I loved the way he didn’t hold back. Even now, he opened his arms and I stepped into his embrace, clinging tight, not afraid to show my emotion in case he thought I was silly. I savored the fresh scent of him, and the strength of his arms, and the gentleness as he held me. “Ian?”

“Yeah?”

“Is it wrong for me to wish you didn’t want to be a priest? That we could have a long-distance relationship and I could come to Ireland after I graduate and give this a real shot?”

His hands cupped my cheeks and I blinked furiously, hating the tears that stung my eyes when I swore I wouldn’t do this. I wouldn’t make him feel guilty or beg for something he’d already decided he couldn’t give me. I didn’t want his last impression to be of a needy girl with tears on her cheeks, begging him to stay.

“No. It’s just honest. If you didn’t, I may have questioned this whole thing between us. How in a few weeks I could fall so hard for you. If you didn’t ask, I would have constantly wondered if it’d been a dream or something I just wanted bad enough to imagine.”

“I love you.” It was the second time I’d whispered the words. The first had been after we had sex and he held me in his arms, and I knew I’d never feel like this again. “That’s real.”

“Yes, it is. I love you too. You’re a gift, Allegra. You’ve changed me and you don’t even know it. Without you, I’d wonder for the rest of my life what loving someone was like. How can I counsel about love when I never experienced it? Now I understand what it’s like to give my body and heart to another. I just didn’t realize it hurt so damn much.”

I barked out a laugh, pressing my face to his shirt, trying to get myself together. “I don’t know how I’m going to do this. Let you leave.”

“Me either. All I know is you’re already a part of me. I owe you everything. Remember that full moon we saw together in Florence?”

I nodded, too sad to speak.

“When you see a full moon, know that I’ll be looking at it and thinking of you. Of what we shared. It’ll be our moon, always.”

“I like that,” I whispered.

He kissed me, then slowly stepped back. “I’ll call you.”

“Okay.”

I watched him climb into the car. He looked through the open window, and his beautiful blue eyes met mine, his lips curved in a heartbreaking smile. I tried to memorize his face and this moment for when I needed it later, but it was already slipping away too soon.

He drove away and disappeared down the path.