Bari, Italy
Day Two
Bari’s overcast sky matched Stryker’s bleak morning mood. His shoulder had ached the entire flight from Jeddah, and he finally gave in and took an anti-inflammatory when the journey had proven bumpy due to weather. During the trip, he kept seeing Harper trying to ride her pink bike on the sidewalk in front of their house the night before they’d left for the wedding holiday in Italy. The training wheels were all that kept her upright, but she laughed with glee as he gave her a gentle push. White and pink tassels bounced from the handles in time with her strawberry-blonde braid and once she’d honked the little horn, scaring a neighbor’s cat off the porch and into a side yard. No matter how much he’d tried to meditate in the airplane seat, he couldn’t shake the memory.
