CHAPTER FOUR #3
The markets were busier than the previous day. She handed some money over to him and angled her head to look along the collection of tents. They were all different colours, some selling fruit, others selling cheap trinkets, some with leather jackets and many with wine.
She stopped three shop fronts down and chose a sourdough baguette and a couple of almond croissants, then walked diagonally across to select four perfect dark chocolate truffles. Finally, she purchased a bottle of Prosecco, her lips ghosting into a smile as she remembered the way they’d met.
You will learn to like doing what I say. A shiver ran down her spine now at the arrogant assertion. And yet he’d been right. Kate would have followed him to the ends of the earth.
The basket of the bicycle was overflowing but she made one more stop before turning it back towards the villa.
It was still early. The sun was up, but it was cold.
Too cold to be wearing a flimsy shirt and the jeans he’d been wearing the day before.
She must have looked like a street urchin, she thought with a grin, pushing her fair hair out of her eyes as the bike began to pick up speed.
The ride was not an easy one, for the villa was perched high on a hill and the path wound for several miles at its base before veering steeply up hill.
But at each hairpin turn she had an exquisite vantage point of the countryside below, and the little town quickly took on fairy village proportions.
Even the markets looked a little like an elaborate toy she might have played with as a child.
Her smile was etched onto her face. She could have burst into spontaneous song.
They’d slept in the hammock overnight, quite by accident.
The stars were so clear out in the Tuscan countryside, and the evening though cold was crisp and dry.
With the thick feather duvet from his bed, they’d lain together to look up at the heavens.
Only Kate was exhausted and she’d drifted off to sleep, her head on his chest. She’d slept better than she had done in years.
Something about his proximity made her feel safe and at ease.
She hopped off the bike at the start of the driveway, opting to walk it along the path instead.
If he were still asleep she rather liked the idea of surprising him.
She propped the bike and the basket of goodies against a thick oak tree trunk and tiptoed to the hammock.
But she saw from a distance away that it was empty.
With a frown of disappointment, she put her hands on her hips and looked towards the house.
He was stepping through the front doors at that exact moment and she saw him before he noticed her.
Her heart skipped a beat.
He was wearing the tuxedo again; his hair was wet and brushed back from his face.
His expression was completely unreadable — but she knew he was lost in serious thought, and that the thoughts were not pleasant.
She moved back to the bike and began to ride it up towards the house.
She had almost reached him when finally he looked up.
His smile was perfunctory and did not reach his eyes.
“Good morning,” she put the brake down and stepped off the bike. Though she smiled, anxiety was beginning to brick a wall in her tummy. “You’re up.”
He nodded and ran a hand over his chin. It was stubbled after two days without much in the way of amenity. “I thought we should head off early to beat the traffic.”
“The traffic? It’s a Sunday…”
“No sense in sitting around here.”
“Oh.” She fought the disappointment. “Well, actually, I have a surprise for you.”
“Do you?” Was that impatience in his words? Worry gnawed at her gut.
“Uh huh,” she ploughed on, telling herself she was imagining the coldness.
“I got the most perfect tomatoes and bread; I’m going to make us bruschetta.
And champagne. And also,” she reached into the basket and pulled out a gold packet.
“Really, really good coffee. I could see you weren’t happy with the instant yesterday. ”
He refused to let the kind gesture touch him. Though it was kind. It was thoughtful. But it all spoke of an attachment that was impossible to indulge. “That will all keep. I have packed up the house. It’s time to go.”
At her look of obvious disappointment he strengthened his resolve. “It’s time to get back to reality.”
Kate nodded, but in her mind she was screaming, This is reality! It’s the only reality I’ve ever wanted.
“And what is reality?” She said, doing her best to sound unemotional. But inside, her heart was cracking into tiny pieces.
“The lives we had before this,” he responded as though it were the easiest thing in the world.
She nodded, and handed the bag of groceries to him with more force than was necessary. Her eyes didn’t meet his. “I just have to go and get my …”
“Your dress and shoes are in the car.”
“Oh, right.” She swallowed. “You’ve thought of everything.”
“I need to get back to Roma, cara,” he responded tautly. The word, cara, sat like a heavy indictment between them. She was not his dear one. She was not his sweetness. She was nothing to him.
He opened the front passenger door for her. She paused in the apex he’d created. Her eyes sought his, searching for any sign of the man she’d fallen completely and totally under a spell of.
But he was gone. In his place was the most deliciously handsome stranger she’d ever known, but a stranger nonetheless.
* * *
Augustine was getting too old for this. He jammed his phone into his pocket with a sense of fury that he was finding increasingly difficult to curb. The closer he got to his bitch of a daughter, the more it became a ground swell, threatening to engulf him.
So she’d fallen into bed – literally – with Arnaud. Did she know that he was using her?
Was she trying to hurt him, too?
His fist clenched involuntarily by his side.
He had looked for her for years. He had searched and he had waited, certain that one day she would use her credit card or otherwise stumble.
How she had evaded him he could not have said.
But she would not evade him for much longer.
The doors to the airport swished open automatically as he approached and he scanned the row of uniformed drivers waiting to meet their human cargo.
His own name was emblazoned on a board. He moved towards it with purpose.
His long wait was about to be rewarded.