Prologue

I grew up simply. I went to the basic public school in Tampa, Florida, had the nice middle class style house. My father was on SWAT for the Tampa Bay area and my mother before she had passed away, was a small business owner. She was pure Italian. Woke up before the sun to go to the bakery just to get a head start. She had been really successful, and everyone loved her. Me and my father included.

It was the summer before my freshman year of high school that my dad got called to a scene of a fatal car crash. It was his patrol, he just happened to be the closest and able to get to the scene the fastest. It absolutely destroyed him, but he tried his best not to let it show. Soon after the first Christmas without her my dad and Uncles (Mothers brothers) decided it would be best for me to spend my summers in Siena at the family Vineyard.

So that's what I did, the day after the last day of the school year I would say goodbye to the few friends I had and made my way through the airport to go away for 2 months. My father wanted me to have a piece of my mother and didn't want me home alone for hours on end, so it made since in a way. I won't lie and say it didn't feel like he was shipping me off to be someone else's problem though.

It didn't take long for me to fall in love with the Vineyard, I actually began to enjoy my time there and found myself helping with the restaurant aspect. I was big into people watching and many days found myself drawing the rich families and their elaborate parties. I always remained hidden away from it though. I preferred to not know how they really were. I loved just making up the small stories to go along with them.

I had always been a daydreamer. A closet romantic. Even with my head in the clouds I knew my place in this world so far away home. I didn't belong to the elaborate parties, the diamonds and pearls. I didn't belong to the high dollar wine and jetting off for weekend trips to villas and not needing to worry about anything.

I knew my place and I reveled in it.