Hot Christmas Nights: Tuscan Nights / Christmas Tango / Tied Up in Tinsel

Her phone rang.

She held up a finger, grateful for the interruption. She was happy for him, but she wasn’t interested in hearing about his latest girlfriend.

“One minute.” She checked the phone, expecting to see Else’s number. Instead it was Guido Leoncini’s. “It’s the bakery owner,” she said. “I need to cover a few things with him before I leave.”

She turned and spoke to Guido in Italian, letting him know the bakery was locked up but that he should go in tomorrow to make sure the embers in the oven had completely burned out.

She took pride in running Leoncini’s, even though she’d known she would leave, even if Murano weren’t returning. She had not put in so much time and effort into learning the craft of pastry making to spend the rest of her life in a small family bakery. Her dreams had always been so much bigger. She just wasn’t sure she was ready to take the step she had been contemplating.

Nyla glanced at the tiny desk in the corner. The yellow legal pad next to her laptop listed several vacant storefronts in downtown Atlanta and a few in some of the wealthier suburbs where a high-end bakery would thrive. She’d slashed through the ones that had been leased over the past few weeks, but the one she’d had her eye on was still available.

All it would take was a phone call to the real-estate agent. She’d purposely refrained from accumulating too many possessions. A few boxes and her suitcase, and she could be on her way to Atlanta and the pastry shop she’d had her heart set on opening since her dad brought her to one to celebrate her tenth birthday.

Her chest tightened just at the thought of returning home, back to the family she’d missed like crazy over the past three years.

Back to the place where so many people knew of the humiliation she’d suffered.

Could she do it? Did she have a choice?

She couldn’t stay hidden in Europe forever. And she didn’t want to. As much as she loved Tuscany and the life she’d built for herself, she missed the life she’d left back in the States. Maybe it was time she returned.

Now was not the time to think about this. She’d vowed to put all that stuff aside and just enjoy herself these next couple of days. It was Christmas, after all.

She pocketed her cell phone and clapped her hands together. “Ready?” she asked.

“Nyla, about what we were talking about before your phone rang.”

Yes. His new girlfriend.

If there was one thing she didn’t want to think about more than those impending decisions she had to make regarding going back home, it was Aiden’s new girlfriend.

She pointed to the digital clock on her DVD player and smiled a smile she wasn’t really feeling. “It’s already after six. We should probably get going.”

Aiden started to speak, then stopped. He stared at her for several long moments before taking her bag and heading out the door.

Chapter 3 (#ulink_6d7e8e83-97a9-522e-a7f5-a8b40e322e8d)

“Can we at least both agree that it makes more sense if I took over at the wheel? You’ve been driving all day.”

“And you’ve been baking all day.”

Nyla flipped her hands in the air. Two hours into their three-hour trek down to Rome and she was still trying to convince Aiden to let her take over driving duties.

“I’ve been driving in Italy longer than you have,” she tried.

“Let’s see. There’s a road. It has lines on either side. As long as I stay between the lines, I think I’m good.”

The look she sent him was sharp enough to cut through leather. Not that it mattered; with his eyes focused on the highway he wasn’t looking at her anyway.

“Fine,” Nyla said, settling back in her seat. “If you want to continue driving, you’ll have to tell me the story behind that picture on Facebook.”

He glanced over at her and laughed. “How exactly does that work? If I don’t tell you the story, will the car magically stop moving?”

“Aiden,” she said in a warning tone.

He let out a sigh. “Were you always this bossy?”

“Come on.” Nyla pinched his arm. “I want to know how a picture of you stripped down to your skivvies ended up on Facebook.”

“I lost a bet,” he said. “I tried to get that stupid picture blocked, but no matter how many times I reported it, they never took it down. I had to threaten my friend Mike that I would post a video of him singing ‘Dancing Queen’ in drag on YouTube. He’s in his last year of law school and is clerking for the Georgia Supreme Court. He definitely doesn’t want links to that video showing up in the judges’ in-boxes.”

“Ouch. That’s cutthroat,” Nyla said with a laugh. “Knowing you, I should have guessed that the picture was the result of a bet, though I must admit I was sort of hoping you’d developed a bit of a wild side.”

He glanced at her. “I may not make a habit of swimming in the Atlantic in my underwear, but I’m not the quiet guy I used to be, either. There’s a little wild in me.”

She studied him for a moment. “How much?”

“Just enough.”

The effort it took to ignore the tingles those two words set off in her belly was exhausting. Yet she still spent the last hour of their drive contemplating what a little wild would look like in Aiden.

By the time they reached Else’s, the snow was once again falling, covering Rome in a rare blanket of pillow-soft whiteness that made it seem even more romantic and magical. Nyla declared it the first Christmas miracle of the season when they were able to find street parking across from Else’s building in the Trieste District.

Several of the balconies of the high-rise were trimmed with twinkling Christmas lights, but Else’s, which she could see from street level, was bare. The window beyond, which led to her living room, was completely dark.

She tried Else’s number again as she and Aiden crossed the street. She breathed a sigh of relief when her friend answered on the third ring.

“Thank goodness I finally got ahold of you,” Nyla said. “I’m just outside your building. I hope you don’t mind company for a couple of days.”

Her steps halted as Else spoke.

“You’re kidding me,” Nyla said.

“What’s wrong?” Aiden asked.

She held up her index finger, asking him to wait. “No, no. It’s okay,” Nyla spoke into the phone. “The trip down to Rome was very last minute. I came on the off chance that you’d be here. Enjoy Thailand.”

“Thailand?” Aiden asked when she ended the call.

“Yes.” Nyla blew out a sigh. “She was invited to spend Christmas there with a couple of fellow faculty members. She offered to call the landlord of the building, but she said there have been several break-ins in the area and they’re hesitant about letting people into the building who were not previously on a visitors’ list.”

Nyla rubbed the bridge of her nose, trying to ease the headache that had suddenly formed between her eyes. She slipped her cell phone into her pocket before hunkering in her coat, pulling the hood over her head.

“As far as contingency plans go, what are your options?” Aiden asked.

She shook her head. “Finding an available hotel room this close to Christmas will be impossible, and that’s not considering how outrageous the cost will be even if I do find one.”

In a low voice, he said, “You can always stay with me.”