Luca actually felt his heart throbbing with a kind of excitement he hadn't tasted since childhood.
This anticipation was rare, and it had been a long time since something carried such weight, apart from his back-to-back championship races.
And unlike those races, he wasn't prepared at all for this one.
With every word that escaped Simon and Ester's lips, his smile became broader and more cherished.
They led him into the property, not from the front door, but back down the same path they'd emerged from earlier.
Guiding him, the cousins showed Luca the way through the side and into the decorated backyard, where the air was filled with the perfume of flowers.
There, Luca's eyes landed first on a small clique of wide-eyed children who froze at his arrival, staring at him as though he were a colossal beast that came to eat everyone.
Before Luca could engage with them, Simon's hand gestured beyond the kids, toward the far end of the backyard, where a damsel sat gracefully.
