Chapter 23
23
ROSE
Rose raced around her bedroom, throwing all her clothes into the small suitcase she’d borrowed from Luna when she arrived.
It was time to head back to England, time to get back to her clients.
If she thought about Ben anymore, her head – or heart – were going to explode.
She wasn’t running away, she just…
Didn’t want to be here anymore.
Her mobile pinged from the other room, and she went to pick it up.
There were multiple messages from her parents.
She really had to deal with them soon.
Their weddings were only a few weeks away and she had to decide which one she was going to attend.
Ben was wrong: they needed her help, this had nothing to do with being manipulated – and she definitely wasn’t stuck.
Irritated, she dropped the phone back on the bed and brushed her fingertips across her temples.
She had a headache starting, but it was nothing compared to the pain in her heart.
She heard a cry and spun around trying to identify the source.
Then another voice yelled something in Italian.
Was it Marco? It took Rose a few seconds to realise the shouting was coming from outside.
She quickly went to the balcony.
From here, Rose could see Isabella and Cesare.
The older man was on his hands and knees, waving towards the olive grove, while Isabella shook her head vigorously.
Watching them, Rose felt a churn of sympathy.
It was obvious that Marco’s grandfather wanted to show off the new olive tree shoots.
But it looked like Isabella was too angry with him to care.
You’re like a wrecking ball, determined to break whatever doesn’t fit your rigid ideal.
It’s learned behaviour, you don’t believe any relationship will work.
For a Love Doctor, you really don’t have a clue about love.
Ben’s words echoed around Rose’s mind and she choked back a tear.
It wasn’t true. But maybe she could prove that to herself and Ben before leaving for England?
She’d promised to speak to Isabella, after all.
When Rose reached the garden, the couple were standing outside their respective houses, still glaring at each other.
‘You have to tell her to come to the olive grove,’ Cesare begged Rose, switching to English as he saw her approach.
‘I’m not going anywhere with you,’ Isabella spat back.
‘Go back to your phone, old man.’ With that, she turned on her heels and stumbled into the house.
Cesare let out a pitiful sigh and muttered something about being a stupid old fool, before he headed to his own house with his shoulders slumped, leaving Rose feeling wretched for them both.
The garden fell silent.
What would her rules say?
Rose rubbed her temples again.
Get the couple to open up and talk.
A marriage didn’t end because of a dead olive tree – her years of experience had taught her that at least. There was definitely something else bothering Isabella, something she hadn’t admitted to yet.
Rose took in a deep breath and glanced back at the villa.
Her bag was packed, and it would be so much easier to find Luna and simply escape.
But something was telling her it wasn’t time to leave yet.
Isabella was sitting at a table in her kitchen when Rose approached the open doorway.
She hovered for a moment, watching as the older woman tried to stick fragments of the broken fertility statue back together.
The figure’s head looked a little skew-whiff and there were a lot of pieces missing.
A shard fell off and the older woman cursed and dropped her head into her hands.
‘Are you okay?’
Isabella glanced up and took in Rose, her steely expression returning.
‘ Sì .’ She sounded defensive.
‘You want coffee or wine?’ she snapped, waving at the light blue chairs surrounding the small wooden table, indicating Rose should use one.
‘Coffee please, black,’ Rose said, pulling out the seat furthest from the statue.
It might be broken, but she wasn’t taking any chances.
Isabella grinned as she put a mug in front of Rose perhaps sensing her thoughts.
It was the first time Rose had seen the older woman do anything but frown, and she thought she could see glimmers of the smiling woman she remembered from the photo Ben had shown her in the Citroen.
Had that just been a few days ago?
It felt like a lifetime.
Rose sighed.
‘Problem?’ Isabella asked, her eyes pinning Rose as she took her seat again.
‘I heard you fighting with Ben when I was in the garden today.’ She narrowed her gaze.
‘He is un brav’uomo – a good man – this is rare.
’ Her eyes momentarily darted to the wall that separated her house from her husband’s and she frowned.
‘I’m fine,’ Rose said lightly.
‘But I know something’s troubling you.
’ She let the words sink between them.
She knew from her work with clients that getting people to open up took time.
Time she didn’t have.
She didn’t want to bump into Ben again which meant she needed to find Luna and leave soon.
There was no point in rehashing old ground or raking over new hurts.
She was simply too raw.
‘I’m fine too,’ Isabella said softly, her crooked mouth, signalling she knew Rose was lying.
‘Okay, Ben and I did have an argument,’ Rose muttered.
A little tit for tat wouldn’t hurt.
‘ Sì ,’ Isabella said, her expression wily.
‘As did Cesare and me.’
‘About the tree,’ Rose checked.
‘Or something else?’ She waited, but the older woman simply picked up the glue and stuck what looked like an arm back on the statue, only it was the wrong way up.
‘I should give you a job as a relationship coach, you’d get everyone to talk,’ Rose said grumpily after a lengthy silence.
‘If I tell you, will you tell me?’ she asked.
Isabella gave Rose a toothy grin, her wrinkles stretching across her face.
Rose sighed giving in.
‘Marco asked Ben to keep me occupied while I was here and—’ She swallowed because the idea that it had all just been a trick really hurt.
‘He did.’
‘Occupied.’ The older woman cocked her head, her blue eyes brighter now.
‘He seemed happy enough to be occupied, leonessa . He seemed happy with you, and this is new for him. Are you sure he listened to my foolish nipote – grandson,’ she translated.
‘Or did he do what was in his own heart?’
Rose’s stomach churned and she couldn’t respond.
Ben’s denials had fallen on deaf ears.
She’d forgotten one of her biggest rules, the one that said you should hear someone out.
‘You know love turns us all into idiots,’ the older woman said sympathetically, reading her mind again.
‘Sometimes.’ Rose leaned forward.
‘But Ben says I don’t know anything about love.
’ The words almost glued themselves to her tongue, perhaps because she suspected he might be right?
For all her rules, what did she really know?
She’d never been in love and had spent a lifetime finding fault with it.
Because she was afraid.
Afraid of so much.
More of Ben’s accusations flooded her head, filling her with shame.
Maybe it’s just easier for you to watch a relationship burn from the sidelines, to criticise and find things wrong while expounding your unrealistic rules…
That way you can pick and pick away until there’s nothing left.
That way you never get hurt and you’re never in the wrong.
Is that what she’d done with Marco and then Ben?
Expected them to repeat the patterns her parents had taught her?
Rose’s stomach sank.
‘Do any of us know about love?’ Isabella asked, her eyes fixed on Rose’s face.
‘The question isn’t what we know, it’s what we’re prepared to do to fix things when they break.
’ Her face sagged as her attention flickered to the wall again as she clearly recognised what she’d just said.
‘ If things can be fixed, that is…’ Her gaze drifted to the statue, and she shook her head.
‘Not everything can,’ she said huskily.
‘Was it just about the tree burning down?’ Rose blurted.
‘I mean is that the only reason you and Cesare fell out?’
She had nothing to lose.
Isabella was either going to open up or she wasn’t, and she didn’t have much time to find out.
Rose thought the older woman wasn’t going to answer for a moment because she simply picked up her coffee and took a slow sip, her gaze thoughtful.
‘No,’ she said eventually.
‘Then what is it?’ Rose asked.
When Isabella raised an eyebrow, Rose sighed and her attention fixed on the statue knowing she’d have to confide too if she wanted her to talk.
‘If I thought what happened with Ben was real, I’d try to fix it,’ she said slowly, the words emerging from her mouth before her brain could stop them.
‘If it feels real, it probably is.’ Isabella sighed.
‘Besides, some things are meant to be mended.’ She paused.
‘Ben is a good boy. He was hurt once, and he’s not someone who would want to do the same to someone else.
Aurora’s crystal ball predicted you are supposed to be together, and she told me Aldo says the same.
’
‘ Aldo ,’ Rose snorted, shaking her head.
For a man who didn’t exist he seemed to have a lot of opinions about her life.
‘What upset you?’ Surely, it was her turn to ask a question again?
Isabella put the glue down.
‘I am sad the tree is dead, but I am sadder my husband is gone,’ she confided, her cheeks flushing.
‘Gone where?’ Rose asked.
Cesare was living next door.
‘He has replaced me.’ The older woman’s voice was flat.
‘With whom?’ Rose asked.
Surely, he hadn’t had an affair?
He didn’t seem the type.
Then again, her father didn’t and he’d had them over and over again.
‘He left me for his phone,’ Isabella declared, her lips stiffening.
‘There is no room for me in his life now.’
‘ Ah …’ Understanding finally dawned.
Hadn’t Marco mentioned he’d got the mobile for his grandad?
And hadn’t the family joked about his crossword obsession?
Cesare had been on his phone when the tree had burned down.
The link was obvious.
Isabella had mentioned it enough times, Rose should have picked up on it before.
Rose grabbed the glue from the table and sucked in a breath, telling herself to be brave.
She carefully plucked up the statue’s foot before fixing it back on.
‘You’re right, some things can and should be fixed, Nonna .
You just have to know when to try and when to walk away.
’
After leaving Isabella, Rose went to speak with Cesare about Isabella’s revelations and what he might need to do to put things right.
He listened and nodded, but she wasn’t sure if he’d do what was necessary, but for now it was out of her hands.
After that, she searched the garden, olive grove and half of the house before she finally found Marco.
He was sitting on the stairs she’d found Luna on earlier with his head in his hands.
Beside him on the step she saw a steaming mug.
‘Marco,’ Rose said as she approached and saw him look up and blink a few times.
‘Do you know where Luna is?’
‘No.’ He picked up the full cup and stood.
‘I thought she’d left with you.
’ He turned and gazed up the steps.
‘Is she still here? I’ve checked all the bedrooms…
’ He turned back to Rose and frowned.
‘Not that I expect you to tell me.’ He cleared his throat, looking embarrassed.
‘Luna told me what you’d overheard.
I’m sorry.’ He shook his head, and a flop of brown hair fell onto his forehead, making him look less polished than usual.
More vulnerable. ‘It was all me, not Ben.’ He winced.
‘I’m the imbecile.’
‘Seems to be a theme,’ Rose said dryly.
‘You can’t blame Ben for what happened,’ Marco insisted.
‘I know I’ve messed everything up with Luna.
’ His forehead creased.
‘The irony is, I was trying so hard not to lose her that I ruined everything.’ He took a small step closer.
‘I love her so much; she’s perfect, kind, an incredible businessperson and she always knows the right thing to say.
’
‘She does,’ Rose agreed.
‘I don’t have enough words in my head to explain how much she means to me.
I was afraid if we delayed getting married, if you talked her into postponing, that she’d have time to realise I’m not really good enough for her.
’ He sighed, sounding sad.
‘I can be uptight and boring. She’s so easy to be around, so much fun – I wanted to marry her from the first day we met.
I want to make her happy and I can’t bear the idea of not being with her for the rest of my life.
’ He pushed the strands of hair from his eyes, which were filled with emotion.
‘I suppose I have to get used to it now.’
He grimaced.
‘I knew the wedding was rushed, but once I got the idea and she said yes to my proposal, I couldn’t let it go.
’ His shoulders sagged.
‘I just—’ He sighed.
‘The date doesn’t really matter.
I shouldn’t have pushed, and I definitely shouldn’t have asked Ben to keep you out of Luna’s way.
Especially since I know you only had her best interests at heart.
Blame it on me being an idiot – please don’t blame Ben,’ he pleaded.
‘For what it’s worth, he told me he wouldn’t distract you.
I honestly think whatever happened between you was genuine.
I’ve never seen him as upset as he was when you argued.
Not even after Sophia.
’
‘I think I saw what I wanted to see,’ Rose admitted.
A lifetime spent watching her parents’ toxic relationships had taught her to look for problems. Ben had been right.
‘Rather than seeing what was there.’ She sighed and watched Marco sip some of the liquid from the mug and wince.
‘It’s tea,’ he said when she raised an eyebrow.
‘I think I’m learning to like it.
’ He sipped again and shuddered.
Rose smiled. He was trying; he really did love her friend.
How could she not have seen that?
‘Do you still want to get married?’ she asked and watched Marco’s eyes light up.
‘Of course I do,’ he said emphatically.
‘But Luna’s determined to call off the wedding.
Nonna ’s refusing to attend, Luna’s mother is going to miss her flight because she’s lost her grandmother’s necklace.
It’s hopeless. You might be the Love Doctor, but I’m not even sure you can fix all that.
’
‘You just worry about getting everything ready. The rest you can leave with me,’ she promised.
Marco jerked his chin, looking less than convinced.
But instead of commenting, he took another quick sip of tea and pulled a face.