LOVE on The Horizon (Breaking The Rules #1) (13 page)

The most dazzling smile spread over Ricky’s face. For a moment I thought he was going to snap. He calmly reached into his pocket, retrieved his cell phone, and said, “Or for you to.” With a touch of a button, our entire conversation filled the air in the conference room.

Dina’s eyes bulged before she went pale. She flew out of the conference room, and a switch flipped in my head.

I wanted Marco.

Nothing else mattered. I needed to find him and be with him. When I admitted that to Ricky, he hugged me and dragged my ass through the ship, taking complete control. Thankfully he did, because I wasn’t in any condition to think clearly.

In my stateroom, I grabbed everything my scattered brain thought of. Passport, cash, and my identification were the only things besides the clothes on my back that I truly needed. Ricky spent what little time we had shoving my clothes into my single suitcase.

“Do you want me to text him?”

“No!”

He stopped what he was doing to stare at me, wordlessly waiting for an explanation. “If he says something like I’m making a huge mistake, or try to talk me out of it, I’ll lose it. Maybe if I’m standing there, it would remind him how we feel about each other, and he’ll want me to be there. If not, maybe I’ll gain some closure to move on.”

“Are you an idiot? Of course he wants you to be there.”

“He just lost everything for me. He may have gained some clarity since walking out of here this morning.” Every doubt I held suddenly flooded to the surface. This was insanity, but I needed to follow my heart.

When the ship’s horn blasted, announcing we were departing soon, I panicked. Instead, Ricky just worked faster. “Stop being stupid and pack!”

“Ricky, I’m not going to make it.”

“You’ll make it. The flight is not until this evening. Hail a cab and go right to Miami International.” Once I had everything I needed, he snatched my hand and dragged me out of my cabin. “You need to snap out of this,” he barked while pulling me down the hall to the elevator. My stumble caused him to yell, “Move it!”

I couldn’t even find it in me to respond. I couldn’t believe I was doing this.

As we ran, he spoke. “I wrote down his address, phone number, mother’s name, even his favorite hotel. I also gave you my cell phone number. I put it all in your wallet.”

“Ricky, I can’t afford to comb Italy until I find him. Where would I even start?”

“Knowing Marco, he went to his happy place.”

“The fountain?”

“Yes, Trevi. Start there. I put my credit card in your bag. Pick up a phone at the airport. You’ll need it. Once you do, call me with your number. I’ll get you to him.”

“You can’t fund this craziness. I won’t let you.”

When the elevator didn’t appear quickly enough, he ran for the stairs and glared at me to follow. “Don’t argue with me,” he said as we pounded down flight by flight to get to the gangway. “I’m rich.”

“Stop it.”

“I am. I have millions, just sitting collecting dust.” He turned to see my gawking expression and laughed. “Surprise.”

Leslie and Hirrod stood shocked when Ricky and I came barreling toward them.

“What’s going on?” Leslie asked.

“Rebecca’s leaving.” Ricky gripped my arms and said, “Go! Call my cell once you land. We’ll find him.”

“What about you?”

“I have something to take care of. I’ll fill you in later.”

He kissed my cheek and pushed me out the door. The men working the gangway watched in confusion as I ran off
The Horizon
toward the unknown.

When I boarded the plane in Florida, I felt lost, adrift in a sea of despair. All my life I followed the rules, and the one time I broke them, I got fucked. Irrational thinking and poor judgment aside, I couldn’t regret what we did. How could I be sorry for the consequences that I knew could come? For the first time in my life, I fell in love. I did regret ruining things for her.

The flight over to Rome was spent staring at the few pictures I had of her on my phone. If it weren’t for the flirty flight attendant who kept asking if I was okay every five minutes, I wouldn’t have looked up from Rebecca’s beautiful face at all.

A short layover had me stuck in Rome for a few hours before catching my connecting flight to Florence. Watching humans running around the airport like chickens without their heads had me feeling emotionally drained. I wanted to scream,
“Stop! Just stop running, because there is no fucking point.”

Normally, I couldn’t wait to board that connector flight to get back to my hometown. This time, I was most definitely not looking forward to going home and sharing my new predicament with my family. They would have a ton of questions to which I didn’t have answers. They’d also try relentlessly to convince me to stay grounded and finally consider joining my father in his import business.

Yeah, no thanks
.

When I heard my flight being announced over the loudspeaker, instead of walking toward the proper gate, in a spur of the moment fuck-it move, I walked out the airport doors, hailed a cab, and took a much-needed detour. Suddenly, I decided that I needed the
Fontana di Trevi
’s mystic powers more than ever. In fact, I needed Rome to distract me. I loved this city and everything about it. Spending a couple of days here would do me some good.

After making arrangements with a friend to retrieve my luggage that would be waiting for me at the Florence airport, I decided not to book another flight. I spent a lonely, reflective night in Rome. I needed time to think and decided I’d travel back home by rental car.

Come tomorrow, I’d head up the coast, stopping whenever or wherever I wanted until I needed to hook a right toward Florence. I’d seen it all, every inch of my country, but there was nothing like the beautiful coastline of my native land to eliminate any stress and help clear my head. It felt like I had walked off
The Horizon
weeks ago. One day had passed without her, and I wasn’t sure how I’d survive even one more.

While walking through the streets of Rome, my feet automatically led me to my favorite café to grab a double espresso before heading to the fountain. Of course it was crowded, and by the way the people rushed around, my trained Italian eye could immediately pick out the tourists versus the natives.

The tourists had no clue how to just stop and enjoy.

I watched the dancing waters that usually calmed me. This time, they weren’t succeeding. It was ridiculous that I helplessly clung to fantasy and wishful thinking to bring her back to me. Here I was, a grown man, believing in fairytales. Yet, there I stood formulating my wish in my mind like the little boy who wished for a mountain of gelato.

Over and over, I rubbed the coin between my fingers, afraid to make the wrong decision. I couldn’t wish for her to be with me if that’s not what she wanted. Really, above all else, I just wanted her to be happy. But selfishly, I wanted her to be happy with me.

The more I stared, the more I could see her smiling face. In the air, I could smell her perfume. Through the chatter and noise of the crowd, I could hear her laugh. Even thousands of miles away, Rebecca continued to control my thoughts as well as my heart.

I guess I could wish to learn how to move on. There was the possibility that meeting Rebecca was merely an event I’d have to fondly look back on one day as a wonderful time in my life. It happened all the time to people, and I probably needed to brace myself that it also could have happened to me. Maybe I found and lost that one person, and I would have to search for something even remotely similar in every other person I met from now on. They made movies out of that shit all the time. I’d be a made-for-TV movie, a cliché of the eligible bachelor who only had the one chance to love.

Finally deciding on my wish, I stepped closer to the fountain, closed my eyes, and threw my coin over my shoulder into the swirling waters.

“What did you wish for?” a female voice asked to my side.

When I turned toward her, my heart exploded in my chest. “Rebecca, you’re here.”

Wordlessly, she tossed her coin before facing me with a dazzling smile.

By the time her coin hit the water, she was in my arms and my lips were attached to hers. I couldn’t get enough, afraid that if I opened my eyes, I’d discover it was just a fantasy and not at all real.

“You’re really here. It’s you,” I voiced against her lips.

“I’m here.” She held my face, and our eyes connected in a desperate way. “I’m definitely here. I arrived early this morning and came straight here.”

“You’ve been sitting here for hours?”

“Yep.”

“Why didn’t you call me?”

“I wanted to surprise you,” she admitted with a smile.

I returned a smile of my own and asked, “How did you know I’d be here?”

“I didn’t, but I knew it was where I needed to start. I remembered your mentioning this fountain, and Ricky said it would probably be the first place you came to. If you didn’t show, I would have called Ricky for my next move.”

“He’s still calling the shots.”

“And loving it,” she said with a grin. Her beauty took my breath away. I had many questions, concerns from having her standing before me. It could wait, because all I needed right then and there was her.

“Are you sure about this? Because now that you’re here I’m never letting you go.”

“Completely.”

Her admission caused my heart to flip. Pulling her face toward mine, I resumed our kiss. The second one became a primal need to validate our relationship. She moaned into my mouth while digging her fingers into my hair. The only thing that stopped me from engaging in taking her right then and there was the sound of applause.

Rebecca pulled away, embarrassment instantly tingeing her cheeks a rosy pink. The sound of my pounding heartbeat in my ears interspersed with the continuous clapping of the crowd. Her eyes met mine, and she laughed nervously before burying her face in my shirt.

“
Grazie, grazie
.” I nodded, raising a hand to thank the crowd while my other hand held her head to my chest. I was all for entertainment, but with my excitement channeled right between my legs, drawing more attention to myself and my thoughts would only serve to embarrass her even more.

“
Bella
, maybe we should take this to a private place?”

“Yes, I wouldn’t want to get arrested my first day in Rome.”

“Come.”

Taking her hand, I led her away from all the nosy tourists toward my hotel. “I’ll take you sightseeing later. Right now, I need you,” I said while looking down at her. I took hold of her suitcase in one hand and tugged her along quickly with my other.

She giggled adorably. “Okay, but we do need to call Ricky first or he’ll have Italy’s version of a SWAT team busting in, looking for us.”

“Oh my God! You have no idea what I’ve been dealing with since you two took off!”

Ricky’s amplified voice filled the hotel room as we gawked at my cell. He dramatically went through every detail since the moment I left
The Horizon
. Most of it involved Ricky telling everyone in management every detail behind Dina’s revengeful sabotage. 

“I told them everything,” he shrieked over the phone. “From you two having a thing years ago to her jealousy toward Rebecca, and I even forced them to listen to the conversation I taped after they fired you, Marco.”

“What conversation?” I looked to Rebecca in confusion.

“I’ll fill you in later,” she said, taking my hand.

“It was epic. I fucking nailed her, and hopefully with all management now knows, the only job she’ll be able to hold on that cruise ship is as a cabin maid.” He laughed at his own joke before he added, “The best part—right as I walked out I told Aida she could take that fucking cruise ship and shove it up her tight ass!”

“You did what?” I asked before Rebecca’s mouth gaped open again in shock.

“You heard me. That fucking frigid shrew needs a good lay!”

“Ricky?”

“Yes, darling?” he asked, his tone of voice back to normal, even though I was sure his face was still beet red from his rant.

“Where are you now?”

“Lying on the beach with a big-ass piña colada,” he responded as if it were obvious.

I scrubbed a hand over my fac
e
.
“Now you both are unemployed, thanks to me.”

“Knock it off,” Ricky barked through the phone. “You did us a favor.”

“How do you figure that?”

“He’s right, Marco. Sunset is more concerned with their stupid policies than their people. I don’t want to continue my career with a company like that.” She stared into my eyes with nothing but complete sincerity written all over her face. She leaned in and kissed me softly, causing my heart to pound in my chest.

“Besides, I have a great idea,” Ricky offered over the phone. When he was met with silence, he added, “Are you two making out?”

“No, we’re waiting for you to enlighten us,” I quickly replied, but Rebecca’s giggle ratted us out.

“You lie. I could hear your lips smacking together.” I shrugged at his ability to see through the phone line. “Are you listening?” he asked, agitated.

“
Sì
.”

“Marco, what did we always dream about doing?”

“And just how do you propose we do that?”

“Between your money and mine, and if I reach out to some of my friends as investors, we can do it.”

“We would need a lot of investors, Ricky.”

“I have friends who owe me. It’s time for them to pay the piper. Your job is to get your asses up to Florence and clean out that fat bank account that’s been collecting dust.”

“Do what?” Rebecca asked.

“Tell her.”

“Ricky and I always talked about running our own luxury cruise out of Fort Lauderdale.”

“Your own? As in buying a cruise ship?”

Ricky laughed over the phone. “No my love, not a cruise ship. A luxury yacht that the upper-middle class could sail on to get a taste of what the rich one-percent have at their fingertips. A few dozen passengers, one week at a time, one destination at a time.”

“A yacht? Seriously?”

“Am I speaking English? Marco, tell her.”

“He’s
pazzo
.”

“I am not crazy! We can do this. All we need is the money, and between us, we are well on our way.”

“I don’t have any money.” Rebecca shook her head slowly as she began chewing on her bottom lip. “All I have is a huge student loan and a few thousand in savings.”

“You would contribute with your beautiful looks and amazing personality. I have to go. I have a date. Marco, bring her up to speed. I’ll call you tomorrow at nine a.m. my time.
Ciao
, my loves.”

Without another word, he hung up the phone, leaving me with a tiny seed of optimism blooming in my mind.

Could we do this?

My parents would lose it on me, but I didn’t care about that. I’d invest every penny coming to me to have a chance at my dream with Rebecca at my side. The thought was both exhilarating and terrifying. Of course, my tenacious assistant would have such an ambitious backup plan. But, really, what did we have to lose besides money? If we failed, I was pretty sure I’d live in a grass hut with her, barefoot and picking coconuts to survive.

I guess time would tell.