Page 47 of The Best Wild Idea (Off-Limits #3)
Silas
As soon as the thick wooden door swings shut behind us, the light from Nonna Lisi’s house fades too. Jules and I are left with a symphony of crickets and crashing waves under a full moon as we begin the slow walk to our hotel together under the dusky twilight sky.
I’ve already texted our driver to let him know that we prefer to walk instead of getting a ride. It’s balmy, and the hotel is only a mile or so away. Plus, it means more time alone with Jules.
She walks beside me for a few paces, her giant lemons cradled against her chest, before speaking. “I liked the skydiving, and I absolutely loved the sailing, but I want to live in that house with her forever,” Jules says dreamily as our steps fall into a slower pace beside one another.
“I agree,” I tell her, wrapping one arm around her shoulders, praying she doesn’t resist. Instead, she leans into me and we continue down the cobblestone path lit by street lamps.
“She’s right, you know,” she adds, not looking up at me.
My insides clench at her words.
The little elderly woman made so many comments about Jules and I belonging together that she was even calling me Romeo by the end of the evening.
“She was right about which part?” I ask.
“Why don’t we live in a place like this?
” She looks up at a lemon hanging heavily from a branch near the path.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love Boston, you know that, but this place?
Spain? Switzerland? Why aren’t we living in places like this?
Especially you. You have all the money in the world, Si.
What keeps you in Boston? Especially with that boat in Spain? ”
“My work. My life.” You , I want to add but don’t.
“Same. My entire coaching business, all my clients, everything I’ve built for myself is back there.”
“You could do that remotely, or build your clients back up in the location you want. The world is ours, Jules. Where would you want to go?”
“The world is ours ?” she repeats, turning to look at me, but I just continue walking as if suggesting we leave everything behind to move somewhere else is the most natural thing in the world. Because I wish that it was.
“Well, neither of us would want to be lonely in a new place so I figured we’d go together.” I break my facade and give her a slight smile.
“Good point. Alright. In this hypothetical world, we’d go to Amalfi first. Then maybe try a year in Spain next, to see if we like it any better.”
“And don’t forget Interlaken,” I tell her.
“Or Geneva,” she adds, wistfully.
“I could add a few homes to my investment portfolio here,” I admit, quietly, allowing a more serious tone to fill my voice, hoping she doesn’t find the offer of me buying homes in her dream vacation spots upsetting. Every time money comes up, she looks like she might throw something at me.
I eye those two abnormally large lemons she’s still cradling, just in case.
“God, I can’t imagine having that kind of money to throw around all willy-nilly. See a town you like? Oh, just buy a home there! It seems surreal to live like that. I don’t know how you get used to something like that.”
“It’s easier when the money doesn’t matter as much as what I’d trade it for,” I tell her.
“Trade it for?” she sounds confused. “What can’t you buy?”
“I used to bargain with God sometimes. Give me my parents back, and I’d give it all away.
Especially if it meant I’d get to grow up with a mother and father who loved the shit out of me.
Sometimes I walk by parks where all the moms are playing with their kids — you know, pushing them on the swing, or giving them a hug when they fall — just to live in that dream world for a minute.
People may be envious of me, but I’m envious of anyone who grew up like that. ”
She’s quiet before grabbing onto my hand and squeezing it. For a moment, I think she’s going to hang on, but then she drops it, dropping my heart out onto the sidewalk along with it.
“I had to force myself to put one foot in front of the other for months after losing Grant, but you were hit with the responsibility of a billion-dollar company and thousands of employees the same day you received the news about your dad.”
“One hundred and sixty-seven thousand employees, to be exact,” I tell her, feeling the weight of every single one of those families who depend on a paycheck from Davenport Media to house and feed their families, not to mention themselves.
Her face falls serious, and she grabs onto my hand again, but this time, she doesn’t let go.
“That kind of thing can break a person. I hate how experience can wise you up, but sometimes it’s so hard to put yourself in someone else’s shoes without it.”
We walk, both of us deep in thought.
“And I think as long as you’re there, I’ll stick around Boston,” I tell her. “I’d like to be near you, too. I always thought of you as one of my best friends. I hope we can still be friends when we get back. If not, and if my company allows it, then maybe I’ll end up leaving the area one day.”
She stops on the sidewalk and turns to look up at me, concern in her eyes.
“Silas, I don’t think that I could lose you twice.”
“You wouldn’t lose me, I’d—”
But before I know what’s happening, she drops the lemons on the cobblestone, grabs my face between her palms. And then, against everything I saw coming on this trip, she kisses me.