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Fuck.

I really need to stop talking.

Dex lets out a low whistle beside me, but I ignore him. I don't want to think about what any of this means, and I don't need to.

She's happy.

That's enough.

After weeks of seeing her in pain, lost and alone, there's absolutely no price I wouldn't pay to give her more moments like this.

Even if all I ever get to do is sit here and watch.

That's enough for me.

CHAPTER 16

Eleonora

“Move, move, move.” I nudge Chiara as the plane tilts and we’re about to land in Calabria.

“Jesus, Nora.”

I practically climb over her to get closer to the window as the plane banks and the world outside tilts.

And there it is.

My breath catches.

Terra mia.

The Tyrrhenian Sea stretches out below us, so blue it almost hurts to look at, sunlight scattered across the surface like thousands of tiny pieces of glass. The coastline curves along it and beyond that are hills covered in green and brown, pastel-colored houses scattered across them like someone dropped handfuls of white stone and terracotta and let them land wherever they wanted.

Something inside me shifts.

I don’t know how else to explain it.

It just... clicks.

Like some part of my body has been waiting for this view before it can finally unclench.

“Siamo a casa,” Chiara whispers beside me.

I look at her.

She’s smiling too.

“Yeah.”

Home.

By the time we walk out of Lamezia airport, the heat hits me first. Dry and warm against my skin, the sun brighter somehow, and then I breathe in.

I stop.

Jude nearly walks into my back.

“Nora?”