Chapter 3

“Well, well,” I said, “someone has been reading my mind.”

“Say what?”

“Remember our conversation about Italy?”

“Sure,” Dani said.

“My father has just issued an invitation for us to spend some time—as much of the summer as we would like—with him before, as he puts it, we begin our life’s work.”

“When do we leave?”

“As soon as we work out a schedule. He wants a list of the places we’d like to see and says he’ll be more than happy to add a few suggestions of his own. I guess we’d better fill out those passport applications—I need to renew mine, and you don’t have one.”

“Yeah. Can we afford to spend the entire summer?”

“Babe, we had this conversation yesterday. Oops, I forgot to mention that he wants to pay for everything.”

“No shit?”

“No shit. Come read it yourself. He seems to think we’ve earned it.”