As soon as Nicolo entered his room at the Verdura Resort, he began stripping out of his clothes and he did not stop until he was dressed in a pair of jeans and a black designer tee that buttoned up the front. Both fit him like a glove, the jeans because he had worn them so much that they had molded themselves to the shape of his body and the tee because that was what it was designed to do.

With his suit hung up, he headed out to his private balcony to give his brother Leonardo a call with an update regarding the selling of the Romano del Mare. Inter-woven, woody stalks of mature grape vines filtered soft light over a small breakfast table. The vines’ large leaves provided ample shading against the growing heat of the afternoon sun, and when the season was right, the vines would provide a ready treat of grapes for anyone who stayed in the room.

Nicolo took a moment to appreciate the artistry of it before propping up his iPad on the small round table before him, putting the small tin Adeline had given him to one side. The table itself had a mosaic top made from broken ceramic shards laid in a pattern to depict the harvesting of grapes. It was a nice touch, but the resort’s eye for detail was a personal reminder to Nicolo of his family’s failure. It was not in his nature to walk away from a challenge—let alone accept failure—but it was in his nature to make business decisions with his head. Allowing his business acumen to be charmed by the wishes of his heart was not what his mother had taught him. His father had been a foolish man when it came to business matters, and he would not follow in his footsteps.

Nicolo would do what needed to be done, and he would do it with the welfare of his family in mind. It just was the way it was. It wasn’t personal; it was business. He wasn’t sure that it was a sentiment that his grandfather would have approved of, but it was the only way he knew to succeed in life. Simply put, failure to sell the Romano del Mare could cost the brothers millions. It was a price too steep to pay simply to honor his heritage.

Nicolo navigated the iPad’s interface and then initiated a call. A moment later he was greeted with the image of the oldest of his two older brothers, Leonardo.

“Ciao!” Nicolo said in greeting with a quick and easy smile.

“Ciao,” Leonardo said, suave as always. If it could be argued that one brother was more handsome than the other, Leonardo had a chance of edging Nicolo out. Tall, lanky, and leaner than his brothers, age had given his features a little more definition with light creases around his eyes, but it somehow added to how handsome he was rather than took away.

“How is Sicily, brother? Is it as beautiful as I remember?” Leonardo asked.

“To find that out, you’ll have to come see for yourself.” Nicolo chuckled.

“But you are my eyes and my ears, little brother! I trust you.”

Nicolo’s face fell.

“What is it?” his brother asked.

“It is every bit as beautiful as you remember. I could argue that it is even more beautiful. The air… it’s so clean here. The people, I get smiles and claps on my back as if I’ve lived here all along. I hate to admit it, but I’ve missed this place.”

Leonardo gave a one-shoulder shrug. “Then stay,” he said, emphasizing the words with an upturned lift of his hands before him. “You’ve been jet setting for too long. It’s time to stay in one place for a while, fix your internal clock to one time zone for once.”

Nicolo laughed. “I have no problem with my internal clock. I sleep at night, wherever that may be.”

“Okay then, why the long face if you have no interest in staying a while?”

Nicolo looked out over the landscape before answering. His resort was outside of town, so his balcony afforded him a sweeping view of the landscape. It was arid and rocky, but there were trees and closely grazed meadows too, in which he could make out the fluffy outline of sheep. They looked like slow-moving cotton balls from where he sat. “There was this girl,” Nicolo finally answered, returning his attention to the iPad.

Nicolo’s confession was met with an uproarious bark of laughter from his brother, and Nicolo smiled despite the fun that Leonardo was having at his expense.

“Of course there was,” Leonardo said when he’d finally gotten his mirth under control. “So tell me, who is this girl? She’s not some mafia daughter, is she?”

“No, no,” Nicolo answered, waving a hand at the iPad in dismissal. “She is our real estate agent for the Romano del Mare. Except she doesn’t want to sell it, she wants us to restore it.”

This time, there was no laughter from Leonardo. “Is she mad?” he exclaimed. “The fines alone would bury us.”

“She’s thought of that, too. She obtained a promise from the council to have the fines lowered or in some cases even dismissed… if we restore the resort.”

Leonardo’s brows were up, his interest clearly piqued. “Maybe this girl is worth listening to.”

“Okay, it’s you who’s gone mad,” Nicolo said. He felt yanked like a yo-yo between whether it was best to renovate the hotel or whether it was best to cut their losses and be done with the place. Everything within him said to cut and run. Taking on the renovation would tie him to Sicily in a way that he wasn’t ready for.

“Wait, hear me out. The fines will strip away any lasting benefits to us selling the Romano del Mare. We will be lucky to break even. But what if we made a few of the more economical improvements to the property? Some of the fines would be reduced, and we would have a chance of making something out of this. Our grandfather’s legacy could actually amount to something that way instead of being washed away by the sea.”

Nicolo studied his brother’s face. “What else is there that you’re not saying?”

Leonardo shrugged one shoulder again. “Nothing I haven’t already said. When was the last time you stayed in one place for longer than a month?”

An alert popped up on Nicolo’s iPad. Leaning forward, he navigated away from the video call in order to check the incoming message. He pursed his lips upon seeing it and then returned to the video call.

“What is it? What’s happened now?” Leonardo asked.

“You know that development job I put in for, the one in India?”

“Yeah…”

“The offer came in. The job’s mine if I want it.”

“That’s great,” Leonardo exclaimed, and then added, “Isn’t it? I thought it was what you wanted.”

“As a career builder, it is a great opportunity.” The size of the projects he’d been taking on had been growing steadily. This job would propel him into the elite 1% of site developers. People would do their best to entice him to work with them rather than him having to vie for jobs. Yet, as the projects he’d tackled had gotten bigger and bigger, he’d realized something surprising about himself. He enjoyed working on smaller, community relevant projects more than he did internationally significant ones. But working on smaller development projects had career limitations that he wasn’t willing to accept.

“So, why the hesitation?” Leonardo paused and then answered the question for him. “Maybe that job is what you think you should do rather than what you want to do.”

“Of course! Overseeing the development of a 500 million euro site, that’s the worst thing that could happen to me.” Nicolo was going for sarcastic, but a note of sincerity crept its way into his otherwise flippant answer.

“And maybe it is!” Leonardo countered with the same heated vehemence he had when debating the outcome of a championship football game. “When is it that they need to have an answer about whether or not you accept the job?”

“End of next month, but—”

“No buts. Take some time for you. Get to know this girl who’s caught your eye, and keep your feet on the ground for more than a week. It will be good for you.”

Nicolo wasn’t ready to commit. His gaze drifted to the tin that sat off to the side on the table. It was out of Leonardo’s view, but maybe it was time to take a look at what Adeline had considered the crown of her argument for him to renovate the Romano del Mare instead of tearing it down.

Dragging the tin toward him with the tip of his finger, Nicolo brought it into view of the iPad’s video camera.

“What’s that?”

“The girl gave it to me. She told me to look at it when I was alone, quiet and calm.”

Leonardo snorted. “You going to open it now or wait until never?”

“Now will do,” Nicolo answered, shooting his brother a crooked grin. He pried the tin’s snug top off with his fingertips. The tin was old and of a decorative nature. It was the type of tin that fruitcakes were sometimes given in, and when the lid finally let go of its purchase on the lower half of the old box, there was a small pop.

Nicolo leaned forward to get a better look at its contents.

“What is it?” Leonardo asked.

Nicolo was speechless as he pulled out an old black and white photograph of their grandfather as a young man standing next to their grandmother. Their grandfather was in a suit, their grandmother was in a wedding dress, and they were standing in front of the Romano del Mare.

“That little vixen,” Nicolo said, pulling out the photograph and holding it up so that Leonardo could see. “She’s going right for the jugular.”

Leonardo leaned closer to the camera, causing his face to grow large and up close in Nicolo’s iPad screen. “Is that Nanno and Nanna?”

“Yeah,” Nicolo answered, but his attention had already shifted to the next picture. It was again a picture of Nanno and Nanna, but this time they were playing in the water in front of the resort and they had a young child with them. “Look at this one,” he said, holding it up for the camera.

Leonardo gave a low whistle. “Where did she get these?”

“No idea.” He pulled out another photo. In this one their grandfather was slightly older and so was their son. The son, Nicolo and Leonardo’s father, was dressed in his University gown. It looked as though he had just graduated.

There were more pictures after that. Some of them were of Nicolo’s family, but other pictures were of the resort and the many celebrations that had been held there. Nicolo studied a picture of a wedding and noted the generational families present. He was sure he saw children, parents, grandparents and even great grandparents, not to mention the countless cousins, uncles and aunts. People would have travelled far and wide to attend the event, bringing an influx of cash and opportunity to the locals. Now the Romano del Mare was gone, and in its absence was a void that had not been filled. Even with the resort he was staying at, he’d had to drive almost an hour to reach it. There was nothing to match the grand fineness of the Romano del Mare anywhere near the city. It had been an iconic resort for the region for decades before mismanagement had taken it away.

“This place has been important to a lot of people,” he said to himself more than to Leonardo. He wondered at how many people had lost their jobs when the resort had closed its doors. He wondered at the economic hardship to the nearest towns that must have followed. On an island—any island—the chance to build a better life could be hard to find. For decades, the Romano del Mare had offered that chance, and it was a failing of the Romano family that the opportunities provided by the resort had been taken away. It was a knowledge that did not sit well with Nicolo.

“What are you going to do?” Leonardo asked.

“I’m going to think about the unthinkable,” he said before taking a deep breath. “And I’m going to stay… for a week, at least.”