Chapter 31
31
Andreas couldn’t have put his finger on why the people waiting in the car park of the hotel in Limone didn’t look like a usual group of clients. They were perhaps slightly more smartly dressed than most sporting types, wearing hiking skirts with built-in shorts instead of heavy-duty trousers, ties peeking out of the men’s pockets. But he’d worked with enough Italian clients in Dolce a loose-fitting white shirt with a patterned scarf she’d put in her bag early this morning to add some flair for the ceremony. She was looking lovely and it was becoming increasingly clear to him that not saying something to her would be more difficult than letting out the words.
Words were not his forte but still, he’d packed the emerald. If nothing else, he could give it to her even when she lost the bet, as a hint of everything he needed to tell her.
She had a baseline level of stress several notches higher than her usual, but he suspected she thrived on it. She liked to be challenged and he loved watching her as she looked between her tablet and her clients, in control of all the details.
He’d thought she was prettier now than she’d been at twenty-six – although she’d been damn beautiful back then. But how was it possible that he enjoyed looking at her today even more than he had a week ago?
The bride appeared, looking a little flustered and fanning her face. She rushed straight to Sophie. ‘I’m so stupid. I didn’t heed your advice and I got sunburnt yesterday!’
Sophie didn’t even hint at ‘I told you so’. ‘Don’t worry, the photographer will be able to touch things up, but I don’t think it looks bad at all?’
‘Mum had a cream with her and we’ve slathered on the aloe vera. I’ll touch up my?—’
‘Lily,’ Sophie interrupted gently. ‘It’s a wedding, not a photoshoot. Focus on that. One step at a time, starting your marriage the way you wanted to. I’m here for everything else.’
Lily’s expression blossomed instantly. ‘You’re the best, Sophie. You’re right. Mum kept going on about the pictures, but I don’t want to spend my wedding day worrying about my appearance. Roman has seen me looking a lot worse!’
‘And he still can’t take his eyes off you now.’
Andreas followed Sophie’s gaze to find Roman studying Lily with a soft light in his eyes that only Roman could pull off. Andreas caught Kira rolling her eyes.
‘They’d be sickening if they weren’t kind of cool for wanting to get married at the top of a via ferrata,’ she murmured.
‘Even though that means Great Heart now has a side business in weddings?’ he prompted.
She gave a disgruntled sigh. ‘It would have been better if I could climb with the main group instead of the boring hike with the parents. But it’s not as bad as it could have been so far. If I don’t have to put on a dress and choose from eleven different forks at dinner, I could get used to it. I’m sure not all grooms are as soppy as him, anyway.’ She eyed Andreas and his hair stood on end as the suspicion assailed him that she was imagining him as a groom.
He could see exactly who the bride would be.
With a loud swallow, he forced his mind back to the task at hand, packing copious bottles of water into the back of the minibus. When he’d finished, he searched out Sophie and found her with her phone to her ear, a line etched between her brows.
He wandered over, glancing around to make sure no one was watching before brushing a hand down her back. She didn’t acknowledge the caress, but her body leaned into the touch and he lingered with his hand at her back.
When she pulled her phone from her ear without saying anything, he asked, ‘Everything all right?’
‘The photographer is late and I can’t reach her. How long can we safely wait? We have such rotten luck with photographers and it was so hard to find someone who agreed to come up the via ferrata.’
He pulled out his phone in its chunky case and stabbed at the screen that never seemed as responsive to his fingers as it should be. The weather forecast made him pause. ‘Half an hour if we have to, but the showers forecast are showing a little earlier now. It’s not something I’d usually worry about, but this is a big group and…’
‘It’s a wedding,’ Sophie finished for him with a small smile.
‘It’s the weirdest wedding I’ve ever seen, but yes. It’s different because it’s a wedding.’
‘You haven’t seen any,’ she reminded him drily. ‘Rain would be dangerous on the via ferrata right? Today’s forecast looked perfect all week!’
‘The Garda microclimate strikes again. But light rain is no problem. We’re heading up early. Chances are, it’ll be fine and it’s just the reception that might be a little damp. Maybe they’ll get a kick out of it – go dancing in the rain.’
‘I’m not going to go dancing in the rain in my dress,’ she said emphatically. ‘It’s crepe silk.’
He had no idea what crepe silk was, but he was desperate to see it. ‘You wear a dress when you’re working?’
She eyed him. ‘What did you think I wear? Army fatigues?’
‘After going on about trying to put me into a suit, I thought you wore one of those.’
‘I blend in better in a dress and it generally keeps everyone more at ease. You could have worn a dress, if the suit was all that was stopping you from coming to the reception,’ she joked.
Of course it wasn’t the reason why he didn’t want to go to the reception, although he struggled to remember what his reasons were, now he was thinking about Sophie in a pretty dress. He’d thought his ideal woman wore a harness and was draped in ropes, and he loved the dust-smudged version of Sophie who followed him up into the mountains. But he was dying to see the version of her that enjoyed the soft material of a nice dress.
Her phone rang and he gathered that the photographer had been located and was on her way after a childcare emergency to do with the early start he’d insisted on. Sophie snapped back into duty mode, but as he turned to go, she shot out a hand and squeezed his arm. It was a light, casual touch, but his chest heaved with the significance of it, that she’d reached for him.
Significance, symbolism, promises… Today’s expedition was beginning to feel like nothing he’d ever achieved before.
* * *
The weather had often been an innocent malignant force in Andreas’s life. He’d made two attempts of Cho Oyu, both of which had failed – once due to high winds and the other time a volatile icefall. But he’d rarely wished so earnestly for the ability to control the weather as he did that day. For Lily and Roman – for Sophie.
The morning was perfect: vivid blue sky with a few puffy clouds for decoration. It was cool in the shade. Around half the group opted to hike up with Kira, leaving the bride and groom and a handful of friends – plus Sophie and the photographer – to tramp excitedly along the narrow path through the forest, commenting on the remains of the World War I fortifications.
When they emerged from the cover of the trees at the bottom of the via ferrata, the exposed section was thankfully not too hot, but a billowing cloud in the north caught his eye.
There was a ripple of unease through the group as they gazed at the jagged rock.
‘Wow,’ Lucia said emphatically as she stepped into her harness. ‘That’s an “easy” climb?’
‘There are plenty of handholds,’ her ex, Tom, pointed out.
Andreas smiled at Lucia sympathetically. ‘A healthy respect for the difficulty of the route is a good thing, but you’ll make it.’
‘You promise?’ she asked, flirting only half-heartedly.
He stilled, glancing from Lily to Roman to where Sophie stood near the back of the group. That word again.
‘I promise it’s not as difficult as it looks,’ he assured Lucia. ‘Now, hopp hopp,’ he said, clapping his hands for emphasis, ‘or Lily and Roman will never get married.’
‘Don’t you dare even suggest it!’ Adelaide piped up, making Andreas smile.
The photographer headed up first, followed by Roman and a couple of the groomsmen. Andreas positioned himself just in front of Lily, with her two bridesmaids next and Sophie bringing up the rear, a grim crease between her brows.
The first cries of delight from above informed him that the group was over the treeline, clambering up the dramatic spur over the lake. They made slow progress. Twice, the photographer stopped in her resting sling to snap a few shots.
Below him, Sophie’s expression grew tighter as she clung to the rock, peering up as the rest of the group seemed to take forever.
‘Okay?’ he called down to her.
‘Fine!’ she insisted – of course she did.
When they reached the top of the spur, he unclipped and came to help her up the last few steps. ‘This really wasn’t in my job description,’ she said through gritted teeth.
‘You’re doing great. Just a little further and we’ll be at the cabin where we had lunch. Remember that spot?’
‘I remember.’ She paused for a few deep breaths. ‘Let’s keep going. I’m okay.’
Memories assailed him when they reached the rock face where Sophie had stalled last time. Roman whooped with excitement at the prospect of the traverse, but Andreas only saw Sophie’s laboured swallow.
He came up beside her, brushing the backs of his fingers against hers, and she surprised him with a laugh. ‘You always wanted me to be tough, Andreas. I’m being tough today. Don’t worry. I’ll be there to see you cry at the top.’
She proved it five minutes later when she stepped gingerly onto the rock, clinging to the cable. Her head held high, she made careful progress at the back of the group and he wanted to kiss her again – this time not because of adrenaline.
God damn it, he loved this woman. Sophie, who’d had the audacity to listen to her heart and ask him to marry her, who’d believed in him long before she’d had reason to. Sophie, who imbued her weddings with significance and meaning and purpose. And weren’t those things exactly what he’d always searched for?
He’d imagined the invisible marks he left on the gullies and ridges of the mountains he’d climbed, but letting Sophie leave her marks on him – that thought made him even prouder.
As they headed for the bottom of the last via ferrata that would take them to the summit, all he could think about was holding her and letting everything he was feeling bubble out of him, but the rest of the wedding party was there, cooing and gasping at the view.
How quickly could they get Lily and Roman married?
When he took his own look out at the lake and saw the same clouds as before, only billowing rapidly, the answer to that question presented itself: as quickly as possible.