One Heart

"Grazzi, Mrs. Donohue," Lorenzo said. "I'd be happy to arrange for you to spend some time in the kitchen with her while you're here if you like. In our busy season we do classes, but since its quieter right now, the chefs can do more one on one, which they enjoy."

"Sounds like fun," Angus smiled, "You should do it, if you want. I might check out the archery if you do that. After all, men with sticks. Sounds it could be dangerous." He grinned at her, making a cloaked reference to their wands.

"Oh, no, Mr. Donohue," Lorenzo said quickly. "We have our instructor present at all times. It is very, very safe."

"That's reassuring," Angus said, pretending to be sufficiently reassured.

"Well, if I can be of service, just let me know," Lorenzo said, going to the door. Angus thanked him and let him back out.

"I don't know about you, but I think that food smells great. Shall we eat?" He opened the Pelligrino water and poured two glasses. "Water is pretty popular with meals here because it lets the flavor of the food shine through," he said. He sat down on the fur rug. "Come join me."

"Your welcome Lorenzo." She said with a smile. "Really? You can do that?" She said looking at him surprised. "That would be wonderful to be able to learn something from her."

"Yeah it does sound like fun." She said with a smile. She had to hold back her laughter of his reference to their wands. "Well it would be fun to see how well you can shot an arrow."

At this point she had to turn her head like she was looking towards one of the windows on the other side. She was trying really hard to laugh at the conversation.

"Okay thank you Lorenzo." She said turning her head back towards the man.

"It does smell great. Yes let's." She said watching him open the water and pouring two water. "That's makes sense to use water." She joined him on the rug and felt content that they were here together. "This is really romantic," She said kissing him on the cheek softly.

He kissed her back gently. "If you'd have told me last night that we'd have ended up here today, I wouldn't have believed you. I wonder if its normal to not ever want to go back..." He was going to continue his thought, but his stomach growled loudly. He sighed, the mood broken for the moment.

"Alright," he said. "Food, I think." He realized they hadn't had an actual meal since breakfast, and that had been hours ago. They'd nibbled during the day, but once the smell of food had gotten to him, he realized he was hungrier than he thought.

"Antipasti?" He asked, handing her one of the two appetizer plates. "I admit it. I'm hungry. So, aside from perhaps a meeting with the pastry chef, what else would you like to do while we've got the time to ourselves?"

He didn't care what she wanted. Whatever she wanted, if he could provide it, she'd have it. He did feel that this was a new start, but he didn't know, exactly, what this was the new start would entail but he wanted it. He knew what he'd seen of the lives of the people that he loved, and he knew what marriage had done in their lives. For most of them, it had been the best things in their lives. He hadn't actually been around many people who'd been divorced, not really. Perhaps it meant that it would work for Bella and him too.

She smiled softly at him, "I think it is normal to not want to go back." She said then laughed when his stomach growled.

"Yes I think so." She said laughing softly. She had nibbled on things today, but she felt like she was starving. The smell of the food was amazing and she couldn't wait to taste it.

"Yes please." She said with a smile taking the plate he handed her. "I'm hungry as well. Well I would like to see if I can get Rose a little souvenir. Other than that I just want to spend time together." She said with a smile then took a bite of her antipasti. "Mm this is really good." She said loving how it tasted on her tongue.

She wanted to spend time with just him, it wasn't often that they were able to be alone. She felt like with him it was something amazing. She didn't know what was down the road for them but she was ready to take it head on with what ever it threw at them. "What do you want to do with the time we have? I think we should do something you want to do as well." She said with a grin.

Oh yeah. Rose. There was Rose, wasn't there? He'd been so focused on Bella that, for one moment, Rose had left his mind. He wasn't sure he wanted Bella to know that. Maybe it wasn't so entirely bad that all he could see, all he wanted was her. On the other hand, he certainly wasn't erasing Rose from his life, now that they'd all agreed that he should be the father in Rose's life. He was enjoying the appetizer, but he was thinking about the fact that he had his own family now. It wasn't just the two of them.

"Hm..You want a souvenir for Rose. Let's take the time to go to Murano. Let's buy Rose a bracelet with Murano glass beads. Let's get her three beads on it now and we can add one bead every year for her birthday. If we choose, we can give her other beads for special occasions, too. By the time she gets to be an adult, she will have a full bracelet. And she'll be able to change the beads out for special occasions. We can resize the bracelet itself to fit her as she grows. And the beads themselves should be worth more over time." His family members didn't own an overabundance of jewelry, but he knew most of them had gotten some sort of piece of good jewelry that they had grown up with. It was something that he knew each Donohue had always treasured when they became adults.

He'd been thinking about this next bit almost since he'd started to realize he and Bella were getting serious. "Bella," he said, "Now that we're married, I don't want to be just Rose's stepfather. I want her to be mine. I want her to be a Donohue. What do you think?"

As for her question of what they wanted to do with their time, he didn't have a lot of ideas yet, but he had a few. "I want to get to the farmers market. I want to check the ingredients they have here. Maybe if we're going to get another rainy afternoon, I can actually cook here, over the fire. I'd like to do that, if we get the chance."

"There are so many things we could do. We could go riding. The brochure says they have a stables here. I know they're supposed to have a great winery. We check that out, maybe arrange a wine tasting?" He accio'd the brochures. "Hm...too cold for tennis or badmitton, bocce is always in season, ping pong--i really think we can find better than ping pong, oh--a honey tasting. They make their own honey. That could be fun. Hot air ballooning? That might be fun. Or, we could take the car and go sightseeing and shopping.

"If we have good weather, we could go back towards Edwards and get one of the boats for the day. I think we really should take a day, though, sometime, and go back to Venice and do some sightseeing, take a gondola ride, some of those things, maybe, if you'd like. The list of things to do here are utterly endless."

She didn't know what he was thinking about but she could tell he was deep in thought. She had a feeling it was about Rose but she wasn't going to pry that out of him. She knew that it would take him some time to get used to the fact that Rose was now his stepdaughter.

"Yeah. Oh she would love that, she loves bracelets and everything. She's never had a glass bead one at all. Adding one bead on her birthday sounds really lovely, she would really like that." She said with a smile. She couldn't help but smile more because he thought of a wonderful gift for Rose that she would wear. Her own thought of getting her something different for a souvenir but she liked his idea of one much better than her own. She knew Rose would cherish that bracelet for a long time because it would be her first present from Angus as her dad. "I'm sure that when she sees it, she'll never want to take it off." She said with a smile at him.

Her heart skipped at his words, "I think that would be wonderful Angus." She said softly. "You amaze me with everything you've done. Each thing that you do I fall that much more deeper in love with you." She said honestly, her eyes glistened slightly with tears.

"That sounds wonderful, to go to the farmers market. We'd have to see about something to cook it in, do you think Lorenzo could see about getting us something? If we get the chance that is." She said with a smile thinking about it.

"Riding sounds good, it's been a while since I've gone riding. Sounds good with the wine tasting, though I have to let you know. Well not that you don't know already, I'm a kinda a light weight when it comes to alcohol." She said with a blush and a small laugh. "I didn't know they made their own honey, sounds delicious. Hot air balloon? Like a balloon and a basket?" She asked making sure she was thinking of the right thing.

"I think that would be wonderful to take a day and sight see in Venice. Oh a gondola ride sounds amazing, I've never been on one." She said wondering what it was like. She had seen pictures of the boats but never had the chance to ever go there.

"Yeah, well, she's not going to appreciate it as much at 3 as she might when she's, maybe 13, I don't know. We might have to pick up some sort of a toy too. We'll find something."

"I wouldn't be too impressed with me if I were you," he smiled. "Just remember how flawless I look tonight when I start to look incredibly human soon. Just keep that thought, would you?" He kissed her. "Your plate is empty and so is mine. Rissoto?" He uncovered the cloche with the little plates of rissoto, and offered to exchange the antipasti plate for the rissoto.

"I bet, if we can't find something to cook in, we can either send out Lorenzo, or we could borrow something from the kitchen. I think we should check out the market first so that we can be sure that the pan we get is what we really need. I'm pickier about my produce, and I think you probably are too." Most professional cooks always started with fresh ingredients. Angus wasn't truly worried about the pan if he had decent food to cook.

"A lot of people at wine tastings actually spit out the wines," Angus said. "It allows them to taste more without the wine getting the better of them. But, realistically, Brian has a superb wine cellar, so that's something we can sample at home any time we want. Lots of evenings by the fire with a bottle of wine? I could think of worse things."

"Never been in a hot air balloon?" he asked. "I did--once. At the time, it wasn't even the least bit romantic, though. I would certainly hope that it would be different if we did it. But we'll definitely have to do the gondola ride, then."

He picked up his own risotto plate and tasted it. It was superb. It was a taste he'd never considered bringing to risotto, and it was something he decided he liked a lot. "I'm going to have to remember this. Either that or we're going to have to move here so I can get it all the time."

"True that is something she'll appreciate when she is 13. Yeah I think we might have to," She said with a laugh. "It will be very pretty bracelet for her, I'll just have to watch her and make sure it doesn't get lost."

She smiled at him softly, "I'll still be impressed if look incredibly human soon. You are amazing and I am so very lucky that I have you as my husband." She said kissing him back. "Yes please," She said as she gave him her empty plate with one hand and took the rissoto in the other. "Looks great." She said picking up a piece and taking a bite out of it.

"Yeah we could do either of those things, I wonder though how Lorenzo would act if we told him we wanted to cook something ourselves. Yeah sounds best to check out the market first to make sure that it's what we need. Yeah I am picky about my produce." She said with a smile knowing that they both really liked cooking.

"That's kinda gross," She said with a small laugh. "Well I guess that would help not getting drunk or anything. I didn't know he had a wine cellar, or maybe I did but didn't really pay attention to it. Well having a drink with you by the fire at night sounds really nice." She said with a smile.

"No I was afraid I'd fall out the bottom." She said with a laugh. "Maybe we can try it sometime and see how romantic it is. Sounds really good," She said with a grin.

She took another bite of the risotto and thought it tasted really well. "Yeah I think it really is something to be remembered." She laughed when he said that they'd have to move there so they could have it all the time.

"I don't think Lorenzo will care so long as we don't burn the place down," Angus said. "There are a lot of great things that can be cooked on an open fire. Some of the best pizza or chicken I've ever had was done on a hearth. There's a really good dish called a pressed chicken, and its done on an open fire. Toss a few potatoes on the coals or add a salad, and you're set. I'd suggest fish, but cooking fish indoors isn't probably the best thing in a hotel suite. They might not be happy with that."

He took a sip of his mineral water as she said she didn't realize Brian had a wine cellar.

"Oh, yeah. Great wines, impeccable brands of firewhiskey. We used to have wine with dinner in the evenings before we ended up with a platoon of toddlers at the table, so it doesn't happen as often right now. The wine cellar is kept off limits to keep the kids out, but we're welcome to whatever we want. Brian collects wines and whiskeys, along with his collection of native american art.

"Robert is the other collector. He collects books and all sorts of weapons. Someday I'll take you over to his farmhouse and show you his library and his potions lab. He and Kate haven't spent much time there in the last couple of years, but thats another story. Right now, its a great help having grandparents there to help when there are 8 kids under four. With that many, we need all the hands we can get."

"Wonder what they're gonna do when we have a dozen or two of our own," he flashed her a quick smile.

"Well I know neither of us will burn the place down." She said. "I've done a few things on an open fire but not a lot. That sounds really good maybe we can make it tomorrow? Yeah I don't think fish would be the best option in an enclosed room."

She followed his suit and took a drink of her own water. She found that she liked the taste of it and took another sip.

"Well I think maybe we should see what kind there are. Then maybe we can have a drink or two at night by the fire. Well it makes sense to keep the wine cellar off limits to them. Do you think Brian will mind if I looked at his art collection?" She asked wondering what it looked like.

"I think I heard about Robert's weapon collection. How many books does he have? It would be lovely to see his collection of books. Wait he has a potions lab? Yeah it is great having them there to help wrangle in the herd of toddlers." She said agreeing that they needed any hands they could get.

She laughed at his words and said, "Well if we were to have that many children. We'd have to start sooner rather than later." She gave him a mischievous smile.