Athena left the table. “Right now I’m making dinner.”
“How long will you stay here?”
Athena stopped. The question put Liam Tesano right back at the front of her mind. With his vibrant brown eyes, dimpled cheeks and pitch waves, she doubted he would ever be completely off her mind.
“Athena?”
“Not long,” she gave the lie while the truth echoed in her head. When she thought of Liam Tesano only one word came to mind. Forever.
~5~
“I don’t know...I just don’t know... Li? Li? You listening to me, paesano? Li?”
Liam straightened in his chair at the small square table he shared with Fredrico Nandi. The cafe where they met served as a regular venue for their meetings which occurred two to three times weekly.
Liam smiled apologetically. “Forgive me, Ric. Did DiCenzo do something to upset you?” he asked.
Nandi bristled and settled back in the thin chair that creaked beneath his weight. The 18 year old was a round dark Italian with sharp eyes already betraying lines at the corners. Like Liam, Nandi had been a boy on his own, abandoned at the age of 9. His mother had died of fever and his father left for parts unknown shortly after. Nandi and Liam became fast friends when they both wound up at a soup night the town church held each week.
“The details are too shadowy,” Nandi was saying. He shook his head, reached for another cannoli but didn’t eat.
Liam frowned, seriously considering his friend’s mood then. “Ric? Talk to me,” he leaned forward to clap the man’s arm.
“He tells me his shipment will be larger than usual this week,” Nandi said of Carlo DiCenzo, a local fabric merchant.
Liam crooked a smile. “Isn’t that a good thing? The more we ship, the larger our cut, right?”
Nandi tapped fingers to his brow. “I might like the sound of it too if DiCenzo hadn’t looked so nervous when he told me.”
“Did you talk to Valentina?” Liam referred to the merchant’s daughter.
Despite his mood, Nandi grinned. “You know that beauty rarely listens in on our chats with her father if you aren’t there.”
“That’s because I see her as a business partner and not a pair of pettos,” Liam gave the Italian for breasts.
Nandi sighed. “We’re a fine match, uh? I get saddled with the negotiating, you get the girl when you’d be more thrilled with the negotiating and I the girl.”
Liam shook his head, chuckling. “So what more about DiCenzo?”
Nandi’s expression soured again. He glanced across his shoulder, but didn’t really suspect they were being listened in on. Besides, they always used English during business chats. Friendship with Liam Tesano had come with free lessons and Nandi had absorbed the education like a sponge.
“DiCenzo says the shipment will be larger and we’ll be met halfway along the route.”
“Halfway?”
Nandi raised his shoulders in an exaggerated shrug. “That’s all he gave me, but something seems... wrong.”
“Why would he risk anything happening to his fabrics?” Liam mused.
“Maybe it’s not the fabrics he’s risking,” Nandi proposed. “Maybe we’re being saddled with more because it’s the best way to slow down the Bambina. He gets a cut in price if we are late, no?”
Liam’s laughter stirred freely then. He understood his friend’s concern. Nandi’s truck was his prized possession. Given that he was a slave to routine as well, anything that threatened it was always cause for suspicion.
“What do you want to do?” Liam asked.
Nandi didn’t need time to consider. “We follow your lead as usual. I trust your instincts, Li. You were the one who got DiCenzo to give us the job, afterall. That silver tongue of yours.”
Liam shook off the compliment. “DiCenzo is a smart man. He knows a good deal when he hears it.”
“Li, Li,” Nandi shook his head. “You’ll never be king of the world with that kind of modesty.”
“Never thought I’d have a chance at a title like that, but I do like the sound of it,” Liam tilted his chin toward Nandi. “If you’re giving me the kingship, what are you going after?”
“Ah,” Nandi waved off the question. “Being king is too much work. My time is better spent wooing all those ladies in waiting,” his expression took another sly turn. “From the sound of things, ladies will be waiting a while if they are expecting a nod from the king, uh?”
“Sorry?” Liam half smiled, half frowned.
“Whispers of the village say your attentions are already locked on a seductive beauty.”
Liam’s expression tightened. “I don’t know of these whisperers.”
“I don’t expect you do, paesano!” Nandi laughed with relish and thumbed a tear from his eye. “I swear you are the only one in three villages who pays no attention to its dramas. Not even when they feature a lush beauty like Athena Cavalese. Word of your duel with her father is all the talk.”
“Duel.”
“Paesanooo...” Nandi rolled the word on his tongue. “Didn’t you notice how quiet the place got when we arrived?”
Liam regarded the table blackly. “People always get quiet when I arrive.”
