Page 28 of Summer Rush

Alyssa’s lower lip quivered. Janine hurried to take her hand over the table. “Honey, why haven’t you mentioned this lately?”

“I tried to bury it as deep as I could,” Alyssa said.

“Right. Like that always works.” Maggie gave her sister a look.

“Would you be interested in trying online therapy?” Janine asked, tilting her head. “You could start right away with someone I know in New York. She’s brilliant, honey. And she could accommodate our schedule here in Venice.”

Alyssa looked hesitant.

“We all need a little bit of help, Alyssa,” Maggie said. “We’ve been through a lot the past few years. And now, right before the babies come? We need to prepare ourselves mentally. We need to get really, really strong.” Maggie paused, stuttering to add, “Maybe Nico isn’t the guy you end up with for the rest of time. But he seems kind and slightly nerdy, and I think he probably knows where all the best restaurants in Venice are. Why don’t you give him a chance? Maybe you’ll regret it if you don’t.”

ChapterTwelve

But that night, after a great deal of poking and prodding, Alyssa did, in fact, text Nico. Immediately afterward, she flung the phone to the table, laced her fingers together, and shrieked as Maggie and Janine cackled. Janine felt caught up in their twenty-something universe, lost in the chaos of not-knowing so much of their lives yet. She felt one of them, to a point.

“It’s going to be okay!” Maggie cupped Alyssa’s elbow.

“What if it’s not a date? What if I got the wrong idea?” Alyssa demanded.

“I don’t think there’s any mistaking what kind of look he gave you,” Janine said.

“Aren’t all Italians like that? Ridiculously romantic? Like something out of a movie?” Alyssa asked.

“Why don’t you go and find out?” Maggie said.

Alyssa’s phone buzzed on the table, making all of her Italian books vibrate, and she shrieked again, picked up the phone, and read:“Alyssa! So glad to hear from you. I have tomorrow off. Would you like to take a stroll and maybe have dinner?”

“That is a date, honey,” Maggie said as Alyssa pressed her phone against her chest.

Janine recognized the look Alyssa gave them. It echoed her own two years ago, when she’d thought she would never have a chance at romance again. But at twenty-four, Alyssa had a whole lot of living left to do. Didn’t she see that?

That night, Alyssa didn’t stay up, obsessing over the Italian books and the Gionnocaro family. Instead, she fell asleep early, calling it “beauty sleep,” and woke Janine up with a bang at eight o’clock sharp.

“Mom? It’s an emergency. I don’t have anything to wear.”

Janine rubbed the sleep from her eyes as Alyssa collapsed on the other side of her bed. In her big sleep t-shirt and her biker shorts, she looked sloppy and casual, just as she always did at the Remington House.

“None of my pretty dresses fit,” Alyssa admitted, speaking to the ceiling.

Janine reached across the bed and wrapped her hand around Alyssa’s slender wrist. “Then I guess we’d better go shopping. What do you think?”

The boutiques in Venice opened their doors at eleven that morning. The three Potter women stood outside the first, which came highly recommended by an old friend of Janine’s from the Upper West Side, then streamed through the doors upon entry, headed straight for the maxi dresses.

“I need something elegant. Something that sort-of, kind-of conceals the baby bump— or else makes me look really powerful with the baby bump?” Alyssa pinched several fabrics, frowning. “Maybe a mustard yellow? A navy blue?

It only took four stores, eighteen trips in and out of dressing rooms, and two meltdowns before Janine, Maggie, and Alyssa decided that this was the one: a forest green cut low over Alyssa’s chest yet flowing angelically over her calves. With a strappy sandal, she looked like a goddess.

But Alyssa wasn’t the only one who bought something. Maggie made sure to purchase a few baby-bump-friendly outfits, and Janine opted for a navy-blue dress with long sleeves, which she imagined herself wearing into autumn, remembering the beauty of these Italian days.

Back at the villa, Janine made them sandwiches with homemade bread, Italian sausage, and fresh, light cheese, and they ate and chatted as Alyssa buzzed with adrenaline, asking questions like, “What do people talk about on dates?”

Due to nerves, Alyssa called her cousin, Cole, a few minutes before Nico’s arrival. In the next room, Janine eavesdropped, her heart swelling at the love Alyssa and Cole had for one another. Alyssa had been instrumental in helping Cole through the numerous difficulties he’d had since his father’s death. Now that Cole had fallen in love with Aria, Janine hoped his stability would bleed over into Alyssa’s life.

“Cole? What do you and Aria talk about?” Alyssa laughed at herself. “I know. I sound insane. I also know that you and Aria met on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean, which means you had a lot more to talk about than most couples.”

Janine would have loved to hear Cole’s advice on the other end of the line. Whatever it was, it seemed to calm Alyssa considerably, and by the time Nico knocked on the door at four that afternoon, Alyssa seemed stable and at ease. In the doorway, they hugged one another, and a warm joy flooded Janine’s body.

Not long after Alyssa left on her date with Nico, there was a knock on the door. It was Francesca, Teresa’s secretary.

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