Page 87 of With Wine Comes War

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ROMAN

I followed the GPS to an address about thirty minutes from home to a very long tree lined driveway. It felt like the first time Alex and I went to Lookout Park and I thought about all the terrible things that could have happened to her in such a hidden, desolate area. Yep, all those feelings are back, only this time I’m worried about myself. The drive didn’t help calm me down after all.

Wow, this house is incredible. I’m guessing the renovations they wanted me to do aren’t related to the main house. There must be something else on the property or we’re going to have to build from scratch.

I climbed the enormous stone stairs and rang the doorbell. Someone dressed in a tuxedo answered the door and said in a thick Italian accent, “Good afternoon, you must be Mr. King. Please, come in. Mr. and Mrs. Santoro are right this way.” This is the life Alex thought I had. I laughed. My family would never live like this. A butler was a little too much for us.

I felt like I was in old world Italy. It reminded me of the places my parents used to take us when we were kids. It really was incrediblethough. The ostentatiousness of my parent’s house had nothing on this place.

Mrs. Santoro was the first one to greet me with a hug and a kiss on each cheek. She made sure I called her Lucia. I shook Mr. Santoro’s, Alessandro’s, hand then we sat down and had a glass of wine from one of their other vineyards. They wanted to get me familiar with their product before we started talking about renovations.

“Roman, I feel like you have to have a connection to what we do before you can truly get on board with the vision. What do you think?” Just then Lucia excused herself to the kitchen.

“Well, I guess that depends what connection we’re talking about.” He raised his glass and tipped his head at me.

“I like you Roman.”

My eyebrows were raised as I considered how I felt about that. “Grant called me yesterday after you spoke. I’m guessing you’re feeling a little apprehensive about us now?” Now my nerves were on edge, and I was starting to feel trapped. I also felt like they weren’t who I thought they were…anymore.

I said, hesitantly, “Yes, I’m having a little trouble with the information Grant gave me yesterday.” I took a rather large gulp of wine. I wish I had something stronger about now.

“Well, you showed up today, so it couldn’t be that bad, right?” I could tell he was trying to make me feel better— I didn’t know if it was working as I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. My clothes were even making me feel a bit confined.

“You know, I’m just a normal guy who builds things. I’ve never been in trouble or anything. I’m really kind of boring. I thought stories like this only existed in the movies, so when Grant told me what he did, I realized my nice little boring bubble was about to pop. My girlfriend, on the other hand, would probably think it was cool.”

“Yes, Alexandra is an amazing young lady, isn’t she?” He was beaming as he talked about her. It was almost like they knew her. “Grant introduced us to Alex, and we absolutely fell in love. She has a very special place in Grant’s heart.”

I thought that was kind of weird.

“I noticed he was very protective of her. Said he thinks of her as the daughter he never had. Is there something else I should know?”

He smiled but there was something behind his eyes that I may not really want to know.

“We all have stories we can’t seem to share. I believe Americans say, ‘Skeletons in the closet?’”

Hmmm, what other skeletons could he possibly have in his closet worse than what he already told me? Well, I don’t need to know, so I’m not touching that one.

“Well, Alessandro, you have an amazing home. Truly remarkable. How do you all like living in Ohio? It couldn’t possibly be anything like Italy.”Good time for a subject change, I think. I sat back in my chair taking a deep breath and another sip of wine to relax.

“We love it so far. It’s so peaceful and quiet. No one bothers you out here.” All I could think was that it was a nice place to bury the bodies.

We finished talking about what he would like to do with the renovations and then said that as soon as Alex gets here, we would go for a stroll of the property, and he would show me where the winery would be.

Lucia came back with the kids and introduced them. There were four of them, from the ages of ten to sixteen. Two boys, Alessandro Jr. sixteen, Luca ten, and two girls, Anna twelve and Valentina fourteen. Then a big white dog came bounding through the house. That’s whenwe decided to go outside. The dog gave me a quick sniff and was out the door.

Luca said, “That’s Sage. She’s my dog.”

“That’s a great name, Luca.” Alex was pulling into the driveway as we came outside. I’ve never been so happy to see another person in my life. The dog was the first to greet her. It looked like an old friend saying hello. Alex not only attracted children, but apparently, she attracted dogs too. This dog was all over her. The kids were trying to rein her in, but it seemed Alex was loving every second of it. I had no idea she was a dog lover. Her dad has a dog, but she isn’t crazy over her like she is with this dog.

When the kids got the dog to calm down Alex waved to all of us and finally made her way over. She looked beautiful. You couldn’t tell she’d just spent an hour and a half in the ring with an MMA beast getting beat up. Or maybe she was doing the beating up, either way, she looked fantastic. She introduced herself to all the kids while she walked over, winked at me and went straight over to Lucia first, then Alessandro. Finally, she made her way over to me and gave me a nice hug and kiss. I didn’t want to let her go.

“Wow, this place is amazing at sunset.” She had an awestruck look on her face as she stared into the sunset.

“Yes, it is. Come.” Alessandro motioned for us to follow. We walked to the backyard, and it was like a whole other world.

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