“I’ll have to rely on croissants and your bittersweet memory to sustain me.”
I begrudgingly let him go and step back.
“I wouldn’t change anything, you know. If I stayed in New York, I wouldn’t have come here, and I wouldn’t have met you. I would do everything exactly the same.”
“Really? You’d doeverythingthe same?”
I give him a knowing look, fully aware that he still thinks that I should have stopped Ryan when he came to Rome. I can see why. Watching Ryan drive away was a physically painful experience for me, but I had to take these last few months to heal and to really understand what I need and want. Stopping him four months ago would have been great in the moment, but who’s to say where we’d be today if we rushed into things again. I almost called or texted millions of times but stopped myself. I didn’t want to ask him to wait for me. I didn’t want him to put his life on hold. If I get home and he still feels the same way, we can start over. Not as a continuation but as something entirely new and based on who we are now.
“No comment,” I eventually answer.
A small grin pulls across Liam’s cheek. “I wouldn’t change anything either. You’re a very peculiar girl, but you’ve made a real difference.”
“A real difference in what?”
“Everything,” he says simply.
If that response doesn’t warrant another bear hug, I don’t know what does. I throw myself into his arms for a final time before getting into the cab. Once inside, I fasten my seat belt and roll my window all the way down.
“I’ll miss you,” I say as Liam steps closer. “And I’ve changed my mind. You can have pizza without me tomorrow if you want to.”
He flashes me a roguish smile, holding his hands behind his back and allowing me a good long look at him standing as he did the first time we met.
“I always intended to,” he says.
My jaw drops. “You jerk!”
Liam laughs as my taxi pulls away from the curb at a typical, crazy Italian speed. “Soft spoken until the very end,” he calls out. “I’ll miss you!”
23
I feel an absolute rush as I get out of the yellow cab in front of 5 Tudor City. It’s a cold October day but there’s so much excitement bursting through me that I don’t feel chilled in the least. The sounds of sirens, the people, the traffic, heck, even the smells...everything about New York sends my heart into a flutter.
I’m soon pulling my luggage off the elevator and power walking over to my door, feeling full-on butterflies as I thrust my key into the lock. I wrench the door open and step inside, breathing deep and becoming overwhelmed with a sense of everything clicking into place. I’m home. The apartment is stuffy, the air is stale and a small layer of dust is visible on the furniture, but to my eyes, this place hasn’t looked so beautiful since the day I bought it and realized it was mine.
I immediately grip Calliope’s handlebars and close my eyes with a squeal of delight. I’m itching to take her out for a ride, but I know that will have to wait until tomorrow. I give her bell a quick ding and then run across the living room to the windows. I fling them open, savoring the cold gust of wind that flows in. I do a quick spin, soaking in the feeling of total comfort.
I charge into the bedroom next and stop dead in my tracks. I smile down at my bed before I leap forward and fling myself onto the mattress. God, I missed my bed! Italy was great but their mattresses are crap.
I reluctantly roll over and bounce onto the floor to open the bedroom windows. With the breeze on my face, I lean out to drink in my Midtown East view. I’m darn close to singing when my cell phone rings with an alert from the front desk. I tuck my head back inside and answer it.
The doorman tells me Cristina is here and I ask him to let her up. I hold the door open before she even arrives, hopping in excitement as I hear the elevator getting closer and closer.
She comes into view moments later and barrels into me, screeching and throwing her arms around my shoulders. We hug and yell for a considerable amount of time before letting go. My face hurts from cheesing so hard as she quickly walks into the apartment and I close the door.
“Kara, you look beautiful! Completely Italian!”
“Grazie,”I say, jokingly tossing my new cream-colored pashmina over my shoulder. “You look great too! I’ve missed you so much!”
“I’ve missedyou! How do you feel? Are you happy to be home?”
“It’s a little strange,” I admit. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m overjoyed to be back, but it’s still a little weird.”
“I’m seriously so, so happy you’re back. You can never leave me again! Promise you won’t.”
“I wasn’t gone that long,” I say, pulling her over to sit down on the couch.
“What are you talking about? Six months is a lifetime. I latched onto Jason like a barnacle because I missed talking to you so much. He thinks I’m a psycho but that’s what he signed up for.”
