Chapter 29
29
Sophie had the perfect view for keeping calm. The blue-green water lapped at the kayak. Sunshine warmed her skin. Mountains rose on three sides, enclosing the lake in their protective magic, and the water stretched out as far as she could see to the south.
The movement of the boat was a gentle bob, not the frantic wobble she’d pictured. Unlike the shrieking and giggling hens, Sophie’s kayak moved smoothly and powerfully through the water – thanks to Andreas acting as the engine and captain in the back.
But Sophie was still struggling. She had a pregnant bride, an emotional bridesmaid, a small boat and a raging bout of irrational jealousy.
‘Have you done this before?’ Andreas asked her.
She shook her head. ‘Not here. Hen parties are usually spa days with pedicures and facials. This isn’t the kind of hydrotherapy I’m used to at Lake Garda.’ As though to emphasise her point, her paddle clattered against his and was nearly wrenched out of her hands. ‘Sorry,’ she mumbled.
‘It’s okay,’ he said smoothly. ‘Tandem kayaks aren’t called divorce boats for nothing.’
‘Divorce boats? This is the last time we go kayaking as part of a wedding.’ She peered over her shoulder at him and immediately regretted it. He wore a red life vest but it couldn’t hide his broad, tanned chest. And the way his arm muscles bunched as he rowed was enough to make her woozy.
But as they made slow progress across the vast water, she had to admit there was peace in the quiet co-operation of paddling. Lily and her friend Adelaide followed Kira with firm, co-ordinated strokes, occasionally oversteering and straightening up with a laugh.
A woman buzzed past on a hydrofoil surfboard, causing Lucia and Katie to shriek as they steered out of the way. They turned to watch the surfer come to an elegant stop and then sink into the water. Sophie took the camera from its clip on her vest and snapped pictures of Lily smiling, talking to her friends and soaking up the sunshine.
‘Sometimes, I imagine I can see in her expression that she knows she’s pregnant,’ she murmured to Andreas, glancing over her shoulder at him when he didn’t respond.
He wasn’t looking at Lily, but at her, sending a shower of misgiving over her skin. ‘It’s a special moment to capture, I suppose,’ he said. ‘Are you okay?’ he added softly.
‘What kind of question is that?’ she scoffed.
‘You just seem…’
‘Whatever word you can’t find, I’m not that. I’m a little stressed, but it’s nothing I can’t handle.’
‘If it was the ladies pretending they needed help?—’
‘You can do whatever you want with whoever you want and I’m not going to stand in your way if you want to flirt with half the wedding party,’ she blurted out.
Oops. She stopped paddling entirely, resting the pole over her lap. The view was too beautiful for what was going on inside her, so she squeezed her eyes shut against the vivid colours and tranquil landscape.
‘Sorry, I know you weren’t flirting. You don’t flirt. You’re just doing your job.’
He was silent for a long moment, but when he spoke, the bastard splintered her open even further. ‘If it helps you to know, I asked them to delay our departure for Manaslu – back in June.’
‘Who— What are you talking about?’
‘We were discussing dates for the expedition and I said I wasn’t available until October.’ His tone was casual, but in the silence that followed, she heard him swallow heavily.
‘Huh.’ Her ears rang as she struggled to interpret what he was saying. He’d chosen to be here – for a wedding , when he could have had the perfect excuse not to be.
‘Just remember I’m only here for you, because you asked me.’ With that statement, his voice roughened and he cleared his throat.
‘There was a time,’ she began carefully, ‘that asking you to a wedding would not have produced this result.’
‘I know, Sophie,’ he said gruffly, as though he couldn’t quite believe the change either. ‘But I’m looking forward to winning your Foo Fighters T-shirt. I hope you brought it.’
‘Ha!’ She figured it was safe enough to peer over her shoulder at that and found him with a faint smile on his lips, peering right back. The lump in her throat expanded. ‘Maybe you’ll lose. Weddings do tend to be very emotional in the moment.’
‘I’ve got an idea of that already. I don’t know how you do this several times a year.’
‘Emotions are my speciality,’ she said lightly. ‘I hope you brought your forfeit?’ She used a teasing tone to hide her genuine curiosity, but she didn’t expect that he’d be prepared to give her a gemstone. An explanation would be preferable to the object itself. She couldn’t decide which she was more likely to receive.
He hesitated for a moment, a flinch rippling across his facial expression. ‘I did,’ he said evenly.
Sophie wasn’t sure how to respond. She eventually decided on, ‘I hope you remembered to lock the door.’
Straightening her shoulders, Sophie returned to the task at hand, shelving her own angst for the time being. Setting the camera to record video, she clipped it back into her vest and hefted the oar again as Andreas steered them effortlessly after Kira. They paddled lazily away from Riva heading south-west, where the cliff faces ranged steeply up out of the water. Orientation was different on the lake and although Sophie knew that the mountain slanting up on the shore behind them was Monte Brione, Riva’s landmark peak, she’d lost her grip on north and south.
As the cliff faces drew nearer – or their little boats drew nearer to the cliffs, but movement felt relative to Sophie out on the water – the steel terrace of an abandoned building came into focus, clinging to the rock. It was draped in vines and a rusty sign that read backwards from this angle announced it was a hotel, or had been at some point in the past.
Kira steered for the hotel and then veered right, heading for a low arch supporting a hiking and cycling trail above.
‘We’re going in there?’ she asked, turning to Andreas with wide eyes.
A smile pulled up one side of his mouth as he nodded. ‘The Ponale waterfall is only accessible from the lake.’
Her breath caught as she gazed at the imposing rock walls. The water seemed to draw the boats towards the opening under the arch. She told herself that couldn’t be the case, as the water was flowing out into the lake and not the other way, but there was nevertheless a sense of being inexorably drawn to the secret entrance of a mythical place.
The group was silent as the rushing water grew louder. Sophie squinted against the sunlight, searching for the waterfall that must be the source of the sound, but she saw only rocks and vines. Then Kira slipped between two outcroppings and disappeared into the shadows. One by one, the other boats followed, punctuated by gasps and shouts of delight from the hen party.
‘Here we go,’ Andreas said, paddling strongly against the current and steering the light craft around a protruding rock and under a lush vine.
Then Sophie caught sight of the waterfall. Through a fissure, she could make out the cascade of water glowing white in the dappled sunlight from far above, tumbling into a rippling pool.
Kira got out of her kayak in the shallows and helped Lucia and Katie to navigate the narrow opening between the rocks. Sophie leaned forward and gazed upwards. It was a cave of sorts, partially open to admit light from above, but secluded in the rock face so it was barely visible from the outside. The inside was airy and sun-kissed, the shallow water shimmering aqua, the pale stone covered in places with moss and vivid-green epiphytes.
Andreas manoeuvred through the opening using his hands to push off the rock and jumped smoothly out of the kayak into calf-deep water, holding his hand out to help Sophie do the same. She hesitated, remembering her rather juvenile jealousy when they put the boats in and wishing it could be just the two of them in this place.
‘I won’t bite, Sophie,’ he said softly.
Giving him a narrow look, she put her hands in his and slipped her feet into the water, appreciating the delicious cool on her skin after the harsh sunlight. ‘Arse last, I’m assuming?’ she muttered.
He smiled faintly. ‘You got it.’
They were very much not alone. The cavern echoed with exclamations from the guests, which would usually have filled Sophie with satisfaction.
‘It’s amazing!’
‘So beautiful! We could be on a tropical island!’
The little humph that Andreas made coaxed a smile on to Sophie’s lips. ‘A tropical island would be too hot, right?’ she teased.
‘And too sandy,’ he said with a nod.
‘Südtiroler don’t like to go too far from home.’
‘Why would you need to?’
He pushed the boat to the side of the cave and sloshed back to where the hen party stood around the waterfall, raising their arms in the spray and laughing. ‘Is anyone going under it?’
Kira stepped through, pausing to let the heavy gush pummel her shoulders, then emerged out the other side with a whoop, shaking her hair back.
‘I’ll do it!’
The hens took turns to run through the waterfall, squealing at the shock of the cool temperature and the pressure of the water. Lily held up her arms, a wide grin on her face.
‘Wow, I have to come back here with Roman!’
‘Ah,’ said Lucia, with a pained smile on her face. ‘That’s love, huh? You haven’t really seen anything until the other one has seen it too.’
Sophie bit her lip as the poignant words pricked her. Her gaze strayed to Andreas and she jumped when she found his eyes already on her. He quickly looked away, staring up into the patch of sky visible at the top of the waterfall.
He’d seen many things without her – would see many more things without her. So why had he looked at her as though he’d stood at the top of a mountain and wanted to show her the view?
She enjoyed her own view five minutes later when Andreas shrugged out of his life vest and took his turn under the waterfall. He stood under the cold spray as though it were a luxury multi-head shower system at a five-star hotel. A cold waterfall fed from his precious mountains probably was his preferred method for washing. She took her time, inclining her head to take in every detail of muscle: not just the biceps, that continually attracted attention, but also the triceps on the back, thick and overdeveloped like the rest of his arm muscles.
Sophie marvelled that he had such a capable body, built to survive the impossible, but with his own emotions, he was lost.
‘We’re going to have a lot of footage of Andreas on there, aren’t we?’
Sophie whirled to face Lily, approaching from the side. She blinked, glancing down at the camera clipped to her life vest, as her cheeks heated. ‘Sorry,’ she whispered, hurriedly switching it off.
‘It’s fine,’ Lily said with a chuckle. ‘But when are you going to tell him how you feel?’
‘Oh, I’m—’ She swallowed. ‘Not,’ she finished. ‘I tried that once and it didn’t end well.’
Lily briefly grasped her arm. ‘But that wasn’t the end,’ she pointed out.
‘Your turn, Sophie!’ Andreas called out, deepening her blush even though he couldn’t have heard anything Lily had said over the sound of the water.
‘Yeah, Sophie!’ Lily added with a whoop, laughing when Sophie scowled at her and shook her head.
Andreas strode through the water with enough purpose for Sophie to take a wary step back, but when he paused, his eyebrows raised, she allowed him to tug her in the direction of the pounding waterfall.
But instead of dragging her all the way there, he slipped an arm around her waist and hauled her up against him, making her squeak. His skin was slippery and warm. His hold was firm. And although she squeezed her eyes shut and cringed as the first drops of water stung her skin, she also laughed, the action bubbling up from the mixed-up place deep inside.
‘Argh, cazzo!’ she squealed as the water drenched her, dumping onto her back and battering her head.
Just as quickly as it started, it stopped again, as Andreas bore her to the other side of the waterfall where only steaming spray remained. Hoisting her up higher in his arms, he kissed her – light and fleeting and nowhere near enough.
‘How was that for flirting?’
A smile stretched on her lips. ‘Not bad for a beginner.’
‘That should stop the others anyway,’ he said with finality.
‘Is that what that stunt was about?’
‘Partly. Mostly, I just wanted a kiss.’