“Jesus,” I said. “Why did you even come here? I’m fine. You must have known that.”
She reached for the wine bottle. I held it away.
“Your father was so worried,” she said. “He was a mess. And I thought it might help me to get away.”
She paused.
“Also... I think I’m falling in love with your father.”
I was too stunned by her remark to guard the bottle, and she quickly snatched it back.
“I hope that doesn’t make you too uncomfortable,” she said. “It probably does. But I was going to have to tell you sometime, so why not now in another country?”
I just stood there like an idiot. Grace started talking again.
“If someone had told me there was a place giving out miracles in Sicily or anywhere else when Avery got sick, I would have come. I would have done anything. Collected tears from a weeping statue. Even after she died, I would have been here.”
An older couple spilled out of theenotecaand walked across the bridge, holding each other up for support. I watched them pass.
“This was where Jonah wanted to go,” I said. “Part of me thought I might even find him here. I thought I saw him in the piazza, but there wasn’t that spark.”
Grace set her wine bottle on the ground. I picked it up and took a drink. It was sweet.
“I was in Italy after college,” she said. “Somehow I forgot that everything around here is death-related. I was reading the guidebook on the plane. Just northwest of here is this place with five thousand tombs cut directly into the limestone. It’s a huge seaside of cave graves. When your dad asked me to come here, I thought I might get away from death for a while. But I’m surrounded.”
I sat down beside her. The bridge was empty now.
“Why do you love him?” I asked.
Grace looked at me.
“My dad,” I mumbled.
“God. I don’t know,” she said. “He tries so hard.”
“That’s what you say about a puppy,” I said.
“I admire it,” she said. “He’s really going for it. This wild idea of his. He believes.”
She laughed.
“And he loves you, Tess. Getting to know you again, even like this. I think it’s been the best thing for him. You should have seen his face when he found out where you were. He was minutes away from chartering a private plane.”
I could hear the river lapping against the side of the bridge. I wondered if Jonah had seen this exact place where I was sitting on TV. If this was one of the places he imagined himself walking.
“Where is he, by the way?” asked Grace.
For a moment, I didn’t know who she meant. Then it came to me.
“Back at the hotel, sleeping. I don’t think he knows I’m gone.”
“Does he know that you’re still in love with his friend?”
The wine had left a sour aftertaste in my mouth. I tried to ignore it.
“I think so,” I said.
She nodded and took a drink.
