Page 5 of An Italian Wedding Adventure

‘Why? So you could rush back from Wales and get a speeding ticket? Or perhaps so you could shower first. This is Reshma Bakshi, by the way, of I Do Destinations, a wedding planning agency.’

‘Mr Hinterdorfer.’ He turned to find a small Asian woman with a bright smile and a few streaks of grey in her bob, holding her hand out to him.

Suddenly conscious of the grime under his fingernails and the stench of sweat, mould and soil that he’d brought into the room, he shook her hand gingerly – and that’s when the other woman in the room stood from her place at the table. Andreas looked up and froze.

His vision tunnelled. He distantly heard Will continuing: ‘…and I believe you already know Sophie-Leigh,’ but her name had been echoing in his skull long before Will had uttered it.Sophie… He’d been entirely unprepared for the punch to the gut.

She looked the same – no, some things in her features were still painfully familiar. Her narrow lips that thinned to nothing when she was concentrating, but whispered softly over his skin when she kissed him. Her rounded jaw where he’d enjoyed smoothing his thumb absently while she fell asleep against his shoulder. The ticklish spot on her neck.

But her face was a little more drawn. She wore a few more pounds around her hips. The difference between twenty-six and thirty-four was noticeable, but it didn’t stop the sensation of hurtling through a wormhole straight into the past.

His gaze lifted to her eyes – sapphire blue and ringed with thick lashes which he knew were darkened with mascara and not their natural colour – and at her piercing look, he crash-landed on the last time he’d seen her, when he’d laughed in her face and behaved like the arsehole he’d been eight years ago.

Heat rising rapidly up his neck, his chest constricted so much, he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to breathe with her eyes on him. She smoothed a hand over her pencil skirt and memories flashed like fireworks in his head: Sophie on the climbing wall, shaking and glistening with sweat as she followed his directives from below; Sophie, her hair mussed and a bright smile on her face for him when they woke up in the tent; Sophie clutching the handles of the raft at the beginning of that first trip, facing her fear, and he’d felt as though his heart had been swept down the rapids too.

Sophie…

Good God, he shouldn’t be seeing her again like this. Will prompted him with a look. The other woman appeared to be judging his sanity – and probably finding it wanting. But Andreas wasn’t sure if any words would even come out when he opened his mouth – certainly nothing that would make sense. So, with an audible swallow, he turned and stalked back out of the room.

Closing the door carefully behind him, he slumped against the wall, his head falling back with a thud. Sophie-Leigh Kirke. Back in Weymouth. Working for awedding planning agency. Talking about amerger. What the hell was going on?

Gentle pressure on his arm made him pop his eyes open to see Toni standing close.

‘I tried to warn you…’

3

Shit. Damn. Bloody hell.

Cursing silently helped only a little as Sophie tried to pull herself together. What were the chances? She couldn’t believe he was still here. Restless, nomadic Andreas Hinterdorfer wasstill in Weymouthand he’d just made a fool of her again – or she’d made a fool of herself. Whichever it was, she could feel the looks Reshma was surreptitiously shooting her. That Willard Coombs remembered her was yet another nail in the coffin of her dignity.

Mr Coombs would remember her as the groupie who’d hung around the guides, drooling over Andreas with stars in her eyes. The fact that he’d slept with her for months and then discarded her like excess weight before heading off on his next expedition didn’t seem to concern his friends – including the receptionist, who Sophie recognised from that time.

Toni, that was her name. She’d been pregnant, Sophie remembered with a twinge. She’d read months later that her husband Miroslav had been killed somewhere in the Himalayas before he’d ever seen his baby – killed while on an expedition with Andreas.

‘If Toni goes,Igo,’ he’d said. MaybeToniwas what had kept him in Weymouth all these years when nothing had been able to tie him down before. Sophie hated the pettiness in her that resented the possibility. Toni had been a nice woman, from what she remembered. It wasn’t her fault that Andreas had dumped Sophie unceremoniously before that expedition.

All fault lay firmly with Andreas himself, including the responsibility for this awkward silence in the meeting room after he’d stormed out without even greeting her. At least she could congratulate herself on not drooling this time, although the bastard had had the nerve to look just as incredible as he always had: craggy features, a lopsided mouth and those limitless green eyes that glowed like copper in the sunshine. Even the shimmer of grey in his beard and the lines on his forehead didn’t dim the effect of the man who had climbed Everest with no supplemental oxygen, just the force of his personality.

Sophie responded to Reshma’s raised eyebrows with an accusing look.I told you this was a bad idea. She would never have casually mentioned Great Heart as anexampleof the kind of company they could work with, if she’d known Reshma would go out and buy them.

‘I apologise for Andreas,’ Mr Coombs continued in a small voice. ‘He’s been sleeping in a tent for a week.’

‘InFebruary?’ Reshma exclaimed.

He nodded. ‘Our clients aren’t usually interested in spa treatments and champagne.’ He gestured for them to take their seats once more.

‘Would you believe, that is something we have in common,’ Reshma said. ‘We’ve seen an increasing trend towards weddings in spectacular locations, or involving adventure activities as part of the celebrations. When Sophie mentioned sub-contracting a company like yours, I decided we should be bold and take it a step further. What do you think of “Great Heart Adventure Weddings”, Mr Coombs? We share clients and information, polish up your guides with some new skills and offer a radical travel package.’

Mr Coombs laughed, loud and deep. The hair on the back of Sophie’s neck stood on end as she sat silently – miserably – and waited for the next argument. But when he calmed and looked between Reshma and Sophie, there was a twinkle in his eye. ‘I’m intrigued. And I think you’ll find Toni is a necessary part of the new company, Ms Bakshi. She’s the only person I can think of who loves weddingsandguides.’

He darted a glance at Sophie and it was enough for the prickles over her skin to start up again. He didn’t have to say it. She knew Andreas would hate the idea with a passion – the way he was allergic to family and commitment and romance. And apparently personal hygiene.

When the door flew open again, the smell of unwashed clothes presaged his return, his face expressionless this time. He wore a bright-blue technical jacket that did nothing to hide the breadth of his shoulders. His hair needed cutting. It curled golden-brown from under his baseball cap. A silver hoop winked in one ear and Sophie really didnotneed to remember right at that moment how he’d groaned when she’d sunk her teeth into that lobe. Oh dear.

‘Ah, Andreas. You are joining us. Sit down.’ Mr Coombs gestured to the seat next to Sophie and she was mortified to feel her face heat.

Andreas gave her a measured look and then took the seat next to Reshma instead – pointedly, Sophie imagined.

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