Chapter Ten – Home and Family

"Your coffee, cara mia." He handed her the cup and she smiled, taking a small sip.

"Lord, there is something amazing about Italian coffee." She grabbed her bag, which had her camera, phone and back up batteries. She wanted to make sure she had everything to capture today. He said they were heading out of town but never where, so she didn't want to miss anything. "Okay, I'm ready." He gave her the once over, mentally coaching himself not to groan at her long legs in the shorts. He had told her they were walking when they reached the location and to dress for the slightly warmer day, but he still didn't think she would look amazing in shorts. Her pants already enhanced the legs and now the shorts only made everything worse. He couldn't even being to imagine what she would look like on some stunning dress.

He had to shake those thoughts away. Not that he wouldn't love it, but he knew that if he kept on thinking that he was not going to be leaving her room and that was not the plan. Besides, he really wanted to give her today; feeling like this exploration wouldn't be a history lesson, nothing to explain, so maybe that poor mind would rest.

"Let us go, cara mia," he said as he took her hand and lead her down to his car. She pushed the shades down over her eyes as she climbed in.

"Okay, are you finally going to tell me where we are going?"

"Well, since you seem to enjoy history so much, I thought I would take you to a place where history is more set in stone and alive and where you don't need a lesson from me." She tilted her head and gave him a pointed look.

"I'm not sure I follow where history is…wait…"

"Yes, cara mia, I'm taking you to Pompeii and Herculeneum, although, I don't know if you know it." Her slight squeal of delight made him smile as he started up the engine and quickly took off.

-----

"You know," she started as she walked along and admired the thriving town and then eyed the mountain, "this is a gorgeous area, but that little hill right there scares me." He laughed at that 'little hill' comment.

"Pompeii is a very nice and fertile land. Though that ash destroyed so much back then, the land is still very wealthy and many people in the face of danger would never leave.

"Look at California, now many people live there knowing that someday a major earthquake will happen. It is not a matter of if, but a matter of when."

"Point for you. I guess the history is just here, you are next door to proof, land that was destroyed and yet, here you are. California has never had such an earthquake."

"That you know of. Maybe it was not preserved, you are right. But a love of land, of producing or creating, can make one's very mind change.

"I have family here, a couple cousins with their families, one even has my Goddaughter. And I have asked them tons of times if they would leave and the answer is always the same. They love it here too much to ever leave. I could never leave Rome. Even when I go away for business, I always long for my precious city." Jeanette stopped as she looked at him. She had no ties, none to her family and none to her home. She didn't cry when she left her parents, to her, there was nothing, so leaving was easy. And the same with New York; she loved it, the craziness of the city, but she could give it up, move away and never look back. And even her job, that was her only true tie, but that could be done anywhere. And here was another point where these two people were so very different.

Home and family and land meant everything to Ramon, he had a high value for it, but of her, they were words, things, without any true emotions. And she was very curious if she would ever have any type of connection with things like that.

He watched as she withdrew into her own mind again and pushed a piece of hair that the wind blew into her face back behind her ear. He watched as her brows drew together and he moved his thumb to brush the lines that were in the middle of her forehead away. He watched as her eyes seem to cloud over and there was nothing he could do. But he knew he longed to bring her out of those dark thoughts she seemed to have gathered.

"Cara mia?" She shook her head slightly and looked at him, a smile over taking those dark scowls.

"I'm sorry, wayward thoughts and they shouldn't be ruining today. By the way, are you actually taking the whole day off to do this?"

"I am. But I have my phone in case they need me. Come," he said as he took her hand, the tingles shooting up both sets of arms. She glanced up at him as he glanced back at her and they shared a smile.

-----

An hour later and they were walking along the remaining streets of Pompeii, the sight along bringing tears to her eyes.

"Can you imagine what this day must have been like? This unmistakable noise and the heat but not understanding, not knowing, not having any sense of it?"

"There are two other cities that have been found on the day the volcano blew, sharing just as much as heartache."

"Sapphire told me she would come here with a family she was close to as a little girl, that they would share the history here. It made me long to see it. And the beauty and the sorrow is just as she said it would be." Jeanette glanced around, her mind blown away by the sights. "Even as a young girl myself, I was fascinated by the story of Pompeii, and had longed to see it. I never thought I would be here." She snapped a couple photos and to Ramon, who actually didn't care for tourists, was intrigued as he watched her let go and actually just be a tourist, intrigued not to see that mind doing double as it processed and created.

"Sapphire never said who that family was?"

"Nope, just a long standing family." She looked at him. "Why?"

"Oh, just curious." Jeanette gave him another look before taking another photo.

"Thank you Ramon, you made an unknown dream come true." The smile that she bestowed on him made his heart stop, and that, he was afraid was a sure sign that he was falling hard with no way to stop, and if he was being honest, he wasn't sure if he even wanted to stop.