Sloane seemed stunned by her confidence. “Whoa! You’ve come a long way.”
“Did you see Jules this morning?” Charlotte asked, trying not to act overly interested.
“Yeah. He was here until just a few minutes ago.”
The villa smelled like gardenias—someone had put some in a vase—and butter as she walked over to pour herself a cup of coffee. “Where’d he go?”
“You know him—wherever his art takes him. Are you going to write?”
Charlotte cast a resentful glance at her laptop. She had to forget about everything else until she could get those sample chapters turned in. “Yeah.”
“When you’re done for the day, let’s go to Atrani to see the Torre dello Ziro.”
“Atrani?”
“It’s another coastal town about twenty minutes from here.”
“Okay. What’s the Torre dello Ziro?”
“A watchtower. I know we’ve seen quite a few. But this one is behind the crumbling walls of the Duchy of Amalfi—which was a major trading power in the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages. Should be picturesque.”
“Will Jules be going?”
“Said he would. He’s the one who suggested it.”
She thought about his last message:How about we just screwaround while we’re here? Have some fun and face reality when we go home?
Maybe that was what he needed. Maybe she should back off—relax and give him more room to cope with whatever he was going through.
Patience had never been her strong suit, but she didn’t want to push him. Theybothneeded time—time to allow for change. She had no idea how difficult Cliff would make their divorce. She was still struggling to save her career. And now that she had Lilly in her life, she needed to be more cautious than she’d ever been before.
There was nothing wrong with slowing everything down. Yes, she was excited about Jules. But she had no idea if last night would lead to anything. If happy for now meant happy forever. They were only at the very start of it.
She had to be careful not to let her expectations run away with her.
“Great, I’ll get my pages done,” she told Sloane. Then she carried her coffee to her laptop and replied to Julian’s last message.
Take all the time you need. I’m here when you’re ready to talk.
P.S. Last night was incredible—did that really happen???
Lilly curled her fingernails into her palms while waiting for the phone to ring. She’d just sent Steve a picture of the grotto with a message saying she’d gone there with Charlotte, Sloane and Julian, so he had to know it was her. But maybe he wouldn’t pick up. Maybe he didn’t want to be bothered by the daughter of a former girlfriend.
She nearly hung up. But then he answered.
“Hey, Lilly. How are you?”
The kindness in his voice was nearly enough to make her cry. “I’m... okay.”
“Are you having fun with your sister and her friends? It sure looks like it in that picture you just sent.”
Lilly was lying on her bed, where she’d been reading her book. Grabbing her extra pillow, she put it over her face in an attempt to stem the emotion that was welling up inside her. “Yeah.”
“What’d you say?”
She removed the pillow so her voice wouldn’t be muffled. “I said yeah.”
“That picture was at a cave of some sort?”
