"A home."
She turns to look out over the village, at the lights in the houses where people are settling in for dinner, where children are being called inside, where life continues in the peaceful rhythms that our protection makes possible.
"The tourism project?"
"Would be yours to run however you think best. With my resources, my connections, my complete support."
"And the other aspects of your business?"
"Would remain mine to handle. But the village, the community, the future we're building here - that would be ours together."
She's quiet for so long I start to wonder if I've miscalculated. If the proposal is too much too soon, if she needs more time to adjust to this life before committing to it permanently.
"Madison?"
"I'm still thinking."
"About what?"
"About how not so long ago, I was a marketing coordinator in Seattle who had never taken a real risk in her life. And now you're asking me to marry you and help run a village in Sicily."
"Is that a yes or a no?"
"It's a 'how did my life become so completely insane that this feels like the most natural thing in the world?'"
"And?"
"And yes." She turns back to me with that smile that makes me feel like I could conquer countries for her. "Yes, I'll marry you. And yes, I'll help you build something beautiful here. Yes, I'll be your partner in all of it."
I pull her against me and kiss her as the last light fades from the sky above Monte Vento. When we break apart, she's laughing.
"What's funny?"
"I came here for a one-euro house and a fresh start."
"And now?"
"I'm getting a husband and a village and a life I never could have imagined wanting. That one euro was well spent."
"Regrets?"
"About which part? The husband who kills people, the village that needs saving, or the life that comes with more complications than a soap opera?"
"Any of it."
She looks at me seriously for a moment, and I see her considering the question honestly.
"No," she says finally. "No regrets. This is exactly where I'm supposed to be."
"Even if our children grow up knowing their father isn't exactly a conventional businessman?"
The mention of children makes her eyes go wide. "Children?"
"Yes, eventually. If you want them."
"In this world? This life?"
"Yes, protected, loved, raised to understand both the beauty and the complexity of what we're building here."
