Be Brave With Me

Chapter Thirty-Four

What was he doing? What was he doing? What the fuck was he doing!?

He had no idea how to fix a fucking fountain.

And yet, Theo found himself kneeling barefoot inside an empty one for the third day in a row. He pulled his working gloves off in frustration. He'd never get that rusty valve to open up.

Yes. He'd bought the old villa they'd found that day on their way back from Sorrento. No. He didn't know why.

All right, all right. Who the fuck was he kidding?

Of course, he knew.

He just didn't want to admit it to himself. He just didn't want to think. Because if he began to think, he'd think of her.

That's why he'd switched off all thinking a few days ago. Around the time he'd raced down to city hall in Amalfi to set his signature beneath the documents that declared the wild shrubbery around him and the pile of stones and broken windows at his back as his property.

He hadn't been thinking when he'd bought this crumbling mess out of the city's offering hands for nothing more than one single, symbolic euro. As it turned out, the villa was part of some redevelopment project which had the government selling dilapidated properties in the rural countryside to anyone willing to put in the work and effort to restore them and thus bring life back to deserted areas.

He was free to do whatever he wanted with his future. He'd cut himself loose from the crushing weight of The Harrington, from the expectations of four ancestors and one hundred years of legacy. He could've ridden off into the sunset, taking off to explore every corner of the damn wide world. He could've literally moved on.

He hadn't been thinking, though. He'd gotten to work.

On the damn, decorative fountain in the driveway.

No. Don't ask. He knew why.

He knew if he stopped working and sat down for a moment he'd start to think. And if he began to think, he'd think of her. And he couldn't think about her. Or he would loose it.

More than he already had.

Hence, the kneeling in an empty fountain, bare-chested and sweating and sunburned, in front of an old villa on a hot afternoon somewhere in the woods off of the coast of Amalfi.

He didn't know why it had to be the fountain. He just knew he had to start somewhere. And he'd rather start with something small than with the mountain of work that was looming behind him.

For the last three days, he'd scrubbed the shallow, wide pools clean, pulled out weeds, cleared out pipes, repaired spots of broken plaster. Right now, he was trying to crack open the rusty valve that would finally bring water to the three tiers, supplied by a still functioning well he had discovered on the grounds.

Theo wiped the sweat off his brow, pulled on his gloves again and tried to turn the rusty wheel one more time. It gave way, a tiny smidge. Not far enough, though. Maybe if he tried a different grip...

A familiar sound had him look up from his work. He heard Giuseppe's old truck come tumbling down the driveway.

He didn't know what he would have done without Romeo's help these past few days. Whenever he could slip away from his duties at the Vista for an hour or two, he'd come up here to bring him water, food, and company. But most of all, Romeo had allowed him to.... be. He'd let Theo do whatever he thought he had to do so he wouldn't go mad from missing-

No. Don't go there, man.

Theo rose to his feet and chucked off his gloves again. This fucking fountain! Couldn't he get just one thing in his life to work out...?!