All I Believe (Firsts and Forever, #10)(13)
“I think that’s actually underwear.”
“Yes please to borrowing your t-shirt.” He took it off and handed it to me, and I put it on quickly. It was long enough to cover everything, but I kept the front pulled down to mid-thigh anyway, just to be sure.
When we finally reached my stuff, I put on my glasses, pulled on the white shorts, and wrapped the towel around my waist, since sheer over sheer wasn’t exactly getting the job done. I also swapped my t-shirt for his, and as I handed his shirt back to him I said, “Thank you again for giving me a hand. I’m not normally this scattered. Or naked. Just so you know.” I stole a quick glance at his tight, muscular body as he pulled the shirt over his head.
“Glad to help.” We returned to the hotel lobby side by side, and when we reached the elevators, he asked, “Will you join me for a drink?”
“Oh man, that’s such an obvious pity date after all of this.”
“No it isn’t!”
“It is. I’d still take you up on it, but I have a family thing to go to. I’m already late.”
He paused for a moment, studying me, then said, “Another time then. Take care of yourself, Nico. I’ll look for you tomorrow,” before walking away.
I watched him as he crossed the lobby, headed for the front door. What a gorgeous guy. Nice, too. But my God, could all of that have been more embarrassing? Part of me wanted to call after him and invite him to have a nightcap with me after my family function, but I just couldn’t do it. I’d been a total and complete train wreck in front of him, twice. Despite his protests, he must have offered to have a drink with me because he felt sorry for me. I sighed quietly and pushed the button for the elevator.
Chapter Three
“Some of your cousins have to be gay, right?” Jessie asked as he and I leaned against a grand piano and sipped drinks in the corner of Nonna’s lavish living room. At least forty people filled the ground floor of the beautiful villa in the hills above Viladembursa, and I scanned the crowd and told him, “Statistically speaking, at least a couple have to be. I don’t know which ones, though. It doesn’t get talked about, not like it does in the American branch of my family.”
He frowned and said, “Those aren’t very good odds. Do you think there’s a gay bar in town that we can hit later? I need bigger numbers if I’m going to make my dream of a summer fling with a hot Italian a reality.”
“Not that I know of, but Rome will have plenty of gay nightclubs.”
Remy’s sister Fiona headed right for me as soon as she arrived at the party. She was tall and curvy with long, black hair, and she giggled and said, “Buon Dio,” (good lord) before snapping a photo of me with her phone. I’d already gone through the full onslaught of a few dozen relatives when we first arrived, and all of them had to make a comment on my outfit.
Nana and Jessie had done some more shopping for me that afternoon, and since I’d been running late, I didn’t have time to stop off at Remy’s and borrow some clothes. That meant my best option for the party had been a pair of tight, red leather pants, matching ankle boots, and a long-sleeved black shirt. The button-down would have been fine if it wasn’t tight, stretchy, shiny, and designed without the top four buttons that most shirts had, so I had no choice but to look like a 1970s gigolo. The outfit should have come with a stick-on mustache.
Fiona gave me a hug and said in English, “Why are you taller than I remember you?” When I tilted my foot to show her the two-inch stacked heel on the boots, she started chuckling all over again.
“None of this is my fault.” I told her about the lost luggage and wallet. It hadn’t been at the cleaners when Jessie went to retrieve it, so I’d had to cancel all my credit cards and request replacements.
“So, your grandmother dressed you like a retro porn star,” she said with a delighted grin. “I love Nana. Where is she, anyway?”
“In the kitchen arguing with her sister.”
“Figures.”
I introduced Fiona and Jessie, and told her, “He was no help with shopping. He actually let Nana buy this stuff.”
“Of course I did,” he exclaimed. “You look hot! If I was six-one with that muscular bod, I’d be all over a pair of red leather pants.” He was actually a slender five-eight or so, and would have looked good in red leather. He was cute enough to make it look playful, instead of awkward and slutty.
“But you know how I normally dress. Would it have killed you to toss a pair of khakis in with the porn star collection?”
“Dude, we’re in Sicily. You don’t see khakis and oxford shirts in any of the boutiques. I don’t even know where you’d have to go for something like that,” he said. “Plus, I think it’s good for you to break out of your shell a little. It’s like you wear a uniform, it’s always the same thing.”
“I like my uniform.”
“Yeah, well, I support Nana’s efforts to push you out of your comfort zone,” he said.
“Pushing me out of my comfort zone is one thing. Sending me out with a see-through bathing suit is another thing entirely.”
I told them the story of the disappearing lime green fabric, and they both had a good laugh. Jessie said, “The lime green thing is underwear. The turquoise thing was the bathing suit.”