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)
“You ready to get your tub?”
“Oh, sure.” She bent and lifted the nearly full basket at her feet. “Wow. This thing’s heavy. I had no idea.”
Tomasso leaned out into the row and smirked. I gave him the evil eye and took the basket from Allegra. “You survived working outdoors.”
“I know. I can’t believe it. I actually enjoyed myself, too.”
“Good.”
“Turns out fresh air doesn’t kill you after all.” She shrugged. “Who knew?”
“Are you ready to go to the store now?”
“I just need to run next door and wash up. I’ll pick you up when I’m done.”
I shook my head. “I will drive.”
Her brows knitted. “Why?”
“I saw da way you drive a stick, but also that little Fiat is too small to fit a bathtub.”
“We can leave the trunk open or tie it down or something.” She pointed at my Vespa. “What are we going to do, balance it on our heads on that thing?”
“I have a pickup truck in the garage. How do you think I haul grapes and equipment around?”
“Oh.”
I shook my head again. “I’ll be outside your house in fifteen minutes.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
I jumped in the shower to wash the vineyard off, got dressed, and still had to wait ten minutes for Allegra. She came out in a white tank top and a pale blue flowy skirt, with her hair piled on top of her head in a big messy bun. I was glad I had sunglasses on because my gaze lingered on the delicate curve of her neck for a little too long.
Lupo was sitting next to me on the bench seat. He stood when he heard gravel crunching, and his excited tail swatted me as he watched Allegra walk toward the truck. “Yeah,” I grumbled. “No shit.”
She climbed in and scratched the top of his head. “Hey, buddy. I didn’t know you were coming, too.” Allegra looked over at me. “He followed you around the vineyard like a shadow today. Does he go everywhere with you?”
I shrugged. “He took your grandmother’s passing hard.”
“It was very kind of you to take him in.” Allegra covered her heart with her hand.
She thought I was being sweet, but I’d just answered her by talking to her cleavage. Thank God for sunglasses.
I cleared my throat. “You want a regular tub, yes? Something fiberglass or acrylic?”
“I’d love a cast-iron one like what was in there, to keep true to the house, if that’s not a pain in the neck to find.”
It was, and it also changed installing it from being a one-man job to two or three guys lifting over two hundred kilos. But I appreciated her respect for the bones of the place, so I’d figure it out. Though the nearest plumbing-supply store that might stock cast iron was an hour away, so I hit the road. The windows in the truck were down, and after a little while I noticed the wind was blowing my passenger’s bun loose.
“You want me to put on de air conditioning?” I asked.
“No, this actually feels good.” She reached up and plucked something from her bun, and her hair tumbled down in waves.
I focused on keeping my eyes ahead and tapped my fingers on the steering wheel. “How long are you staying in Tuscany?”
She grinned. “Anxious to get rid of me already?”
I smiled. “Nah. Lupo, he likes you.”
“I’m staying three months.”
“You work remote or something?”
“Or something. I’m actually unemployed at the moment.”
I glanced over at her and back to the road. “Sounds like there’s a story there, yes?”
She sighed. “There is. But I’ll spare you the details and give you the abbreviated version. I got passed over for partner, so I quit.”
“Did you deserve to be made partner?”
She lifted her chin. “Of course I did. I’m damn good at my job.”
“Then why you get passed over?”
“Because I neither have a dick, nor suck one, to get ahead.”
“Non tutte le ciambelle escono col buco.” Not all donuts come out with a hole.
She laughed, and I was surprised she’d been able to translate what I’d said. “I think I was eighteen before I realized that meant not everything turns out as expected, and my grandmother didn’t have an obsession with donuts. That was her favorite saying.”
I nodded. “I know. It felt like something she would’ve said right now.”
Allegra was quiet for a moment. “You knew her pretty well, huh?”
“I fix things for her. She make dinner for me. And we drank a lot of wine on the loggia after both.”
“How long have you been next door?”
“Six years.”
Allegra frowned. “I guess that’s why we never met. That’s how long I’ve been a lawyer and too wrapped up in my life to visit the person I loved most.”
I glanced over at her again. “She spoke of you often.”
Allegra smiled but it seemed a little sad. “We FaceTimed every Sunday. I know it’s stupid, because she was eighty-five when she died, but I thought I had more time to visit. Looking back, I don’t know where the last six years even went.”