‘It’s hardly half-cocked. I came home, I’m wrapping things up here, putting other things in place before I go—’
‘You walked out of your job! That’s half-cocked to me.’
‘You’ve been telling me for years to get out of that job!’
‘Not like that. You find another one first – it’s what everyone else does.’
Kate let out a long sigh. It felt as if they were going round in circles with this discussion, and she was beginning to realise that Anna would never see her point of view no matter how many times they went over it. She wondered if Alessandro was having as much trouble at his end. Possibly, if Lucetta’s email was anything to go by. The notion didn’t exactly fill her with confidence that this future she dreamed and hoped for could ever get any further than dreaming and hoping.
‘I can’t just carry on as if nothing has changed. Everything has changed. . . I’ve changed because of it. I’m not the same person any more.’
‘But you’re still our sister. We’re still a rock-solid team, aren’t we?’
‘Of course. . .’ Kate chewed her lip as she glanced at Lily again, no longer following the conversation after her brief moment of lucidity but staring out the window. ‘Of course we are. We’ll always look out for each other, just like we all promised when Mum left. But. . .’
It was selfish to leave. Anna would see it that way even if Lily didn’t. Anna would be left with not only Lily to worry about, but Kate too.
‘I can’t tell you what to do and I understand that you feel you want something big to happen, to make changes in your life.’ Anna reached for her arm and gave it a gentle squeeze. ‘I just don’t think this is the right way to go.’
‘That’s you and Matt then,’ Kate said. ‘You both think I’m mental.’
‘Not mental, just tired and eager for something else. I get that. I’m not saying don’t go; I’m just asking that you give it some time. And not just the time it would take you to sell up and go anyway, but some real time to reflect and think about it and be sure it’s the right thing for you. Surely if you’re determined to do it then another six months won’t make any difference. And if that six-month delay does make a difference to how you feel, then maybe it wasn’t quite the plan you thought it was.’
Kate looked at her. It mattered to Anna a great deal, she could tell. And six months wasn’t so long really, was it? Long enough to see Lily get well, sell her house, set up a business that could make her a little money and make Anna happy. She wouldn’t change her mind, no matter what Anna thought, but she would have proved her point and Anna would back down, give her blessing to the venture. Whether Alessandro could or would wait for six months was a different matter, but Kate supposed she could visit, just to remind him of what he was missing in case he got impatient enough for his affections to stray. And if she lost him. . . she didn’t want to dwell on that, but maybe Anna had a point. Perhaps if she lost him it was never meant to be in the first place. But if he loved her he’d wait, wouldn’t he? If they were meant to be then no time would be too long to wait. . .
Chapter Twenty-Five
When she called him the next morning, Alessandro said nothing of his mother’s plans, and Kate said nothing of Anna’s disapproval and request for her to wait a while before deciding about moving. It was probably a bad sign that both were keeping secrets but, for Kate, it felt like a subject too difficult to broach and she supposed Alessandro felt that way too. Kate had contented herself to hear his words of love, how much he was looking forward to seeing her again, and she had promised that as soon as she was able she would visit for a weekend, even if she couldn’t stay for good right away. He told her about work, about Lucetta’s progress with the organising of her impending nuptials, about a new boyfriend Abelie had brought home who he was watching very carefully before he decided whether he liked him or not, and about how he’d checked on Pietro and his family at the trattoria to find that they seemed to have come to an acceptance of Pietro’s coming out and that Pietro himself was back working in the restaurant with Luigi and Roberto. Pietro’s mother had instigated the truce, and had threatened to disown Roberto if he resorted to violence again and, in Alessandro’s opinion, the mother having the last word was the most sensible resolution to their problems.
Meanwhile, Matt had been back to finish the jobs he needed to do on the house while Kate was out and had left his keys on the table in a gesture of closure. He’d finally relinquished his hold on her life, and it seemed he was telling her to move forward with his blessing. She didn’t know what had caused this epiphany, and she didn’t need to; she was just glad he’d seen sense. It was a shame if what he’d said about his relationship with Tamara was true, but he would have to deal with it by himself now. With everything neat and tidy, the house had gone on the market and within a week Kate had accepted an offer for the asking price; Matt in agreement that they should take it. So things were moving along at a brisk pace now, but it only made Kate anxious that it was a pace she’d struggle to keep up with. She didn’t have anywhere else to live, didn’t have her dress business up and running yet, had no temporary job to tide her over and even her plans to move to Italy were on hold. Lily had offered her the spare room at their place, but Kate had been loath to accept, despite being touched by the gesture. The last thing they needed was the stress of a permanent guest, and the last thing she needed was to be sucked into the atmosphere of negativity and sadness that still smothered their house like a blanket. Kate had enough stress of her own, without adding Lily and Joel’s to it.
She was packing when the knock came. The sun streamed into her bedroom, illuminating the buttercup yellow of the walls, the honeyed tones of the woodwork, but also showing up the dust on the skirting boards. Kate had let out a sigh, made a mental note to clean them later on, and had started to sort a lifetime of hoarded books into piles that she would definitely take to wherever she was going, ones that she would give away and ones that would otherwise flit back and forth between the two piles because she couldn’t make up her mind. It was a job that she found therapeutic, and she smiled at the memories each book elicited as she found herself flicking through the pages, old bookmarks, bits of letters, handwritten notes falling from them. There was an old book of nonsense rhymes her dad had bought for her on a trip to Chester when she was ten, a vampire novel – the first book she had ever bought for herself with her first wages from a Saturday job at the local hairdressers – a book about decorating gifted from Anna when Kate had first moved into this house with Matt, and the complete Brontë collection, leather-bound and gold-embossed, that Lily had bought her for her twenty-first birthday. Kate wiped a tear from her eye. It was strange how objects manufactured for mass consumption could have such personal meanings for the person at the end of the chain, who treasured them like real memories alive in their heads.
She’d just sat down with the decorating book, idly glancing over the pages at all the tips and techniques she’d tried out on the bricks and mortar now surrounding her with varying degrees of success. And then she heard the rap at the front door. It wasn’t Anna’s knock, which was always a single assertive boom, nor was it Lily’s jaunty little rhythm. Three raps of a knuckle, separated by distinct pauses.
Putting the book to one side, Kate wiped the dust from her hands on the old jeans she was wearing and chanced a quick glance in the mirror before heading down to get the door. Her hair was scraped back into a ponytail, and apart from a thin layer of foundation she hadn’t bothered with her make-up; a big shirt with the sleeves rolled up covered a strappy top beneath. She hoped it wasn’t the buyers for the house, who had promised to come back and measure up for soft furnishings at some point. If they had come unannounced it would be difficult not to be annoyed despite the fact they were taking a huge millstone from around her neck.
With a sigh, she made her way downstairs. Through the small square of frosted glass she could see a shadow, a profile that looked familiar, and suddenly her heart was beating like
a steam hammer. It couldn’t be. . .
Flinging the door open wide, Kate’s hand flew to her mouth as she saw Alessandro smiling on the doorstep.
‘Hello, Kate,’ he said.
‘What. . . what are you doing here?’ she stammered.
His face fell. ‘I should not have come?’
‘God, yes!’ she squealed, throwing herself at him. He caught her in his arms and held her close. It felt so good, so right, and she was suddenly overwhelmed with a fierce love. It wasn’t until this moment that she had let herself think about how much she was missing him, because if she had she would have crumbled, unable to function. But now he was here, it was like the stopper was yanked from the bottle of emotions she’d been struggling to keep shut, and she began to cry. ‘I missed you so much!’ she whispered. ‘So, so much. . . I thought about you every minute of every day.’ She rubbed her eyes and stared up at him. ‘I can’t believe you’re really here!’
‘I am here,’ he smiled. ‘I missed you too. I wanted to see you, and I had permission to take time from my job to come.’
‘You came all the way to England for me?’
‘Why else?’
Kate’s eyes filled with tears again, even as she beamed through them. ‘Nobody has ever done anything so romantic for me before.’
‘Then nobody has loved you as I do.’
She pulled away to stare at him, as if she took her eyes off him for a second he would disappear in a puff of smoke.
‘I can’t believe you’re here,’ she repeated.
He lifted a bouquet bearing the signs of crush damage. Clearly damage she’d caused in her haste to get into his arms. ‘These are for you.’
They were beautiful despite the odd casualty – a bounty of delicate pink and white roses embellished with tiny beads that looked like water droplets. They must have cost a fortune. The only flowers she’d ever been given were ones Anna or Lily had picked up for her at the end of market day as they were being sold off or ones that Matt had hastily collected from the supermarket or petrol station when he’d done something to upset her and needed to get back in the good books. Not that she had been unhappy to receive any of those gifts, but Alessandro’s were something else.
‘They’re gorgeous! Thank you!’
She took the flowers from him and breathed in the sweet perfume. She had never imagined that roses could smell so divine. Surely they must have been engineered somehow, because the scent was intoxicating. Or perhaps it was just Alessandro being on her doorstep making her giddy, because she couldn’t seem to think straight and she was almost convinced that if she looked away she’d find he’d never actually been there at all.
They gazed at each other, silent and grinning, until Alessandro spoke and broke the spell.
‘Perhaps you would like me to come back later?’
‘Why?’
He arched an eyebrow, and that playful, teasing smile she had missed so much came out to taunt her. ‘I have surprised you and perhaps you are not ready for guests?’
Kate yanked the band from her ponytail and mussed her hair to let it fall around her shoulders. There wasn’t a lot she could do about the clothes right now, except sit him down and make him wait while she did her best to improve things. But even as she was thinking this, he pulled her into his arms and planted a passionate kiss on her lips that faded the world around her. ‘You look beautiful,’ he breathed. ‘More beautiful to these eyes that have not seen you for so long.’
Oh God. . . his scent. . . the heat of his body against hers. . . the feel of his hands on her waist. . . the voice like velvet. . . that accent. . . He had come for her, thousands of miles just for her. Nothing else mattered. ‘You’d better come in,’ she replied in a teasing whisper. ‘We have a lot of catching up to do. . .’
Chapter Twenty-Six
The sun dipped into the room, and as it hit Alessandro’s skin, he seemed to glow. It was silly, of course, but Kate was mesmerised by the way it kissed his tanned arms, made him look almost godlike. He had certainly been as godlike in bed as she remembered, and as she lay in his embrace now, the thrum of his steadily beating heart in her ears, she basked in the afterglow, content and sleepy and yet more alive and exhilarated than she had ever been.
‘I missed you so much,’ she said into the silence.
‘I missed you too.’
‘I’m so happy to see you, although I wish I’d known you were coming.’
‘I am sorry. . . I should have warned you. I wanted to surprise you. I thought you would be glad and amused.’
‘Not that,’ Kate replied quickly. ‘Of course I’m glad! I think what we just did should have told you that. . . But I would have got food and cleaned the house and stuff. I’m halfway ready to move out so I’m in a bit of a mess.’
‘I can help while I’m here,’ he said. ‘I have a hotel so you don’t need to worry about where I will sleep.’
‘You don’t have to go back to the hotel tonight. . .’
‘I should go to the hotel. I do not think your sister will like it if I stay here.’
‘Sister?’ Kate frowned. ‘What’s it got to do with my sisters? I don’t understand. . .’
‘Anna. I have spoken to her.’
Kate shot up and stared at him. ‘You’ve spoken to Anna? When? How?’
He sat and took her hand. ‘Don’t be angry with her. She phoned the questura and found me. She wanted to know what I was like, if I am good for you, if I am honest. It is only what I would do for my sisters. . .’
‘That’s completely different!’ Kate squeaked. ‘She has no right to stick her nose in!’ She started to get off the bed, intent on fetching her phone and giving Anna a piece of her mind. How dare she call Alessandro to spy on him and check him out! How dare she assume Kate was so useless and docile that she couldn’t even choose a man for herself without him being a complete charlatan! How dare she take up the mantle of protector or guardian, or whatever it was she thought she was doing, without Kate’s knowledge! Kate was an adult and she would make her own choices. She might discuss them with her sisters and she might even take on board their opinions but that did not give them the right to interfere. ‘I think I can make up my own mind about whether you’re good for me! Is that why you’ve come? Did she ask you to come to somehow prove yourself to her?’
He shook his head. ‘She did not ask me to come, but after I had spoken to her I understood that she is afraid for you. I came to make it easier for you. If she speaks with me in person perhaps she will be happier.’
‘Oh. . .’ Kate’s anger evaporated. So he didn’t come because he couldn’t bear to be apart from her – he came because he felt he needed to straighten things out with Anna? It was a noble sentiment, of course, but somehow she felt deflated by the idea.
‘And I wanted to see you.’ He laughed lightly, as if reading her thoughts. ‘Of course I wanted to see you.’
‘I’m going to have to speak to her,’ Kate said, relaxing back into his arms again. ‘She has no right to call you. . . and she didn’t even say a word to me. If you hadn’t told me I wouldn’t have known. Imagine if it had scared you away and we’d split up.’
‘Nothing would scare me away from you.’
‘Not even Anna? You must be brave.’
He grinned and kissed her. ‘Even Anna could not keep me away from you. But I do want your sisters to be happy about me. I know you love them very much and I will do anything to make you happy.’
‘That’s so sweet of you. I’m still going to give her a good slap though, and then you can set about being charming to win her over. Not too charming, mind. I don’t want you to win her over in quite the way you’ve won me over.’
He laughed. ‘I will be careful. Please don’t be angry with her.’
‘Angry? You don’t know what angry means until you’ve seen me in action with Anna. She seems to have this knack of bringing out my very angry side.’
‘Are you angry with me?’
‘Why would
I be angry with you?’
‘My surprise.’
‘I don’t mind your surprise. . . it’s a very nice surprise. . .’ Kate giggled as he pressed his lips to the back of her neck. ‘That tickles.’
‘Tickles?’ He frowned.
‘Makes me laugh.’
‘Oh. . .’ He pulled her round to face him. ‘I do not want to make you laugh.’
‘What do you want then?’ she asked, unable to tear her gaze away from the darkness of his eyes. ‘Because if you look at me like that for much longer I won’t be laughing anyway. . . I’ll be very horny.’
‘Horny?’ He raised an eyebrow at her.
Kate laughed. She would have to remember that he didn’t know a lot of slang. Or she would have to learn Italian. Lord, how she’d hated modern language lessons at school – she’d been so terrible at French and German. Perhaps Italian lessons with Alessandro wouldn’t be too bad. Although she could see the potential for almost every attempt to descend into a scene from a Carry On film. ‘Horny means to want to make love.’
‘You want to make love?’ He grinned. ‘We could do that now if it would please you.’
‘Oh, it would please me,’ Kate replied with a slow smile, all thoughts of Anna and her underhand scheming forgotten. ‘You have no idea how much.’
Despite the bursting boxes stacked in corners and her kitchen utensils and pots in a state of disarray, Kate made a valiant attempt at Sunday lunch. In fact, it was possibly the most important Sunday lunch she had ever cooked, and she wanted desperately to impress Alessandro. The stodgy Yorkshire puddings and chunky roast beef were a world away from the delicate cooked meats and olives that she’d been served by Signora Conti, but he’d said he wanted to try a traditional British roast and if Kate was perfectly honest, it was just about as advanced as her culinary skills got. He had wanted to arrive from his hotel early to help, but she’d forbidden it, knowing that Anna wouldn’t be able to resist doing just that – the stress of them meeting at lunch itself was enough without having them both present as she worked in the kitchen where she couldn’t keep a close eye on the conversation. Worse still was the prospect of them both trying to help her to cook, where they might get under her feet, disagree on cooking methods or just stress her out so much that she ruined all the food. That they’d got to this point was a minor miracle in itself – Anna and Christian, Lily and Joel, her and Alessandro finally about to sit around a table together and share a meal for the first time. It felt hugely exciting and yet terrifying at the same time, although the fact that Lily felt able to leave her sofa to come to dinner was encouraging and perhaps the most exciting outcome of the day. It meant a lot to Kate that she was willing to make the effort, and perhaps she was now on the path to a recovery that, if not full, was a good start. She hoped that Joel would find it equally as encouraging and that they might start to mend their fractured relationship from this point on.
Rome is Where the Heart is: An uplifting romantic read, perfect to escape with (From Italy with Love Book 1) Page 26
