Page 93 of Broken Beta

Luscinia’s Flight.

I turned and found them grinning at me.

‘What does this mean?’I asked.‘Is this our boat?’

‘Yep,’Dante said, cracking his first real smile of the day.‘It is all ours and there is more space so we won’t be so crammed in.’

‘And we’re going to take it on a four-month trip around Europe and Africa,’Nico said proudly as stared at the ship like it was his first-born, which I supposed at this point, it was.

‘How? Won’t you guys be needed back in the city to, I don’t know, run the entire family?’

My father hadn’t done much in the way of running things, but even he still rarely took a vacation as long as this.

Elio stepped forward to press a kiss to my temple.‘I can do quite a bit of work on the boat now that it’s outfitted with Starlink Maritime.’

I had no idea what that was, but Elio wasn’t done yet.‘Besides, I left Dante’s dads in charge and they will keep everyone in line until we get back.’

‘We want you to see more of the world now instead of waiting or doing it bit-by-bit,’Ranieri told me, a soft smile on his lips.‘Besides, it’s a win-win for us because we also haven’t seen much of anything either.’

‘And what about you?’I asked, gesturing to him.‘Are you going to be able to handle four months of boat travel? At the time I was pretty sure you were vomiting out your will to live.’

The pack laughed at that, remembering how truly seasick Ranieri had gotten.

‘I’m fully prepared this time. I have an arsenal of sea sickness patches, Dramamine, and if it really comes down to it, there’s about a pound of weed waiting on that boat with my name on it.’

‘Okay, Cheech, chill out,’Elio said, rolling his eyes before turning to me again.‘So what do you say? Want to sail around the world with us?’

I looked at the boat with my name and back to them again, a slow smile forming on my face as I nodded.

‘Let’s fly.’