Chapter Nineteen #2
Although his first impulse was to observe that it was usually why people rang each other, Leo said, ‘Oh? Now that you’ve been arrested driving a stolen vehicle, you mean?
And now the police have got hold of you, you’re facing an enquiry into who emptied a few bank accounts?
’ The bank might be close-mouthed about the details, but Leo didn’t see why he shouldn’t shake Teddy’s tree to see what fell out.
Teddy coughed. ‘I realise that I acted badly and you have every reason to be angry.’ He sniffed, theatrically.
‘Things seemed to get out of hand. Bad company and all that. I acknowledge my failings.’ He paused.
Leo remained silent, hiding his satisfaction that Teddy had all but confessed, but wondering where the hell the conversation was going.
Teddy became ingratiating. ‘I’m hoping that our relationship will mean something to you. ’
Leo’s jaw dropped. ‘What relationship?’
‘Well.’ Teddy sounded surprised. ‘I was like a father-in-law to you. I know you and Isabella weren’t exactly married . . .’ He gave an embarrassed harrumph.
‘I never thought of you that way,’ Leo said stonily, and not completely truthfully. At first, he’d welcomed his girlfriend’s father, the fabled figure that Isabella had been so overwhelmingly excited at meeting again.
‘Oh.’ Teddy clearly hadn’t expected Leo to be so blunt.
One of the group of businessmen arrived with a tray of shots and every man took two, one in each hand. Leo hoped they weren’t going to get rowdy. Villa Panorama didn’t usually attract the type. ‘Why have you called?’ he said into the phone.
Teddy emitted a long sigh and abandoned his wheedling. ‘I may have no right, but I’m asking you not to press charges. Things are getting sticky.’
Leo snorted. ‘If anyone presses charges, I expect it to be the UK police and my bank. And Isabella’s. Have you asked her about charges, too?’ He hoped not. Isabella had received a horrible return for her love for her dad and deserved not to be pressured.
Sulkily Teddy responded, ‘She won’t speak to me.’
The group of men chanted something in a language Leo didn’t understand, and each sank first one shot and then the other.
‘Well, you did shit all over our relationship, abandon her and steal her money.’ Switching his attention to his own table, he noticed Sheenagh regarding him with the same eyebrows-raised reproof with which she’d met Ferdinando’s earlier tactlessness.
Jade wasn’t looking his way, but her colour was heightened.
Inwardly he winced, because, yeah, it probably had been clumsy to sound injured over the end of things with Isabella.
Swiftly, he added, ‘But that’s the past and I’ve moved on.
I don’t see how I can help you, but I will help the police if I can.
’ He ended the call with a satisfied stab at the screen.
Returning to his seat, he took Jade’s hand and squeezed it. ‘Bloody Teddy.’ He recounted the gist of Teddy’s request – which meant filling Erin and Rosalie in on the grubby fact that it was his ex-girlfriend’s dad who’d cleared out Leo’s bank accounts.
‘Holy shit,’ said Erin.
Rosalie widened her eyes incredulously.
‘I didn’t enter into negotiations,’ Leo said shortly.
Sheenagh looked pleased. ‘Of course not.’
Ferdinando shook his head. ‘Impossibile.’
The telephone call left Leo unsettled. Then he was angry at himself for allowing that.
Teddy had blown up Leo’s life in England and Leo shouldn’t let him cast a pall over things now that everything seemed to be going the right way.
His bank accounts were about to be refilled.
He hadn’t planned on a return to Como, but now he was happy to be here.
And his first love was beside him, taking his hand reassuringly beneath the table, even more lovable and kind as a grown woman than she had been on the threshold of womanhood.
He dipped his head so that his lips were close to her ear, enjoying the light brush of her hair like satin on his skin. ‘Can we send your sisters back to Three Sisters without you and spend time together later?’
When she turned her head to look into his eyes, the gold flecks in hers gleamed her interest.
‘They won’t mind,’ he murmured encouragingly.
‘Just as well as I don’t need their permission.’ She stared into his face assessingly, then winked, and whispered something to Erin. Erin gave a discreet nod and in turn whispered to Rosalie. Rosalie leaned forward to grin at Leo and Jade, and gave them a much less discreet thumbs-up.
Over the next hour, the group of drinking men became increasingly loud and finally Sheenagh shook her head and picked up her bag.
‘I must be growing old, because these guys are annoying me into leaving.’ But she sent Leo a sly smile, and he realised that his mum wanted to leave him with Jade and knew her departure was likely to break up the party – which it did.
Before too long, everyone had said buonanotte and he was strolling through the gardens, Jade’s hand in his as the darkness closed around them, the scent of the recent storms rising from the grass, the drone of insects serenading them home. Jade was quiet.
Gently, he dropped a kiss on her hair. ‘I hope it didn’t seem weird, me talking to Teddy about breaking up with Isabella.’
She seemed to chew over his question. ‘Yes and no. No, because I know you were with Isabella for years and the break-up was bound to hurt you, and remain painful. No, again, as the man you were speaking to was her dad. But . . .’ She hesitated.
‘It reminded me how new this is between us and how recently you were committed to her. It introduced a fresh perspective.’
Alarm heightening his senses, he studied her profile in the dimness of the nighttime garden, but it was difficult with only meagre lanterns beside the path, almost as ineffective as the fireflies flickering into life beside a well-trimmed shrub.
‘You and I were together sixteen years ago, so maybe we could consider our relationship “renewed” rather than “new”? So far as my commitment to Isabella’s concerned, it’s been over for ages.
Circumstances meant I had to remain on the premises of the Black Falcon, that’s all. ’
Her head tilted consideringly. ‘OK. Just trying to keep things honest while we’re seeing each other.’
He didn’t like the ‘while’ in that sentence, but lifted her hand to kiss it. ‘I’d like to see a lot of you.’ He tilted his head in the direction of Villetta Nascosta and lifted a suggestive eyebrow.
‘Sounds delicious. So long as I can see a lot of you too.’ The corners of her mouth lifted alluringly.
He grinned, heat flaring in his groin. ‘Happy to leave the lights on.’
So, he soon found out, was Jade.
But he lay awake later, rerunning that tentative, unsettling conversation in his head and wondering if Jade was keeping a wall around her heart, in case he hurt her again. If so, he couldn’t really blame her. It was up to him to show he could be relied upon.