When she got home, Dom was still sitting on the porch. He started to get up when she carried up the take-out bag, the cooler.

“Let me give you a hand.”

“I’ve got it. Let’s eat out here.”

“Whatever you want, baby.”

“Definitely out here. It’s so pretty out. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Sometimes, she thought as she walked through the big house to the big kitchen, the right choice was also the only choice.

She split the sub, used pretty plates, cloth napkins, and poured both water and wine. To tempt him, she added a handful of his favored salt-and-vinegar chips—damn the nutrition for one day—to each plate.

She carried the tray out, arranged it all on the long porch table.

“Let’s eat, Popi. Business was good when I stopped in.” She just kept chattering as he got up, slowly walked to the table. “Barry’s on today, and doing a good job—but he said they miss seeing you.”

“Maybe I’ll go in tomorrow.”

He’d said the same the day before.

“That’d be great. God, I haven’t had a meatball sub in … who knows?” She leaned over the plate, dripping sauce onto it as she took a bite. “Oh really, I bet this is illegal in some states. One day, you’re going to give me the recipe for the Rizzo secret sauce.”

“You know I will.” He smiled; he nibbled.

“So, I FaceTimed with Teesha—and the amazing Phineas—while I was out. They send love.”

“That’s a precious little boy. Smart as a whip. Smarter.”

“He is. I’m hoping we’ll see lots more of him if I managed to talk her and Monroe into moving down here.”

“Hmm? What, here?”

And there, she thought, was a chink in the curtain that had come down over his eyes.

“Mmm.” She took another bite. “I know we can work remotely, no problem, but they’ve been talking about getting a house—burbs, maybe even country—since Phin was born. Why not here? And her amazing business brain would help with Rizzo’s, too. Monroe can work anywhere.” She took a sip of wine, smiled, shrugged. “Like me.”

“I don’t understand.”

She made another sound, ate a chip. “Oh, I know why I try never to eat one of these. My system is crying for more now. Oh.” She beamed that smile again. “I’m moving in. Didn’t I mention that? I gave—or Teesha gave—my notice at the apartment in New York. She’s arranging for my stuff to be packed up and moved down here. Storage for some—she’s dealing with that. I don’t think I’d get through a day without her dealing with stuff.”

“Gioia, your life’s in New York.”

“It’s been in New York because that’s where Mom lived, and where I started out. But my home’s here, and has been for as long as I can remember. I’d like to have my life in my home.”

His jaw squared. “Adrian, you’re not upending your life for me. I won’t have it.”

Casually, she licked sauce off her finger. “That’s too bad, because it’s done. I’m doing it for you, because I love you. I’m doing it for me, because it’s what I want. I love you,” she repeated. “I love this big old house. I love the views, I love the trees, the gardens. I love the town, and I’m taking it. Just try to stop me.”

A tear slid down his cheek. “I don’t want you to—”

“Does it matter what I want?” She laid a hand over his. “Does it?”

“Of course it does. Of course.”

“This is what I want.”

“To live in this old place, outside of a three-stoplight town?”

She ate another chip. “Yes. That’s exactly what I want. Oh, and I’m taking over the lower level.”

“I—”

“Squatter’s rights. I need the space for my fitness area, my streaming. For my work. There’s that nice walk out on the back so there’s light, and I’ll have a crew come in to deal with the tech stuff. I might hire Barry’s little sister to work on the design.”

“Adrian, this is a big decision. You should take time to think it all through.”

“Have thought, have weighed pros and cons. Pros win. You know the Rizzos, Popi. We know what we want, then we work to get it.” She toasted him with her glass. “Get used to it, Roomie.”

She set it down, got up to put her arms around him as more tears fell. “You need me,” she murmured. “But I need you, too. We’re giving this to each other.”

“We’ll be all right.”

“Yes, we will.” She framed his face, kissed him. “She’d expect nothing less of us. Now, I need you to eat that damn sub because if you don’t and I do, I’m really going to pay for it later.”

“Okay. Okay. Barry knows how I like it.”

“So he said.”

When she sat again, he took another bite. He drank some wine, cleared his throat. “Do you really think you can talk them into moving down here with that precious little boy?”

Smiling, she tapped her glass to his. “I favor my odds there. That tire swing needs a new young butt.”

“It surely does. I thought, at first, I just wanted to fade away. How could I stay when she was gone? So just fade away.”

Tears burned and pushed at the backs of her eyes. “I know.”

“You won’t let me.”

“No, I won’t.”

Nodding, he looked directly into her eyes. “Why don’t you tell me what you have in mind to do to my basement? Our basement,” he corrected.

Two days later she wandered the space she intended to transform. Studying it, imagining, considering, rejecting. They’d put in a wine cellar before she’d been born, and that would stay, of course. As would the utility/storage room.

She wouldn’t need to touch the guest room or full-size bath.

That left her the entire family room area with its antique bar, the old brick fireplace, all mostly used when they held big parties.

More furniture to move or store, she mused, but the bar, the fireplace would make interesting backdrops.

She wanted it to look like what it was—part of a home—but at the same time efficient, focused. Picking up her tablet, she started making notes she’d share with Kayla when her—hopefully—young designer came in for a consult.

A FaceTime signal interrupted, and had Adrian staring at the screen. Her mother never FaceTimed. Adrian tapped accept.

Lina came on-screen in full makeup, her chestnut hair sleeked back in a tail. Work mode, Adrian concluded.

“Hi. This is new.”

“We need a conversation, and this is the best way. I just read your blog.”

“Oh. I didn’t know you—”

“Adrian, you can’t bury yourself in that house, in that town. What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking this is where I want to be—and need to be—and rather than burying myself, I see it as a new opportunity.”

“You established yourself in New York, and your use of locations there for your DVDs, your streaming is part of your signature.”

“I’m changing my signature.”