don’t have time for this, Nico. I want to move the firewood away from your father’s home. I thought my brother had done it…’
‘Give me a moment,’ Nico said.
Walking away from the house, he took out his phone and made a call to his pilot.
He could get out.
Perhaps he even should get out.
As he and the pilot both agreed, it would be a waste of vital resources to have a pilot and helicopter sitting idle, just in case Geo changed his mind.
But Nico could not leave his father to his fate alone.
And neither could he leave Aurora behind.
He looked over to her, lifting logs, doing all she could to keep the old man safe.
‘Right,’ he said walking towards her. She was filthy from the effort and he watched the streaks of ash grow as she wiped her forehead. ‘Leave the firewood to me. What else needs to be done?’
‘Aren’t you leaving?’
‘No.’
Their conversation was interrupted with the arrival of Aurora’s father. ‘Nico!’
Bruno greeted him warmly, as he always did—and that consistently surprised Nico. The fact that he had refused to marry his daughter should have caused great offence, yet Bruno had confounded Nico’s expectations and still treated him as a future son-in-law.
‘You will stay with us,’ Bruno said.
‘No, no…’ Nico attempted, for he did not want to be under the same roof as Aurora.
Or rather, he wanted to be under the same roof alone with Aurora. He wanted to strip her off in the shower and soap those breasts that now had sweat dripping between them.
He was trying to hold a conversation with Bruno even as filthy visions of the man’s daughter flashed in his mind. What was wrong with him?
‘So you’re too good for us now?’ Bruno demanded.
They all spoke from the same script, Nico thought as he dragged his mind from Aurora’s breasts. To refuse Bruno’s hospitality would be an insult, and although in his professional life Nico did not care who he offended, he attempted to do things differently here.
Like it or not, while his father was alive, he still needed these people.
More, though, he wanted to do the right thing.
‘You can have Aurora’s bed.’
‘No. Absolutely not!’ Nico would not hear of it.
‘She will be out tonight, at Antonietta’s birthday party.’
‘Aurora should be at home,’ Nico said. ‘With the threat to the village I thought the roads would be closed.’
‘The main one is, but some are open between the villages, and the threat has been here for weeks,’ Bruno said. ‘Life goes on, and Antonietta’s father is the fire chief. The firefighters are camping on his grounds so it is the safest place for her to be.’
Nico wasn’t so sure of that—and it had nothing to do with the fire!
‘I could be on lookout,’ Nico said, but Bruno shook his head.
‘It is Pino’s turn tonight. I did it last night. You shall stay with us.’
‘Well, thank you for your offer, ‘Nico said, ‘but I shall stay only if I sleep on the sofa.’
‘Up to you.’ Bruno shrugged.
Before dinner Nico checked in on his father, who had drifted off into a drunken stupor. Aurora was already there, and rolling him onto his side, making sure Geo would not choke should he become unwell during the night.
‘I told the store not to supply him with whisky,’ Nico said to her.
‘There is home delivery now.’ Aurora shrugged. ‘Even your father has worked out the Internet. And there’s always Pino stopping by, or Francesca. You can’t stop him.’
‘I send money, but then I wonder…’
‘If you didn’t send it he would drink cheap wine instead,’ Aurora pointed out. ‘Come on, it’s time to get back. Supper will soon be ready.’
‘I need to speak with the doctor first.’
The news from the doctor was the same.
Geo needed to stop drinking and he needed a more comprehensive level of care—except there was no staff to provide it in Silibri.
‘I have spoken to the agency,’ Nico said to him. ‘And I am looking to purchase the house across the street. That way—’
‘You could purchase ten houses,’ the doctor interrupted. ‘No one wants to live here. The village is dying faster than your father.’
Why did Aurora choose to remain here?
Nico thought of long-ago evenings at the Messina dinner table. She would talk of her photography, and how she would pester the manager at the winery to change the labels on his wine. To rename, rebrand. She had passion and dreams—but they had been smothered by this village, like the smoke that blanketed the valley now.
‘Come and sit down,’ Bruno said as Nico walked into the Messina home. ‘Good food and family and my day is complete. Come now, Aurora.’
But Aurora did not join them at the table.
‘No, Pa, there will be food at the party and I have to get ready.’
‘And will there be firemen at this party?’ Bruno checked. And though he spoke to Aurora, he looked over to Nico.
‘I think they are a little too busy fighting fires.’ Aurora smiled sweetly as she left the room.
Nico’s gut tightened.
‘Aurora has a thing for one of the firefighters,’ Bruno said, and rolled his eyes. ‘Per favore, mangia, mangia, Nico. Come on—eat.’
The pasta, though delectable, tasted like ash in Nico’s mouth.
Worse still, he could hear the pipes groan as Aurora turned on the shower…
It was bliss to have the hot day and all the grime slide off her skin and to feel the dirt and grease being stripped from her hair. This morning she had risen before six, and had worked every minute since, and yet though she ached, Aurora was not tired.
She looked down at her skin, brown as nutmeg, and saw her fleshy stomach and full breasts and all too solid legs.
She
