Chapter 30
The next few days flew by. Amy set up her office in her father’s study and after a lot of soul-searching she finally gave in to Max’s persistent demands to be allowed to be up there with her. On Monday she went shopping and bought two dog beds – one for downstairs and one for upstairs in the study – but it came as no surprise to find him stretched out on the wooden floor beside her bed every morning all the same. She didn’t tell him off. It was good to have his company and as long as he didn’t try and climb into the bed with her again, she was quite happy.
She spent several hours phoning around or calling in on friends – not forgetting all the wonderful tradesmen – to invite them to Thursday’s party and she was delighted to find that almost everybody was prepared to come. When she was visiting Rosa and Vincenzo’s home, she received an excellent suggestion from her.
‘Why don’t you have a word with Giuliano at the restaurant and see if he can lay on the food for Thursday night? He’s done it for us in the past. His charges are very reasonable and it’ll save you an awful lot of bother.’
Amy did just that and came away from the restaurant later on feeling relieved. As far as she could count, there were going to be well over twenty people coming and she had been dreading all the preparation and cooking that would have been involved. This way she could carry on with her work, which looked as if it was only going to occupy a few hours of each day, and she would have plenty of time to go shopping for essentials ranging from plates and napkins, bottles of spirits, beer, mixers, to a selection of nibbles and nuts.
On Tuesday evening, she had just finished mopping all of the floor downstairs and she was sprawled on the sofa resting and recuperating, trying to summon up the energy to get up and make herself a snack, when the doorbell rang. Max, who had not been involved in any of the cleaning just glanced up from his recumbent position on the mat, yawned, and left it to her to heave herself to her feet and go and see who it was. She opened the door and her heart leapt.
‘Ciao, bella. I’m back!’
She gawped at him in disbelief. ‘Adam? I thought you weren’t coming back till Thursday.’ Before he could answer, she stepped forward and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek, doing her best to ignore the little electric charge that went through her as she touched him. ‘Come in, come in.’
He followed her inside and closed the door behind him. Max, realising who it was, jumped to his feet and came across to give him a warm welcome. Adam bent down to make a fuss of him and spoke to Amy over his shoulder. ‘To be honest, we were supposed to be there for another couple of days, but I cut the trip short.’
‘Why was that? Did you get caught up in the fighting?’
Before he could answer, her phone started ringing and she gave him an apologetic look before answering it. It was Lucy with some good news. Amy had sent her an invitation to Thursday night’s party without any great expectation of her being able to come all the way to Tuscany, but it now appeared that this wasn’t going to be a problem after all.
‘I’ll see you on Thursday. Jack’s flying me over. By the way, is it all right if I bring him?’
‘Of course it is, I’m dying to meet him, and there’s bags of room here. What’s he doing? Chartering his own aircraft?’
‘No, he’s just swapped with another pilot on the Pisa run that day and I’ll fly over with him that afternoon and back again first thing next morning.’
‘I’ll come and pick you up from the airport.’
‘Don’t worry, Jack says he gets a special deal from a rental agency so we’ll make our own way there and back. Be with you about six.’ Lucy then unwittingly put Amy on the spot. ‘How are things with you and your man? Have you done the deal yet?’
Amy chose her words carefully. ‘Adam’s here with me at the moment. Hopefully he’ll be at the party and you can meet him.’
‘Do I deduce from your cautious tone that you still haven’t followed my advice? Either you’ve got far more self-control than I have, or you’re getting old.’
‘I’m six months younger than you and you’d better remember that. Anyway, must rush, I’m really pleased you’re coming on Thursday and with your very own pilot as well. Swanky.’ And she hastily rang off before Lucy could ask any more embarrassing questions. Returning her attention to Adam, who was now squatting on the rug alongside the dog, fighting over possession of one of the logs by the fireplace, she pointed towards the kitchen.
‘I’ve got a fridge full of fizz. Feel like a glass?’
He looked up and smiled. ‘As long as I’m not disturbing you.’ In spite of the smile, he was looking a bit less confident, a bit more insecure than usual, and she wondered what this might presage.
‘Definitely not.’ She went through to the kitchen and, as always, the slight squeak when she opened the fridge door reached the whole length of the house to Max’s acutely tuned food-oriented Labrador hearing and he abandoned the log and came trotting through just in case there might be food on offer. Adam followed behind a bit more slowly.
‘Here, I’ll do that.’ He took the bottle from her and whistled as he saw the label. ‘Wow, real French champagne. Are you celebrating something?’
‘I don’t know if you’ve spoken to your brother yet, but I’m having a party on Thursday night and you’re invited. I’m celebrating the fact that I finally made up my mind to leave London and settle here in Sant’Antonio.’
‘No, I haven’t seen Danny yet and, yes, I’ll be delighted to come to your party. Let me know if I can bring anything or do anything to help.’ He opened the bottle and filled the two glasses she had set on the table. Picking up his glass, he held it out towards her. ‘Cheers, I can’t tell you how pleased I am that you’re going to settle here. Have you managed to figure out how you’re going to spend your time?’
She explained to him about her new role in the company and his enthusiastic reaction was the same as his brother’s. ‘It sounds as though you’ve got your life mapped out. I’m so glad for you.’
She was desperately curious to ask him about his former fiancée, but she knew it wouldn’t be appropriate – at least not yet. Instead, she just clinked her glass against his and took a sip before changing the subject. ‘So how come you decided to cut short the Somalia trip? Did you run into trouble?’
He looked uncomfortable. ‘No, it all went well and we got some excellent footage but…’ She saw him take another mouthful of wine. ‘…to be completely honest, the reason I came home early was you.’
‘Me?’ Her ears pricked up.
He nodded. ‘I got a text from Danny telling me about your decision to settle down here and I knew I had to come back and see you, to speak to you.’ He was still looking very insecure and she took pity on him.
‘It’s a beautiful evening. Why don’t we take our wine outside into the garden and you can say what you want to say.’ She led him out through the French windows to the bench under the palm tree and they sat down side by side. Max trotted out behind them and slumped down at their feet. The sun was starting to drop towards the horizon and there was a sweet scent of pollen in the air – accompanied by a continuous background buzz of bees. Apart from that, there was near perfect silence. Even without Adam and any possible revelations he might have, it would have been lovely out here, and she could feel a smile forming on her face. She settled back and glanced sideways at him. ‘Feel like telling me what’s on your mind?’
He answered immediately. ‘You. You’re what’s on my mind and you’ve been on my mind ever since I first saw you sitting outside the Corona Grossa that time.’
He hesitated, but Amy didn’t interrupt his train of thought, not least because she had a feeling she might find it hard to speak. Her mouth had suddenly dried as she began to register what might be happening. It sounded as if he was in a similar state as she heard him clear his throat before speaking.
‘All the time I was over there in Somalia, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. The idea that you had effectively disappeared from my life was unbearable. How could I have been so stupid as to let you go off without saying anything? I couldn’t concentrate on my work; I was a mess.’ He had been looking down at the dog but now he raised his head and caught her eye. ‘I like you a lot, Amy.’
She took a sip of wine and struggled to reply in even tones. Her mind and her heart were racing and she felt as though she was going to be swept away by a tsunami of emotion. ‘Well, I like you too, but I wasn’t so sure about how you felt towards me. You’ve kept any feelings pretty well hidden.’
‘I had to; it wouldn’t have been fair on either of us.’
After what she had heard about Jennifer, Amy felt sure she knew what he was talking about but she let him tell it his way.
‘For the last nine years, ever since I set up the company, I’ve been focusing on building it up and making it a success.’ He paused for a moment and she saw his fingers twisting and turning nervously. ‘A few years ago, back in LA, I met a girl. We got engaged but we ended up splitting up because of my job. The only thing that mattered to me back then, more than anything else, was my work. I felt that way right up until a few weeks ago when I first set eyes on you. Don’t laugh, but in the darkest moments over in Amazonia, with snakes all around and the constant assault of vicious bugs, it was the thought of you that kept my spirits up. All the time over this past week in Somalia, when I thought I’d lost you forever, I’ve been unable to concentrate on the job in hand. When I got the message from Danny saying that you’d come back again to stay, it felt as if something had exploded inside me. I knew what I had to do.’
‘And what was that?’
‘I had to tell you how I felt.’
‘And how do you feel?’
He reached over and caught hold of one of her hands and squeezed it gently. ‘I want you in my life, Amy, if you’ll have me.’
A wave of joy swept through her, but she had to be sure. ‘You are in my life. Maybe not as fully as I would want, but we’re good friends and that’s not going to change. Are you saying you’d like to be more than friends?’
He didn’t say a word; he just gave her hand another little squeeze and nodded his head. Delighted as she was at this admission, Amy needed to be sure.
‘Last week, after three days back at work, I went to my boss to hand in my notice. Do you know why? Because, just like you’ve been describing, I found I couldn’t concentrate fully on the job. I kept thinking about this place, my father, and the friends I’ve made here.’ She placed her free hand on top of his and gave him a little smile. ‘That means you, in case you didn’t know it. The thing is, the way I resolved my dilemma was to change the nature of my job. From what you’ve told me and from what your brother has told me, that’s not something you’re prepared to do.’
‘You don’t understand…’
‘I like you an awful lot, Adam, but you need to know something. My mother screwed up her life for all sorts of reasons, and one of them was that she married a man who was doing a dangerous job, and the job killed him. The idea of allowing myself to get close to somebody like you who’s forever zooming off to one warzone or another is just too frightening for words. I can’t bear the idea of ending up like my mum or…’ She paused, wondering if she should give away what Danny and Pierpaolo had told her before taking the plunge. ‘Or Jennifer.’ She saw his eyes open wide and rushed to explain. ‘The boys told me what happened. It would break my heart. I get that you love your job and that you want the company to thrive and prosper, but I’d prefer to lose you now than to go through what my mum went through – or Jennifer, for that matter.’
She would have said more, but he stopped her. ‘That’s what I came back to tell you, Amy. When I was over there in Somalia I made a decision and I promise I’m going to stick to it. First thing tomorrow morning I’m going to start advertising for a presenter, a roving reporter if you like, somebody who’s prepared to spend a few nomadic years travelling around the globe for the company, dodging the bullets like I’ve been doing. That way I can concentrate on the creative and administrative side of the business – and on you, if you’ll have me.’
Amy’s immediate instinct would have been to throw her arms around him and kiss him madly, pledging her life to him, but something still held her back. She threw out a quick question to see what kind of answer it provoked.
‘You’re saying you’re prepared to change your whole way of life just for me?’
‘That’s pretty much what I’m saying… if you’ll have me.’ He was repeating himself but she barely noticed.
Her head was swimming with the ramifications of what he had just told her. There was a movement by her feet and the next thing she knew there was a heavy Labrador head resting on her lap and a pair of big brown eyes staring up at her in solidarity. She removed one of her hands from Adam’s and gently stroked Max’s ears before looking back at Adam.
‘Have you ever seen Casablanca, the film with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman?’
He looked surprised at the question. ‘Only about two dozen times. It’s one of the greatest movies ever made. Why do you ask?’
She left her other hand in his as she did her best to explain what was worrying her. ‘Right at the end of the movie, when Bergman tells Bogart she’ll leave her husband and stay behind to be with him, Bogey tells her something like, “if you don’t leave now, sooner or later you’re going to regret it.” Does that ring a bell with you?’
He nodded slowly. ‘I remember it well. The screenplay was a masterpiece by a guy called Julius J. Epstein.’ A shadow crossed his face. ‘Are you saying you think this might apply to me? Do you think I’ll regret giving up my current lifestyle for your sake?’
‘That’s exactly what I’m saying. I can’t ask you to give up such a major part of your life. Aren’t you afraid that sooner or later it might start to gnaw at you and rankle with you? It might even make you come to resent me.’ He started to protest but she held up a hand to stop him. ‘Over the past few weeks that I’ve known you, I’ve grown to like you enormously, in fact I suppose the truth is that I think I’ve fallen in love with you, in spite of knowing you for such a short time. My father wrote in his letter to me that when he first set eyes on my mother it was love at first sight for him and I now know exactly what he meant. What I’m afraid of is: what if we get together only for your job to tear us apart? It would break my heart. It might break me.’
She felt his hand squeeze hers reassuringly. ‘I promise you that isn’t going to happen. Just like you’ve been able to modify the job you love so you can come and live here in Sant’Antonio, so I’m going to do exactly the same thing. If it works for you, it can work for me.’ He gave her hand a gentle tug and pulled her towards him. ‘You and your father aren’t the only ones for whom love at first sight was a real thing. I think I love you too, Amy, and I want to spend my life with you.’ Her eyes were already closing in anticipation of the kiss when she heard his voice again. ‘Unless there’s already somebody else in your life.’
A happy smile formed on her face as she pointed down at the Labrador.
‘Love me, love my dog.’