Chapter 13: Chapter Thirteen

*Gabriela*

“Doesn’t seem manners run in all the family members.” Maria mumbles as she starts piling her own plate shaking her head.

“Dom, stop being a barbarian and use the table manners that were taught to you growing up.” Enzo snaps at him.

“But this is the only place I could actually be me.” He whines back.

“Since when have I ever allowed you to eat like a toddler in front of the ladies or guests?” Giovanni walks through the double doors looking like the working man I always remember him being.

Even at the age of eighty-one he still looked like he was in his sixties. He was even moving around like he was in his forties. Still fit and strong. Maria made sure of it as she fed him healthy meals and forced him to go to his doctor visits.

Domenico swallows the food he had in his mouth and says, “Sorry Nonno.”

The old man just sighs as he squeezes Enzo’s shoulder while passing him by and kissing me and Sabrina on the top of our heads. “Morning everyone.”

We all greet him in kind watching as he sits at the head of the table. Before grabbing his food he roughly rubs his youngest grandson’s head in an affectionate way. It still didn’t erase the disapproving look on his face though. But while he seemed to be disappointed in him, he wanted to show that he still loved him.

“Once you’re done, get dressed. We’re heading out in the fields to do some laboring work.” Giovanni states as he takes a drink of his coffee.

Domenico groans but doesn’t reply. I knew it was because he wasn’t going to argue his way with this one. Giovanni made everyone work on the vineyard whether they were family or guests. Usually it was fun during the picking season, so I never complained. Besides, we always got rewarded after the hard work of making wine.

Small chit chat went around the table but mostly it was silent as we ate. Once finished, Enzo and I finally headed off to take that walk. Domenico was curious where we were headed off too, but Enzo just brushed him off with pappi Gio dragging him away with him.

I waited for him to start heading in the direction he wanted to go. When he reaches my side, he looks down to me as smiles. “Ready?”

I smack my hips dramatically sighing, “As I’ll ever be, I guess.”

He cracks a wide grin remembering that it was something I always did when he would ask me if I was ready for our walk back in the day. I feel the heat rise in my cheeks can’t helping but think that it seemed so natural to fall back into old habits like this.

I start following him, not really paying attention of our direction when so many questions kept rolling around inside my head. Feeling a bit hesitant, I ask,

“So, I heard that you graduated with your Master’s. Does that mean you have your own business now?”

We were only a few inches away from one another as we gently scrolled down the dirt covered path that was just to the side of the house. Giovanni owned a great deal of land so if we wanted to leave the property, we had a long way to go.

“I guess you could say that. It’s more of a family business than my own.”

“Oh, are you going to take over the farm one day then?”

“That’s the plan, but I also started other winery businesses in California and Washington. We’re setting up plans to build a vineyard in Texas as well.” He sounded a bit shy telling me.

Guess he didn’t like showboating his success. Which was actually nice compared to my father and his associates he deals with. They were always constantly trying to outdo the other about the success of their lives. It was downright annoying and narcissistic if you ask me.

“What about you? What were you going to do before your mom passed away?” He asks.

I breath in a large amount of air, looking ahead as I thought back on the dream I had to let go once my mother’s cancer was revealed.

“I wanted to go to school to be a teacher.” I admit.

That made him smile. “A teacher huh? I could actually picture you as one. You were always great with kids when they came to visit and wanted to learn about the grapes.”

The compliment made me blush, and a bit happy that he had noticed that about me. Him being nineteen and me thirteen, we may have spent a great deal of time in the field, but outside it was a different story. He was still a teenage boy and wanted to do his own things with other people around his own age. So it was nice to hear that he took notice of little things like that.

“What about now? You’re still young enough to get back into college and go for it.” He frowns seeing me shake my head before he was done with his sentence.

“That won’t be possible.” My voice sounded sad even to my own ears.

“Why not?” He nearly demands.

The uncomfortable feeling swirling in me at the mention of what I was about to say wasn’t lost on either of us. Taking in another deep breath I tell him the truth.

“The night that your cousin kidnapped me, the reason that Ivy wasn’t even there was because it was a dinner to meet some people that my father was introducing.”

“What…kind of people?” I could tell he was already getting an idea what that dinner had been about.

“My betrothed with my future in laws. And they made it very clear that they wanted me as a trophy wife because I was my father’s daughter and would be perfect to play the part.”

“Who?” he suddenly demands, his face turning a bit dark.

He had stopped walking, making me turn around to face him. I didn’t understand why he was getting so angry by the mention of me having a fiancé. A part of me hoped it was because he saw me more than just a friend. But that was wishful thinking since it had been years that we’ve seen each other and only two days since we’ve reunited.

“What does it matter on who?” I ask with curiosity.

“It does matter…to me at least. Who, Gabby?” He bites out.

“Dario Moretti.”