Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 100605 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100605 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
I laughed. “Shut up.”
He pushed the button on the coffee machine, and it whirred to life. After, he walked over and kissed my forehead. “I’m happy for you.”
I figured as long as I was ripping Band-Aids off today, I might as well go for two. “How would you feel about taking another trip with me?”
He leaned a hip against the counter and shrugged. “Where did you have in mind?”
“New York.”
The little crease between his eyebrows deepened. “New York?”
I nodded. “One of my clients wants me to take over his case.”
I could almost hear the wheels in his head turning. “You’re going back to work in New York?”
“It’s just one case. It’s something I started, so I’d like to finish it for him since he reached out. But it’s also a big client with a lot of connections. It could be good for me.”
Matteo opened his mouth to say something, then shut it again. His eyes lingered, flickering across my face, as if he were trying to read me like a book. After a long pause, he nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay, meaning you’ll go?”
“If you want me to, I’ll go.”
I jumped out of my chair and threw my arms around him. “Thank you. When can you leave?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know how much time I can be away since we’re in harvest season. But you let me know when, and I’ll work it out.”
“Okay! I only have to be in court one or two days, since we stipulated to most of the major points in their prenuptial agreement. Maybe I can show you around the city, and we can have dinner with my friend Cassie and her husband while we’re there.”
“Whatever makes you happy.” He leaned down and kissed my lips. “But I must get going right now. Today is pressing day for the first batch of grapes we picked a few weeks ago.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a step in the wine-making process. It separates the juice from solids. After the grapes are picked, I bring them up to my parents’ winery where we sort and destem. After that, they go into tanks for fermentation where the grape sugars are turned into alcohol. Then we press—remove the skins and seeds and any stems we missed. My parents have a pneumatic press now, so it’s a lot less work than when we did years ago, but I’ll still be gone for most of the day.”
“I want to learn more, but I know you have to go. Maybe you can teach me later?”
Matteo smiled warmly and stroked my hair. “I would love to teach you about what I do, bellissima. I’m happy you’re interested.”
After he left, I called the estate attorney to double-check that a quick trip to New York wouldn’t mess up the ninety-day requirement my grandmother had included in her will. He said I’d have to tack however many days I was gone onto the time I had left when I returned, but at least it wouldn’t reset the entire count. Then I looked at flights and texted Matteo to see if leaving in five days was too soon. I thought I might not hear from him for a while, but he texted back almost immediately.
Matteo: I’ll make it work.
Chapter 31
Allegra
THE FOLLOWING WEEK, we landed at JFK. Matteo had fallen asleep during the flight, which left me free to do what I did best—overthink. Was it a bad decision to bring him home with me? Was it too soon? Was I leading him on too much? He’d been to New York once and hated it. What if being here scared him off, reminded him how different our lives were?
But then as we got ready to exit the plane, an older woman a row ahead of us struggled to get her luggage down, and Matteo stepped in and grabbed it for her. I smiled, loving that he was always ready to jump in and help, even here in New York where he definitely wasn’t getting a knitted cap. When Matteo smiled back at me, a rush of butterflies swarmed.
“How far is your apartment?” he asked as we stepped off the jet bridge and started the long walk to the airport exit.
“We landed at the worst time for traffic. I don’t usually take a car from here, but I would guess it will take anywhere from ninety minutes to two hours.”
“How far is it?”
“Fifteen miles, maybe?”
Matteo blinked. “Twenty-four kilometers, yes?”
I nodded.
“And it could take two hours?”
“Sadly, it might.”
“You said you don’t usually drive. How do you normally get home?”
“Trains. JFK has an AirTrain that takes you to Jamaica station where you can hop on a subway or train and get just about anywhere.”
“And that’s faster?”
I nodded. “And cheaper.”
“So why don’t we do that?”
I hesitated. “I didn’t want you to remember why you didn’t like it here in the first five minutes.”