All That Life Can Afford

Prologue

It was almost midnight. The water of the bay unfurled darkly far below, shimmering with white lights, each one a boat or yacht. It was achingly beautiful. By the time the countdown started— ten, nine, eight— the party’s excitement was building around me, and then building inside me— seven, six, five— and I let myself rise up on those euphoric waves. I didn’t have to worry about Callum. I didn’t have to worry about anything— four, three, two. I only had to stand here on the edge of the world, smiling like a fool, and count down to zero.

The sky exploded with light.

Fireworks, but they weren’t coming from the hillside. They weren’t coming from land at all. My eyes found it: a barge, out in the Mediterranean, lit now with tiny flashes that arched skyward, spun, grew dizzy, then heaved their sparkling guts to spatter the black sky. I swayed, tipping back to take them in. All the surrounding hills must be like our hill, crowded with tipsy revelers at grand villas, retinas burning like they’d looked into the sun. And I was one of them.