We followed him to the Loggia dei Lanzi, an open-air gallery. The giant archways invited tourists to wander in and enjoy its display of statues. Enzo paused in front of a sculpture that seemed to dominate the whole square. My breath caught as I took in the twisted and entangled bodies carved from a smooth block of solid marble. A man lifted a woman up high in the air, while another man crouched at her feet. The expressions on their faces were filled with ravaged violence. The woman’s desperate reach for freedom seemed as if she was about to burst out of the stone and flee their terror.

“This is The Rape of the Sabine Women by Giambologna,” he explained, motioning us to move closer. “It’s based on a famous story of when Romans captured the Sabine women for marriage, because they had been denied many times by the king, who said that the women were not allowed to marry Romans. It is a popular subject for art, and this particular statue was carved from a single block of marble—the largest one ever imported to Florence. It is considered Giambologna’s masterpiece. Check out the exquisite detail and emotion. As we wander around the square, I’ll give you some brief background on the pieces.”

We marveled at the bronze statue of Perseus, holding his sword in one hand and the head of Medusa in the other. Hercules and Nessus shimmered with raw power, and the Medici lions seemed to be guarding the gallery. Enzo’s voice wrapped around me as he wove a spell of enchantment and seemed to make the various statues come alive with their rich history. But it wasn’t his educational talent that was distracting me this afternoon.

I couldn’t stop thinking about our almost kiss.

As if he knew my whirling thoughts, his gaze cut to mine and dove deep within me. A shiver of awareness bumped down my spine. Since our embrace in Capri, he’d kept his professional distance, but I felt him staring at me throughout the day, his dark eyes brimming with an emotion that he didn’t seem to want to hide. I’d been ruthless with my time around Allegra and Mom, choosing not to take work calls while we were out on tour and trying to regain my daughter’s trust. Each time I picked up my phone, I saw her expectations for me to flee back to the hotel, but for the past three days I’d surprised all of us by allowing Kate and Layla to make all the final decisions.