All I Believe (Firsts and Forever, #10)(81)
“No idea.” He sank into a chair as he emptied a drawer into a duffle bag, and I said, “Let me do that. I can tell you’re hurting. Why don’t you lie down while I pack?”
“We don’t have that much stuff,” he said. “It’s mostly just things we’ve bought since we’ve been here. It won’t wear me out to help you.”
I took a t-shirt from his hands and kissed his forehead. “Exactly. It’s not that much stuff. That means I’m perfectly capable of packing it on my own.” He creased his forehead but let me finish the job.
We met my cousin and his boyfriend on the beach not five minutes later, and walked up to the hotel parking lot. All of us were scanning the darkness. The gun was back in my waistband, cold and heavy as it pressed against my lower back.
Andreo was waiting for us behind the wheel of his rented SUV with the motor running. We loaded our luggage into the back, and the moment we got in, he pulled out of the parking lot. “Bad news,” he said. “I checked the outbound flights this evening, and everything’s booked. I don’t like the idea of you staying here, Luca, not with Tino Dombruso somewhere on the island.”
“We’re actually going to go with Gianni and Zan on their boat. It seems like the safest alternative,” I told him. “Do you want to come with us?”
“No thanks. I’ll just lay low tonight and catch my flight out tomorrow,” Andreo said.
He drove us to the harbor where the Mariposa was docked. The forty-two foot wooden sailboat had been built in an era when craftsmanship meant something, and it was a thing of beauty. Zan and Gianni climbed aboard and began to quickly and confidently prepare her to sail, working in perfect unison. When Luca and I turned to Andreo, he said, “Keep my gun. Do you know how to use it, Nico?”
“Given my family? Oh yeah.”
“Good. I’m counting on you to take care of my brother,” he said.
“I won’t let you down.”
Luca hugged his brother. “You need to watch your back, Andreo, both here and when you get back to Rome. He’s gunning for you, too.”
“I will. Call me every day. If I don’t hear from you, I’m sending out the Navy to rescue you.”
Luca grinned a little and asked, “Which Navy?”
“All of them. Please be safe. That goes for you too, Nico.”
“You do the same,” I called as he turned and jogged down the dock.
I helped Luca onto the boat and took him below deck, where he sank onto a built-in sofa in the living area. After a moment, the boat began to pull out of the harbor, powered by its engine. “I’m surprised Andreo left my side,” Luca said as he stretched out on his back and put his head on my lap. “I would think the sudden appearance of your hitman brother would put him in full watchdog mode. He must really trust you to take care of me.”
“He should trust me. No way on earth am I letting anything happen to you,” I said as I brushed his hair from his face. He was a bit pale beneath his tan, strain showing around his eyes. “Do you need your pain meds? That was a lot of activity for someone who’s supposed to be resting. I can grab them and a bottle of water for you.”
“Not right now. I just want you to stay with me.” I placed my hand on his heart, careful to avoid his bandages, and he put his hand on top of mine as we headed out to sea.
Chapter Sixteen
It was easy to forget our troubles on a sailboat. The immediacy of the wind and the ocean, the simplicity of life on a small vessel, and the lack of distractions from the rest of the world distilled life down to a wonderful exercise in living in the moment.
We headed northwest, toward Moorea, and stocked up on fuel and supplies when we made port. From there, we continued north to the gorgeous island of Teti’aroa, and Zan and Gianni dropped anchor in a cove so remote that it felt like we were the first people to discover it (this of course wasn’t the case, but it was awfully nice to feel like we’d left civilization far behind). The water was crystal clear and vividly blue, and the white sand beach was backed with a thick jungle. It was the closest thing to paradise I could ever imagine.
We stayed there for several days. Gianni and Zan passed the time with long walks on the beach and swimming in the cove (frequently disappearing into the jungle for some private time), interspersed with periods of productivity. Every day, Zan would sit down for at least a couple hours with a portable keyboard and compose songs. While he did that, Gianni would sit close by, his legs tangled with his boyfriend’s, and write in a thick, leather-bound notebook. He admitted shyly that he was writing a book, and when I asked what kind, he told me it was a gay romance. “I mean, look at my life,” he said with a smile, glancing at his boyfriend. “What else would I possibly write?”
At the two-week mark following Luca’s surgery (two real weeks, not his version), he started venturing into the ocean with me while I swam laps. He was still sore, so he mostly floated on his back in the warm, tranquil water, but he seemed happy. We’d take short walks too, even though he became fatigued pretty easily.
We also borrowed an idea from my cousin and Zan and would carve out time to ourselves by going into the jungle each day. There really was no such thing as privacy on the boat. Luca wasn’t up for much hiking, but we just had to venture far enough to get out of earshot and to be screened from the cove by the thick undergrowth. In a little clearing we’d found on our second day there, we’d lay a blanket on the sand, strip naked and relax together in the warm sun, kissing and caressing each other.