Chapter 71
Arianna POV:
The next day, we headed out onto the boat piling on with baskets overflowing with blankets and pillows, wine bottles, meats and cheeses, and bread. I stopped onto the boat with Gio helping me aboard, and he began to show me around.
“This is the top deck where we spend most of our time,” He explained. Comfy seats and benches lined the top of the ship, large enough for the whole family to sit and eat and relax together. “My mother wanted it so that no one felt left out,” He grinned.
His mother began by fluffing out all of the blankets and coats, and her sisters went downstairs to unload all the food. Becca and Luca joined their cousins in readying the ship. Once again, I was struck with how much this family spent time together and how happily they moved around with each other.
His father boarded the ship and entered the captain seat, not speaking or looking at anyone, sitting down with a canister of coffee and a newspaper or two.
They all had their roles, but they loved one another, moving around with each other so freely. I had once been able to do this with my mother, but it was just the two of us. I never thought someone with a family this large could understand.
He took me below to the very small kitchen, the storage, and the one small cabin. Though the top of the ship was meant for family, it was clear the bottom of the ship was intimate. Long trips were reserved for no more than two.
We made our way back up top, and Luca called Giovani away from me to help with the lines. I noted how they all prepared the boat expertly, not a word from their captain as he sat there nonchalantly reading his paper and sipping coffee.
I joined Agnese in fluffing up the blankets and taking out pillows from below the benches, and taking off the covers of the chairs. She smiled happily at me as I helped her. With so many people at work preparing the boat, it took no more than fifteen minutes before we left the marina.
Gio came over to me, wrapping his arm around me as we leaned on a railing pointing out different towns off the coast, one where he’d gone to party when he was young, one that has a school he went to.
I listened to him tell me more about his home as he regaled me with the stories of his youth enjoying as he explained how Luca had ratted him out once when he’d left him behind, and they both spent the summer grounded and working at a butcher in town.
Once we were far enough out, people started settling into their routine again and sitting down the children watching the fish and feeling the cold spray of the ocean, the moms warning them to be careful. Wine bottle subpoenaed and the adults began sipping as they ate their small bites of food.
I sat beside Becca as I listened to the conversation. Once again, her mother suggested she should move home and find a good boy to try and marry.
“Mama,” she groaned, leaning her head back and sighing with a roll of her eyes. “You have enough grandkids, don’t you?”
Giovanni and I laughed as we watched Becca foolishly battle her mother for her right to wait to have kids and get married. Her mother kept insisting she was too American now and needed to remember that she was getting older. The 23-year-old took great offence to the suggestion that her eggs were drying up.
Eventually, Giovanni left my side to go and sit and play a game of chess with Luca, the two sitting there trying to outmaneuver the other. A few minutes into the game, Agnese came over and sat beside me as I watched.
“Don’t let them fool you they’re both horrible at this game,” She whispered to me.
I chuckled, and she handed me a glass of wine as we sat and watched the makeshift battle drag on.
“I have to thank you,” she eventually said to me.
I turned to her, surprised by the odd comment. She sipped her wine and then explained, “My sons, they were so close, and when Ezno dies,” she gulped down as she spoke. “The best of Giovanni dies with him. He wasn’t mischevous anymore; he didn’t joke or play.” She looked at Gio, who laughed as he stole Luca’s rook, waving the small piece in the air triumphantly.
“But look at him, look at his smile.” She pointed at the two boys, her smile widening and tears prickled her eyes as she looked at him hopefully. “You did that,” she told me.
“Oh, I-” she stopped my protest with a look.
“I know my son,” she stated with all surety. “He wasn’t like this for a long time, but you.” She held my chin up. “You saved him.”
I didn’t argue. “He did the same for me.” I sipped my wine. “After learning what happened to my mother…I wanted to burn the world to the ground. He helped me overcome that,” I told her.
Things not tell your boyfriend's mother, how bloodthirsty you can be. Instead, she just chuckled.
“You two are very similar.” She nodded, patting my arm. “When Enzo died, Giovanni was a wreck. His fury could have burned the world, just like his father.” She turned and looked at her husband, who guided the ship around with ease. “He sent Giovanni back to the city and gave him a mission. He was determined to make the bastard pay,” she looked at he ground. “I should have stopped him.”
She sniffled, blowing her nose in a handkerchief that she produced from thin air. “I was so broken I didn’t say anything, but seeing Giovann torment himself over the last four years, it ate at me.” She then turned to me again, admiration swimming in her eyes. “Until you came along.”
I wanted to argue, and protest. He didn’t need saving. If anyone saved anyone, he protected me from the treachery of my father, but Agense stood before I got the chance and brought her husband a plate of food to eat as he moved us around the ocean.
Giovanni finally beat Luca and came over ot me, the proud victor grinning in his bravisssimo and triumph.
I gave him a quick peck on the lips for his victory and held tightly onto him, trying not to picture him so torn and broken. The man I had met back at my sister's engagement party seemed so different from the one who held me now, not a dangerous rake, but a loyal and strong man. I turned my face into him, some horrible feeling that something bad was about to ruin this wonderful day.