“That’s okay,” he said, putting his arms around her again. “I’ll go get you something else in the middle of the night—anything you want.”
“Anything?”
“Anything.”
“Even if it’s you?”
“Especially if it’s me.”
Ellie reached for one of his hands. She pulled it up between them and looked straight into his eyes, then squeezed twice.
Cris leaned forward, diminishing the small space between them. He kept his eyes on hers and squeezed her hand back—once, twice. She erased any remaining distance, drawing her mouth to his. Shestopped wondering if it made sense, if it was the right thing to do, if her heart could stand it. Instead she let herself take another snapshot of this moment to file away with all the rest—like blueberry pie and pouring rain, like Ferris wheels and moonlight.
CHAPTER 30
“Please don’t make me get back in that car again.” Ellie sat on the newly-upgraded double bed in the guest room at Graziella and Simone’s house. Her grandmother had switched out the single bed at some point in the last year because, as she put it, “ha più senso.” And she was right—it did make more sense. Cris took up as much space in a bed as Ellie had thought and in an effort to avoid squeezing into a different tiny bed at Peggy and Gio’s, she and Cris decided to stay in the coral room.
“Maybe if we leave early enough in the morning?” Cris stood in the en suite bathroom unpacking his dopp kit.
“We tried that once, remember? I can’t believe that in a country that considers wine a food group we have to go all the way back down to Sarzana for a decent glass of it.” Ellie slid the stack of tissue-wrapped dresses out of the splayed-open suitcase.
“You know my grandfather. He’s a sucker for nostalgia. And asI recall, we didn’t exactly have an awful time once we got there,” he said, raising an eyebrow at Ellie.
“True.” She smiled. “And I guess since it’s their first anniversary party, they are allowed to ask for the inconvenient wine again.”
“I like the sound of that,” Cris said, grabbing a handful of hangers from the closet. He handed them to her. “Maybe when we have our own vineyard one day, that can be our brand.”
“Our own vineyard? We already killed a peace lily and two cacti since we moved in together. We should probably stay away from agriculture.”
“But think of how great the slogan will be: ‘Inconvenient Wines: Doing Things the Hard Way Since 2024.’”
“I think we started way before that,” Ellie laughed, passing him a stack of T-shirts.
“No comment.” Cris leaned down to kiss Ellie on her nose. “So, should we get up at seven? We can be on the road by seven thirty.” He opened a drawer in the whitewashed bureau and plopped the shirts down.
“Only if we get to bed early.”
“Umm. I can’t promise that. I haven’t gone to bed at the same time as you in months. I highly doubt that I’m going to be able to keep my hands to myself in a timely manner.” Cris dug into his duffel bag and pulled out an armful of balled-up socks.
“Then maybe we cut dinner short?” She sighed. “What am I even saying? They’ll assume one of us is sick and send us home with nine boxes of paracetamol.”
“Look. It’s going to be fine. We’ll leave early, pick up the wine, and be back in time to get in a swim before lunch. If riding around in a hot Volkswagen is the worst thing that happens on this trip, we’redoing at least seventy-eight percent better than we were last year at this time.”
“Also true.” Ellie’s phone pinged.
Ciccia
Are you on your way?
Your parents won’t stop kissing
Did they drink on the plane?
“Greta,” she said, eyeing the screen. “We should get over there. Are you ready?”
“Yeah, but before we go, I wanted to talk to you about something. I got an email from Teena while we were in the air—”
“Oh no. Wait, why did I say that? I mean, that’sinteresting,” Ellie redirected. “What did she say?”
