Nine Lives - Danielle Steel Page 0,29
smiled. She had brought a little mountain of sand home in her running shoes. She carefully put the shells she’d collected in a pocket of her suitcase. They were the first souvenir of her trip.
She had a hamburger and watched one of her favorite movies on TV and went to bed early. She spent the next day exploring the Napa Valley. The vineyards looked like photographs she’d seen of Italy and France. There were beautiful wineries, and lovely homes, and some Victorian houses near the vineyards. There were lots of people on bicycles, but fewer tourists at that time of year, and the weather was warm, noticeably hotter than in the city. It was every bit as pretty as she had hoped it would be. When she went back to the city that night, she stopped at a Japanese restaurant she’d read about and had sushi. She felt as though she was having the full San Francisco experience, and wished that Aden was with her. She called him at school and told him all about it.
“You sound great, Mom,” he said to her, and she felt great, totally alive. “What’s next?”
“I’m driving down to Carmel and Big Sur tomorrow.” She wanted to see the sea lions, the famous aquarium in Monterey, and the rugged coastline of Big Sur. She was staying at a place called the Post Ranch for a night, and then returning to San Francisco to see whatever she had missed.
Aden was already busy practicing with the hockey team and said he loved it. They both sounded happy when they hung up, each of them enjoying new adventures.
After she called him, a couple leaned over from the next table, smiling at her.
“A freshman son?” the woman asked her, and Maggie nodded. “It nearly killed me when our son left. He’s a junior now, and we take trips we never took before. We love it.” They said they were from Dallas and they chatted for half an hour before Maggie paid and left to go back to the hotel. It made her feel less solitary just talking to them.
By the end of the week, Maggie had seen everything she wanted to see. She had chatted with people in several places, from all over the United States. She felt brave and independent after her first stop. The timing was perfect. She had been there for five days. On the sixth, she caught her flight to Rome in the afternoon, for the next leg of the trip.
On the plane, she sat next to an Italian professor, who told her fascinating stories about the city she was about to discover for the first time. It distracted her from any nervousness she had about the flight. He was somewhere in his seventies and very charming. He said he had a daughter about her age, but she had the distinct impression that he was flirting with her, which seemed flattering and funny and very Italian.
She slept for half of the trip, after a delicious meal in business class, and arrived refreshed in Rome. The professor wished her a good trip. He said his wife was picking him up. He had failed to mention her before.
The hotel had sent a car and driver to pick her up, and the driver explained all the historical sights to her as they drove into the city. She couldn’t wait to get started. It was four in the morning in Lake Forest, or she would have called Helen to tell her about it. She texted her instead, along with a photograph of the Colosseum and the entrance to the hotel. There were liveried porters and doormen. One of the managers from the front desk showed her to her small elegant room, with a balcony and a view of Rome that was breathtaking. She stood staring at it for a minute after he left, and felt as though she had been born again. It was one of the most exciting moments of her life. She was seeing history and modern-day beauty combined, with St. Peter’s and the Vatican in the distance, the Spanish Steps beneath her, and young people sitting around the fountain below, some of them kissing. She wanted to toss a coin in the fountain later for good luck, and was told she had to throw a coin in the Fontana di Trevi while she was there, to assure that she’d come back to Rome.
Her driver was waiting for her when she emerged from the