Page 41 of An Italian Wedding Adventure

He didn’t contradict her, even though he knew what she said wasn’t true. She’d work that out herself soon enough. He wished he could read her as well at sea level as he could on the via ferrata. But that was his life. Everything made more sense up high – everything was justmoreup high.

His breath was more precious, his body stronger, his thoughts clearer. Sophie was more beautiful. Although, she’d been beautiful by the lake, too. It was his response that was harder to ignore up here. For an easy via ferrata, his heart had certainly been pounding a lot today.

The low technical skills required for this route were usually advantageous because the views were incredible. There were regular spots with secure footing to stop to breathe in the clear air and take photos of the lake. That wasn’t the view that drew his eyes that day.

He couldn’t remember wanting to memorise every detail of her eight years ago. If anything, he’d dragged her out into all sorts of inhospitable places so hedidn’tget caught up in his feelings. Perhaps he should have chosen a more difficult via ferrata, since all he’d seen that day was her: Sophie’s wry smile; Sophie’s silver studs; the way her hands looked simultaneously fine and strong in fingerless climbing gloves. She had a strand of hair on her cheek that hewould notbrush back.

When they’d been together, she’d been so willing to try everything and he’d enjoyed watching her growing confidence. Today, he didn’t care as much about developing her skills. Perhaps that was part of their relationship back then that hadn’t survived. But the fascination was alive and well and distracting him just as much as he’d feared.

‘Did the swearing help?’ he asked.

‘Not really.’

‘Maybe you need to swear in Italian like I do.’

‘Cazzo!’ she cried, so suddenly that Andreas jumped.

He stifled a laugh. ‘That helped, right?’

‘Maybe a little,’ she grumbled. ‘There aren’t enough footholds. I can’t see how I can get across.’

‘The extra footholds are in the rock. See?’

‘I’ll slip and hit my head.’

‘You won’t, but that’s what the helmet is for anyway – and the straps.’ He eyed her. ‘One foot at a time, remember?’

She swallowed, squeezing her eyes shut. But she didn’t move.

‘Do you trust the equipment?’ he asked.

She nodded wordlessly.

‘Sophie, you won’t fall. I won’t ask if you trust me, because I’m not sure I want the answer, but your equipment is all in order.’ He came closer as he spoke, giving her carabiners one more rattle to check.

She nodded slowly. ‘I used to be so focused on trying to impress you,’ she said suddenly.

Her words pricked him. ‘You don’t have to?—’

‘I know,’ she said again, her voice no longer reedy.

He tried again. ‘Actually, what I meant was… you are impressing me. There’s a side of you…’

‘…I didn’t want you to see back then,’ she finished. ‘Maybe I was pretending more than I realised.’

‘I hope you weren’t pretendingeverything,’ he said emphatically, then choked on his own words when she burst out laughing. ‘I meant… I didn’t meanthat.’

‘You’ll never know if I was pretendingthat.’ The playfulness in her expression drew him in. ‘Andreas,’ she said, her voice low, a small smile on her lips, ‘I didn’t intend that as a challenge.’

He lifted his brow. ‘I’m trying not to take it as one.’

‘Are you just distracting me so I forget to be afraid?’ She was so close now. Their hands on the cable were almost touching, her body changing the air around his.

‘I’m successfully distracting myself,’ he said in dismay, his gaze dropping to her mouth and bouncing back up again. ‘But only because I know you can do this.’

‘What do you think would have happened if I hadn’t shown any interest in following you on all those adventures?’ she asked quietly.

Andreas froze with a flash of understanding for how she was feeling. He could cross a ravine with ropes and anchors, scale an ice-covered mountain summit, but answering that question scared him.

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