Page 17 of Christmas Treasures

“May I ask why?” Max raised an eyebrow, his mouth curved upward into a sly smile.

“You can ask.”

He laughed again. “C’mon, Charlie Keene. Tell me something about yourself, and I’ll tell you something back. That’s how conversations are supposed to work.”

“Easy for you to say. Man of golden tongue.” Maybe she shouldn’t have had wine. She was feeling positively loopy.

“What made you move here?” Max asked. “Of all places? I’m assuming you could have chosen anywhere, so why here?”

“You’re the second person to ask me that tonight.” She grinned. “It’s because of goat cheese. During the best road trip ever.” She found herself telling him the story of the perfect sunny day and a roadside stand that had sold cheeses and soft sourdough bread. “My dad bought us a loaf of bread and some goat cheese, and we went to Little Bear Lake and sat at a picnic table to eat it. Nothing before or since has ever tasted as good. Have youever had one of those perfect moments? One so simple yet beautiful at the same time?”

“I have, yes.”

Charlie waited to see if he would elaborate, but instead, he asked if she remembered what farm the goat cheese came from.

“No, I don’t recall that.”

“And it wasn’t just the cheese and bread but the time you spent with your dad, right?” Max asked.

“Yes. I can remember the way the sun sparkled on the lake and the smell of freshly cut grass and evergreen trees. I’d been struggling since we’d lost my mother. My dad took me on the trip to try to cheer me up.”

“Did it work?”

“Depends on what you mean by cheered up,” Charlie said. “I still missed my mom and felt guilty about her death.”

Max looked as though he was going to say something further but instead he changed the subject.

She sighed with relief. This was something she could actually talk about without fear of revealing too much. She told him about how she’d needed to get away from reality after she’d sold her company and decided to spend six months doing exactly as she pleased. “I started in France, then Switzerland, and finally Italy. I ended up in Florence for much longer than I’d intended.”

“It happens. It’s a magical place.”

“Isn’t it? What’s funny is that I didn’t even plan on going there. But when I was in Rome, I met this older American couple who had just come from there, and they raved so much that I decided to go. I ended up in the Oltrarno district in a tiny flat with crooked tile floors and a balcony covered in wisteria. I walked everywhere. Mornings at the market, afternoons sitting at cafés. There’s this one spot near Piazza della Signoria where I’d sit for hours, just watching people.Listening. Thinking about my dad.” She paused for a moment. “I lost him about the same time I sold the company. He and I had talked for years about going to Italy together. I’d planned on surprising him with the trip, but then…it was too late.”

“You said he was Italian?” Max asked.

“That’s right. Second-generation. His grandparents were from Naples. He used to read to me in Italian when I was little. He said it was the language of food and love. I’m fluent in the language, thanks to him.”

He suddenly seemed to drift away, lost in thought.

“Am I boring you?” Charlie asked drily.

He blinked and returned his focus to her. “Not at all. I was just thinking about the fact that you speak Italian.”

“Do you?”

“I’m okay. I knew nothing before I went there. The woman I…was with…that I met there—she taught me a lot. But I wouldn’t say I was fluent. She and I communicated well enough, considering her English and my Italian.”

“What happened? How come you broke up?”

He seemed to debate how much to say.

“You don’t have to talk about it,” Charlie said. “I’m just being nosy.”

“No, it’s okay. Lucia died of cancer. She had a little daughter—five years old—Bianca. They both captured my heart from the first day I met them. We didn’t even get a year together.”

“I’m sorry. That’s awful.” So there was a lot more to this laid-back Max Hayes than she’d thought.

“It was three years ago. After she died, I came home and kind of dropped back into my old life as if my time there had been a dream. However, it was not. It was very real. And it’s about to become real again.”

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