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The next morning, Lana was sitting at the table on the beautiful upstairs balcony when her phone rang. She was wearing Alex’s shirt and was sipping from a mug of hot coffee, looking out over the city.
“Lana? It’s Heidi. How are you my dear? And how is your Neapolitan adventure going?”
“I’m wonderful,” said Lana, blushing a little. “It’s ... wonderful.”
“Your tone says it all, Miss Davis. I”m dying to hear all about it,” said Heidi. “Well ... as much as you think fit to share.”
“How is Paris?”
“Oh, beautiful, just beautiful. James and I have already been walking alongside the River Seine this morning. We’re just about to pop out to a cafe for a spot of breakfast. But before we go, I wanted to deliver you a little good news.”
“... Yes?”
“Well, my darling, you know that little book of yours? Well, just this morning, first thing as I hopped out of bed in our Parisian hotel room, I got word that that little book has been accepted for publication by one of the world’s largest and most respected publishers ... And not only that, but that they’ll be granting you a two hundred thousand dollar advance on the royalties. One of their largest ever, to a first-time author. Oh, and they want your next book, too. Want it desperately. You haven’t started work on it by any chance?”
Lana felt herself going dizzy, faint. “I ... I ...” she stuttered. “How did you ... so quickly?” She could hardly speak. Everything was going a little blurry.
“I’m very good at my job, Miss Davis,” said Heidi proudly. “And I’m fortunate to represent some of the best writers in the world. Of which you, my dear, are one. Soon, your book will be in the hands of readers around the world. I’m already working on the translation rights ...”
When, a moment later, Alex found her collapsed on the balcony floor, his heart lurched. “Lana! Lana! Speak to me!” He raced over to her and lifted her head. She was woozy but conscious. “Alex, I ... it’s alright ... I just ...”
A sharp voice came over the phone, which had fallen to the ground. “Lana? Hello? Is anyone there? Lana, darling, are you alright?”
Alex lifted the phone and pressed it to his ear. “Hello? Hello? Who is this? And what did you say to Lana?” Alex felt the blood running a cold in his veins. He kept his hand on Lana’s shoulder, but she was already coming around, waking up. “Who am I speaking to?”
“Ah, the mystery gentleman in Naples,” said Heidi. Next, she introduced herself, adding, “Where is Lana?”
Alex looked down. “She’s here but ... she just fainted, I think.”
“My word!” said Heidi. “Well, I think I might have too, if I’d just been told my first book was going to be published by one of the world’s biggest publishing companies. And that I was in for a two hundred thousand dollar advance.”
Alex shook his head. “What?” he said. “Are you serious?”
“Totally and completely. Is Lana alright?”
Alex looked down at Lana. She had a little bump on her head. But, then again, she’d had worse falls than this. “I think ... I think she’ll be fine,” he said.
“Good to hear. Ah, before I go, your name, if I may?” asked Heidi.
“Alex ...” he said. “Alex Marino.”
“Well, lovely to meet you, Alex,” said Heidi. “You look after Lana, you hear me? She’s got a little light inside her. It’s your job to help protect it.”
“I ...” he helped Lana to sit up on the ground. “I know ...” he said, steadying her. “I will.”
“Well, enjoy Naples you two lovebirds,” said Heidi. “I’m off to breakfast. Tell Lana I’ll be in touch.”
She rang off.
“Alex ... I ...”
“Shhhh, you fainted. Take it easy,” said Alex soothingly, stroking her hair. He was sitting beside her now on the ground, his arm around her shoulders.
“Do you ... Were you talking to ... Something wonderful has happened.”
“Yes,” he said. “I know ...” He shook his head, unable to stop himself grinning. It was still so much to take in. Everything Lana had ever wanted. And yet so, so much more. His heart was filled with pride and a wondrous, boundless happiness. “Heidi told me what’s happened ...” he said. “Lana, I ... I couldn’t be more proud of you. And I couldn’t be happier for you. This is the start of your dream coming true.”
Later that morning, they walked the streets of Naples and visited the beautiful Capella Sansevero. In the late afternoon, they ate lunch, delicious grilled fish, at a restaurant overlooking the ocean.
Just as they were getting ready to leave, Alex’s phone rang.
“Excuse me,” he said. “It’s my father.”
Lana nodded. “Of course, Alex. Please, take it.”
All that morning she had wondered about Ricardo’s decision. Wondered about what Alex had walked out on, just the day before.
Alex nodded as he spoke. “Yes, Papa. Yes. I see. Alright. Yes ...” He listened. “Yes ... Lana is here with me now,” he smiled. “Yes, she is well. Very well. She has just had some wonderful news about the publication her book ...” He nodded. “Ah, what’s that? Yes ... we’d be happy to. Alright, Papa, see you later.”
He put down the phone.
“My father sends his congratulations,” he said. “He sounds very excited for you.”
“Thank you,” said Lana.
“He’s also invited us to dinner this evening, at their place. Luna will be there too. I had thought it would be just you and I for a few days. But would you like to go?”
Lana nodded immediately. The thought of seeing Ricardo, Giana and Luna filled her heart with warmth. “Yes, of course,” she said. “I’d love to.” She was watching Alex’s face for clues. “Did your father say anything else ... anything about his decision?”
Alex shook his head, but his eyes were light. “He said he’d tell me tonight, at dinner. Explain everything. I guess I’ve got some explaining to do to myself, given how I behaved yesterday ... “ He took a breath, nodding. “But listen, I’m not expecting anything, Lana. And you shouldn’t, either. It’s fine with me, whatever way it goes. Whatever my father had decided. I have all I need to be happy. Everything I need and more. Now, let’s enjoy the afternoon together. There’s something I want to show you.”
They took a slow drive across town, Lana taking in more and more of the grand city of Napoli with every mile. It was a place of true contrasts. Old and new. Classical and modern. Traditional and unorthodox. Lana found herself staring raptly out through the window as they drove, asking questions, finding out more and more about the city.
At last, they came to a small, quaint little neighborhood near to the city’s industrial district. The houses were small, well kept, but very, very modest. A few old women swept their verandas. One or two children played in the road ...
It was not a rich suburb. Not at all. But the people who lived there seemed ... happy.
Alex drew the car to a halt alongside a small white house with a green roof. A few cracks marred the house’s paint in places. The roof sorely needed a new coat. And the garden, while well kept, bore only a small cluster of yellow flowers in one corner.
“This is where I grew up,” said Alex.
Lana shook her head in disbelief. “What? You grew up ... here?”
Alex smiled. “Hard to believe?”
“Yes ... no ... it’s just. Well. Yes, I guess it is a little hard to believe.”
Alex nodded. “Imagine us. A family of five,” he said. “In this little place. And yet ... we were happy. We made it work. My mother taught school just down the street. And ...” he pointed to the garage, which had a dark blue roll-down metal door in front of it, “That was where Marino Automotive was born.”
Suddenly, the door to the house opened and an elderly man looked out at them. He called out something in Italian that Lana didn’t understand. Alex smiled, opened the car door, and greeted him in Italian. “I’ll just be a moment,” he said, climbing out.
From the passenger seat, Lana watched as another man, younger, probably the man’s son, joined them on the verandah. They were speaking Italian, Alex talking with his hands, looking around. Soon, the old man smiled. Then the younger man pointed to the XL, his eyes wide. Soon, they were all laughing. Laughing and shaking hands.
Alex came back to the car, and soon they were on the road again. “The older man wanted to know why we’d stopped outside his house,” he said. “I had to explain.” He smiled.
“And you told him it had been your home, when you were a boy?”
He nodded.
He didn’t need to explain anything more.
At six that evening, the grand oak doors to Ricardo and Giana’s beautiful home swung open.
“Alessandro! Lana!” Ricardo stepped forward and embraced them both. “A beautiful night for a family dinner, no? Please, please. Come inside.”
Giana was in the kitchen with Luna, putting the final touches on the delicious-smelling dinner.
“Lana!” Giana exclaimed, and hugged her. Luna followed suit. “It is so good to see you.”
“And to see you both, too.”
“Ricardo says you have had some wonderful news, about your book? You will tell us over dinner.”
Like their villa in Capri, the Marinos’ Naples home was tasteful, grand and beautiful. And yet more than that, it was filled with a rich feeling of love and family. On the walls hung framed photographs of all of the children growing up, as well as of Ricardo and Giana’s wedding day.
They chatted for a while, then moved to the dinner table. Just then, the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it,” said Alex, rising quickly from the table.
A moment later, Bella, Jake and little Mario walked in. Lana felt her heart fill almost to bursting.
“My family!” smiled Bella. “My big beautiful family!” She rushed inside and hugged and kissed everyone, including Lana.
“Bella ... how ...? I saw you just days ago in New York.”
Bella laughed. “I’m in town to collect some of my sister’s paintings,” she said. “They’ll soon be curated in New York.”
“Why ... that’s wonderful.”
Bella gave a sly grin. “Plus ... Alex asked us to be here tonight. We were lucky to find a flight at such short notice.” She turned to Alex and gave him a playful jab in the ribs, grinning.
“And now that we are all here,” said Ricardo, surveying his family with pride, “I would like to give a little toast.”
They all filled their glasses from the bottle of prosecco. Ricardo took up his place at the head of the table.
“There are many things in life that can make a person happy,” he began. “For me, as I have said before, it has been my family. My family first and foremost.” He smiled, raising his glass a little, looking around at the faces seated at the table before him. “But I have also been fortunate to grow and nurture a wonderful business. A business that is my true passion.” He smiled. “Yesterday, at our company offices in the city, I called together all the candidates who have applied to lead Marino Automotive’s future. Talented people from all over the world. Top professionals, with decades of experience. All of whom had prepared designs and plans for the company’s future.” He took a breath. “And in the middle of this meeting, with the board members all present, my son Alessandro here simply stands and walks out. And before I had even delivered my decision! He said he had somewhere more important to be. That he had something he needed to do.”
Lana’s eyes fell on Alex. In fact, the whole family’s did.
She could tell that he was tense, that he was hanging on his father’s words, same as they all were. And she could tell he was a little embarrassed too. Embarrassed and ... nervous.
“Alessandro, my son, I feel it is only right that you tell me, now, what it is you were doing yesterday? What was so urgent that you needed to leave the meeting?”
“Papa ...” Alex began, “you always taught us the value of family. Of love ... of togetherness. Yesterday, there in that meeting room, I realized something. I realized that ... no matter what your decision was about the company, no matter what business matters needed attending to, there was something more important I had to do, a risk I had to take. And I had to do it ... for the woman I love.”
Suddenly, he turned to Lana, his eyes glowing with emotion. Slowly, taking her hand, he took a knee beside her chair. With his other hand, he reached for the dark blue velvet box in his pocket, and opened it slowly. Inside was a diamond ring, gorgeous, and glowing in the candlelight. “You fell into my life, Lana,” he said, his voice trembling, “And you changed it in ways I could never, ever have imagined. Yesterday, I realized that no matter what else happens, whatever else, that it’s you, and only you, who will ever make my life full and rich and ... whole. I ran from the meeting yesterday because I knew I had to get this. I had to. There was no choice. ” He held up the ring a little higher, a shy smile on his face. “Lana, I can’t promise you a perfect life. I can’t promise you it will always be smooth sailing. But I can promise you my love, all of it. I can promise you my protection. I can promise you adventures, laughter, support and the love of this great, wonderful family. And perhaps, one day, the start of our own family, too. Lana, what I’m asking is ... will you marry me?”
Lana could barely breathe. She looked at Alex’s face, the warmth of it, the way his eyes shone. Tears began to roll down her cheeks and she nodded. “Yes,” she said, breathlessly, hardly able to speak. “Yes. Yes, Alex, I will marry you.”
Both their hands trembling slightly, he slid the ring onto her finger. It was a perfect fit.
He leaned forward and kissed her, just as the family broke into cheers.
Ricardo was still at the head of the table, his face bursting with pride. He wiped a tear from his own eye, and Giana came to stand beside him as he spoke. “Alex, my son, when you left yesterday, I knew it was for love. And though I had already made up my mind, already made my decision, that act made me sure. Surer than I have ever been, about anything, in my life. Alex, you do not only have the talent to lead the company, but you have the soul, passion, the fire, the love to lead it too. If you want it, the seat at the head of the company is yours.”
Slowly, Alex shut his eyes, then opened them. “I have everything I want already, Papa,” he said, looking up at his father. “But it would be ... It would be ... an honor.” He turned back to Lana, kissing her again and again, laughing between kisses, just as she was. “So much lies ahead of us,” he said, smiling, laughing. “So much ...” His mind was spinning. “I can’t wait for the adventure that’s ahead of us. I love you.”
Lana was crying now, tears of utter joy.
He enfoled her in his arms.
“What about the writing job for me at Marino?” she asked, catching her breath, coyly wiping away a tear.
Alex laughed. “Well, I mean, if you have time to fit it in ... in between being a famous writer and everything.”
She smiled, her eyes still welled with tears.
Ten months later, in a beautiful ceremony at the family villa on Capri, she and Alex were married. The spring sun was radiant, the garden full of blooms, the air cool and heady with exotic perfume.
As she walked down the aisle, carrying a bunch of white lilies before her, Lana looked exquisite in a dress of Italian silk.