Out of the Ashes (17 page)

He returned with a package.

“I thought you might like this.”

Smiling, he handed her a thin, brown-wrapped bundle about ten inches square.

“Go ahead. Open it.”

Now he was bringing her gifts? What was he trying to do to her?

Ripping at the paper, she tore it open to reveal a record encased in a plain, white sleeve. She looked closely at the black label peeking through the cutout in the center. It showed a drawing of a dog with its head in a gramophone. Underneath the image, gold lettering in English spelled out the title of the song, “Just as Though You Were
Here.
”

“It’s Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra,” David said. “They play American Big Band music.”

“I know.”

“Now you can listen to the real thing while you recover.”

Stunned, Sera didn’t know what to say.

“Where did you get this?”

“You’d be surprised what you can get on the black market.”

No, she wasn’t surprised. You could buy anything if you had enough money, and the record probably cost him a fortune. Where did he get the money? Certainly not from working at the ruins.

“You… I can get arrested for owning something like this.”

He winked at her. “I won’t tell if you won’t.”

Just who wouldn’t he be telling?

“What does your girlfriend think about it?”

“What?”

“Your girlfriend? Won’t she mind you giving another woman a gift?”

David averted his gaze, studying the label of the record with intense interest. “She won’t have a problem with me giving a get well present to a sick friend.”

She didn’t believe him. Any woman would have a problem with her boyfriend giving another woman presents.

“Is that what we are? Friends?”

He finally looked back at her.

“I’d like to think so.”

The word “friend” hung in the air between them, inadequate and misplaced.

Sera finally tore her gaze away and stroked her hand delicately over the cardboard cover. She couldn’t believe he’d done this. Just attempting to buy American records like this on the black market could have gotten him arrested. Both of them could go to jail if the album was discovered in their possession.

But she wouldn’t part with it for the world.

“So, do you want to listen to it or not?”

The request took her by surprise, and regret dampened her happiness.

“This is really sweet, but I don’t have a player.”

He smiled, a wicked gleam lighting his eyes, as he wagged his index finger at her. “Ah, ha. I already thought of that.”

He walked once more out into the hallway and returned with a small, portable record player.

“The
Angelicos
let me borrow theirs. They said you can keep it as long as you like.”

He set the player on the beat-up coffee table and plugged it into the wall. Taking the record from her, he placed the disc on the turntable and turned it on.

She heard crackling as the needle touched the spinning record. Violins and horns floated from the speaker, soaring to a powerful crescendo, then softening, followed by the smooth, crooning voice of the singer.

David held out his hand to her. “Dance with me.”

Her breath caught in her throat. She had the strangest sense of déjà vu, as if she’d seen him like this before, standing just this way, holding his hand out to her, beckoning her to him. She felt helpless to deny him.

Standing, she walked into his arms. He held her gently as they swayed to the music, the velvety voice of the singer floating on the air around them.

Oh, don’t be afraid that distance and time

will finally tear us apart

the farther you go, the longer you stay

the deeper you grow in my heart

Listening to the rhythm of his heart beating under her cheek, the feel of his arms around her, it all seemed so perfect, so right. She wanted to hold onto this moment forever. But as the song came to an end, she knew she couldn’t. She wasn’t the woman who had that right.

“Your girlfriend might not mind you giving a sick friend a get well present, but I’m pretty certain she wouldn’t like this.” The words tasted bitter on her tongue.

She felt David’s heavy sigh in her hair. She may have imagined it, but he seemed to squeeze her just a little bit tighter, hold her just a little bit longer, before he slowly released her and stepped back. Even though she didn’t want to, she let him go.

“No, I don’t guess she would.”

He walked over to the player and pulled the arm off the record. When he turned the machine off, the soft click sounded like a gunshot in the now silent room.

With his hands firmly on his hips, he stared at the rotating record, the black disc spinning slower and slower until it came to a stop. His mouth was drawn in a tense line. He looked like he was battling for control, struggling with some inner demon. Sera wished she could crawl inside his brain to find out what he was thinking.

“This was probably a bad idea.” He spoke without looking at her, as if by meeting her gaze, the fragile grip he held on his restraint would snap. “I should go.”

David turned on his heel and walked to the door, sending her heart plummeting to her stomach. His back was stiff as he jerked open the door. He stood in the threshold for what seemed like an eternity, the tension in his shoulders evident through the rough cotton of his shirt. Finally, he turned to face her. The look in his eyes—a mixture of regret, shame, and possibly even longing—was staggering.

Sera gripped the edges of her bathrobe under her chin. “David, what is it?”

“I…” He hesitated, then smiled, the gesture tight and forced. “I’ll see you back at the dig.”

He slowly closed the door, and she listened to his footsteps as he headed down the hall.

“I didn’t think you’d be back for another week.”

Sera looked up from the excavation pit into David’s smiling face. Was it only a few days ago that he’d danced with her in her apartment? It seemed like an eternity. Bruised ribs or not, she couldn’t stand being away one moment longer—from the ruins or from David.

“After that fish tale you told me about digging holes, I had to come and see what you’ve been doing for myself.”

“And?”

“And you and
Heberto
have done a lot of work. I’m very impressed.” And she was. They had made a great deal of progress in her absence, clearing a foot or more down on the road between several of the merchants’ shops and even up to the wall tower that David seemed so fond of.

David tugged at the brim of his hat and smiled a silly, lopsided grin.

“
Grazie,
signorina
.”

Funny, with the odd twang he put in his voice as he spoke the words, he sounded just like one of those cowboys in the American westerns she used to see at the cinema before the war.

Shaking the impression away, Sera stepped out of the pit and brushed at the dust on her pants, feeling oddly nervous around him, like a school girl with her first big crush.

Obviously, he didn’t have the same problem. He walked up to her and kissed her gently on the cheek. When he pulled back, he was smiling softly.

“I’m glad you’re back.”

She could feel the heat rising on the skin of her neck and knew she was probably blushing like a ripe tomato.

“Me, too.”

He pushed back from her and rested his hands on her shoulders, holding her at arm’s length.

“So, what do you say about getting back to work, boss?”

“I’d say it’s about time.”

* * *

Sera and David worked side by side for the rest of the week. She mapped out the new area the men had uncovered, and he went back to digging on the perimeter of the pit. Amazingly enough, working seemed to make her ribs feel better, although she always paid for it when she got up the next morning. But it was all worth it to be back digging in the ruins she loved, working beside the man she…

She chased the errant thought away, but it didn’t go far.

Each day they worked together, there was always a hungry look or a gentle touch that would pass between them. There was no denying that they were drawn to each other. Though their relationship had escalated somewhere beyond friendship, she knew it couldn’t go any further.

But that didn’t stop her from wanting him.

Hearing the crunch of rocks behind her, Sera turned to see him pushing his wheelbarrow around the pit.

“Don’t miss me too much while I’m gone,” he called. He winked at her and was off to drop another load of dirt at the trucks.

She smiled as she watched him leave. It was nice to have the awkward strain gone between them, but in its place was a different kind of tension. The air around them fairly crackled with a longing so strong, she was amazed David didn’t lay her down in the dirt and make love to her under the bright Italian sun.

But he never did because there was someone else.

She went back to work, humming the tune to the song they’d danced to that day. If she couldn’t have the real thing, she’d relive the memory of what might have been.

It seemed only a few minutes had gone by before she felt strong hands knead her tired shoulders, causing her heart to leap in her chest and a warmth pool in her belly. David?

“I missed you,
carina
,” Giovanni’s smooth voice whispered in her ear.

She jerked, nearly catching him in the chin with her head as she jumped away.

“Giovanni, what are you doing here?” She hated it when he called her sweetheart.

“When I heard what happened, I could not believe it. I was so worried about you.”

Sera batted at his hands as he reached for her again.

“Yes, I could tell from all the flowers you didn’t send me.”

Giovanni smiled his bone-melting smile.

“Ah, why send flowers that will wilt next to your beauty?”

At one time, the compliment would have sounded genuine. Now she knew better.

“What do you want?”

“You, my sweet Serafina.” He looked at her with more sincerity than she thought possible from a man who had once broken her heart. “I want you back.”

“What?” After all this time, he couldn’t really mean that, could he?

Giovanni stepped closer, but she couldn’t find the power to move away from him. His behavior was too surreal.

“When I heard that you nearly died, I realized how much I still love you.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I’ve never been more serious in my life. I can’t lose you again.”

Sera shook her head. “I’m not yours to lose anymore.”

“Please,
carina
. Let us put all those bad memories behind us and start again. You and I, we were good together.”

Yes, they were. In many ways, they were a lot alike. At one time, she’d thought he was the one for her—a kindred spirit, her soul mate. But not anymore. You have to be able to trust the one you give your heart to, and she didn’t trust Giovanni. Not after she caught him in bed with another woman.

“After what you did to me, how can you even think that I would take you back?”

“I’ve changed. I learned my lesson. When I thought I’d lost you forever, I realized what you mean to me. There is no other woman for me.”

“It won’t work. Not this time.” She needed to get away from him. Fast, before his charm and smooth talk turned her head the way it always used to.

“But it can work, if we both try. You loved me once. It can happen again.”

“No. No, it can’t.” Why did the air seem suddenly too thin? He was too close. She couldn’t breathe.

“Come,
mio
caro
. Who else knows you as well as I do? Who understands your passion for the ruins like I do?”

Who indeed?

Giovanni startled her when he cupped her face in his hands.

“And you are a passionate woman, Serafina. No one else knows how to bring it out in you like I do.”

Before she could stop him, Giovanni was kissing her, his full lips pressing against her own, his tongue demanding entrance to her mouth.

But the passion he talked about wasn’t there anymore. At least not for her. While it was a kiss that used to make her weak in the knees, now all she noticed was that his lips felt chapped from too much time in the sun and that he’d had something with a lot of garlic in it for lunch.

She wedged her hands between them and tried to push him away, but his strong arms held her tight. She closed her eyes and managed to twist her head away. Undeterred, he started trailing sloppy, wet kisses down her neck. Sera groaned, not in passion, but in frustration. When she finally opened her eyes again, she glanced over Giovanni’s broad shoulder to find David standing at the edge of the pit.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

His expression was like that of her father the last time she saw him—cold, blank—and it sent a shiver racing through her body.

“David?” Her voice came out in a squeak.

* * *

Giovanni turned to smirk at David with a shit-eating grin before Sera pushed the man away, breaking their cozy embrace.

David shifted his gaze to Sera. She looked… could that possibly be guilt in those beautiful blue eyes?

“Don’t mind me. I’ll just be on my way.” He shoved the empty wheelbarrow around the pit, taking the long way around so he didn’t have to pass close to the two of them.

What the hell was going on? What was that snake Giovanni doing slithering around Sera? And what was she doing with her arms coiled around him?

He parked the wheelbarrow and picked up his shovel. Squeezing the wooden handle in his grip, he had to mentally slow his breathing, or he risked hitting someone with it. When he finally turned back, Giovanni was walking away down the road. Strutting like a cocky rooster was more like it.

“David, it’s not what it looks like.”

“Really?” He tried to cover his irritation with indifference. “It looked like two people playing a friendly game of chess to me. What else could it have been?”

“That’s not funny. Let me explain.”

“There’s nothing to explain. It’s obvious you have a boyfriend you forgot to tell me about.” David laughed humorlessly, thinking of the lie he had told her about his “girlfriend.” “I guess that makes us even.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Well, you could’ve fooled me. You two looked pretty chummy to me.” He stabbed his shovel into the dirt with a bit more force than was necessary. “Funny, from the way you talked about him, I thought you hated the guy’s guts. Guess I was wrong.”

“You are wrong. I may not hate him, but that doesn’t mean I like him, either.”

“Well, I’d say that lip-lock you were sharing says you feel different.”

“I wasn’t kissing him.
He
was kissing
me
.”

“Hmm, yeah. You’ll pardon me if I appear a little confused on that point.”

Sera rested her fists on her hips, defensiveness displayed in every bone in her body.

“Damn it, David. Giovanni probably knew you were close behind and did it on purpose just to irritate you. He’s not worth getting jealous over.”

Jealous? Was that what he was feeling? If it was, he didn’t like it one bit, and the only thing that would make him feel better about the situation would be to pound Giovanni’s smug face into the dirt.

Since the schmuck wasn’t around, he struck out at the next best thing.

“I’m just surprised. I took you for a smart girl. I thought you had more sense than to get mixed up with a smooth talker like that.”

“I’m not mixed up with him.”

“Tell that to someone who might believe it.” He jabbed his shovel into the dirt and leaned on the handle. He stared intently at Sera, making her visibly squirm. “I watched him treat you like trash, and you didn’t do a thing about it. Now he makes a pass at you, and you don’t stop him. Come on, it’s obvious something is going on with you two.”

“Nothing is going on between us. Not anymore.”

“Not anymore?” His anger began to boil. Now the truth was coming out. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Sera huffed. “Giovanni and I… we were close once.”

Close? Close with a guy like that could mean only one thing. David didn’t even want to think about the possibility, but that didn’t stop the accusing words from spilling out of his mouth.

“Don’t tell me he was your lover.”

“He was not my lover.” Her face glowed beet-red. She looked ready to scream. “If you must know, he’s my ex-fiancé.”

David felt like he’d been hit in the stomach with a sledgehammer. Her fiancé? The “ex” part didn’t factor in with his suddenly dazed mind. She and that scum had been close. They had obviously been lovers. He couldn’t believe it. She’d actually been in love with that snake. She’d almost married him. The thought made him angry as a newly gelded bull.

He spun around and kicked at a rock, realizing too late that it was deeply imbedded in the soil and a good deal less fragile than the bones in his foot. As pain shot up his leg, he was sure he heard a crunch or two. He danced around on one foot, certain that he had broken his big toe.

“Son of a bitch!”

Heaving the shovel through the air like a javelin, he let go with a continuous string of red, white, and blue curses. When he finally calmed down enough to let the throbbing subside, he looked up and saw Sera’s stunned expression.

The look on her face had nothing to do with shock over his colorful choice of words.

It was how he had shouted them. In English.

With a sinking feeling, he realized Sera now knew his secret.

David was an American.

* * *

Sera felt all the blood drain from her body. Her hands tingled and her heart thundered in her chest. At first, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. If David hadn’t kept carrying on like a raving lunatic, she might have thought it all her imagination.

But there it was. She had spent enough time in America to know those words, and the truth slapped her in the face.

David wasn’t Italian at all.

She always thought there was something different about him, something she could never quite put her finger on. Now she knew what it was. All the pieces fit together. For someone supposedly from Italy, he knew very little about the history of Pompeii. His frequent questioning about her loyalty, or lack thereof, to the Fascist Regime. His ability to acquire an American record no one in Italy should own.

But the most damning of all was his persistent need to be in this area of the ruins, and his constant sitting on the wall tower just above the German camp.