Saturday draped itself over Florence like silk—warm, golden, and just shy of overwhelming. I stood in the lobby of the hotel, heart thudding like it had something to prove. The marble floors gleamed beneath me, but all I could see was the elevator’s slow descent, the blinking numbers counting down to everything I’d left behind and everything I still carried.
They were here.
I hadn’t let myself imagine this moment too vividly. Too dangerous. Too tender. But now, as the doors slid open and I saw Sal’s steady gaze, John’s crooked grin, Rob’s wide arms already reaching for me—I unraveled.
“Princess,” Rob breathed, scooping me into a hug that nearly knocked the breath out of me. John was next, his forehead pressing to mine like we were kids again, like the world hadn’t shifted beneath our fe
