“This is ridiculous,” I whisper to myself. To the volcano. To the air. To the entire Sicilian seascape.

“Right?” Beside me, Eli rests his elbows on the handrail. At his heels, Tiny frantically chases new scents. “I’ve been feeling dirty and ugly since we got here.”

I turn back to glance at the villa, take in the ivy and wisteria that decorate its white facade, and mentally compare it to the house where we grew up. Peacock, meet turkey. “We were raised in a rat-infested hovel, huh?”

“And we never even knew it.”

“What kind of neglectful parents don’t even plant a citrus grove in their backyard?” I reach for the tree at my left, potted in a colorful ceramic vase, and stroke the tips of my fingers against a shiny leaf. When I push it aside, I discover a lemon, plump and juicy and a little pornographic. Its tang perfumes the air surrounding us, mixing with sea brine and something that reminds me of…thyme. The scrub half climbing down the cliff, as if trying to get away from us, is a spontaneously growing thyme bush. I’m in love. “Watch out, Eli. Rue might leave you for this lemon.”

“Too late. The lemon and I already eloped.”

I smile, and he slides an arm around my shoulder to squeeze me into him. We don’t usually hug much, my brother and I, but I’m feeling out of sorts for all kinds of reasons, and this is comforting. “I’m happy you guys decided to do this here. Now, I know I gasped very obnoxiously, back when you told me that you weren’t just going to stand in line for six hours at the Travis County Clerk’s office and exchange plastic bottle rings. But this actually feels like…”

“Like more than an afterthought?” I nod as he draws back. “Like I actually took time off to celebrate and publicly acknowledge the fact that I’m in love with Rue?”

“Ugh, keep it in your pants, please.” But when he tries for a noogie, I can’t help laughing. “Besides, it doesn’t sound like you took off work.”

“Oh, I did. It’s Hark who’s congenitally unable to not check his email. Which is okay, since watching him pick fights is a leisure pursuit of mine.”

I avert my eyes. “Where’s everyone else? I thought Avery and I would be the last ones to get here.”

“You were. Most people are catching up on sleep. Someone went to the city center, and Rue’s taking a walk down at the beach with Tisha.”

I glance at the cliff. Still steep, and half-covered in moss and shrubbery. “Did they jump?”

He points at a spot slightly farther down the coast, where the slope is gentler. Someone installed a stone staircase there, nestled in the dense, burnt orange soil. It twists and turns multiple times before terminating in what looks like a private beach. “Oh, nice.” I let my eyes follow the shoreline, and that’s when I spot it. Right there in the bay, just a few hundred feet into the ocean, there is a small, rocky islet covered in lush vegetation.