LITMIR.BIZ

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trunk of the tree. “Taking those dreams from her changed her.”

      “How did you do that?”

      “I married her. She thought by marrying a DeFiore that my money would bankroll her dreams. The truth is she never wanted to live here at the vineyard. She longed for the city and the high life.”

      “And you didn’t see things that way?”

      “No.” Stefano gazed straight ahead. “After the honeymoon ended, the arguments started. She wanted to travel, and I kept putting her off, hoping she’d adjust to our new life together.”

      “But she never did.”

      He shook his head. “And I thought if we had a baby that it’d help things.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know what I was thinking. A baby is no answer to problems in a marriage, but I was desperate. We were becoming more distant by the day.”

      Jules knew that it was important for him to get this off his chest and for her to hear it. She also knew how difficult and painful it could be to peel back the scab on a deep wound. She reached out and squeezed his hand, giving him what reassurance she could.

      He cleared his throat. “Nothing I said or did was right. And I was losing hope that somehow we’d find the light at the end of the tunnel.”

      “Oh, Stefano. I’m so sorry. It must have been so hard for you.”

      “But that’s just it—it shouldn’t have been so hard. If only we’d talked before we got married. I mean really talked about what we were feeling and what we wanted out of life. But we were always so busy with this or that. I kept putting it off, figuring that we were in love and that life would just work itself out. But I was so wrong. I really messed things up.”

      “I’m sure you aren’t the only one who thought that love was enough to iron out all of the wrinkles in life. Sometimes love runs out of steam and the wrinkles are all that remain.”

      He turned to her, his eyes full of turmoil. “But it’s more than that. When I learned that Gianna wasn’t interested in having kids or living here at the vineyard, I didn’t take it well. I thought when we married that it was understood that we would start a family and I would keep working at the winery.”

      “But she wanted her dreams, and they were a long way from the vineyard.”

      He nodded. “She wanted to travel the world and write stories of our experiences. She said there were people that became professional bloggers for a living. She thought since I did well in English class that I would be able to do this. What she didn’t consider was that I hate to write. I can do it for the winery blog, but it is out of necessity, not want.”

      To Jules, he was a hands-on guy, one who didn’t mind rolling up his sleeves and getting dirty—actually he probably preferred it. As for kids, Jules imagined he’d make an excellent father. He had the patience and the temperament to help them reach their full potential. If only she could be like that... But this wasn’t about her, and there was more to his story. Of that she was certain.

      “What happened to your wife?”

      “Things had been deteriorating between us for a long time. I’d finally moved into the bedroom next to hers. She’d threatened to leave numerous times, and I always talked her out of it, certain that there had to be a way to fix things. But I just didn’t know what the answer was.” He sighed deeply as though he’d been carrying around the weight of the world on his shoulders. “Then one stormy night, she prepared dinner, but I could tell that she had something on her mind. Neither of us ate much, and when my father made a quick exit to his room, her anger and frustration came tumbling out. She said that she got an email from one of our classmates, and he was about to set sail around the world.”

      Jules’s insides tensed with foreboding. His tone grew softer as though he had disappeared back in time to that fateful night. She wanted to pull him back to her—back to the present—but she couldn’t. If they were ever going to make a future for themselves, then they had to get this all out in the open.

      “What...what happened next?”

      He gave Jules a quick glance as though she’d startled him back to reality. Then, in a hollow, pained voice, he continued, “Gianna said that she was tired of waiting for me. She was losing time, time that she could be off exploring the world, discovering new things. I...I asked her if she still loved me.”

      Jules’s heart pinched. She knew the answer, and she was willing to bet that he’d known the answer before he had even asked the question. The backs of her eyes stung again, and she blinked repeatedly to keep her tears of sympathy from splashing down her cheeks. She didn’t want to make this any harder on him.

      He drew in an unsteady breath. “She said she didn’t love me. She...she didn’t know if she ever truly did because I wasn’t the man she thought she’d married.”

      Jules squeezed his hand tight. She wanted to offer words of comfort, of encouragement, but they clogged up in her throat. This story was going to get worse, much worse. She lifted her head and tried to subdue her emotions. In the otherwise clear blue sky, one lone cloud floated over them, blocking out the sunlight.

      Stefano massaged the back of his neck. “I was hurt and I was angry. Most of all, I was tired—tired of all the fighting. Tired of trying to find a way out of the mess. Tired of feeling so miserable. And that’s when I made the worst mistake of my life.”

      The air was trapped in Jules’s lungs as she waited for what happened next—what had turned this fine man into a shadow of the outgoing person everyone told her he used to be.

      “I told Gianna that I wasn’t a man to skip off into the sunset and forget my responsibilities. And that she might as well quit waiting around for that to happen. If she didn’t love me or our life at the vineyard, then she could use the door. I told her I was done...with her.” He rubbed a hand over his eyes. “And with our marriage.” He dropped his face into his hands. “Why did I do that?”

      “You can’t blame yourself for being honest with her.”

      His head jerked up, and his distraught gaze needled her. “You don’t know what you’re saying. If only I hadn’t lost my patience—if I’d tried to reason with her, none of it would have happened.”

      “What happened?”

      The only sound was the breeze rustling the leaves overhead and a couple of birds singing. Stefano stared off into the distant horizon as though in his mind he was back in that stormy night. Jules waited for the ominous conclusion to his heart-wrenching story.

      “For the first time ever, she didn’t fight back.” His voice cracked with emotion. “It was as though my words had knocked the fight out of her. Gianna ran out of the kitchen. I didn’t want to go upstairs. I didn’t want to confront her again. So I started cleaning up the dinner dishes. I don’t know how much time passed when I heard the car start and the engine rev as she gassed it out of the driveway. I went to the door and ran outside after her. The rain was coming down in sheets, and the wind was turbulent. It wasn’t a night fit for driving. But I couldn’t stop her.”

      Jules’s wrapped her arm around his back and leaned her head against his shoulder. “You didn’t force her out into the storm—”

      “But I did. I was the reason she ran off that night. I didn’t give her any reason to stay. If only I’d...”

      “Nothing you could have said would have made a difference. She was only waiting for you to give her a reason to follow through with her threats. She wanted to go.”

      “But not that night.” His voice cracked with emotion. “It wasn’t too much later when the phone rang. The car had hydroplaned...Gianna lost control. The...the car went over an embankment.”

      How awful. Now Jules understood the shadow that seemed to follow him around and the way he pulled back when he was having a good time.

      “It’s not your

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