“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. You don’t have to take that offer on your house. You don’t have to go home. If you go home, you can come back. You can do whatever you want to do, Luci. Your whole life is in front of you.” Then I gave her my Dad’s advice. “Listen to your heart and find your happiness.”
Her face grew uncertain and she asked, “I know that, Kia, but what do you think I should do?”
I was learning that Luci needed a lot of advice. She ciphered this and went her own way but to cipher, she needed input to cipher through and asked for it.
“If I were you, I’d keep that offer, sell the house you shared with Gordo and look for smaller properties here. You already own two homes and can afford it. That way, you have your options open. And, if your preference runs to macho American men, you’ll find a lot more of them here than you will in Italy so you need a base from which to launch your offensive.”
She grinned.
I let her hand go and sat back
But Luci surprisingly didn’t cipher and decided right away. “I will do this. I will call my real estate agent when I get home and set up viewings.”
Excellent!
“Good,” I murmured.
The waitress came with our bill and we did our usual arguing over who was going to pay for it. I finally convinced her of the truth that it was my turn, I paid then we gathered our purses, left the restaurant and headed to our cars.
Her Corvette was parked in front of my Cherokee and I asked something I’d wanted to know since before I met her.
“What is with your cars?”
Her head snapped to me and the way it did, I realized she wasn’t quite there and I’d messed up. I should have been more sensitive. This had something to do with Gordo and she wasn’t ready for me to blurt the question like I did.
Then she looked at her car and her face grew pensive.
God, I was such an idiot.
“Luci, sorry, I shouldn’t have asked like that. It wasn’t nice.”
Her eyes came to me.
“Travis would hate this car.” Her gaze moved back to the Corvette. “I hate this car. It is not me.”
“It’s a cool car,” I said softly and she looked back at me. “But you’re right, it isn’t you.”
I didn’t know what was her but she wasn’t about flash and dazzle or the need for speed.
She was… well, like me.
“Maybe…” she said quietly, pausing then, “maybe I thought, if I did something he hated, he’d show up and stop me. He worked hard for his money, he didn’t come from it. Although I had it and he made a good salary, the way he grew up, he didn’t throw it away. He would dislike me doing it. Clothes, shoes, bags, makeup, things like that he didn’t mind.” She smiled sadly at me. “They made me pretty and he liked me pretty. They made me happy and he liked me happy. But this,” she tilted her head to the car, “was just madness. It would not make him displeased, it would make him angry. And maybe, well, maybe I was angry. Angry at him for leaving me. So I wanted to make him angry too.” She looked at the car and whispered, “Foolish.”
“Understandable,” I whispered in reply and she again looked at me.
Then her face changed and the way it did, my breath caught.
“I love you, Kia Clementine,” she said suddenly and I closed my eyes.
Then I opened them and moved into her, folding my arms around her and holding her tight.
“Right back at you, Luciana Gordon.”
She gave me a squeeze. I returned it.
Then we broke apart but leaned in and touched cheek to cheek. She got in her car and I hoofed it to the Cherokee and climbed in. I started it up and headed home to Sam.
Then I smiled.
After our blowout three weeks ago when I almost decided to leave him, Sam changed and stayed changed. We were back. Things were good. No more mysterious outings and long workouts.
Two days ago, we even had a chat about my future. I liked Kingston. I liked clothes. I liked handbags. I liked jewelry. But, although Kingston had some fun shops, it didn’t have a cool women’s clothing and accessories shop. It didn’t even have an uncool one. It was a female clothing and accessories wasteland.
So Sam told me there was a community college close by, I could take business courses, get an associate’s degree but before that, pick his Mom’s brain and learn from the master. He even suggested we fly out to California and I work with her in her shop for a couple of weeks to see if it was my thing.
I liked this idea. It was something to explore. Something exciting. Something I may or may not be good at but it was something. A direction. A possible future.
As for Sam, although the mysterious outings had disappeared, the private phone calls didn’t.
I had chosen to ignore this. They didn’t put him in a bad mood that he took out on me or a bad mood at all. They didn’t take him away from me for hours on end. And they didn’t send him off to do stuff unknown.
He didn’t want to share, okay. Maybe one day he would. Maybe he wouldn’t and one day it would get to me.
Now, it wasn’t.
I was going with that.
It was part of Sam and I was accepting what he could give to me since the dark days were gone and we were back to everything he gave me being beauty.
And that was definitely something I could go with.
I drove home and a couple houses down from ours I hit the remote for the gate then hit the button for the garage. By the time I was ready to pull in both were open. I did the button thing again the minute I cleared the gate then shut the garage door behind me after I turned off the car.
Then I went up the stairs to the kitchen.
I thought I’d hear the game but I didn’t.
And Memphis didn’t yap at me.
Hmm.
“Honey! I’m home!” I called and that was when I heard Memphis yap.
It was coming from upstairs.
But nothing from Sam.
I rounded the stairs and looked through the living room.
No Sam.
“Honey?” I called and got another yap from Memphis; I looked up and saw her at the top of the stairs. She yapped at me again. “Hey, baby,” I called as I moved up the stairs.
Memphis yapped her reply.
Three steps from her, I leaned in and she bounced into my arms.
Cuddling her, I was heading toward the office but heard something in the bedroom so, brows drawing together, I moved there.
Then I stopped dead in the doorway.
Sam was packing his big black leather duffle. The duffle he used when he went to Italy then went with me to Crete and Indiana.