She knew it was not an empty promise—her parents would do whatever they could—and that made her feel she was being too hard on Penny. “Thanks, Mom,” she said.
“I have always loved you so much,” her mother said.
Charlotte dropped back onto the bed. “I love you, too.”
“Let us know how it goes.”
“I will,” she promised and disconnected. She was about to return to her computer—she had to power through or the tension and stress would only ratchet higher—but at the last second, instead of getting up, she called Julian.
“Where are you?” she asked as soon as he said hello.
“There’s an old convent above Praiano. I hiked up to it. Why?”
She didn’t know whyexactly. She’d just needed to hear his voice. “I was... curious.”
“Do you need me for anything?”
She tried to think of something but couldn’t. “No.”
There was a long silence. Then he said, “So this is work avoidance?”
She covered her eyes with one arm. “Maybe.”
“Okay, that’s it. I’m going to call Sloane and have her bring Lilly here. The climb will be good exercise for them—whether they will like it or not—and everyone will be out of the house for the next several hours so you can concentrate.”
As nice as that was,shewanted to be the one to go find him. She didn’t care how high she had to climb. She didn’t want to think about Cliff or her divorce or her deadline or what she was going to do about Lilly. She definitely didn’t want to write in her current frame of mind. She just wanted to enjoy Italy at Julian’s side. There was something cathartic about his presence, his humor, his smile.
“You’re trying to take photographs,” she said. “They’ll be fine here.”
“Charlotte.”
“What?”
“Block everything out and write five pages. That’s it. That’s all you have to do. Then the four of us will get some cheese, salami, dates, nuts, apples and other charcuterie fixings, along with a nice bottle of wine, and enjoy a relaxing evening so you can recharge and get up tomorrow and write five more pages. One day at a time. That’s how you’re going to approach this—a little progress every day so nothing’s too overwhelming.”
He made it sound easy. But the constant emotional upheaval was killing her creativity. “What should I do with Sabrina’s stuff in the storage room?”
“You don’t have to decide now. It’s not going anywhere.And there’s no rush to make any decisions regarding Lilly. We’ll all just live in the moment—enjoy our stay here in Italy while you write your book and see where life leads us.”
“And my divorce?”
“Leave that in America for now.”
“But I don’t want to write, Jules. I want to be with you,” she admitted.
He hesitated before saying, “That’s your fight or flight kicking in. You’re trying to flee to safety, but I can’t let you. You need to stay in the fight and battle it out. I’m here to help, though. We’ll get through the next month together, taking it one day at a time, like I said.”
She drew a deep breath. “Okay. But I’m going to call you as soon as I get to five pages—even if they’re terrible.”
“That’s fine. Just write them. You can always fix them later.”
She was so grateful for him and his friendship at this critical moment, tears sprang to her eyes.
“You okay?” he asked when she didn’t say goodbye.
She sniffed. “Yeah.”
When he spoke again, his voice was filled with conviction. “You can do it,” he said.
