“Good morning, Miss Giovanna,” he greeted me kindly. “Please take a seat.”
“Thank you.” I turned to Wyatt, who looked at me with a worried face.
He leaned in and whispered, “I sure wish I were going with you, but I need to prepare for my trip. Your phone location is on. Mace is in the side pocket. Try and have a good time but be alert.”
“Thanks.” I kissed his cheek and squeezed his hand. “No goodbye.” I chanted our special parting words.
“Just a later.” He smiled.
I slipped down onto to the leather seat, careful to keep my dress down.
“Good morning,” Mariano greeted me briefly then immediately turned his attention back to his phone and started typing.
“Morning,” I whispered.
“Would you care for some coffee?” He handed me a to-go cup of coffee that he must have picked up along the way.
“Thank you.” I sipped the heavenly coffee and tried not to moan at the rich flavor that smothered my taste buds. “Where are we off to today?” I tried to fill in the gap of silence.
“We,” he paused and tapped his phone one more time, “are off to tour the beach.”
“Beach?” That was the last place I thought he would say.
“Yes, if you are going to interview me about Ricco Oil, we need to start from the beginning.”
“All right, the beach it is.” I smiled, but it fell as he went right back to his phone. I guessed his busy life consumed a lot of his time.
The drive was long, and I found myself staring out the window, lost in my thoughts. I remembered why I had moved here in the first place. Cara, my old friend at the house, once showed me a post card she had received from a relative who had visited here. It showed an entire field of sunflowers on the front. It was so beautiful, I often dreamed of lying in the middle of that field watching the clouds drift over those golden heads that looked up without a care in the world. Sadly, when I arrived here, finding that field of dreams hadn’t come true yet. I had jumped into my job and lost my way to it. I guessed some dreams were just meant to be just that—dreams. Thankfully, I found a someone along the way who had become a true friend. Wyatt saved me from myself and had proven to me that he could be depended upon.
“What’s that?” Mariano pointed to my hand that was now entwined with my necklace.
“Oh.” I fiddled with the two pendants. “Just something my mother gave me.”
“What is it?”
I shifted uncomfortably and felt my heart suddenly speed up its rhythm, something that came along with any thought of both of my heartbreaks.
“A teddy bear and a crow.”
“What do they mean?”
I forced a smile and dodged the question.
“I thought we were here for you.”
His phone rang, and he held up a finger for me to hold on. I took a deep breath and turned thankfully back to the window and tuned him out.