Turn Towards the Sun (42 page)

So he knows about the article? He was interviewed? How did all of this happen so quickly? Where’s my phone?

“Ciao amore. You’re awake?”

“Yes, I’m awake, and reading the lifestyle page in the paper.”

He laughs. “Oh so you saw the article about us?”

“I did. How did they get all of this information so quickly?”

“I told them. I called before we left Italy.”

“Why? I thought you hated being in the gossip pages.”

“This
isn’t gossip or speculation. It’s true and I wanted everyone to know the commitment I’ve made to
you,
and that I am in love. I would expect that going forward, after the wedding of course, I won’t be very interesting anymore.”

“Very smart Enzo.”

“I have my moments. I’ll be home in about an hour then I have some things I want to discuss with you.”

“I’ll be here.”

“Good. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if you weren’t.”

“I’m here. I always will be.”

“Promise?” I hear a glimmer of laughter in his voice.

“Promise. And I always keep my promises.”

“Brava, ciao amore.”

“Ciao.”

I wonder what he wants to talk
about,
but I have a feeling it will be wedding related. If I know Enzo at all, and I think I do, he will want this to happen quickly. I need to call Cassie and my parents and talk through all of this with them.

“Ava! Hi!” Cassie’s boundless energy bursts through the phone lines.

“Cassie, are you sitting down?”

“Uh yea. What’s going on?”

“He proposed.”

I pull the phone from my ear as Cassie screams at the top of her lungs.

“Are you freaking kidding me? He proposed? Oh my God Ava. Oh my God.”

I laugh.
“I’m not kidding. He proposed two nights ago in Italy. It was very romantic of course. And unexpected.”

“Tell me you said yes and didn’t freak out or anything.”

“I said yes. I didn’t even hesitate.”

“Oh my God Ava. This is so exciting. I’m coming out to help you plan. I want to be with you every moment of this.”

I immediately start crying. “Cassie I’m so happy. I can’t believe this is happening. We moved into the amazing house where my birthday party was. I just can’t get over how different my life is now. I didn’t expect or plan for anything like this.”

“How could you plan for this? This is what life should be like, full of wonderful surprises. You moved to Phoenix to reboot your life. I would say this falls into the Epic Win category. You deserve this Ava, do you hear me? You deserve this. You know you deserve him right?”

I stop crying and let her question sink in. “Yes, Cassie. I know I deserve him.”

“Ava I’m so happy for you. Not only that you have an amazing man
who
loves you,
but also
that you realize you deserve this happiness. You’ve come a long way baby.”

“Thanks Cass. I’ll call you once I know what the plan is okay.”

“I’ll clear my schedule for you girl, you know that.”

“Yes, I know that. Love you girl.”

“Back at ya.”

I wipe tears from my face as I prepare to call my parents, knowing I’ll just end up crying again.

“Hi mom.”

“Ava oh sweetie.” My mom immediately bursts into tears.

“Is dad home? I want you both on the phone.”

“Let me get him. Edward!” I hear her voice call out for my dad.

“Hey baby girl.”

I feel tears forming in my eyes. “I just wanted to call and tell you both about everything that happened. Enzo
proposed,
and I said yes.”

My mom is sobbing openly at this point. Dad takes over.

“We know dear. He asked for my blessing before you left. We assumed you would say yes.”

“I know it’s fast
dad,
but everything feels right. He’s amazing.”

“That much is obvious.
I was surprised at first, but
I knew
from our talk how he felt about
you,
and that he was sincere. I let him know that he had my blessing and our support. Evelyn, would you pull yourself together?” Dad scolds my mother who has been unable to speak the whole time.

“I’m sorry. This is just so exciting.” She says.

“I think we’ll probably plan the wedding to happen soon. I want to get married here in Phoenix. I hope that doesn’t upset you.”

“Not at all. We’ll be there. We have something to tell you too. Evelyn
,
why don’t you tell
her?”

“Ava sweetie, we’ve been saving for this day since you were five years old. We know Enzo has the
money,
but we want to give this to you as a gift. We’ve saved thirty thousand dollars for you to have the wedding of your dreams.”

My eyes overflow. I know my parents aren’t
rich,
and this is so sweet. I have to figure out how to make sure they keep this money.

“Thank you. You guys are the best parents.”

“We have the best daughter.” My dad’s voice cracks.

“I have to go now. I’ll call soon with the plans.”

“Okay, bye Ava. Tell Enzo we said hi.”

“I will.” I’m
overwhelmed. There is so much going on emotionally I just can’t stop crying. Enzo will be here
soon,
and I want to look pretty for him. Time for a shower and some eye cream.

“I’m back Ava.” I hear Enzo’s voice calling to me from the front room.

“I’m in here.”

Enzo walks into the bathroom
and watches me towel off
.

“Hello beautiful
.
”

“Hi sexy.” I grin.

“Come to bed with me.”

“You don’t have to ask me twice.”

H
e undress
es
and
we
climb back into bed.

“How was your morning bella?”

“Good. I called Cass and my parents. They said hello.”

Enzo rolls on top of me and kisses my neck. “Mmm, you smell divine amore.”

“It’s the soap I bought in Florence.”

“Firenze. In Italian.” He grins.

“Firenze.”

“You have to use what you learned.” He kisses my lips.

“I will, yes.” I murmur. “Tesoro mio.”

His eyes meet mine and a smile graces his lips. “Tesoro?”

“I learned it for you. I needed a word to describe what you are to me. My treasure made the most sense.”

“I’ll do my best to live up to it.”

“
You already do
. Now make love to me will ya?”

“As you wish.”

I run my hands down the smooth, rippled skin of his back. He enters me, filling me, and I melt, devoured by sheer pleasure.

“Ava, I want the wedding to be at Girasole.”

I stretch languidly acros
s the bed. I
run my hands over his amazing torso. “I assumed you would. I want that too.”

“Do you really?”

“I would tell you Enzo. I really do. How big of a wedding are we talking here?”

“Huge.”

“What do you mean by huge?”

“Five hundred at least.”

“People? Five hundred people?” Is he serious?

“Of course people. I have at least two hundred in my family alone. Then all my business partners, friends, your family. Huge.”

Whoa. I was imagining maybe a hundred. Five hundred is a lot of damn people. How am I going to plan something like this?

“We’ll hire the best wedding planner in the city.” He’s reading my mind again.

“That would be helpful.”

“I don’t want this to be stressful Ava. This is going to be the best time of our
lives,
and nothing is going to ruin it. We need to set a date.” He picks up his phone and clicks to the calendar.

“How about October 20
th
? The weather should be
beautiful,
and that will give us time to plan and make travel arrangements.”

“Okay. That’s about two months. Do you think that’s enough time?”

“Well let’s see, I own the hotel. I own the restaurants—”

“Okay I get it.” I laugh.

Enzo’s phone rings, startling both
of
us.

“Enzo. Oh hello…yes it’s true…y
es we would like to discuss that with you. You can contact my fiancée from now on. She’s indisposed at the moment but leave her a message and she’ll call yo
u later…yes, that’s her number…certainly…
we appreciate it. Thank you again. Goodbye.”

It’s the first time I’ve heard him call me his fiancée and I like it.

“Well, it appears the best wedding planner in the city is going to call you this afternoon.” He grins. “I would expect that you will be called often by many people trying to be a part of this event. Book whatever you like, but the catering is already handled of course.”

“Of course.”

“Money is of no concern. Whatever it takes for the day of your dreams is what we spend.”

“I know.”

“I’m going to call my family today and start making travel arrangements. I expect the wedding planner will call you
shortly,
and you can get started. Her name is Genevieve.”

“I want Cassie to come out here to help me.”

“
As you wish
. I’ll call Checca today, we need to get the rest of this house done and
get the
guest room
set
up.”

I nod.
“My parents have saved a lot of money for this
event,
and they want to give it to us.”

He shakes his head no, but I keep talking before he can interrupt me. “I want them to keep the
money,
but I have to trick them into it. If we refuse the money, we’ll have hurt feelings on our hands.”

“
Makes sense.
What do you want to do?”

“Can we buy them something, a small condo perhaps, a vacation home? Then they can come here as much as they like.”

“Yes, near Desert Ridge there’s a development of patio homes. We’ll go pick one out for your parents.”

“Thank you Enzo.” I sigh. There’s a lot going on at one time.

“Are you okay amore?”

“Yes. It’s just a lot.”

“Yes it is. Do we need to slow down? We can if you need to. I’m just excited. I want you to be my wife as soon as possible.”

“I want to be your wife Enzo. I’ll be fine. I just need to take a deep breath and get organized.”

My phone rings immediately
.
It’s the wedding planner.

“Let it go amore. You can call her back. Right now, let’s just enjoy each other. I think another ravishing is in order, no?”

I giggle. “Yes.”

He slides down my body to the end of the bed and lifts one foot to his lips, planting soft kisses along the bottom. I squirm a little
from
the ticklish pleasure. His hands glide slowly up my thighs as he locks his gorgeous blue eyes to mine. I instinctively part my legs to let him closer, watching the growing desire between his legs come to life again. He
reaches up and brushes my cheek
with his fingers.

“Ava there aren’t enough words to express how much I love you. I don’t know if you even know how much.”

“
Actually I think I do know. I’m so amazingly lucky to have found
you,
and I’ve never felt more sure of what love feels like than I do now
. Y
ou don’t have to prove it to me. Your love for me is obvious.”

“I just want to make sure you
know,
and that I will work hard to deserve you every day.”
He pushes into me.
A soft moan escapes from my lips.

“You deserve me Enzo and I
deserve you.” I bury my face in his neck and kiss
it passionately. “I love you
,
more than anything.”

“Ava, you’re my life.” He thrusts
harder,
and I know he’s going to climax soon. I pull him tighter to me and wrap my legs around him, coaxing him to orgasm.

“God Ava.” He calls out as he releases into me. He lies on top of me for a few minutes
and
catch
es
his breath.
“I’m
sorry, that was so fast. I couldn’t contain myself.”