Driving up to Ben's parents' house was enough to make me wish I'd changed my mind, though. I stared up at the looming mansion—villa, as Ben kept calling it—and wondered how a person could manage to live in a house that big without getting lost—or without losing track of everything that they'd ever owned.
I whistled lowly. “You weren't kidding when you said you guys were comfortable,” I said in awe.
Ben grimaced, and when he glanced over at me, I could see something in his expression that I didn't like.
“I'm not a gold-digger,” I said, even though it really should have gone without saying. But I understood, I supposed, if he needed that extra bit of reassurance. “I'm just saying, that's the biggest house I've ever seen. If you played hide-and-seek here, you'd never find everyone. Hell, if you played Marco Polo here, you'd never find everyone.”
Ben grinned a little at that. “Yeah, it's honestly a bit absurd,” he said. “But it came with the vineyards, and Mum had a really hard time with the idea of tearing it down—she grew up in a place like this, back in Italy. Of course, there, they had three generations of a large, Italian family all crammed in there together. Here, it's usually just the three of us. But she...hopes that'll change.” Suddenly, he paled, looking over at me. “Oh god, I hope she doesn't say anything to you about that tonight. I mean, in the future, we can talk about kids and all of that. But don't let her pressure you or lead you to think that I'm looking to settle down and have kids right now or anything like that.”
I laughed a little. “No, we've already kind of had that conversation, remember?” I asked.
Ben looked only marginally relieved, and I wondered if he was starting to think of all the reasons why he shouldn't have brought me here, to dinner with his parents. It was kind of a funny role reversal, since he'd been so positive about it all week. Still…
“It's going to be fine,” I said confidently, reaching over and squeezing Ben's hand where it rested on the gearshift.
Ben sighed and then finally smiled back at me, leaning over to plant a peck on my lips before got out of the car and approached the front door.
We were still relatively early, and the sun was just starting to set. The place was gorgeous, and Ben had already told me on the drive over that things were more pretty out back. He was hoping to take me out there for a little tour before dinner—but first, he planned to introduce me to his parents.
I swallowed hard as he led me into the house.
“Mamá! Papá!” he called out, his voice echoing around the expansive foyer.
His mother swept in first, followed by his father. His mother was everything that I might have expected: tall and lithe, with flowing hair and flowing scarves. She struck me as an artsy type, while Ben's dad was more down-to-earth and squat.
“Mum, Da—this is Rachael. Rachael, these are my parents, Lucia and Henry,” Ben said, his hand warm in the center of my lower back as I stared nervously at them, wondering if I was supposed to shake their hands or—
Well, apparently we were going to embrace and kiss one another's cheeks. I might have guessed that, given that they were European. I botched it a little, but I didn't think it was too noticeable.
“It's wonderful to meet someone that Ben is so fond of,” Ben's mother said, pinching Ben's cheeks. “He hardly ever brings home friends, let alone girlfriends...”
I laughed a little. “Well, I'm glad to be here—thank you so much for having me.” I held out the flowers that I had brought—for obvious reasons, I hadn't thought it was polite to bring a bottle of wine with me. Ben had laughed about the flowers, even, but I'd insisted, and his mother seemed to appreciate them at least.
“I want to give Rachael a little tour of the grounds before it gets too dark,” Ben said. “Is that okay?”
“Of course it's okay!” Lucia said warmly. “Why don't you take Patches with you, though? He could use the exercise.”
Ben grinned. “Sure,” he said. He led me through the house, and before long, we had an adorable furry companion with us. “Patches is my mum's pride and joy,” he said, rolling his eyes a little. “She got him when she went through her empty nest phase, and I swear she loves him more than she loves either my brother or I.”
I laughed. “I doubt that's true,” I said.
“Oh, she'll never get over the fact that we both chose to move away from here,” Ben said, shaking his head. “It's worse that I've done so, since I still work for them and am going to one day take over this whole place. She doesn't think there's any reason for me to have my own apartment.”
“Do they not realize the irony of the fact that they moved all the way across an ocean away from their families and you've just moved about half an hour's drive away?” I asked, amused.
Ben shook his head. “Don't even mention that to them,” he said. “Trust me, I've tried. To no avail.”
I laughed and took Patches' leash as he passed it over to me. I saw why he had done it as he draped his arm around my shoulders, drawing me in close to him as we set out across the fields.
“So like I've mentioned, this is the dead season for us, so there's not that much to see out here at the moment, but I can at least give you an idea of what it all looks like when we're operational. But you'll have to come back.” He winked over at me. “Anyway, it's shaping up to be a beautiful sunset...”