"Are you originally from Venice?" I asked, thinking about what Jacopo had said, that very few of them were actually Venetian.
"I am. Fed and I are the only native Venetians on this boat. I know everyone there is to know in Venezia. My family has been here for literally hundreds of years."
"That's a lot of history. Do you have a massive family tree hanging on the wall in your foyer?" I didn't know my family's history beyond my father’s great grandparents. They had emigrated from Ireland during the Great Famine and felt compelled to anglicize their name from ó Cainghe to Cagney. My mother's side? They could have been horse thieves for all I knew.
He barked a laugh. "All over my father's house. We have library shelves dedicated to our history. My ancestors were one of the patrician families that founded the Great Council - their form of government at the time. Venezia was a very rich and peaceful republic for six hundred years, thanks in part, to my family."
"What about The Doge?" I asked. "He had a pretty snazzy palace, all that pink and white marble. You sure you're not related?" I teased, tugging on the hem of his bubble-gum pink sleeve.
"There were a few Doges in my family," he grinned, his tilted eyes sparkled.
"Didn't he have any power?"
"Early on, yes. It was an autocracy. But by the twelfth century, The Doge was mostly a ceremonial position, and one that families fought to get and keep. It was a bought and paid for title and didn't have much in the way of real power." His eyes gleamed. "It was the men behind the scenes who had the real power."
BOOM!
I jumped.
Pop! Pop!
The bright red explosion flowering in the sky and the crackling of a multitude of spinning white flowers announced the fireworks. Conversations stopped. When Dante put an arm around me and pulled me close, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to tilt my head back against his arm. The sky filled with colour and light. The beautiful explosions echoed the fireworks going off in my stomach as Dante tilted his head toward mine and our temples touched. I closed my eyes for a brief moment as a wave of dizziness passed through me. Sighing deeply, I let my neck relax. My head felt heavy.
Dante turned and kissed my sweaty temple, and then turned back to the fireworks. I looked over at him, admiring the long eyelashes against his cheek and the play of coloured light over the bones of his face. He turned and looked at me. His gaze dropped to my mouth and in a moment of panic I turned my face back up to the fireworks. I liked him, and I was definitely fuzzy from the alcohol, but I hadn't had so much that I was about to kiss someone I'd just met. Especially in front of a bunch of his friends. He turned his face away.
When the fireworks concluded, Dante got up and yelled, "Who wants to get wet? Andiamo a nuotare!” The girls cheered. The guys nodded, wiping sweat from their shining brows. The breeze had died and it was even hotter now than it had been during the day. Dante started the boat and steered us smoothly toward open water.
"Aren't we going the wrong way?" I asked Jacopo, but it was Karim who answered.
"To reach the Venice beach we have to go between Lido and Le Vignole." He gestured with an enormous hand toward the dark water between two islands. He really was the largest human I'd ever seen. He was a solid mountain of meat, mostly muscle. His bald head shone with sweat.
"Hello, giant man." I held out my hand. He swallowed it in his baseball mitt of a hand.
"Hello, tiny woman." His voice was so deep I couldn't help but picture tectonic plates rubbing against each other under the earth's crust. I'd never been called tiny before. I'm not as tall as Georjayna, but at 5'7" and curvaceous, I'm not remotely petite. I dwarfed Targa and Akiko. Now I knew how they felt.
"Fed tells me you're Canadian?"
"I am," he nodded. "I was born in Egypt, but raised in Edmonton.” He was gigantic but he had a baby face, wide inquiring eyes, and a gentle expression.
"How is it that you find yourself in Venice?" I asked, savouring the breeze as the boat went faster. My loose curls whipped about. They'd be hell to pick out later.
"It's a good place to start my life over," he said. "I did some stupid shit back home that got me into trouble. I did some time, destroyed some lives, now I'm here. A fresh start, y'know. I work for Dante's father now." He leaned in and said, "I don't normally keep company with Dante's guys, but he wanted me along, so..." He shrugged and took a swig from his water bottle.
"Is that so?" I kept my voice casual but I swallowed. What did this guy do? Was he dangerous? I made a note to ask Fed for more details. "Where did you do this stupid shit, exactly?"
My mother would have told me to mind my own business, but my mother wasn't here.
"Calgary," he answered. "I did time in Drumheller Penitentiary. Ever been to Drumheller?"
I shook my head. "No, my family did a trip to Banff once but we never made it that far east of the mountains. What did you do time for?"
"Only what I got caught for," he said with a lopsided smile.
"Stop scaring her, Karim," Dante said from the wheel. "She's not going to want to hang out with us if she finds out we're a bunch of criminals. Besides, you're sorry. Aren't you?"
"Yeah, I am actually." Karim looked me in the eye and nodded so sincerely that I thought he might actually mean it.
We drifted perpendicular to a long beach full of lights. Small explosions of firecrackers filled the sky and the sounds of music and partiers drifted across the water.
"This is Lido," said Karim. "There," he said to Dante, pointing to a group of partiers near a large tent. Drum and bass music grew louder as we approached. Dante stopped before we got too close and pressed a button. A whirring sound vibrated through the boat as he put down anchor.
There were two splashes and the boat lurched sideways as a couple of the girls dove into the water from the nose. Fed was pulling off her shirt. "Saxony, are you coming?"
"Absolutely." I stood and unzipped my dress. I stepped out of it and then held it for a moment. Were we going to party in nothing but wet bathing suits?
"Here." As though reading my thoughts, Dante held out a waterproof bag. "Put your dress in here. I'll carry it to shore for you."
"Thanks! Good thinking. Are you always this prepared?" I dropped my dress into the bag.
He winked at me and my face grew hot. Lucky for me it was dark and no one could see my blush.
Dante pulled off his polo, exposing a rippled stomach. I flushed again.
More splashes as Jacopo and Marco dove into the water. The backs of their heads glistened, seals swimming toward the beach.
I dove in headfirst and my blood instantly cooled. Dante swam beside me until our feet found the sand. He took my hand as we walked out of the water, enveloping my fingers in his as naturally as though we'd been dating for months. I looked at him in surprise, but he kept his face forward. Eyes watched us approach and people shouted greetings.
Fed was talking to someone I didn't know, but as they were chatting, she scanned the beach. When she spotted me, she gave a nod. It might have been my imagination but I thought she look a little stressed. If she was surprised to see Dante holding my hand, she didn't show it.
Dante and I approached the fire together. Two men sat with their backs to us and turned as Dante spoke. They scrambled to stand. “Prego,” one of them said, gesturing to his chair.
“No, grazie,” I said, my face hot. But Dante put a hand on my hip and guided me into a seat.
"I'll put this here," he said as he set the bag with our clothing in it against my chair. "Get dressed whenever you feel like it,"
"Thanks, Dante." I smiled up at him. Points. A flash of Raf's face filled my mind. So far, Italian boys were turning out to be kind and thoughtful.
Dante sat down beside me and a girl in a red bikini opened a cooler and handed him a beer. She pointed at me and asked Dante what I wanted in Italian. I opened my mouth to respond, but Dante answered. She handed him a bottle filled with orange liquid.