my end of the county. That’s why Mom wants to sell Bellmeade. Some adjoining farmers have already agreed.”

“And that’s what’s been troubling you?” Arie sounded as if she wanted to believe Ciana but wasn’t quite convinced. “I thought you were mad at me.”

“No,” Ciana lied.

Arie heaved a sigh of relief. “I thought you weren’t going to let this problem get the better of you when there’s nothing you can do about it while you’re in Italy.”

“Guess I have, though. Plus I’m homesick,” Ciana added in a flash of inspiration. “I miss home. My land, my horse. Stupid, huh? I’m all grown up. You’d think I’d have gotten over homesickness. But it’s a fact.”

Arie smiled. “Not stupid. Honestly, I’ve missed home too. Mom, Dad, Eric—”

“Your three hundred closest relatives,” Ciana interrupted, flashing a wry grin and with it, a peace offering.

Arie laughed and relaxed, looking as if a weight had been lifted off her.

“Let’s think about where we should go next. Milan? Naples?”

“Cities at opposite ends of Italy. We should wait for Eden.” Ciana rose from her chair. “I think I’ll have that cup of tea now.” She went into the kitchen, realizing that if she went off to Portofino with Enzo, she wouldn’t be going anywhere with Arie and Eden. Enzo would want her answer about the trip when she saw him, and Ciana still wasn’t sure what she was going to tell him. A few days of being pampered and loved by Enzo might flush Jon Mercer out of her heart for good.

“Thank you for talking to me,” Arie called out as Ciana found a cup and a tea bag and turned on the burner under the kettle. “I’m glad you’re not angry at me, because our friendship truly means the world to me.”

Ciana answered, “Me too.” It was true. She couldn’t allow anything to break up her and Arie’s lifelong friendship. The kettle screeched, and as an afterthought she added, “As for your birthday, sure, I was disappointed, but you’ll have another one next year.”

Arie didn’t answer, so Ciana chalked it up to not having said it loud enough for Arie to hear over the whistling kettle.

After the group broke up for the evening, Garret took Eden to his closet-sized room over the coffee shop.

Eden balked when she saw the unmade bed that seemed to dominate the space. “Maybe we shouldn’t come here.”

“No place else to talk where it’s warm. And while I’d like to jump your bones, I promise I won’t.” Garret waggled his eyebrows comically. He motioned her toward one of two straight-back chairs. “Some wine?” He opened a tiny cupboard.

“No more wine,” she told him.

Garret dragged his chair so that he was facing Eden and straddled it backward. “I want to ask you something important. And I want to see your face when you answer.”

“No pressure,” she said, feeling her pulse rate shoot up.

“I care for you, Eden. A lot.” He searched her face. “Join us on our walkabout.”

Her heart beat faster. “An interesting idea.”

“More than that. You see, the others will eventually peel off and move on to other things. Tom and Lorna are already
talking about going home. But not me. I want to see the world. All of it. I want to go to India, see the Taj Mahal. I want to go to China and walk along the Great Wall. I want to sign on to a sailing boat and go to Bali. I’d like to walk in the rain forests of the Amazon.”

“Wow. Ambitious.” In truth, his idea appealed to her.

“These are no small journeys. It costs to travel, but I have an employer. An Aussie travel magazine. I write a column called ‘Travel on the Cheap.’ I email the pieces and photographs every few weeks and they pay me. Not a lot, but some to help on expenses. There’s talk of syndicating my pieces, which will mean more money.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You sneaky bloke!”

He shrugged, laughing. “I told you when we met that I was keeping journals.”

“But you kept your job in the café.”

“Work in my travels helps me write better articles. You know, get under the surface of everyday life. It’s what the editors want. It’s what sets my articles apart.” He took a deep breath, skewered her with his gaze. “I want you to see the world with me.”

“Me?” He was asking for more than a walkabout.

“I don’t want to leave you behind, Eden. I don’t want you returning to the States. I want you with me because if you don’t come now, our chance will be gone. You’ll fly back to your world and I’ll be here in mine. We’ll be two voyagers with an ocean between us. If you’re with me, I have a chance of you falling for me. If you decide you want to dump me, you can fly straight home at any time. It will break my heart, but I’ll let you go. At the very least you’ll have some adventures and see some great places.”

Unexpected tears filled her eyes. All of her past mistakes tumbled through her head. “There’s stuff you don’t know about me, Garret.”

“Not sure I care. Person can’t change the past, you know. It’s over. Move on.”

She reached out to touch his arm resting along the back of the chair. “Seeing the world could take a lifetime.”

“I know. But I love you. And I want you to love me too.”

She blinked through the mist gathered in her eyes. “And you think constant togetherness will make a difference?” Tony had made her feel claustrophobic, smothered. She never wanted to be so trapped again.

“Well, I expect it might take some time—charming as I am.”

The word
love
scared her. “I … I have my friends. They expect—”

“They’re good eggs. They’ll send you my way with a smile and a shove.”

Eden thought he was correct with his assumption. Ciana and Arie both would be happy for her. “Let me talk to them. I have nothing for camping or clothes—”

He beamed her a room-brightening smile. “No problem. Sigrid wants to go home to Sweden. I’ll get her gear for you. We’ll pick up clothing along the way.”

“This is going so fast.” Eden’s head was swimming.

“We’re all supposed to meet at noon by the fountain day after tomorrow. I’ll wait for you there. And please want to come with me, Eden. It’ll be a lonely road without you.”

She studied his blue eyes, her decision already made. “I’ll be there.”

“You will?”

“Don’t look so surprised. I want to see the world too.”

He kissed her deeply, then pulled away. “Now let’s get you home, before I beg you to stay.”

She followed him into the cold, moonless night, where overhead a million stars spread out against the sky like unfulfilled promises yet to keep.

Autumn rain in Tuscany kept Ciana and her friends inside their villa all the next day. Ciana rattled around the place, knowing that Enzo was coming for a visit later that evening. Her nerves were bowstring tight, because she’d have to answer his invitation and her head and heart were at war about her answer. One minute, she wanted to go. The next, she didn’t.

At lunch, over platters of pasta, Eden dropped her bombshell about joining Garret.

“You won’t come home with us?” Arie asked, incredulous. “What about seeing your mother?”

“What about it? I’ve never had a mother like yours, Arie, and you know it.”

With a trace of sarcasm, Ciana asked, “So what will you do? Send her a farewell postcard?”

Eden had weighed her options all night long. Now she asked, “What’s waiting for me in Tennessee? Memories of living with a dead drug dealer? A bipolar mother? Some deadend job?”

“You have us,” Arie said.

“And you’ll both start college in January. New lives. Why should I go back? Makes perfect sense to stay in Europe and tag along with Garret. I like it over here. Traveling and seeing the world sounds like a blast to me.”

Arie asked, “Do you love him?”

“Why should that matter? The journey is about travel, not about love.” Eden dodged discussing her feelings for Garret. She’d been fooled before by love, or rather, the illusion of love.

Arie shrugged. “Call me old-fashioned, but I think you should be in love with him before trotting off around the world with him.”

“Why? Can’t we just have a good time with each other?”

Ciana kept her silence.

“I’ll be fine.”

Ciana, ever the practical one, asked, “What about money? You haven’t got any.”

“I’ll work. I’ve held a job before. Garret says businesses like to hire English-speaking workers.”

“What if you don’t like the travel?”

“Ciana, part of the fun of this trip is not knowing what will happen. It’s called an adventure. I don’t have any other plans for my life. I’m going.”

“But … but …” Arie looked troubled. “I—we—might not see you again.”

“I’ll come home eventually. Maybe.” Eden took Arie’s hand and squeezed it. “And I’ll send you postcards from the ends of the earth and keep in touch on Facebook.”

Arie didn’t seem mollified. She seemed pensive.

“Aren’t you happy for me, Arie?” Eden asked.

Arie looked up quickly, offering a half smile. “I’m happy for you. It’s just that I’ll miss you. Back home.”

“We’ve been together almost three months. Aren’t you sick of my company yet?”

Ciana began clearing the table, too antsy to remain sitting. “What about your stuff? Your clothes and souvenirs?”

“I’ll pack up a bag for you to haul onto the plane for me. If you’ll be so kind. I’ll pack some things to take with me. The leftovers I’ll leave here. I’m not attached to any of it.”

Arie looked especially sad, and Eden couldn’t figure why, but her mind was made up. By tomorrow afternoon, she would be with Garret and heading into the rest of her life. Rain or shine.