Chapter 15: Chapter 15

Conversations floated around them in Italian, their accents thick in the air with words Paige didn't know. But even though she couldn't understand the words, she had a vague sense they were talking about them, her suspicion was all but confirmed when she heard one of them say in English.

“I say if I was any younger I would have snagged Leonardo for myself,” Aunt Elena declared and everyone laughed. Everyone except Rosa.

When they continued looking at themselves like that still lost in their thoughts someone else muttered, “Oh well, just kiss her already Leo. Non so cosa c'è che non va in lui.” And everyone laughed.

That broke them out of their trance and Leo looked down pulling his gaze away for a minute before he looped his arm around Paige’s shoulder drawing her closer and Paige tried not to feel anything but that was impossible.

Because at that action, she had felt yearning and desire in a riot of conflicting emotions that threatened to sweep her away. Paige stole a glance at Leonardo's face and noticed his eyes were on his sister who for some strange reason had lost her appetite and was only interested in her white wine.

“I rather not indulge in a public display of affection,” Leo declared. His voice was firm, broaching no argument.

“Why do I find that hard to believe? Why do I find all this hard to believe? Somehow I don’t see you like that kind of man.”

“There are many things you don’t know about me Rosa, we men don’t wear our heart on the sleeve. You can ask father about that."

At the mention of his name, Carlo turned a smile in Rosa’s direction. “I’m afraid I agree with him.”

After that, the conversation in the room floated away from them.

Leo turned to Paige and murmured, “Are you okay?” Pushing her plate away to pour herself a drink from the wine bottle. Paige nodded her head, and he handed her the glass.

Still not convinced he pointed out her face was flushed. Paige’s eyes widened, and she lifted her hand to touch her face and Leo covered it with his own, bringing it down with his hand on her lap. “Someone is watching,” he murmured in her ear.

Looking down at the glass in her hand he said, "Are you going to drink that, or are you only going to hold on to it."

He waited and saw her lips pull into a lovely smile, and her baby blue eyes shine and Leo thought, without even trying Paige was a beautiful woman.

“Thank you,” she murmured. Leo raised a brow then nodded and told her she didn’t have to thank him and turned to his front when he heard,

“Leonardo, you still haven’t told us what your fiancée does?”

The question came so suddenly and so out of contrast with what they were discussing it took Leo by surprise and without thinking he blurted out,

“She is-- era model." Cursing himself almost immediately for that tiny slip and for not thinking out a backstory for Paige, but with all the questions asked today he had been so certain they were done with them. He should know better than to make assumptions and not let down his guards.

Now how was he going to fix this? Even a high school kid would have done better than him. His only hope was that Paige would play along, but he doubted she will because, at his false slip, the woman who only a moment ago had been blushing had cast him a very dark look, he had almost drawn back. Gosh, women can be terrifying when they want to be.

“A model?” Rosa asked, looking doubtful picking on the question as though she had been the one to ask it. “But Leo, she isn’t exactly on the slim side. And her height?” She left the question hanging.

Leo's eyes narrowed. Was it just him or did that word sound too hopeful? Leo scowled.

“She is a face model.” He quickly put in. Thinking he would have to correct his mistake.

Not believing him, Rosa rested her elbow on the table and leaned forward, cupping her cheeks.“Well, what have you featured in?” This she addressed to Paige.

Paige looked at her boss, wrapping her hand on his thigh and giving him a deadly squeeze. Their eyes met, and she smiled at him.

To any other person looking at them, it would look like a sweet gentle smile, but only Leo knew behind those lips, were her teeth tightly clenched together and her eyes were throwing daggers at him. She was mad, and Leo had never seen her mad before. This would have been interesting had he not been on the brink of discovery.

Her fake smile collapsed then, and Leo stifled a sigh of relief as a genuine one came out, and she turned to his family. “Leo didn’t want to tell you, but I am also a writer.”

A look of surprise crossed Leo’s face, which he concealed immediately with a faked cough. Turning to Paige to say with his eyes ‘do you know what you are doing but she’d already turned her face away from him.

“A writer?” Carlo said, Carlo was Leo’s father, and he seemed surprised and impressed all at once that he turned searching eyes at his son.

"Yeah, a writer." Leo infused with more confidence, putting his hand behind Paige's chair and feeling relief flood through him like a thirsty man who had finally reached the shores of water as Carlo's eyes warmed at them. Leo gave Paige an appreciative glance.

She might not know this but had his father not been into their family’s business of wine production he would have been a writer, and so hearing someone he knew shared the same interest as him, especially someone who he thought was soon going to be a member of the family was a big deal to him.

“So in other words you are saying you are not a model?”

Leo watched Paige lift her head wondering what she would answer and becoming impressed with her performance. She was even better than any escort he could have hired. Something akin to pride rose in him.

“Partly I was one I had high hopes of being one, but you know how these things go, I guess it was not my thing as I didn't succeed and I prefer being a writer.”

“If that’s the case, I’II shows you some of the book collections I have when I have the time," Carlo murmured.

“Grazie,” Paige muttered, the only Italian she had learned among the words floating around her since she arrived.

Carlo threw his head back and laughed, pointed to her, and told his wife, “Look she is learning.”

Both husband and wife stared at her with warm eyes before Flavia leaned forward and covered Paige's hand with her own. “I'm so glad Leo brought you home.”

Paige risked a glance at Leo and found his eyes were already on her. They stared at each other for a while before he smiled at her.

The rest of the dinner went well with other people asking her questions, which she answered truthfully or close to the truth. And when Flavia asked about her parents and she said they were dead, that it was only she and her grandma, everyone had sympathized with her, as though the event was something that had happened recently and not some sixteen years ago. And Paige, who had never been part of a big family felt she had finally found where she belonged, but did she belong here? Fantasizing about something was one thing, but its happening was another thing altogether.