Love & Gelato(83)

“A dozen at least.” I took a deep breath. Now that I had Nutella coursing through my veins I felt invincible. “And just so you know, I meant what I said at Valentina’s. You’re the one I like. Maybe love.”

“Maybe love, huh? Well, that’s good news. Because I maybe love you too.”

We grinned at each other and then a warm, spicy feeling dripped straight though my core, and I could tell Ren was feeling the same thing, because suddenly we were standing so close I could see every single one of his eyelashes. Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me.

He squinted. “I think you have Nutella on your face.”

I groaned. “Ren, would you just kiss me alre—”

But I didn’t finish because he dove on me and we kissed. Like really, really kissed. And it turns out I’d been waiting absolutely my entire life to be kissed by Lorenzo Ferrara in an American cemetery in the middle of Italy. You’re just going to have to trust me on that one.

Finally we broke apart. We’d somehow ended up on the grass and we both rolled on our backs and lay there looking up at the stars with these big Christmas-morning smiles that should have been cheesy but really were just awesome.

“Can we please count that as our first official kiss?”

“First of many,” he said. “But if it’s okay with you, I’m not going to forget that one in Rome, either. Before I so rudely interrupted it, that kiss was pretty much the best thing that had ever happened to me.”

“Me too,” I said.

He rolled to his side, propping himself up on one elbow. “So . . . there’s been something I’ve been wanting to ask you.”

“What?”

He pushed his hair out of his eyes. “Have you ever thought about what it would be like to stay here in Italy? Permanently? Now that you have a boyfriend and all that?”

Boyfriend. The stars winked ecstatically.

I propped myself up too. “I was actually kind of working on that earlier. Addie texted and told me that I could live with her family next year, and Howard and I spent a long time talking about it.”

“And?”

I took a deep breath. “And I’m staying, Lorenzo.”

He gasped. “Did you just roll your R? I swear you just rolled your R. Say it again.”

I smiled. “Lo-ren-zo. I’m half Italian, right? I should be able to roll my R. And come on. I tell you I’m staying in Florence and you get excited that I can say your name?”

“Never been so excited in my life.”

We grinned at each other. Then I leaned over and kissed him again. Because that was totally something we did now.

“So you’re telling me that not only do you like, maybe love me, but you’re staying here indefinitely?”

“That’s what I said.”

“This is officially la notte più bella della mia vita.”

“I’m sure I would totally agree if I had any idea what that meant.”

“You’ll be speaking Italian in no time.” He interlaced his fingers with mine. “So now that we won’t be chasing your mom’s ex-boyfriends around, what are we going to do?”

I shrugged. “Fall in love?”

“Way ahead of you.” He extended his index finger, lining it up against mine to make a little steeple. “Hey, I just thought of something.”

“What?”

“When we’re together, we make one whole Italian.”

I smiled, looking down at our fingers and feeling my heart grow so fast and big I had to shut my eyes to keep it from bursting out.

He leaned in to me. “Hey, what’s the matter? Are you crying?”

I shook my head, slowly opening my eyes and smiling at him again. “No, it’s nothing.”

But it wasn’t nothing. I didn’t want to ruin the moment by explaining it to him, but suddenly it was like I had a zoomed-out view of this moment and I never, ever (ever) wanted it to end. I had Nutella on my face and my first real love sprawled out next to me and any minute the stars were going to sink back into the sky in preparation for a new day, and for the first time in a long time, I couldn’t wait for what that day would bring.

And that was something.





Acknowledgments


Before Love & Gelato I had only a vague understanding of how many people it takes to make a book happen. Turns out it takes lots. Scads. Heaps. Oodles. So here’s my best attempt at narrowing that number down.

My first thank you has to go to my parents, and especially my mom, Keri DiSera Evans, for giving me Italy. Those two years expanded my world exponentially and were pure magic. Thank you for never settling for the status quo. You’re my hero.

Thank you to my inspirational dad, Richard Paul Evans, who not only led me to the cliff of Authorship, but shoved me over the edge. I can only dream about writing as many books or impacting as many lives as you have. Thank you for not letting me give up. (Thank you, thank you, thank you.) I am doing my best to repay you in hilarious grandchildren.

A special thank you to my son, Samuel Lawrence Welch. I got the news that Love & Gelato was going to be a real live book just minutes after you blew out the candle on your first birthday cake, and I still can’t believe I get to live out both my dreams at once. Thank you for making sure I took time out to play cars and read silly books. And you’re right—pencils should be used for drawing choo-choos, not writing endings. Those can wait. (Also, grown up Sam: Did you need a sign that you can accomplish your biggest, scariest dream? This is your sign. Go for it, Sammy Bean.)