“Are you sure that we’re going to need all of this?” Adeline asked as she staggered under the weight of a whole host of items picked out by her best friend, Elana.

“You want the rooms to turn out perfect, don’t you?” Elana goaded. Elana let her own armfuls fall into a heap on the floor. “Oh, Adeline. The pictures didn’t do this place justice. This is gorgeous!” She turned an assessing eye on Adeline and then smiled mischievously. “Tell me again why you chose this suite to do a design mockup. This is the honeymoon suite, right? It didn’t have anything to do with that hot Sicilian you were telling me about, did it?” she teased.

Adeline tried to ignore the heat that she knew flushed her cheeks pink. It wasn’t because of the march up the stairs under her heavy load—it was because of the insinuation that she might have an ulterior motive besides trying to save the Romano del Mare. Which, if she were being honest with herself, was true. She did have an ulterior motive. Her heart quickened and her mind raced every time Nicolo was near. Being around him made her feel alive, more alive than she had in years. One moment he’d make her so mad that she wanted to cuss at him and the next she’d want to throw herself into his arms. She hadn’t been so excited about anyone in years. But, there was no way she was going to admit any of that to Elana, not yet anyway. Her attraction to Nicolo was just fun… and temporary. Nothing more. He’d be gone next month or next week or she would be in Spain. They had no future, and that was for the best. They didn’t want the same things. He wanted to always be leaving wherever he was, and she wanted to have a home to come back to after her adventures. He wanted to throw away his heritage, and she wanted to preserve hers. They were too opposite.

“Elana, you are the best designer I know, and these are among the most beautiful rooms in the hotel. That they are also the honeymoon suite has no bearing at all.” She said the words, yet she couldn’t quite convince herself. She glanced over her shoulder to see if Elana was believing them, but Elana’s attention had become overwhelmed by the space itself.

“Adeline, this is going to look so good when we’re done. These ceilings,”—she traced the line of the cathedral ceiling by extending an arm and moving her finger through the air—“are twenty feet high!” She shook her head. “They can’t tear this place down. It’s too magnificent!”

“So, where do we start? Put me to work.” Adeline watched as Elana walked a circle around the room, opened a door that led to a veranda, and then moved through to examine a sitting room and the bathroom. Running water reached Adeline’s ears next. When Elana reappeared, she was nodding her head approvingly. “This I can work with.” She slapped her hands together. “First, we clean!”

The next hour was spent sweeping, wiping down walls, cleaning the bathroom and pruning the vining flowers on the veranda.

“We are going to need more things,” Elana declared and pulled out her cell phone. “Felice,” she spoke into it, “I need a favor.” She then proceeded to give him a list which included fresh flowers, an assortment of foods, a small round table, a tall ladder, fresh towels, and a variety of other items. She pulled the phone away from her face and covered the bottom half with her hand. “When do you plan to show your man the space?”

“He’s not my man. I wouldn’t have him,” she said with a wink before answering Elana’s question. “Tonight.”

“Twinkle lights,” Elana said, speaking into the phone again. “Bring,”—she paused as her eyes scanned the room—“eight strands. No, make that twelve.” Her attention shifted to the open door leading out to the veranda. She ended the call just as decisively as she’d started it, tapping the call’s end button.

“Thank you for doing this for me,” Adeline said as she gathered debris into a trash bag.

“Pfft!” Elana said, flipping the back of her hand through the air to dismiss Adeline’s thanks as she walked over to the bed. “This is what we do. We take care of each other.” She sat down on the mattress and then bounced up and down. Her long black hair was woven into a braid that fell over her shoulder, and it bounced up and down with her. “The mattress is good. The bed is stable.”

“Elana,” Adeline objected in a laughing, sing-song voice.

“We want the rooms to be as functional as possible, yes? Now we know the bed works.” Those were Elana’s words, but she gave Adeline a big slow wink as if to say something else.

Adeline laughed. “You’re terrible.”

“You’re the one making up your bedroom to impress a boy,” Elana teased as she ran her hand over the bed’s cream colored coverlet. “Tell me more about him.”

“You know that I’m doing this for the hotel and not for Nicolo,” Adeline insisted, but then she relented. She made her way across the room and sat down next to Elana, then as one they both flopped backward so that they could stare up at the arching ceiling. “He’s so handsome,” Adeline began. “He makes my toes tingle when he kisses my hand.”

Elana rolled onto her side so that she faced Adeline. “That is a good sign. If he can make you tingle just by kissing your hand, think of where else he can make you tingle.”

Adeline remained on her back but turned her head so that she could see Elana. Then she, too, twisted so that she laid on her side. “He’s a good man, I can see it, but he also seems to be a little lost. It’s like he’s a man and a little boy all at the same time. He makes me think of a child who’s lost his way from home so long ago that he’s stopped trying to find it. It makes me sad.”

“Mmmm,” Elana murmured, “but does he make your heart happy?”

Adeline’s smile was small and tentative, the same as her feelings for Nicolo. “I think so. I mean, we haven’t spent very much time together, but everything about him feels… right. When he’s near, I feel like anything is possible. I feel like I’m on the best adventure of my life!”

“Could it be,” Elana asked, reaching out a finger to tickle Adeline’s middle, “could you have found love?”

Adeline snorted. “No! No.” She paused as she reflected. “Lust maybe, but love.” She shrugged. “It’s too soon… Besides, I’m leaving for Spain.”

“I don’t believe it! You wouldn’t leave me. I know you wouldn’t.”

Adeline sighed heavily. “It’s true, I don’t want to. I’d rather stay. But if they tear this place down, it’ll break my heart. I can’t be here and watch that happen.”

Elana nodded sagely. “Then I’ll visit you in Spain.”

“You’ll come live with me in Spain!” Adeline corrected.

“And run away from Sicily! Ha! Never. My Nanna would come after me and drag me home by my ear.” She laughed. “No, no… Sicily is my home. It’s where I’ll live, and it’s where I will someday die. I don’t want to grow old anywhere else.”

A clamor of noise and swearing reached their ears from outside the room. A moment later, Felice appeared, loaded down with goods. Strands of twinkle lights adorned his arm all the way up to his shoulder on one side and an enormous ladder was tucked under his other. A bag of fresh flowers hung from a belt looped around his neck, an enormous and tightly stuffed backpack sat on his back, and he was pushing a small, round table forward with his foot. “I’m here!” he announced unnecessarily, looking more than a little proud with himself.

Elana sat up and then smiled brightly at Adeline. “Maybe you aren’t in love with him, but after he sees these rooms tonight, he’s going to fall madly in love with you. He’ll be helpless to do otherwise.”

“Oh, hush,” Adeline said but couldn’t stop her grin. The thought of Nicolo falling head over heels in love with her was exciting, even if it was ridiculous. But, it was also a complication she didn’t need or want.

“It has already happened. He is in love with you, and all that is left is for him to realize it.” Turning to Felice, she clapped her hands. “Bring those things over here. We have so much work to do.” Then, to Adeline she barked, “You! Go! Get cleaned up and rest. You have a man’s heart to tame tonight. You’ll need your strength.” And with that, she gave Adeline another big, slow wink.

What have I gotten myself into? Adeline wondered as Elana shooed her to the door. She gave one last glance at the room behind her, and guilt niggled at her conscience. What she'd done—and planned to do—with the fake buyer wasn't nice, but tonight, she would try to make Nicolo see what it was that she saw when she looked at the Romano del Mare. Elana was right, she was trying to get Nicolo to fall in love—but not with her. She wanted him to fall in love with what this place could be again.

She wanted the Romano del Mare to be the sparkle on the Ionian Sea’s gem.