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"You miss all the shots you don't take," Faro peeps.
Romeo scorches each family member with a death glare.
"I’ve had it up tohere," Romeo grunts.
I turn around—and lose my ability to think. A band of moonlight blends with the ochre firelight. It illuminates Medici’s stunning dark eyes, making them quiver and pop.
I bring my lips to his ear. "Let’s get out of here."
Medici smirks. "You read my mind."
Wrapping his hand around mine, he helps me off his lap and then leads me away from his family.
We don't return to our rooms right away—we walk around the olive grove, taking in the beautiful vista.
Rows of trees expand as far as the eye can see as they stretch toward the mutinous Sicilian waves.
Medici guides me through the woods. "Let me show you something."
"Sure."
My whispered voice echoes off the tree trunks.
As I follow him down a dark path, I can’t help but let the magic of the place soak into me.
Nonna and Nonno’s property is stunning, yet it’s the fact that it’s imbued with a touch of theunrealthat makes it wonderful to me.
Everywhere you turn, every tree you behold, tells a different story.
At last, Medici brings me into a clearing. "Here we are."
My eyes tick up. "Where?"
He gestures around—all at once, it’s as if he illuminates a new world.
A pool of sparkling water sits under a string of moonbeams. Leaves float around it, landing on the banks that are covered by roots and soft grass. A bunny pauses when it sees us, then sprints away to munch grass on the opposite side.
Medici takes me to the pool’s edge. "This is Nonna’s swimming hole. My brothers and cousins have spent many happy years here."
Wow. Just wow.
I don't know why it happens—but my eyes well with tears.
"Thank you for showing me this."
Medici turns to me. "This swimming hole is my special friend. I’ve known joy here. Joy is hard to come by in this life. You seek it out and it evades you the closer you get to it. Sometimes, the only joy we feel as humans is the spontaneous kind we felt as adolescents—before we realized that pursuing it was futile or that as soon as we grew up, we were as good as dead. None of us really live after a certain age. The only happiness we feel is when we remember the past. When we were flowers stretching toward the sky—before the wind scattered our seeds."
I remove my shirt and pants. "I want to swim with you, Daddy."
Fuck—Medici is beautiful right now. The moonlight dances off his cheekbones, turning them to stone.
He takes off his clothes and drops them beside mine. "We don't really swim here. We wade—and think. And laugh. When Tommaso and Lazaro were younger, they beat off. That’snotnecessary."
I snort as I dip my toe into the water. "It’s warm."
We both enter the water. It heats my body, wiping away the chill I felt on the walk.
Medici pulls me flush with him. "Christ—you’re beautiful."
