“Come on, open it.” Impatient, Deb handed her the crowbar. “I’m dying.”

“I can’t think what it might be.” Slipping the crowbar under the lid, Juliet began to pry. “Unless my mother sent on my grandmother’s china like she’s been threatening for the last couple of years.”

“This is big enough to hold a set for an army.”

“Probably all packing,” Juliet muttered as she put her back into it. When the lid came off, she began to push at the heaps of Styrofoam.

“Does your grandmother’s china have a trunk?”

“A what?”

“A trunk.” Unable to wait, Deb shoved through the styrofoam herself. “Good God, Juliet, it looks like an elephant.”

Juliet saw the first foolish glitter and stopped thinking. “Help me get it out.”

Between the two of them, they managed to lift the big, bulky piece of ceramic out of the crate and onto her desk. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen,” Deb said when she caught her breath. “It’s ugly, ostentatious and ridiculous.”

“Yes,” Juliet murmured, “I know.”

“What kind of madman would send you an elephant?”

“Only one kind,” Juliet said to herself and ran her hand lovingly down the trunk.

“My two-year-old could ride on it,” Deb commented and spotted the card that had come out with the packing. “Here you are. Now you’ll know who to press charges against.”

She wouldn’t take the card. Juliet told herself she wouldn’t look at it. She’d simply pack the elephant back up and ship it away. No sensible woman became emotional about a useless piece of glass three feet high.

She took the card and ripped it open.

Don’t forget.

She started to laugh. As the first tears fell, Deb stood beside her without a clue. “Juliet—are you all right?”

“No.” She pressed her cheek against the elephant and kept laughing. “I’ve just lost my mind.”

When she arrived in Rome, Juliet knew it was too late for sanity. She carried one bag which she’d packed in a frenzy. If it’d been lost en route, she wouldn’t have been able to identify the contents. Practicality? She’d left it behind in New York. What happened next would determine whether she returned for it.

She gave the cab driver Carlo’s address and settled back for her first whirlwind ride through Rome. Perhaps she’d see it all before she went home. Perhaps she was home. Decisions had to be made, but she hoped she wouldn’t make them alone.