I don’t answer.
She stays quiet, but I know a plan is forming in her head, and I’m scared of what’s coming.
She has this unique way of solving problems.
First of all, the problems she solves were never problems until she made them.
Second, she did it in a way that would probably confuse a normal person.
After breakfast, she insists we walk to the market.
“Fresh air heals the soul,” she says.
I’m not convinced, but arguing with Nonna is like arguing with gravity.
The market is alive — vendors yelling prices, music floating from a nearby café, people laughing with bread in their hands and sun on their faces. The smell of basil hits me.
It’s the same market I used to go to as a kid, clinging to Nonna’s skirt while she haggled like she was fighting a war.
Now, I trail behind her with a basket in hand, half-listening as she flirts shamelessly with the fruit seller.
“You see, Luca?” she says, turning to me dramatically. “Life is too short not to buy good peaches and look beautiful while doing it.”
I laugh softly. “You never change.”
She gives me that sly look again. “You neither. Still quiet when you hurt.”
I freeze, eyes flicking down to the cherries she tosses in the basket.
They look like the ones Tilly put on the cake.
I swallow.
“Her name’s Harper, isn’t it?”
I whip my head up. “What?”
Nonna smirks, victory glinting in her eyes. “You think you can hide from me? I saw the way your eyes seek hers inevery damn game.That’s amore, mio caro.”
“It’s not—” I stop, because what was the point?
How on earth does she know that?
I rub the back of my neck. “She doesn’t… feel the same.”
Nonna’s expression softens instantly. She reached out and cupped my cheek. “Then she is the one who loses, not you.”
My throat burns. “It doesn’t feel like that.”
She smiles sadly. “Because you are still in the middle of the story. You cannot see the ending yet.”
We walk in silence after that.
She hums an old song, the kind my mom used to play, and I try to pretend my chest isn’t caving in.
When we get back, I escape to the balcony with my phone.
The sea stretches out in front of me — blue, endless, and cruel.
