Easing Heimweh (Heim, #1) ✓

29: Island

All those months slipped away and not a single memory of July 21 had gone vague. I still returned to them on sleepless nights where I lay underneath the sheets and let the moments play, play, and play again.

I remembered being met by clear skies. The weather was in our favor that day. Maybe the heavens sensed it would be our last before returning to the reality that was San Francisco.

I'd gone outside first, waiting for the others to come out of the house so we could leave for Aelius' favorite place in Positano.

The moment we arrived, the only line in my train of thought was, "Oh."

Cali's head whipped in my direction. "Something wrong?"

"Nothing. Just..." I let out an exhale as my eyes scanned the scenery beyond the cliff in front of us. "I didn't know we were headed here."

"Pretty nice, huh?" Achilles said, whistling as he beheld the view. Beside him, Lucius opened the car door and was the first to step out. One by one we followed until only Aelius was left to park the car somewhere. Cali hugged my arms as we walked to the cliffside.

"Aelius loved visiting this place before we left for Royal Allure," Achilles commented as the four of us set up the picnic blanket under one of the trees. "I'm glad we went here with you two."

"How'd he find this?" Cali asked, partly focused on the conversation and partly occupied by opening the picnic baskets we brought with us. "And you know, this is the perfect place to drink."

"You might fall off the cliff, babe."

"I didn't say we should get drunk," the woman argued. Achilles chuckled, deciding she won the argument.

"How about you, Signora?" I raised my brows at Achilles when he called me. "Also your first time here?"

"What do you think?"

We hadn't noticed Aelius' arrival as his steps were too light and we were mildly distracted by the food peeking from inside the baskets, but he was already sitting across me before any of us found a chance to speak. Achilles cleared his throat, awkwardly grabbing a donut and taking a bite out of it. "I guess not," he muttered in perfect incoherence.

True to her words, Emilia had gone to Rome the morning after our very eventful day at the beach. By that time, Lucius was close to fully recovering, and so Aelius didn't need Emilia around anymore.

I learned that Royal Allure hadn't been touring the world as often as it used to do for a year. The captain left the ship's anchors down for days longer than they were up, committing to the decision to put family matters first before anything else. He'd been by Lucius' side throughout all of the boy's physical therapy sessions, taking care of the house, and hiring Emilia when the waves were too rough to sail.

Now that Lucius was alright and the cruise couldn't stay stagnant anymore, everyone had gone back to their realities. I guessed that was the same for me. We flew back to the U.S. after two more hours at the cliffside.

And now here I was, tossing and turning on my bed because I couldn't sleep again. I had a long, stressful day at work, and I could barely count the times I was close to passing out because my body was begging me to rest, but now that I was back at the manor, my tiredness fleeted away, and a myriad of thoughts filled the emptiness.

I went back to work not even one hour after our plane landed in San Francisco. Screw the jet lag and the headache that came with it when Dad came to fetch me in the airport and drove straight to one of our offices, demanding that I finish every task he assigned to me that day. I hadn't filed another paid leave since then.