Knowing what I have to do is so much easier than doing.
It’s no wonder Dante escaped and became a priest. Six years ago he’d just been officially accepted into the church. To this day I’ve no idea what brought on the sudden change in him, but either way he’s damn good and has turned the church around where he is. He’s certainly brought the younger generation back inside its walls. I smile though because I’m sure that has more to do with his looks and physique than anything to do with religion. I don’t think it bothers him as much as it used to.
It was Dante who helped me carry on with day-to-day living after I’d run here to lick my wounds following the fire. And I guess, in a way, its Dante I’ve come back to.
He lives in a small cabin about twenty minutes from his church, refusing to live in the house adjoined to it. I know over the next couple of weeks that I’ve given myself to be here, we’ll be hiking and fishing just like old times.
With a bit of luck, he’ll already be at my cabin, providing he picked his voicemail up that is. He was a last minute call as I boarded the plane.
Out of all my cousins, he’s the one I’m closest too. He’s the same age as I am and when we were younger before his mom passed away we used to hang out. Those were great times, until his mom passed and his dad remarried straightaway. That had cut him and his brothers up something badly and for a while we’d drifted apart, until the fire.
Pulling up the drive to my place, I’m sure I can smell snow in the air. We’re close to the first snow of the season, which I hope happens while I’m here. I’d love to bring Sabrina here when there is fresh snow down because the place looks magical. Which reminds me to add the house lights to my list of things to do.
Hopefully with Dante’s help, everything will be perfect.
I smile as I come to a stop beside Dante’s SUV and climb out. There’s nothing like being here in the mountains.
“Hey, about damn time,” Dante shouts bringing my head up to him as he shuts my front door on his way to me, greeting me with a hug.
“It’s been a while,” I tell him.
“That it has,” Dante replies. “I’ve had the electricity switched back on and I’ve dumped the supplies in the kitchen.”
“Thanks.”
We walk inside, which is already heating up.
“How long are you staying?” Dante asks as I follow him through to the kitchen.
He already has a pot of coffee on. It looks fresh as well with it still steaming.
“Two weeks.” I pour us both a mug of coffee and rest my hip against the countertop. “I’m here to make some changes to the place, and if you’re free I could use some help.”
“What kind of changes?”
“The whole place needs furnishing, but I need it suitable for a…family.”
He pauses mid drink.
“I know it’s been a while since we’ve really spoken, but, um, family? What have I missed?”
“I’ve screwed up badly.” I wince. “I want to bring her here and tell her about the accident and show her where I was burned, and hopefully, if she doesn’t run screaming I want to ask her to live here with me.”
I sit opposite Dante at the kitchen table.
“So you want the whole place furnished to try and what?” He throws his arms out. “Won’t she stay with you even in the sparse rooms?” He frowns.
“Sabrina would stay with me in a shack in the mountains if I asked her, or at least she would have done that before I hurt her. I need to make this right. She’s the one Dante. I’ve known this from the first time I laid eyes on her. She scared the shit out of me and I fought it, but she’s in here,” I press against my heart, “and she’s not going anywhere. She’s also carrying my child.”
I shoot up and pass him a napkin when he starts to choke.
I’m not surprised he’s shocked considering he knew of my sexual problem, and it’s not exactly something you get on the horn to a friend and say ‘Hey, I’m back. My dicks working again’.
“She’s pregnant? Are you sure it’s…,” he sees my pissed expression and back peddles, “good,” he finishes with a wince.
I stare at him for a few minutes.
“Yes, it’s mine. No matter what I do, I’ve been screwing up with Sabrina and it needs to stop. So I want to get this place looking like a home. I want it to look like a place where she would want to live…with me. And I need your help to do it.”
Placing his mug back on the table, he sits back grinning. “Of course I’ll help you. But I want to meet this woman who you’d go to all this trouble for.”
“She isn’t anything like Alyssa.”
“Oh, I know that. You didn’t love Alyssa.”
“What?”