Or making Rome’s favorite meal and not knowing when—or if—he would return to enjoy it.
She pushed out a sigh.
A slow smile moved over Jolie’s face, the kind that Stina had seen before.
“Get dressed. Warm clothes.” She leaped to her feet.
“Jolie?”
“I have a surprise. I’ve been keeping it for a while because I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure it was going to work. But I think it is.” Her expression was brighter than she’d seen it since their men went off to fight.
Their men.
Herman.
She swallowed hard.
Jolie nudged her foot with her own. “Get dressed and I’ll show you.”
After she threw on jeans and a sweater sourced from the stash Jolie shared with her, she bundled her hair off her face and tied it with a hairband.
Jolie led her out of the room and through the maze of corridors she was starting to get the map of in her mind. Then she led her to a door she’d never noticed before.
Jolie continued to lead the way up a flight of steep stairs. She expected to pop out in the resort, but instead she was greeted with the outdoors.
No, not the outdoors.
Glass walls…with the huge dark sky beyond them.
In the glow of moonlight, Stina saw what brought them here.
Herbs in long trays along one wall. Plants staked in pots along another. And small green leaves sprouted about an inch out of the soil.
Stina pressed her hand to her mouth. “Jolie! This is amazing. You planted these things?”
“Yes.” She bounced over to the trays. “This is basil. And parsley. And I’m growing mint too.” She waved a hand at the other plants. “Tomatoes. Look!” She pointed to a tiny green globe nestled under the leaves.
“This is fabulous. What’s this?” Stina looked at the tiny leaves emerging from the soil. “Lettuce?”
“Yes! It was a lot easier to grow than I thought. The tomatoes are the ones I’m most worried about but even they’re doing better than I expected.”
Stina moved slowly, touching leaves, reading the small markers Jolie had pressed into the soil, already thinking about how to use the ingredients for dishes and how the rosemary would be wonderful in bread.
Suddenly, she stopped, throat tightening.
The tomato plants—and that tiny one the size of a marble—were weeks away from becoming food. She looked at the lettuce leaves, which would also take weeks to be usable in a salad.
The salt on the back of her tongue had nothing to do with her feelings about Jolie’s little project.
It was the possibility that she wouldn’t be here to see any of it grow. To use it.
To be with Rome.
She could leave tomorrow. She could leave atdaylight,and damn the threat and the photo.
No promises had been made between her and Rome…but she let her guard down and pulled him straight into her heart.
“Stina?” Jolie’s voice wavered with concern.
