Giovanni, however, had seen the sharp intelligence and survival instinct the boy exhibited and decided he deserved more than to be chewed up on the streets of the city. On paper, Ben had become Giovanni’s nephew, the son of his deceased brother and his wife, who had died in a tragic car accident the year before. They had spent the previous year resolving the details of the adoption and catching Ben up on the realities of his new world.
The boy barreled into the kitchen just as Giovanni finished putting the jar of sauce on the spaghetti. He set it on the table along with a salad he’d put together from a bag and a bowl of olives.
“Spaghetti again?”
He cocked an eyebrow at the boy. “Tomorrow night you can cook. Besides,” he said as he flicked the back of the boy’s ear as he sat at the table, “you’re an Italian now, you need to eat lots of pasta.”
Ben snorted and dug into the food. Giovanni watched him scarf down his food with gusto; it reminded him of how much Caspar had eaten at that age. It had been harder to find food for Caspar in postwar Britain, but with the proliferation of American all-night markets and Ben’s natural independence, the two of them managed just fine.
“I’m not Italian, really,” Ben said between bites. “I’m Leba-Rican.”
Giovanni smirked at the boy’s quick wit. Ben was half Lebanese and half Puerto Rican, but their coloring was close enough that no one questioned their relation. The only difference was Ben’s dark brown eyes, which had always reminded Giovanni of Beatrice.
“You might have to be the one to convince her,” he mused.
“Convince who? Beatrice?”
“Mmmhmm. You’ll have to convince her I’m not a complete bastard.”
“Well, technically,” Ben said between bites, “we both are.”
Giovanni flicked the boy’s ear again. “You know what I mean.”
Ben paused and set down his fork. “You know, if we were friends and then you went away and I didn’t see you for five years, I’d be pretty mad, too.”
“You don’t have to worry about me leaving you, Ben.”
“I know, but she-”
“It was important for her to have time on her own. Without all the vampire stuff, as you like to call it. That’s part of why she came here.” He paused. “It’s complicated, Benjamin.”
Ben smirked a little before he began eating again. “That’s always what grown-ups say when they’re not sure they’re right. So did she decide all that? Or did you? ‘Cause you’re pretty bossy, you know.”
He decided to change the subject. “It’s a good thing I am, or you’d never finish school. Finish up your dinner, then go upstairs and do the rest of your work. Do you need help with anything?”
Ben shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“If you do, I’ll be on the patio talking to Carwyn.”
“Okay.”
“No video games until after your work is finished. None.”
The boy rolled his eyes. “I got it, I got it.”
Taking the bowl of olives and a glass of wine with him, he went outside to the large covered patio that spread across the back of the house. He’d set up a rotary phone connection there, which he used to dial his friend in Northern Wales.
“Uncle Gio!” Carwyn answered. “How’s the boy doing?”
“Well,” Giovanni sipped his wine. “Very well. His studies are coming along, and he hasn’t run away since the last time I called you.”
“That’s progress. I knew he’d come around.”
“He still runs off on his bike during the day, though. He had to talk himself out of a truancy ticket last week.”
Carwyn chuckled on the other end of the line. “I doubt that was a problem for him. He’s got quite the smart mouth.”
“He’s conniving in the best way.”
They both chuckled a little but quickly fell silent.
Giovanni took a deep breath. “I saw her today.”
Carwyn made no response for a few moments. “How did it go?”
“About as well as I deserve, I suppose.”
Carwyn was quiet as Giovanni sipped his wine.
“How did she look?”
“Beautiful,” he murmured. “Stunning. Angry.”
“I told you-”
“I know what you told me.” He rubbed a hand across his face. “And you know I had my reasons for staying away.”
Carwyn snorted. “You wanted her to have her own life? She does. She’s got a damn good one, as a matter of fact.”
“Tell me about the boyfriend.”
“I realize you’d like Mano to be some kind of miscreant, but he’s not. He’s a very good man, and he absolutely adores her.”
Giovanni sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Tell me about the boyfriend.”
Carwyn took a deep breath. “Ex-navy diver. Has his own business with one of his military mates. Does fairly well for himself. He’s a hard worker and very well-respected. Not much family of his own, but talks about wanting one with our girl.”
Giovanni had the sudden vision of Beatrice swollen with child, her face full and glowing as she smiled. His breath caught, knowing that if she chose him, it would never be his child she would carry, and for the first time in five hundred years, he regretted that. Then, thinking of the boy upstairs and a small boy hiding in an attic many years before, he reminded himself that family came in many forms.
“She’s too smart to be with anyone for that long if he wasn’t a good man,” he muttered. “How does she feel about him? Really? Does she love him?”
“I can’t answer that,” the priest said. “I’m sure she does, but she’s been half in love with your memory for more than five years now. I doubt she knows how to feel about either of you at this point.”
He pulled the picture of her riding the horse in Cochamó out of his pocket and looked at it. The sun glinted off her hair and a huge smile spread across her face. “I’ll just have to convince her then.”
He heard Carwyn clear his throat and Giovanni could almost sense the lecture from his old friend approaching. “Gio, you have been my friend for over three hundred years, and I love you dearly, but that girl is precious to me.”
“I know.”
“Her father isn’t here to ask you, so I will. What are your intentions toward her? She has a good life now. She has friends, and a career, and a good man that loves her, so-”
“He can’t-” Giovanni cleared his throat and closed his eyes. “He can’t love her like I do, Carwyn. He can’t. Because I promise you, he doesn’t know her like I do.”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. “That doesn’t mean she’ll agree with you, my friend. What you’re asking of her…it’s not a small thing. She may not want to give up her life, even if it means forever with you.”
He shrugged, though no one could see in the dark yard. “She may not. It’s her decision, but I wouldn’t bet against me.” His thumb brushed over her cheek as he stared at the photograph. “I’ve given her time. Time to grow however she needed, free from the complications of our world. You may not have agreed with me, but I did what I felt like I needed to. For her.”
“And now?”
He lifted the picture to stare into her dark, smiling eyes, wishing she was next to him, as he had for the past five years. He took a deep breath.
“Now I plan to convince her she wants eternity with me.”
Chapter Three
Los Angeles, California
October 2009
“I know, but Dr. Stevens didn’t really give me a choice, Mano.”
She heard her boyfriend sigh over the phone. “Well, I suppose I’ll just tell Dan that I can’t handle the morning dives for a while. On my schedule right now, we’re never going to see each other.”