“Yeah? Thank you.” He smiled.
“I mean, you used to look like a skinless chicken breast.”
“Hey! What’s wrong with skinless chicken breast? I happen to like chicken breasts.” He laughed. “In fact, that’s pretty much all I ate for twenty years, which is why I don’t mind taking a few risks now.”
“Ugh. I get it, but it’s so sad.” Ellie made a face. “I bet you ate them with brown rice.”
“I did.”
“And broccoli. Wait. Steamed broccoli.” She grimaced.
“Hey, come on now, are you some kind of psychic?”
“No. I’m someone who grew up with a dad who was coaching one of the top water polo teams in the country. Same as you. And I was surrounded by athletes. Same as you.”
“And yet, you seemed to escape the contagion mostly unscathed.”
“I don’t know about being unscathed,” she said, putting her head down. “Let’s get back to you, okay?”
“Yeah okay, back to me. All this talk of chicken is making me hungry. You want to head in and get some lunch?”
“Maybe, yes. I haven’t seen my parents all day, and that only makes me worried that my mom is over there holding my dad’s socks hostage or something.”
“Vicious.”
“Yeah. Peg’s got a violent streak. The morning they left LA she probably put his Eggos in the toaster on level ten.”
“No! Ten? Psychopath.”
“Totally,” Ellie said, and caught herself heading into a smile again. Their conversations were easy, too easy. She pulled out her phone, remembering that she’d put her ringer on silent when Cris did. The screen lit up with a stream of notifications—every one of them titledMOMorPAPINO. Her parents still could not get their heads around the fact that if they used text to reach her and she hadn’t responded, it did not mean that she was somehow more available by WhatsApp, Marco Polo, FaceTime, or Messenger. Did she really want to open any of these right now? The better question was whether they needed arbitration or a character witness. The bubble broken, she sighed and put her phone back in her bag.
“Everything all right over there?” he asked.
“Sure. I just think I need you to rowJawshere back to shore so I can go referee my parents.”
“Are you sure you want to do that?” He smiled, nodding to the horizon behind her. “Corsica is only about three hundred kilometers that way. We can make a break for it.”
“I actually would prefer dealing with them. But only by a little.”
“Suit yourself,” he said, picking up the oars again. “Just remember I offered.”
“I’ll try,” she said, watching him, but she had already forgotten what he’d said. He leaned back into his first pull, snapping the muscles in his arms, chest, and abdomen into action. Ellie watched his body fall into the kind of rhythm that was only possible after decades of practiced, coordinated movement. It had been years since she’d seen him swim, but even out of the water, he was a symphony. She suddenly wished the boat was bigger. And that she was at the other end of it. And maybe on a different boat altogether—in Africa. It was hard not to be rattled. It had been easier to assume that everything good about him had been erased and that he was a stranger now. Otherwise, she would have had to miss him. And missing him had been out of the question.
She watched the shore come closer over Cris’s shoulders and tried not to panic. This conversation didn’t have to change anything. In fact, nothing was different—except now she wouldn’t be lying when she told people he had some integrity.At least I won’t have to lie,she thought, letting her eyes slide down his chest, then to his abdomen as he leaned back to pull the oars. But why did the truth feel so much harder?
CHAPTER 10
“CICCIAAAAA!”
Ellie heard Greta’s raspy shout from across the terrace at the Delfino. Aside from living in two different countries, they also lived in two different worlds. Greta had three children by the age of thirty-two and was currently pregnant with her fourth—verypregnant. Ellie had only seen her from her chest up on FaceTime for the last seven months and was absolutely not prepared to see the tiny Greta looking like she was carrying a rhinoceros.
“Gigi! Oh my God, you are so cute!” Ellie hugged Greta’s shoulders and stepped back to look at her.
“Cute? I look like a Fiat Cinquecento. It’s another girl, right?” Greta said, pointing at her face. “You know every time I have a girl my lips go Kylie on me and my nose turns into a potato. And here I am.” Greta puckered her lips.
“I am not going to try to convince you, but you’re gorgeous.”
“You’re delusional, but I’m going to blame it on stress. How have they been?” Greta asked, flicking her eyes over to Ellie’s parents.
