Page 32 of Summer Rush

Janine slipped the key into her pocket, her heart pattering wildly, as Alyssa slipped the photograph of Teresa into her purse and returned the frame to its position in the archives. So as not to make Elena suspect anything, Alyssa, Maggie, and Janine continued to search through the archives for a little while before they said goodbye to first Elena, then to Barbara outside.

“Did you find anything?” Barbara asked.

“We didn’t, no,” Alyssa said with a shrug.

“That’s too bad,” Barbara said. “Let me know if I can help you in some way. That society is fascinating. I’m sure there are ties to your grandmother.”

Alyssa smiled. “Thank you so much, Barbara. Ciao.”

Immediately after they left the museum, Alyssa’s smile slid off her face. “She’s just too beautiful,” she muttered to Maggie and Janine. “And I’m pregnant!”

Janine sighed and wrapped her arm around Alyssa’s shoulders. “All right. I think it’s about time we had lunch. Blood sugar’s getting low around here.”

Alyssa rolled her eyes again but didn’t resist.

“I’m starving,” Maggie said.

But they didn’t go to Fabrizio’s. They knew to get as far away from the Mauricio Gionnocaro House as they could, as they’d stolen not one but two items from the archives, and they made their way back to the Grand Canal, where they dined at a pizza restaurant— eggplant with mozzarella, sausage with olives, and a truffle pizza that nearly destroyed them. The pizzas were small, allowing them each a couple of pieces of all three, their fingers shining with grease.

“So. You got it?” Alyssa locked eyes with her mother.

Janine nodded. “I did.”

“But what could it be for?” Alyssa demanded.

“I have no idea,” Janine said.

“It has to be the next clue, right?” Alyssa asked.

“It feels like a dead end,” Maggie said, wiping her hands on her napkin. “But I love the photograph of Teresa. And it’s fascinating to learn all about this society. Maybe that’s enough?” She paused to swallow another bite of pizza, then added, “It’s not like we need that villa or whatever money she left us, you know?”

But Janine knew that, for Alyssa, the scavenger hunt had never been about the money. It had always been about the thrill of the chase, the incredible opportunity to get to know their grandmother, even in death.

“We must have missed something,” Alyssa said. “I just don’t know what it is.”

ChapterFourteen

The flight to Venice was exhilarating. Nancy hadn’t traveled internationally in ages, and she felt her soul buzzing, her laughter flowing easily, especially as the stewardess refilled her wine glass and brought her extra helpings of desserts. Beside her, Kostos seemed at-ease, entirely unlike a man who apparently got so nervous on airplanes. Frequently throughout the flight, he touched her hand, teased her, or tucked her hair behind her ear. Nancy felt doted on. She felt young and free.

After the flight touched down, Nancy waited at baggage claim as Kostos grabbed them coffees at a nearby kiosk. This pleased Nancy a great deal, feeling that she had a partner again. She’d forgotten what it meant for someone else to pick up the slack of her life.

Kostos hailed a taxi for them, and he heaved their suitcases into the back and greeted the driver in quick Italian. Together, the driver and Kostos had an elaborate and happy conversation all the way to the Grand Canal, where, apparently, they had to get out, as normal vehicles couldn’t continue.

“Cars can’t drive on water yet, unfortunately,” Kostos joked as he removed their suitcases, then took Nancy’s hand as they walked toward the edge of the dock. “Now, we have two options. We either take a water taxi or…” He nodded toward a classic gondola, where a man in a striped t-shirt and a hat rowed a beautiful couple along the water, singing as they went.

“Oh, it must cost an arm and a leg,” Nancy said, her heart lifting.

“Don’t you worry about that,” Kostos told her, guiding her toward the gondola line, in which they stood for no more than five minutes before they were served. In Italian, Kostos explained where they were headed— Teresa’s villa, but that they wanted a grand tour beforehand. The rower nodded, helped them into the boat, and then began to sing, his vibrato soaring across the ancient city. As Nancy sat in the creaking boat, her hands clasped around one of Kostos’, she felt like a princess, a woman in a novel whose life was about to change forever. She’d felt similarly when she’d met Neal and fallen into his orbit. Still, she had to admit, Kostos was just that extra touch of magical, perhaps because he was so worldly.

“Does it look any different from the last time you were here?” Nancy asked.

“Not at all,” Kostos said. “It’s bizarre, as though it’s stuck back in time.”

“I don’t think Venice should come into the twenty-first century,” Nancy said. “It’s like an old painting.”

“It’s a living, breathing painting,” Kostos agreed.

After a forty-five-minute glide down the numerous canals, the gondola took them all the way to the same villa Nancy had now seen in innumerable photographs from Janine, Maggie, and Alyssa. She would have recognized it anywhere. And just as the gondola creaked against the docks, Nancy heard, “Grandma!” cried out from the villa window. It was a delicious sound in such a foreign place.

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