Page 21 of Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies

We walk back into the courtyard full of tourists, and Harper tells the BookFace Ladies we’ll see them tomorrow, then leads me toward the Forum to get some photos. I make sure that Cathy isn’t following us, then exhale and try to focus on the real history in front of me.

This part of Rome still looks like an archeological dig, with the modern street hovering above the enormous complex, its red dirt floor dotted with Corinthian pillars in various states of preservation. Tourists swarm through the structure like ants, phones at the ready.

“It won’t be long,” Harper says, reading my mind as we reach the entrance. “We only need a few photographs.”

“For the book?”

“For the Gram.”

“I hate social media.”

“Sure, sure,” Harper says. “Until twenty-four hours go by and no one praises you or the books.”

“I’m not that bad.”

“Forty-eight, then?”

I stick out my tongue. “If I stopped posting, I doubt anyone would notice.”

Harper glances over her shoulder and I follow her gaze.

Connor’s twenty feet behind us, snapping pictures on his phone like a tourist, though he lived in Rome for a year.39

“Maybe you should ask Connor to do your socials?” Harper says.

“Ha! But wait, you never said, what did Connor do?”

Her face clouds over. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“You know you can tell me—”

“Did I hear my name?” Connor says, taking a couple of long strides toward us.

“Not in a good way,” I say.

Connor raises his hand to his chest. “You wound me.”

“I wish.”

His eyes turn cold. “You don’t have to be such an absolute cow about everything.”

“Moo.”

He grabs my arm, holding me tightly. “Now listen here, Eleanor, I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but—”

“Take your hand off of her,” a voice commands from behind me. “Now.”

A shiver runs down my spine. I’d know Oliver’s voice anywhere.

What I don’t understand is what he’s doing here.

“What are you going to do about it?” Connor says, spitting out the words as he releases me.

“If you touch her again, I’ll kill you.”

I really should’ve read the itinerary.

TEN YEARS, TEN BOOKS—WHAT’S NEXT FOR ELEANOR DASH?

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