“I think I’ve got to get up to the cabanas to change this one,” said Greta. She handed Odie off to Ellie while attempting to stand from the low sand chair. Cris came around to the front of her chair and grasped her gently by the arms to pull her up. “Uff, thank you! I would tell you that I could do it myself, but I have zero core strength or pride anymore. Will you be here for a bit?” she asked Ellie, gesturing to Matilde, who was still wiped out.
“Sure. Go. I’m here.” Ellie smiled as she handed Odie back to her mother. She and Cris watched Greta as she navigated around the sand chairs and back up to the terrace.
“I wanted to ask you what you’re doing later,” Cris said, smiling from under his cap.
“And I wanted to ask you if you talked to your brothers.”
“Me first.”
“When is later?” she asked.
“After dinner?”
“Well, I was going to either catch an episode ofSoliti Ignotion TV or spend quality time with my Kindle. I am banning myself from my computer until further notice.”
“That’s a great idea, but I think you should come with me for a walk. We won’t talk about work. Promise,” Cris said, tapping his palm to his chest.
“Okay, fine. My turn.”
“I told them everything,” he said. Ellie’s eyes grew wide. “Not everything,” he corrected with a grin. “I told them I would not be doing the show and what I want to do instead. I also told them about our plans for the interview. I think they understood. You never know with them, though. Ale only retains information on a full stomach and Leo’s attention span only correlates to the length of a TikTok video.”
“What did they think? I am sure they were disappointed.”
“They were, but I think it’s going to be okay. They don’t get it, but they get me. That’s kind of all I can ask for.”
“You’re lucky, you know. Not everyone has that.”
“What? Twins?” Cris laughed. “I can loan them to you anytime.”
“No, the feeling that there are people who will know you and accept you even if they don’t know why you are doing something. It’s pretty amazing.”
“It is. But I’m not the only one, you know,” he said, staring directly in her eyes and making her want to look away. She didn’t. “Some people get you, Ellie. Some people do.”
CHAPTER 22
Ellie was glad that she’d accepted Cris’s invitation for a walk. However, she was irritated with her nervous system for somehow getting the message that this was some kind of date and had taken to dropping firecrackers in her stomach every few minutes. They wandered down thelungomare,strolling through the typical evening crowds until they reached the wharf where the festival was set up. Pink, blue, and green lights glimmered from the maze of family-friendly games, a raised stage was set up for performances, and a line of food stands tempted passersby with everything fromporchettatobomboloni. Of course, in the middle of it all stood the glimmering Ferris wheel. It was gigantic, carrying a series of covered pods big enough for four adults to sit in comfortably. As it turned, music played loudly from the speakers along the pods and was currently rolling through a selection of the hits from this year’s Sanremo Music Festival, an annual televised contest of Italian songs.
“Are you absolutely positive we never went on the Ferris wheeltogether?” she asked, watching the pure-white lights fade to dark blue, then purple, and back again to white against the dark summer sky.
“I would have remembered, trust me. Let’s do it. What do you think?”
Ellie wondered what the view would be like from the top. Normally, she would not be the first person in line for any kind of thrill ride, but the idea of being inside a bubble away from everything was incredibly appealing. Also, it would be fun, and having fun was still one of her goals.
“Okay.” She nodded. “Let’s do it.”
Cris pulled out a twenty-euro note and paid for two tickets. “We have about fifteen minutes until we’re up. Let’s walk around a little.”
“I wonder if fifteen minutes will be long enough for me to win one of those gigantic Minion plushies. I used to be pretty good at Skee-Ball.” She smiled. If she was going to go in on the fun, why not go all in?
“Let’s go see,” said Cris. He reached down for Ellie’s hand without looking as though it were a reflex, and began to navigate through the crowd. It’s not like they’d never held hands before whenever they were in a crowd and wanted to stay close together. She looked down at their clasped hands as Cris walked ahead of her and willed herself to stop doing that thinking thing again.
“Hey, look. Your dad is here.” Cris turned back to Ellie and pointed to the right. She dropped his hand immediately, more from surprise than from a fear of being seen. What was her father doing here? There he was, wandering the concourse, hands in the pockets of his blue jeans. He wore the Italian-dad-on-vacation uniform of a polo shirt and boat shoes, but there was something about him that looked far from normal. It took her a second to realize what it was. He was alone. Ellie stoodstill as stone. Her heart panged, realizing that she was actually trying to decide between letting him walk by, oblivious, or calling out to him. She shook her head at the intolerable thought. She’d already flubbed her chance with her mom and couldn’t get her words out; she wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass by with her dad.
“Dad!” she called, cupping her hands around her mouth. Gio turned his head and grinned. She waved him over. “What are you doing here? I thought you guys would be on your third round of Burraco by now.” Ellie walked toward him, wondering if she’d have to do a little bit of explaining about her companion as well.
“Ciao, ragazzi!Nah, I lost interest. You know something? I never liked Burraco.” Gio laughed a bit, like he’d surprised himself even saying the words out loud.
“I didn’t know that.” Apparently, there were a lot of things she didn’t know about her parents.
