The Moretti Heir by Katherine Garbera Page B

want to see your parents knowing that.”
    “My parents are the happiest couple I’ve ever met. They don’t feel the burden of the curse.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “I promise you. I think because my father followed his heart, he has no conflict. Not the way Nonno Lorenzo did.”
    That made an odd sort of sense to her, and she had a moment of clarity about the curse. What if it isn’t really a curse against happiness, but a curse that dealt with not really knowing what you wanted? Cassia and Lorenzo had each wanted something different.
    Cassia wanted Lorenzo and needed him to be happy with her love and living in their small village. Lorenzo needed Cassia to understand his love of cars and speed and his need to make a fortune before he could settle down with her.
    With a bit of twenty-twenty hindsight, she realized that Lorenzo had loved cars and racing more than he ever could have loved Cassia.
    She pulled away from Marco. Was she simply stepping into her grandmother’s shoes? Letting herself fall in love with a man who would never fall in love with her?
    “Come and meet them. I think you will see that they aren’t at all unhappy with the way things have worked out.”
    “I wonder why not?” she asked. Her grandmother had been utterly miserable every day of her life. She’d kept a picture of Lorenzo in the kitchen and every morning Cassia would look at him and curse him. Every day.
    Her earliest memories were of a certain disdain…okay, to be honest, it was a hatred of the Morettis. Only as she got older and could ask questions did she realize that hatred wasn’t helping the Festa women.
    “Because my father finds absolute joy in my mother. He likes cars, but as he said to me when I was eight, there is nothing in this world that can compete with my mother’s smile.”
    “He really said that?”
    “Yes, he did. Then he kissed her when she came out to bring us some lemonade. To an eight-year-old boy, it was a bit on the gross side.”
    “What was gross about it?”
    “Kissing,” he said with a big grin. Then pulled her close and kissed her.
    He whispered something in Italian that she couldn’t translate, and although she didn’t want to look at it too closely, it felt to her that Marco was starting to care for her, too. She knew that she could never be more than second in his life, behind his love of racing and speed, but at that moment she wondered if that hadn’t been Cassia’s mistake with Lorenzo—not realizing that she could still love him even if he loved something else more than her.

    “Ciao, Mamma e Papa,” Marco said as he entered the den. Virginia was still a bit reluctant to meet his parents, but she stood by his side.
    His father was seated at the desk in front of the iMac computer and his mother was perched on the desk next to it. They were both staring at the screen.
    “Ciao, figlio,” his mother said. “Your papa is trying to show me the Moretti Motors Web site…have you seen it?”
    “Not yet. What is the problem, Papa?” Marco asked as he walked into the room. “ Mamma e Papa, this is Virginia Festa. Virginia, my parents—Gio and Phila.”
    “It’s a pleasure to meet you both,” Virginia said.
    “We’re pleased to meet you, too, Virginia,” his mother replied. Phila gave Marco a hug and a kiss and ran her hand over his hair the way she always did. He hugged his mother close for a minute and then leaned over his father’s shoulder to see what the problem was. To say that Gio Moretti wasn’t too tech-savvy was a major understatement.
    “ Ciao, Virginia,” Gio said. “This is on the company intranet, and I think I entered the proper password.…”
    “Let me see what you typed in,” Marco said, working over his father’s shoulder. His mother drew Virginia aside and they began to talk quietly.
    He’d always been aware that his parents were special. They had that something that just always made him happy to be with them.
    That didn’t mean he hadn’t gotten into