Page 91 of In Italy for Love

Coming to a stop in front of him, she lifted her chin and looked him square in the face and he couldn’t believe he’d ever doubted how much she meant to him. Then she gave him a shove with both hands, hard enough to make him stagger.

‘All this time I’ve been trying to get over you!’

‘I hope your efforts were as unsuccessful as me trying not to fall in love with you in the first place.’

‘What about everything you’ve left behind? You can’t justmovehere!’

Taking a risk, he grazed his thumb along her forearm and gripped it lightly. ‘It turns out Australia needs draughtsmen. I’ve got an invitation to apply for a working visa and I can stay temporarily for now. Berengario is looking after Attila and Arco,but we can pick up both of them in a few months. I think they’re kind of attached to each other – although Attila pretends they aren’t.’

Her lips wobbled. ‘You don’t know anything about Australia.’

‘I knowyou’rehere.’

‘But Laura isn’t.’

The caution in her tone both broke his heart and melted it. ‘Yes, she is,’ he contradicted her gently. ‘I carry her around with me, it seems. She doesn’t have to haunt our old home town – and neither do I. It turns out I’m not dead, not even a little bit.’ The frantic beat of his heart was proof of that.

She gripped his shirt in her fist, staring at it. ‘Aren’t you afraid? What if something happens to one of us?’ Her brow twisted and every little thing she did reminded him of why he loved her.

Taking her face in his hands, he said softly, ‘I’m sorry I held back from you for so long – and I’m so sorry I convinced you I was done with love after Laura.’ He paused, holding her gaze until the familiar sparks zipped along his skin. ‘I’m not done with love. The way I feel about you is proof, no matter how much I pretended it wasn’t happening. Yes, I’m afraid. But I want to be with you long enough that somethingdoeshappen to one of us.’

Her eyes crashed shut and her forehead fell to his shoulder and he marvelled at how stupid he’d been to deny that this was his future – their future – to think he could stop himself falling in love with her.

‘I wantlifewith you,’ he said softly. ‘And if that means death parts us, then… that’s just the way things are.’

‘God, damn it, Alex. You keep breaking my heart,’ she said with a choke.

‘I don’t mean to— I don’twantto.’

‘Aw, enough with the psychoanalysis and get onto the good bit! Some of us got up in the middle of the night for this!’

Alex snapped his head up in surprise. They found Alice holding out a phone.

‘Berengario?’

Jules snorted a laugh. ‘It seems everyone knows everyone – even outside of Friuli.’

The little image on the screen showed Berengario squinting back at them from Alex’s kitchen, Elena and Maddalena in the background and a silhouette of Attila on the windowsill. A bark sounded, an enthusiastic exclamation mark from Arco at hearing the voices of his pack.

‘I can’t get away from my nosy neighbours, even when I come to Australia,’ he said wryly.

‘A good thing too!’ Berengario called back. ‘If it had been up to you, you’d be moping around here with only a cat for company, being grumpy to your guests!’

‘Excuse me, I’m the one who decided not to wait for the visa and come immediately.’

‘You’re just impatient,’ Berengario quipped. ‘What do you know about romance? You can’t even tell a woman you love her! Young people these days think they don’t need any advice from their elders, when?—’

Jules rolled her eyes and then her hands came up to Alex’s cheeks, turning him firmly to face her. She hopped up on her toes and kissed him. Sharp and hot, the relief in the kiss – the comfort, the intimacy – flooded him. He held her tight and the world around him faded, his focus narrowed to this woman in his arms, this love. He was dimly aware of cheering and applause from the AGM of the Fogolâr Furlan, but he drew out the kiss a little longer.

When they reluctantly broke apart, hesitating for a few mingled breaths to decide if they could get away with doing that again – at least that was how he interpreted the twinkle in her eyes – the words flowed out of their own accord: ‘I love you,Jules.’ Another cheer, drowning out Berengario’s dry comment over the video call. ‘Ti voglio bene,’ Alex repeated in Italian with a growing smile. ‘Ti vuei ben,’ he continued, to more applause from the strangers watching their reunion. ‘That’s Furlan,’ he explained.

‘I got it,’ she said with her own wobbly smile. ‘What was it? Ti vuei ben?’ she repeated slowly.

He nodded, watching her, waiting, enjoying the suspense because he could already see the truth in her damp eyes.

Then she poked him. ‘Ti vuei ben, Alessandro Mattelig. History and all.’ The poke became a shove. ‘I love you – way more than is sensible. Wherever we are, I don’t want to be without you ever again.’

As the first tear fell with a hiccough, he gathered her up and soaked up her words. ‘You won’t be without me. I’m here. If you’ll let me be where you are, I’ll stay.’

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