Be Brave With Me

Chapter Nineteen

On their way back to the truck for more crates, he tried to catch glimpses of Aura's face. The dark shadows beneath her eyes spoke volumes. She needed to rest, not get roped into a summer job with long hours. Had he been wrong to agree to this gig for them? Was she mad at him? Would she be able to stay on her feet?

But all he could see was excitement written across her face, as she turned her head left and right to peek into as many alleys and lush, green backyards as possible. Some of her sunshine had returned.

Eventually, Theo returned his focus to Romeo who was chattering along on his other side. Bit by bit, it became easier for him to understand Romeo's strong Neapolitan dialect. Just now, he was admitting that their rental car breaking down couldn't have come at a better time - for himself.

The two work-and-travelers who Romeo had hired earlier that year through an agency down in Amalfi as seasonals had never shown up. Theo's and Aura's willingness to stay and help out was a blessing for him and his grandmother.

The Vista had been a family operation for the past forty years. In the seventies, Nonna's husband and Romeo's grandpa, Matteo, had scraped together all of his savings to buy and completely remodel the abandoned school building waisting away next to the house he'd been born in. He died of cancer soon after the renovations were completed; Nonna had run the Vista ever since. Romeo had never gotten the chance to meet his grandfather, although everyone - especially Nonna - never tired of telling Romeo he looked and talked and acted just like him.

According to Nonna, he was nothing like his good-for-nothing father. Romeo had never gotten the chance to meet him, either. His father had taken off on him and his mama even before Romeo was born. With his mama living in Naples these days to finish her college degree, it had just been him and his Nonna up here for the past two years.

And Uncle Giuseppe, of course. Nonna's brother ran his own café at the edge of the town square. His uncle couldn't help out much with the heavy-lifting at the Vista anymore, though, besides driving him to Sorrento for the weekly farmer's market. One of his old friends from school, Sophia, came up from Amalfi every other day to clean the guest rooms, but that was it for help.

Except now, they had Theo and Aura, too.

Romeo grinned wide at him, folded his hands together and shook them towards the sky. Grazie a Dio per le auto francesi!

After they returned to the Vista with the rest of the crates, Romeo gave them the tour. The big kitchen, Nonna's realm, and the open floor downstairs with its views of the garden, library corner, lounge area, and twenty feet long dining table. Up front, Romeo had a small room acting as the reception and his office with the ancient desk of the headmaster taking up most of the space. Upstairs, Theo counted five guest rooms. The Vista was a moth compared to the mammoth size of The Harrington with its 120 rooms. And yet, he learned pretty quickly - there was just as much that needed to be done.

Fresh lemonade needed to be served when the guests returned from their morning excursions. The pool had to be cleaned from leaves. The garden needed attention. Tables had to be set for lunch. Books had to be put back on the shelves. A hand, or two, or four had to be lent in the kitchen for dinner prep. Whenever they needed directions or advice, they popped their heads into the small office where Romeo sat dwarfed behind the headmaster's desk, submerged in all the administrative stuff, from running the website to booking rental cars for the guests.

Their first day went by in a whirl of work, but Theo appreciated the work load. The more work there was to do, the easier it was for Aura to distract herself.

No time to overthink, fret, or worry about anything else when you had to figure out how the intimidating pool cleaning equipment worked.

Still, he counted along every time Aura had to pull out the flip phone from the pocket of her jeans shorts to mute an incoming call. He made it to eighty-seven before he saw her switch it off for good and hide it from view on one of the wide book shelves, inside a tomb with the title The Eruption of Mount Vesuvius - How Devastation Could Have Been Prevented. With a satisfied nod towards the silent book, Aura went back to work. Back to distracting herself.