Page 69 of Rhodes

She follows about a minute later, sliding into the back seat beside me.

"I thought you bailed," I say jokingly as she pulls her phone out of her purse.

"Had to write Jo a note and leave the fishing pole on the porch. It was already loaded in my car."

I shake my head as the driver takes off. Tallulah settles beside me, shoulder against mine for half a second when we take the corner.

Ravello is a long fucking way from New Orleans.

EIGHTEEN

Tilly

Shoring: Temporary bracing set against a wall to hold it upright while the work gets done. Shoring is not a repair, and a wall kept in it too long forgets how to carry itself.

The van climbs a road that has no business existing, switchback after switchback carved into a cliff that drops straight into water so blue it looks fake. I press my forehead to the window and watch lemon groves scroll past, whole terraces of them netted in green shade. The fruit hangs fat and yellow, like somebody hung ornaments to greet us on our arrival.

We left New Orleans yesterday morning and lost most of a day somewhere over the water, and now it is Friday afternoon in a country I have never set foot in, and my body has no idea what time it thinks it is

The van stops at a stone gate, and then we're spilling out into noise. Bags hit the gravel. Somebody's already yelling from a terrace above us, and it's Cain, bald head shining, waving a wooden spoon like it's a scepter.

"You made it! Watch the step, it's murder in sandals."

Greer comes down behind him with a toddler on her hip. Sisue is squirming to get down before her feet even touch the ground. She lands running.

"Grab her," Greer says to nobody and everybody. "She always heads for the ledge. I swear she's part goat."

Grandbank catches Sisue by the back of her romper before she reaches the wall, and she shrieks. Granger is already hauling luggage he has no business hauling. Based on how much this place costs, we should each have our own house manager. I go to take a duffel bag off him, and he swats my hand.

"I've got it, Til."

"You've got a hernia coming, is what you've got."

He laughs. Somebody hugs me from the side. I turn to see it's Quinn, Keller's wife, who I've met exactly three times but hugs like we grew up together like Keller and I did. Then Reeves is there, clapping Rhodes on the shoulder. Rhodes says something that makes his brother snort.

"You brought the whole reef with you?" Cain calls down, eyeing my bags. "What's in there, oysters?"

"Your wedding present. They're already dead, so hurry up before they start stinking."

Greer laughs, her hand pressed to her chest. She looks so happy it does something to the air. She catches Sisue again and blows a raspberry on her cheek. The kid goes boneless with giggling. The whole scene warms my heart.

I climb the terrace steps because that's where everyone's going, past a stone wall gone soft with age, past a fig tree. The villa opens up, and there's a gap in the buildings. I stop in awe. Wow, the view is stunning.

The Mediterranean is just there, below everything, spread out flat and enormous and lit up gold where the sun hits it. Boats no bigger than seeds are crossing it, the whole coast folding away in blue and haze.

Mama would have lost her mind over this.

It comes with no warning at all. She'd be standing right here with both hands over her mouth, making everybody stop and look at the lemons and the water.

"Tilly, are you looking?" She'd say it was too much, and she'd say it three times.

My throat pulls tight. There's a pressure behind my ribs that has nowhere to go, and I blink hard at the water until the shine of it goes sharp again.

"Til, up here, your room's the good one," Libba calls, and I go, smiling, the sea still sitting in me. She and I are sharing a villa, but we might as well have our own, because we each have our own suites on separate floors.

Cain has everybody spread across a cluster of little villas, but privacy is apparently theoretical. Nobody knocks. People keep wandering in and out of all of them as we all get ready for the catered dinner on the terrace outside.

My room has two windows thrown open to the hillside, and the warm air comes in smelling like lemons and something green underneath. I inhale deeply and make out cut grass and herbs.