The Itinerary

Claws Unsheathed

Haley led Nico through the villa's arched entranceway and into a small study lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. Though the space felt somewhat enclosed, the cozy furnishings and soft natural lighting lent it an air of intimate warmth.

She turned to face him, worrying her lower lip between her teeth in a nervous gesture Nico recognized from their time together in Amsterdam. It took everything in him not to reach out and smooth away the fretful habit with the pad of his thumb.

"I owe you an explanation," Haley began in a low tone. Her hazel eyes, so vibrant and clear, searched his features with a flutter of uncertainty. "After that night we shared...I got scared, Nico. Terrified, actually, of how intensely I felt for you."

Of all the potential revelations he'd braced himself for, this rattling honesty wasn't one of them. Thrown momentarily off-balance, Nico found himself grappling for a response.

Haley's teeth tugged harder on her lower lip until a bead of copper welled forth. "You have to understand, I've never been any good at the whole intimacy and commitment thing. The night you showed me around Amsterdam's underground scene, experienced all those different cultures and sensations with me...it stirred up feelings and desires I didn't even know existed inside myself."

Her hands fluttered in a helpless gesture, dark lashes sweeping low over her cheeks for a heartbeat. "So I ran, like I always do when things start getting too real. I told myself a clean break would be easiest for us both rather than trying for some long-distance fling that would inevitably unravel."

Nico inhaled a measured breath, steadying the maelstrom of emotions battering him. "I'll admit, your vanishing act did throw me for a disorienting loop. Almost had me questioning whether our encounter had been some fever dream delusion after all."

The barest flicker of remorse - or was it tenderness? - ghosted across Haley's face. "I'm sorry for that, I truly am. And...there's clearly a whole other dimension to this situation now that I-"

"Well, well, well." The reedy tones shattered the fragile detente as Gretchen von Houssen billowed into the room, her designer pumps striking the hardwood in sharp staccato. One meticulously arched brow angled upward as she regarded Nico and Haley with naked derision.

"If it isn't the American harlot who's wormed her way into every nook of your life, Nico dearest? Throwing herself at any remotely attractive European specimen she encounters with nary a thought for their existing obligations."

Nico gritted his teeth, the placid expression he'd been cultivating rapidly dwindling. "Don't be ridiculous, Gretchen. Haley and I were simply—"

"Oh pish, darling, we both know the kind of wanton temptress she is." Gretchen aimed a dismissive sneer at Haley that should have withered weaker women on the spot. "Luring happily committed men away from their escorts with her cheap, trailer park wiles and potted plant intellect."

Haley's nostrils flared, hazel eyes glinting like polished agates as her temper visibly mounted. "Real classy, Gretchen. I can see why Nico fell for your peerless charm and sophistication."

She pivoted to face Nico, one dark brow arching in wordless challenge. "Speaking of, you have interesting taste these days. Getting ghosted by one woman only to take up with a sneering shrew who treats you like utter garbage. Maybe you secretly loathe yourself and want partners who'll make you feel suitably miserable?"

Gretchen issued an indignant squawk of rage while Nico glowered between the two antagonistic women. Part of him relished the spark of spirit Haley radiated when her hackles were roused. It flashed back to her spirited repartee in Amsterdam and sent an unexpected frisson of nostalgic yearning through him.

"This is neither the time nor place for these childish histrionics," he growled, making a concerted effort to keep his tone even. "Gretchen, I agreed to this trip as a reprieve from the outside world's nonsense, not a front seat to petty bickering. And Haley—"

He floundered abruptly, uncertain how to voice the tangled mix of frustration, hurt, and bone-deep relief at unexpectedly crossing her path once again. Before he could formulate a response, Haley sighed and raked both hands through her hair in a gesture of uncharacteristic defeat.

"You're right, there's too much unfinished history between us to even try picking this bone in front of an audience." Lifting her gaze to meet his squarely, Nico detected the faintest glint of vulnerability tempering her expression. "Nico...do what you need to do here and enjoy your time away, okay? Clearly you've moved on to a new chapter, and I'm..." She hesitated briefly before pressing on in a tone of studied neutrality. "I'm genuinely happy and content with my own path in life now. No need for any melodrama."

The words lanced through Nico with all the delicacy of a serrated blade, instantly reigniting that eviscerating blend of hope, fear, and quiet devastation he'd felt upon first glimpsing Haley's apparent familial bliss with Luca and Marco.

She assumed he'd simply found a newer romantic dalliance after their tumultuous encounter and moved on, same as her. The notion of Nico forging any lasting romantic attachments should have struck him as laughable, just as he'd always sworn...yet the fact was, Haley clearly didn't know him as well as he'd intimated back then.

Worse, she'd clearly constructed an entire new reality here in this pastoral Tuscan haven, complete with companionship and an adoring child she professed to treasure above all else. And something deep inside Nico recoiled at the thought of being the one to irreparably shatter those hard-won slivers of domestic tranquility, no matter how much he inwardly craved being part of them.

Haley didn't give him a chance to formulate a response before brushing past in a waft of clean linen and spicy citrus. Her shoulder grazed his arm with fleeting, scorching friction as she exited without a backward glance.

Leaving Nico feeling strangely hollow and isolated despite Gretchen's censorious presence radiating disapproval at his side. He turned to find her eyeing the vacant doorway through which Haley had disappeared with undisguised loathing.

"That bedraggled gutter rat may have slunk off for now, but this isn't over. Not by a long shot." She snapped her polarized gaze to Nico, beady eyes glinting with possessive rancor. "I'll not have my future jeopardized by some American trailer trash with sordid delusions, make no mistake."

Before Nico could properly process her implication, Gretchen whirled on one spiked heel and flounced away in a cloud of stratospheric disdain and perfumed hostility.

Leaving him to wonder exactly what future prospects she thought Haley threatened with her mere existence, much less her evident fulfillment cradled in the loving embrace of hearth and family she'd created for herself here.

Because the undeniable truth was, those were the precise ingredients Nico had unconsciously yearned for over the years - permanence, progeny, a safe harbor from his chronic wanderlust. All the intangible dreams a Romany nomad inculcated from birth to roam had secretly coveted as lofty ambitions too unreachable to attain.

Only now, when the proof of how attainable those dreams could actually be dangled so tauntingly before him...Nico realized just how soul-shattered he'd been without them all along.