After another hesitation, she slipped her fingers around his elbow, and he barely resisted the urge to lay his free hand over them. He liked the way her light touch made him feel. Again that word “protective” wandered by uninvited.
He stopped them at the threshold. “Which way?”
“I thought you were the expert on vacationing.”
“Sure, done it my whole life, I guess. On vacation, the direction doesn’t matter. There’s an adventure waiting along every path. It’s just a matter of choosing one.”
“But how do you know which…” She trailed off before completing the question. Then she looked up at him.
She barely reached his shoulder. Yet when that smile went bright and lit her eyes, she made him feel ten feet tall.
“That way,” Erica pointed to the right along the carruggio. “I went off that way
