“No, the reason we’re here is to have a girls’ trip,” Jess half-lied, taking a step back. “And to find this long-lost cousin of yours.”
Her mother had received a Facebook message from an Italian relative a few weeks ago, asking her to come and visit. Totally unexpected. As far as her mother knew, none of their family still lived in Italy after moving to America generations ago. But this wasn’t the real reason. The surprise was going to be reconnecting Celeste with her estranged husband, Jess’s father. But that wasn’t something Jess was going to reveal, not yet, because if she did her mother was just as likely to get straight back on a flight to JFK.
Celeste broke eye contact and tilted her chin downward, shaking her head. “Okay, so what are you in trouble with?”
“I need money.”
“For what?”
“A lawyer.”
“For what?”
Jess gritted her teeth. “It’s complicated. This guy I was dating, Ricardo—”
“The one you just dumped?”
Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, Jess said, “I need to hire a lawyer. The police are looking for me.”
“So what did you do?” Celeste asked once more.
Jess closed her eyes. “Ricardo and I got into a fight, and he hit me, so I decided it was enough. I grabbed my things and took off. I sold my car to get cash, but it was registered under his name. He got mad and called the police. He said I stole it, but I didn’t.”
It was a stupid fight that had spiraled out of control. She’d lived in Rome with Ricardo for the past three months. It wasn’t serious. Or at least, it hadn’t been. Now it was. To be honest, she hit him first, and much harder. Shame burned Jess’s cheeks. More proof of her own inability to act responsibly. Her anger always brimmed just under the surface; too often it darted out to taste the air, and disappeared just as quickly.
“Someone hit you?” Her mother didn’t seem so much concerned with her daughter getting hit, as amazed the offending party wasn’t in the hospital. “And they want to arrest you for that?”
“No.” Jess shook her head. “But I’ve been working here illegally, and Ricardo can be a real asshole. I don’t want to get stuck—”
“Everyone,” Nico said loudly from the front of the room, “I’d like your attention please.”
Jess looked away from her mother’s eyes, glancing at the tour guide before feeling a presence behind her. The door to the room must have opened while they were talking, and someone had stepped in behind them. Moving forward, Jess turned and mumbled an apology, but stopped and blinked twice.
A man stared at her, a deep scar creasing his forehead under a mop of black hair. The man smiled, fixing Jess with penetrating brown eyes. Where had she seen him before? In the parking lot on the way in, she remembered. She had almost run into him. Tattoos didn’t impress Jess, but scars were another matter. The temperature in the room seemed to rise. “Scusi,” she mumbled in Italian, getting out of the way.
“No, I apologize,” said tall-dark-and-scarred. He smiled awkwardly, nodding at the floor.
Looking down, Jess found a pair of small eyes staring up at her. A boy held the man’s hand. Jess took another step to the side to let the two of them pass.
“Today we have a very special honor,” Nico continued from the front. “We have the Baron Giovanni Ruspoli and little Hector joining us. This is their castle—their home—we are visiting.”
Baron Ruspoli stepped forward between Jess and Celeste, smiling. He turned and offered his hand to Celeste. “Giovanni Ruspoli,” he said, nodding as Celeste took his hand.
“Celestina Tosetti,” Celeste replied.
Jess thought she detected the faintest of shadows pass across the Baron’s smile, but it vanished in an instant. She glanced at the boy, Hector, holding the Baron’s hand. Not more than four years old, he stared back at Jess with wide brown eyes under a mass of black hair. She stared back at him, feeling her pulse skip a beat, an image of children chasing each other through a snow-covered field flitting through her mind.
“A pleasure,” the Baron replied to Celeste. He turned to Jess.
“Oh, sorry,” Jess said after a moment, tearing her eyes away from the little boy. The Baron’s hand hovered empty in the air between them. She took it. “Jess—”
The Baron bowed and kissed her hand.
“—ica.” Jess finished her name in barely more than a whisper, the Baron’s lips leaving her hand. If the temperature in the room seemed to rise before, now someone had turned on a burner. Her face flushed.
“A pleasure,” repeated the Baron. He looked down. “And this is Hector.”
“Buon Giorno,” little Hector said to Celeste and Jess.
“Buon Giorno,” Jess and Celeste both chimed back.
They all stared at each other for a moment.