Chapter 14
Fourteen
Lexi
As he promised, Mark disappears the second we arrive at the patio of the villa. Which is good. Exactly what I wanted.
Except . . . he was here as a deserving guest. He made that joke in the dark just in time to save me from losing it. I don’t know how or why he did it, but something tight inside me has relaxed, and I feel stronger than I was before, as if I have an ally.
“Lexi!” My name booms from the speakers.
I blink and take in my surroundings. Gia stands on the balcony of the outside double staircase, mic in hand, with all the guests whispering on the lawn.
She beckons me up, waving a slip of paper.
“I’ve just pulled the giveaway winner’s name from the bowl. Come read the lucky name.”
I slip out of my heels because the night is almost done and I feel free and loose and hopeful. I skip up the stairs. Gia hands me the folded paper.
I pause, and not only for dramatic effect.
The evening was nearly perfect, and I’m in Rome.
It’s been such a whirlwind so far, I don’t want to miss this moment.
The air is still warm and full of Italy’s promises—lemony, floral, and earthy—and something bubbles in me like opening pages of a new book.
I unfold the paper and read the name. The night wind teases it from my numb fingers, and it flutters away on the breeze.
“The winner is . . . Mark Russo.”
The most reluctant guest, the one I am dying to see less of but can’t stop thinking about, wins the private viewing of Mom’s painting. Since Russo is Gia’s assigned part of the alphabet, she can hunt him down and let him know, but I’m the one who’s in charge of the vernissage.
Guess I’ll be seeing even more of Mark Russo.
This was not the plan.