Page 105 of Promised to the Don of Naples
"And then?"
"And then we go back to Posillipo." He didn't open his eyes. "And settle what has to be settled."
I didn't ask what. We both knew.
"Luca. Not today."
"Not today."
He turned. Still on the floor, leaning against one of my knees, he ran his other hand up the hem of the robe. He kissed my knee lightly, then the bare ankle, then the inside of the ankle, his hand moving up my calf.
His hand stopped at the middle of my thigh. He looked up at me, that corner of his mouth lifting on one side.
"After breakfast, bella mia."
I bit my lower lip.
"After breakfast."
Donna Lucia crossed the terrace just then—no hurry, no comment, with an envelope on a small tray.
"Padrone. A messenger left it at the gate just now."
Luca took his hand off my thigh and took the envelope.
Red wax sealing the flap, no name on the outside. I recognized Acquaviva's seal—I'd seen it twice on folders in Luca's study in Posillipo.
He opened it and read.
It was quick. A second of his jaw locking, and then letting go. He folded the paper in four and put it in the pocket of his pajama pants.
"Luca."
"Bella mia."
"The three names."
"Not today." He got up off the floor, came to my chair, leaned down, and kissed my forehead. "Today is our day."
"Va bene."
He pulled the chair beside mine closer and sat down. He took the second cornetto from the tray, the one meant for him, and bit into it.
I looked out at the Tyrrhenian Sea down below. I looked at the magenta bougainvillea crushing the terrace wall, the flowers falling onto the white stone.
I carried the house behind me, I thought. Even here, in Positano, with the fresh cornetto and the smooth sea, the wind still beats against my father's name.
CHAPTER 33
"There are times when the world stops pushing. It wasn't long, but it was ours."
VALENTINAMORETTI
The pool was small.
Four people standing, at most. But it had an infinity edge on the sea side—that thing that seemed to swallow the water into the ground, never stopping.
I was in the corner, elbows on the white stone, my wet hair slicked all the way back. A black swimsuit Lina had bought in a hurry last week, one I'd never worn before.
