The Boy with the Blind Eyes

FIFTEEN

Giovanni's was beautiful. Brett and Tamsin had opted for a navy cushioned booth in the corner of the restaurant, far more private and seemingly romantic than any of the other available tables, with a small vanilla candle in the middle of their table, wafting delicious, sweet scents to Tamsin's nose.

It was unusually quiet for a Friday night, but then again, it was getting down to two degrees outside. Sitting directly under the heat didn't even help; Tamsin was still shivering in her coat, and Brett was constantly blowing heat into his cold fingers. But he looked adorable and handsome at the same time, his blue eyes sparkling under the dim glow of the lights, two splashes of red on his pale cheeks. He was wearing a dark blue, long-sleeved cotton shirt that hugged his biceps, and, Tamsin noticed, he was getting more and more muscly by the day that it seemed he could barely fit into it.

Brett peered over his menu at Tamsin. His eyes crinkled into a smile as he asked, 'Know what you want?'

'I think I'll have the parmesan and asparagus risotto,' she said quietly, leaning back into her booth contentedly.

'I think I'll go for the panzenella.'

Tamsin's brows raised. 'Impressive. Don't know many guys that would go for that kinda thing.'

Brett shrugged, taking a sip of the Sauvignon Blanc Guglielmo had sneakily brought over, reassuring Tamsin he'd known Brett and his family for years and the Fuller's had never objected to their son having wine with dinner. 'I know my Italian food. I was practically raised on panzenella.'

'Really?'

'My great grandparents were Italians when they migrated to America in the 1920s. And then my grandmother, Rosalina, married a man who was also a full-blooded Italian.'

'What about your parents?'

'Dad's fully Italian, and Mom's half German and half Swiss, so...' he laughed and pointed to his sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. 'I guess I get my looks from my mother. My brother Oliver, though, he has the stereotypical dark look about him,' he laughed. 'We don't look alike at all.'

'You have a brother.'

'Yeah,' said. 'We're not that close, I mean...Ollie went to Stanford in Cali for seven years, met a Swahili girl there, got married and had a couple of kids, Thomas and Sadie. So he lives up there, making buildings, and we don't get to see him often. My parents don't really approve of Samara.'

'The Swahili girl?'

He nodded. 'But I have three sisters who are scattered, too. I get to see them pretty regularly so it's not too bad.'

Tamsin smiled to herself suddenly. If she could keep Brett talking about himself most of the night, maybe she wouldn't even have to speak about herself. The more and more Brett spoke, the more she realised she didn't know about him. They could have been perfect strangers.

Guglielmo came over and took their orders eventually, and Tamsin glanced at her watch. It was already eight o'clock. 'So,' she said, 'tell me about your sisters.'

'Well, there's not much to tell. Gloria's a lawyer, not too far from here actually. She's the eldest out of all of us—and before you ask, yes, she looks Italian, not like me,' he laughed. 'Um...she's married to a dentist, has three kids, Alex, Katerina and Lily. I have a lot of nieces and nephews,' he added. 'Alex is in the sixth grade, Katerina is in pre-school and Lily is just learning to walk.'

'That's so cute.'

'You should meet them sometime,' he shrugged and continued on with his story, 'um...my other sister Petra is the second eldest. She's 25, lives in Italy, actually, with my grandma, the one I mentioned to you earlier? My grandfather passed away last June so Petra wanted to move up there to be with Rosalina for a while. They're quite well-off—my grandfather was a farmer so now they live on the farm and take care of the things he used to. Petra's an artist, mainly paints landscapes of Italy, the streets, sometimes people'll pay her to paint their portrait. She tried to paint mine once...not that good,' he chuckled. 'We used to be close, but, uh...then I moved here and she moved to Italy, obviously.'

Tamsin sipped water, eyeballing the wine she hadn't touched yet. 'One more sister.'

'Right. June. Well,' he sighed, 'June moved to Chicago when she was eighteen to be with her boyfriend, Scott. A couple of months later she caught Scott cheating on her and threw him out of the house, before finding out she was pregnant. She had the baby, a little girl named Kelly, and had to work all the time, basically, just to afford to survive. We don't seem them often, every Christmas or so. But June's doing really well now, she owns a cosmetics company and has the big bucks. So that's it. You already heard about Oliver. Not a very interesting family.'

'On the contrary,' Tamsin shook her head. 'Your family sounds great. I wish I had a big family like that. I mean you have, like, six nieces and nephews. You have four siblings. You have great parents. You're a lucky guy. So many people.'

He nodded. 'Yeah, well, you can have a big family and still feel alone, Tamsin.'

She saw the sadness in his eyes, and something in her propelled her hand forward, touching his softly. She grasped his fingers tightly, squeezed. 'You're not alone, Brett.'

He smiled a little.

'So,' she said. 'After Hamilton...what happens next?'

'Ah, the dreaded future,' he grinned, coming back to himself again. 'Well, obviously I want to do something in music. I love the drums, so...I don't have any plans. I'm just kind of drifting along, waiting for something.'

'You can't wait forever, Brett,' she said softly. 'It's good to have dreams and ambitions. Do you want a family?'

He guffawed. 'I'm not sure I need any more of that. But yeah, I want marriage, if that's what you mean.'

'No kids?'

'I think my role in that department is to be the cool uncle that spoils his nieces and nephews.'

Tamsin laughed, just as the food arrived. 'You're definitely that cool uncle.'

Brett smiled and glanced at his watch. 'We should eat and then get going. There's a band playing in central park I want you to see.'

'What band?'

He grinned. 'All in good time, Tamsin.'

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