All the Way to Heaven

Chapter 37

"I am taking you for a drive first. We are going the long way around," Paulo assured me, his voice low, soothing. "I want to show you a place that is special to me. To my family. Did I tell you, I live with my aunt and her family here in Lucca?"

"Wow. That worked out well for you."

"Yes. For all of us. I am able to contribute to the household expenses with my work for the city. I help Sharon and Dominic with their boys. They are five and six years old and I am their favorite baby sitter." He beamed proudly and I grinned back at his obviously strong feelings for this branch of his family. "I will give my truck to Dominic when I leave and he can choose to sell it or keep it."

"So this beauty is actually yours?" I patted the sun-crackled dashboard in front of me. The little truck looked like it had seen a lot of years on the farm, but the engine putted along evenly.

"You remember the olive farmer I told you about? I discovered the truck abandoned in his back field. I bought her from him for very little. I had to install a whole new engine, but it has been worth all the time and money I invested.

"Well, I like it."

"Her," he corrected, a little self-consciously. "Her name is Sofia. I know she is not a Maserati—"

"Uh-uh. Nope." I eyed him over the top of my sunglasses. "Don't go there, Paulo." I took in the meandering road ahead of us, the trees closing in on either side, and sensed we were climbing in elevation. Where was he taking me? "So this place you and Sofia are taking me. Tell me about it."

"It is a surprise." He allowed the subject change, but with a stubborn glint in his eye. He patted my thigh in what I'm sure he intended as a companionable gesture. It was no different than what Fabio had done my first night in Lucca, but Paulo's touch today made me skittish. "You must trust me, okay? Will you trust me?"

I rolled my eyes, loathing those loaded words. Jacob had said them to me perhaps a thousand times, and I'd fallen for them every time. "You know what, Paulo? That phrase, 'trust me,' is like poison to me. I don't think I can explain it to you just yet, but I would feel so much better if I knew you weren't ever going to say that to me again."

He didn't speak so I continued, wishing he already knew my story so I would never have to tell him about Jacob.

"Suffice it to say that I've been burned pretty badly by someone who used those words far too often and for all the wrong reasons. I trusted him because he asked me to, not because he was trustworthy." This time I reached over and touched him. I lay my hand on his forearm where it rested on the basket, my voice gentle, beseeching. "Besides, I do trust you, just so you know."

Paulo's arm moved beneath mine, rotating so he could take my hand in his. He squeezed it reassuringly, then without preamble, began telling me what he'd been doing the day of our first encounter on the train. He didn't let go of my hand. I didn't pull away.

Romigi was one of the young men Paulo had been working with for the last several months. Over the summer, Rom had become enamored by a young lady in Siena, and by the end of August, the girl was pregnant. Paulo began noticing a change in Rom, that the once happy-go-lucky kid with an affinity for using his smart mouth a little too freely was becoming morose and sullen. Rom finally admitted the situation to Paulo, explaining that the girl, Bettina, was afraid to tell her parents and was considering an abortion. Rom believed he was in love with Bettina and wanted to keep the child that had been conceived out of their love. He insisted Bettina keep the baby a secret until he found a job and a place for them to live, then he would marry her.