Page 25 of Tito
He saw the look on my face and smirked. “Sexy e dolce.” Finally, he knelt down and picked up the sundress. Shaking it out, he slipped it over my head and down along my body as he said, “Così dannatamente bello che fa male.”
I blinked at him and asked, “Cozy…What?”
He beamed at me and translated it, “You are just so damned beautiful that it hurts. That’s why I don’t want to cover you up.”
“Well, you'd better cover me. We can go skinny dipping here, but no streaking along the trail. I am sure your uncle would NOT approve.”
We both laughed.
After getting dressed with Tito in a wet shirt, we finally made our way back out to the trail. As we walked hand in hand, Tito kept making me laugh as he told me scenarios of us streaking along the trail, like his Uncle Stephano would come along in his golf cart and then roll off the path into the bushes once he caught sight of our mooning butts. We laughed together as we just enjoyed the breeze and sunshine of the day.
“Maybe sometime, I’ll take you over to see the pool,” Tito suggested. “And we can swim in relative safety. There are precautions the landscapers have done by planting bushes around that area that repels bees and such.”
“I would like that,” I told him.
We both heard a sound and looked up to see our joke had materialized into reality.
Stephano Descalia’s golf cart rolled to a stop in front of us. Only his unsmiling face told us that he wasn’t in on the joke.
Chapter Nine:La Famiglia
Tito
“Where have you been?” Uncle Stephano asked.
I paused at the sour tone of his voice.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Descalia,” Valencia spoke up. “I wanted him to take me to the lake.”
I looked over at her, wondering why she was sorry.
She stared at him. “I hope he isn’t in trouble?”
Uncle Stephano stared back at her then looked over at me. “What is she talking about?”
I shrugged. “We went for a walk and it turned out to be a couple of hours, I guess?”
“I’m not your keeper, Tito.” Uncle Stephano looked over at Valencia. “I’m his uncle, not his boss.”
“Yeah, that’s not really true,” I told him as I smiled.
He shook his head. “Last time I checked, Iwasyour uncle. Rocky is more like your boss than I am. I keep telling you both, the Council pays your salaries, I do not. You guard us well but your free time is your own. Right now, we are on lockdown, so you…” he paused. “Never mind all that.” He waved his hand as if to disperse the whole subject. “The real reason I was looking for you both was that Zia told me you needed help with finding records or something?”
“Yes,” I replied. “I have Rocky doing it.”
“It is about your parentage, si?” he asked as he looked at Valencia.
She nodded. “I just need the truth, so I can move forward with my life.”
“Si, but your life will be here with us.” Uncle Stephano smiled at her and swung his gaze to me. “Is that not correct?”
“I sure hope so,” I replied as I still held her hand.
“Si, si,” Uncle Stephano said. “To us, it doesn’t matter. La famiglia è la famiglia.”
I nodded and told her, “Family is family.”
She shook her head. “I need to learn Italian.”
