think of it, she looked like she’d gained some becoming weight since the last time he’d seen her at the wedding.
Over a glass of wine she turned to Guido. He noticed she no longer wore her fingernails long and painted. “There’s a girl at the shop named Gina. She and her fiancé, Aldo, went to the soccer game at the Stadio Emanuele last weekend.”
Where was this leading?
“Aldo came in to pick Gina up and she told him I knew the owner. He fell all over me.” Guido could believe that. “According to him, you were the greatest soccer player he’d ever seen and he desperately wants to meet you in person sometime, hopefully with my help.”
Dea had discussed him with her coworker? He couldn’t believe it.
She kept talking. “According to Aldo, the Scatto Roma team is going to win the championship this year. He was a soccer player himself, not on your level, of course. He thinks you walk on water already for lifting the B team to top-tier status.”
“Thank you, Dea,” he said, attempting to take it all in, but he couldn’t understand her interest. “Have you ever been to a soccer match?”
“Never,” she confessed without shame. “I’ve never even watched it on TV. You must think I’m terrible. I had no idea you’d won so many championships for Italy. Aldo said you were everyone’s favorite player and the women were crazy about you.”
“They were,” Rini inserted with a grin.
She hadn’t talked to Guido like this at the wedding reception, where she had seemed very stiff. This was something else. He decided to change the subject.
“I understand you’re no longer modeling.”
“Not for the last year.”
“Where do you work?”
“I started at the shop of Juliana Parma ten days ago. She’s the costume designer for the opera. I’ve been permitted to shadow her. My aunt Fulvia made it possible. You remember her from the wedding?”
“Of course.” The woman had taken Dea away from the table before the wedding cake had been served.
“They’re best friends and Juliana took me on as a favor to my aunt. But now that I’m working there, I’m on my own and I’m terrified.”
“How could you possibly be that when you’ve been Italy’s top model?”
“That period of my life is over, and modeling modern-day fashions has nothing to do with being a period costume designer for the opera.” Guido still had a hard time believing she had changed her whole life in the last year. To his mind, she was more beautiful than ever. “I have to prove myself in a whole new field. I’m not like you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Alessandra said that when you bought that floundering soccer team, you had the satisfaction of being one of the greatest soccer players ever to compete in Italy. With your knowledge and confidence, you’ve been able to turn your team around. I’m very impressed.”
“He’s done that, all right,” Rini concurred. “So I have an idea. Why don’t the four of us go out behind the castle and play a little soccer before it gets dark? Two against two. It works even if we don’t have a whole bunch of guys around. Since Brazzo was born, Alessandra and I haven’t had a weekend to enjoy like this. Let’s team up.”
“That sounds fun!” Alessandra chimed in with enthusiasm that sounded real. “I like soccer, but I’d love to learn more about it since Rini is determined our son will be a great player like you, Guido. What do you say, Dea?”
“I’m hopeless when it comes to sports and would hate making a fool of myself, but I’ll do it this once.”
So she was willing to toss him a bone after she’d just admitted she’d never even seen a soccer game?
“Let me run upstairs to put on my trainers.”
Alessandra patted her husband’s arm. “I’ll find mine too.”
Rini got to his feet. “My soccer ball is around here somewhere. We’ll all meet in the foyer in a few minutes.”
Everyone took off except for Guido, who stood there in a funk. Since Rini’s marriage, they hadn’t had time to kick a ball around. And now he wanted them to play with the women?
He’d go along with this, but before he went to bed, he intended to have a talk with Rini about what was going on.
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