Page 40 of An Italian Wedding Adventure

But she wasn’t falling. Her hands were firm on the cable. Her feet were planted on rock. The slightly delirious feeling was the world expanding around her, her heart expanding in her chest and her blood pumping. Although the mountain crags rose higher on one side, at the top of this spur, she was surrounded by sky. The world revealed its extremes of colour and form and she was part of it.

‘It’s so damn beautiful up here!’ she blurted out. She couldn’t have stopped herself.

Andreas watched her closely, a grin forming on his lips, and she couldn’t help matching it, laughing because her chest was so tight and she was so full of emotion.

She waited for him to say,I told you so, but he remained silent, studying her with a glow of approval. Giving her upper arm a quick squeeze, he pressed a kiss to her cheek – softer and more tender than the smacking congratulatory peck she would have expected, but nowhere near enough to settle the flutter she’d been experiencing since he’d kissed her properly two nights ago.

The other climbers were right behind them and without any more time to examine the threads of emotion coiling inside her, Sophie moved further along to make space.

‘It’s probably safe enough here to unclip, but let’s have a little overtaking practice, shall we?’

‘Because I’m so slow, another group might appear at any time?’

He wisely didn’t respond.

When the first climber from the other group emerged at the top, Sophie was shocked to see a woman with a grey ponytail sticking out from below her helmet. She wore a compact rucksack with a pair of telescopic hiking poles tucked on one side.

‘Buongiorno,’ she said, not even breathing hard after the ascent. ‘Mi scusi, bellissimo,’ she said to Andreas as she clipped one of her straps around him, following a moment later with the other one.

It turned out there was an entire seniors’ day outing behind them and they waited while eight older people emerged onto the ridge and passed them with a smile.

‘Wow, they showed me,’ Sophie commented, shifting her rucksack on her shoulders. ‘But no one calledmebeautiful!’

‘Did you want a stranger to call you beautiful?’

‘Not really,’ she admitted reluctantly. ‘It’s just a bit awkward that you’re apparently so blindingly attractive.’

‘I can’t help that,’ he said with a wide shrug. ‘Let’s go,’ he continued, gesturing her ahead of him, ‘bellissima,’ he added quietly after she’d turned away.

After another short clamber, she emerged through the bushes at the first summit of the tour, Cima Capi, a protrusion of rock that ranged above everything in its immediate vicinity. The dramatic slope of the landscape, the enormous lake and the mountain panorama that extended with every metre of altitude gain struck her powerfully.

‘Na?’ she heard as Andreas came up behind her.

‘Bellissimo!’ she said with a smile. ‘Wedding photos up here would be one-of-a-kind. The photographer I’ve booked also uses a drone.’

‘But there’s no cross,’ he pointed out, gesturing to the wonky Italian flag that marked the summit.

‘No cross,’ she agreed glumly. ‘But the next summit has one?’

Andreas nodded. ‘And the view is just as good – better even.’

‘I don’t think we’d fit the whole wedding party here at once anyway,’ Sophie said thoughtfully, teetering when she peered down one steep drop for too long. She saw Andreas lift a hand to steady her, but he dropped it again when she righted herself. She took a deep breath, feeling the strength in her limbs in the slight soreness of her muscles.

‘You okay?’ Andreas asked. ‘Can we keep going or do you want to rest?’

She nodded hastily. ‘I’m okay. Sorry I freaked out.’

‘It’s all right. You probably needed it. Next time, I recommend swearing and keeping going.’

She headed for the path down the other side of the peak where the seniors’ group had gone ahead. ‘That’s your mountain-guide advice? Break open the curse words and keep going?’

‘Yep,’ he said cheerfully, clipping in his carabiners ahead of her. ‘It’s worked for me so far.’

‘I’ll give it a try,’ she said drily. ‘But do you know what, I actually think I can do this.’

16

‘I can’t do this. Fuck.’ She followed up that sentence with a few more curses that struck Andreas as rather unimaginative. She stood stiffly on an iron bracket bolted into a rock face, the Val di Ledro far below, the only way forward was to traverse the exposed vertical.

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