Page 63 of An Italian Wedding Adventure

‘I’ll get the name updated on the hotel booking then,’ Sophie said with a nod she hoped looked final. Topic closed.

But Kira grimaced. ‘Do we have to stay at the hotel with the wedding party? We usually stay at Andreas’s family’s place where have more space to store the gear and we don’t have to babysit the guests out of hours.’

An unwelcome shiver ran down Sophie’s spine when she pictured Kira and Andreas sharing the flat where she’d made so many memories herself. But Kira had been there before – and probably slept in similar positions to where Sophie had found herself.

Swallowing her discomfort, she said, ‘No, only I need to be at the hotel for last-minute problems, but you and Andreas don’t have to be.’

‘Oh, good. I can tolerate the idea of being an assistant, but you won’t want me anywhere near the fancy decorations and the chair sashes and that other stuff you and Ginny were talking about. Knots, I can handle, but bows are really not my thing.’

Sophie smiled faintly, remembering similar sentiments from Andreas but also the image of him with a wreath of flowers on his head, contrasting with his grim, lopsided mouth. She wanted to look at the photo again, even though she could picture it perfectly in her mind.

Damn, she missed that man. The ache only seemed stronger now she knew she’d see him again in September.

But all he’d agreed to was a job he’d get paid for, probably only because the timing of his trip allowed it. He hadn’t even got in touch to tell her himself. Nothing had changed. She couldn’t allow herself to hope that anything had.

25

‘If you don’t take it easy, I’m going to lose my lunch!’ Kira braced herself against the dashboard with one arm as Andreas dodged a cyclist in hi-vis wear on the narrow single carriageway lined with stone walls and hedgerows, heavy with late-summer greenery.

He eased off the accelerator. He’d just lost concentration for a moment, that was all. He was usually a good driver, although he’d never worked out why English people liked hedgerows so much when they were a deathtrap if you drove at – or slightly over, which was still fine – the speed limit.

With her foot propped on the seat, Kira swivelled to face him. She was always putting her feet all over the furniture.

‘If you take your shoes off at weddings, too, you’re going to end up as Cinderella one day.’

She snorted a laugh. ‘You think I’ll marry a prince?’

‘You’d die of boredom,’ he said, checking his blind spot before turning.

‘You’re funny, but I’m not letting you off the hook. You’re nervous about seeing her. You’re never yourself when Sophie is in the picture.’

The lump in his throat grew bigger. That much was true; he was a much better person when Sophie was around. But he didn’t want Kira to suspect how mushy he’d been feeling since June. He didn’t know if Sophie had been thinking about him as much as he’d thought about her.

‘I’m just worried about you,’ she said.

‘Don’t be,’ he said, flashing her a reassuring smile.

Another snort of laughter, this time full of scepticism. ‘Well, that was expected. You don’t let anyone worry about you. If we were talking about climbing a rock face, I wouldn’t be, but Sophie’s your weakness, so don’t do anything stupid.’

‘What stupid thing am I likely to do? Buy a suit and ask her to marry me?’ His hair stood on end as he uttered the joke, but it had the desired effect on Kira.

‘Ha. Ha. The necktie would strangle you before you ever got to the altar.’

She directed him through the backstreets in the south of Bath and he pulled the Land Rover to a stop outside a red-brick terrace, its sparse design tempered by a bright-green door and an orchid on the ground-floor windowsill.

He was just trying to resist thinking something stupid like,Sothisis where she lives, and imagining her greeting him with a smile, when the door opened and a man appeared – a man Andreas recognised.

He set a white, fluffy dog on the ground and turned back as Sophie appeared in the door. Lifting a hand to her head, the man leaned up and?—

Bang.

Rory jumped in surprise, dropping his hand as Andreas slammed the door of the Land Rover so hard, it was a miracle the glass didn’t shatter.

‘We need to go,’ Andreas said, jerking his arm up to glance at his watch, but seeing nothing. When Rory’s eyes widened, Andreas recognised his mistake.

‘It’s not… What are—’ Rory turned back to Sophie as the dog yapped and pulled at the lead. ‘What is Andreas doing here?’

‘Driving to the airport,’ Sophie said tightly, settling the dog with a hand on its back before fetching a suitcase and locking the pretty, green door. ‘Good morning, Andreas,’ she said when she turned to him and with a sinking feeling, he realised he hadn’t even uttered a greeting.

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