Stars in an Italian Sky by Jill Santopolo

Author:Jill Santopolo [Santopolo, Jill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2023-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 29

GENOA, ITALY

Then

After taking a long walk along the water holding hands, checking on the reconstruction at the port, and stopping for coffee, Giovanna and Vincenzo were back in his family’s apartment. She was back in his mother’s purple gown, the sun lighting the room through the window behind her.

“Just a few more touches, and I should be done for today,” Vincenzo said.

She got up, holding the skirt carefully, and walked over to Vincenzo and his canvas. The way he lit her in the painting made her look otherworldly, like she was an angel or a saint, the glowing light behind her head reminiscent of the golden orbs she’d seen in Renaissance paintings.

“You’re so talented,” she told him. “I’ve never met anyone who could create art like you.” She was amazed at how her hair looked like her hair, her eyes looked like her eyes, their color a mixture of green and gray and gold.

Vincenzo looked at her and smiled. “I love that about you,” he said.

“Love what?” she asked.

“Love how open you are.”

Giovanna laughed. “It’s because I trust you,” she said. “With my thoughts, with my opinions, with my heart.”

Vincenzo dipped a thin paintbrush in white paint and added some tiny highlights to make her eyes look like they were sparkling.

“Well,” he said when he was done. “I am one lucky man.”

She rose up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “I’m the lucky one,” she said. “What are you going to call the painting?”

Just like paintings in museums, he titled each one.

“Giovannangela,” he said.

She laughed. He saw her as an angel. He’d painted her as an angel.

He turned to her and put his paintbrush down. “I want to take you out tonight,” he said. “To a dinner an old school friend of mine is having for his twenty-first birthday. Will you come?”

Until the weekend at the vineyard, Giovanna and Vincenzo’s relationship had existed in a bubble, just the two of them, separate and apart from the rest of the world. But now she’d met his family, and she was going to meet more of his friends. This felt good, right, like the next step to making their relationship a reality. Though, there was still a prickle in the back of her mind: Chiara’s declaration, Isabella’s smile . . . but she trusted Vincenzo, she trusted his words, and she trusted his actions.

“I would love to,” she said, wondering who these friends were, what they would think of her, if she’d be able to fit in. “Is this a fancy dinner?”

“I’ll wear a suit,” he said. “Do you want to see if there’s anything my mother has here that you could wear?”

Giovanna shook her head, scrolling through her wardrobe in her mind. “I know exactly what I’ll wear tonight,” she said. Once Faustina’s wedding dress was done, Giovanna had started working on some new clothing for herself, some dresses and skirts that made her feel more elegant, more mature.

“What’s that?” Vincenzo asked.

“I’ve been making myself some new pieces,” Giovanna told him.

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