"I love you too, so much." Some day she'd like to say those words to him in his native tongue but right now she knew she would only mangle difficult syllables and the accent he made sound so effortless and graceful. Some day when she wasn't so immersed in her Italian--should it ever come.

Pippa knew that nothing had changed from this morning, except perhaps a new awareness of each other's hurts, and that they had many things to discuss and a lot of ground to cover. She knew this and yet she smiled too, smiled and hugged him again in relief. For the first time in months she felt like she could breathe, draw in as much air as her lungs demanded without fear of choking on it. It was a start.

"Kiss me again?"