Page 64 of An Italian Wedding Adventure

She looked good – she always looked good. Her hair was a little longer and held back with a clip. She had a pair of star-shaped studs in her ears that he liked. The curve of her ear he liked even more.

The dog continued yapping, but Rory did nothing about it. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were back together?’

‘Why does she have to tell you?’ Andreas shot back before he’d thought it through.

Sophie made a tight, frustrated noise and shook her head. ‘Let’s just go,’ she said, giving him a nudge to his chest when he didn’t respond.

‘I think it would be a common courtesy!’ Rory replied, finally trying to shush the dog as the eager barking reached fever pitch. ‘Especially since shealwaysdenied she still had feelings for you.’

Even the dog fell silent at that.

‘Rory—’ Sophie warned in a choked voice.

‘God, after all these years, I can’t believe I was fucking right,’ Rory said, his voice high. ‘I knew you never really committed to me because of him. It was all because ofhim!’

The next nudge Sophie gave Andreas was harder and with a quick, shocked glance at her, he took the hint and tumbled back into the driver’s seat as Rory’s words echoed in his head.Because of him…

‘Goodbye, Rory. Thanks for taking Betsy. I’ll be home on Sunday,’ Sophie called out in an attempt at a dismissive tone.

‘How long?’ Rory persisted.

Andreas waited silently, ignoring Kira’s pointed look, for Sophie to tell her ex they weren’t together, that he’d got everything wrong. But she didn’t.

‘Goodbye, Rory!’ was all she said before heaving on the door handle to make a dignified exit.

Except, because his car was a pile of shit, the door stuck, leaving her jerking at it ineffectually, strands of her hair coming loose. Andreas scrambled to open it from the inside – and accidentally knocked the door frame into her face.

‘Ow!’

‘Porzehittn! Sophie!’

She batted him away when he got back out of the car and grasped for her.

‘Let me see.’

Flashing him a dark look, she nevertheless stilled and let him tip her face up to the light to check for scratches.

‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered, trying to focus on something other than the sensation of her skin under his fingertips – after three of the longest months of his life.

‘Two minutes back together and you’re already apologising— I mean, back in my company, not “back together”,’ she qualified uneasily.

A smile twitched on his lips. ‘Of course not,’ he said, brushing his thumb down her cheek one last time. ‘Nothing broken, I don’t think.’

She squared her shoulders. ‘That’s lucky. A black eye would have been theperfectstart to this wedding.’

The wedding wasn’t what concerned Andreas. The happy couple could make their promises in a bivouac if it came to that. He wanted to put things right with Sophie – whatever ‘right’ looked like to her – but seeing Rory had riled all his feelings up again.

And what had her ex-husband meant, ‘You never really committed to me because of him’?

‘Just don’t expect me to be here to comfort you again when he dumps you, Soph!’

Andreas stiffened. Giving Sophie’s shoulder a quick squeeze, he took slow steps towards Rory until he was close enough to speak without her hearing – and had taken a moment to settle his racing thoughts.

‘Andreas,’ she called, a warning in her voice.

But of all the choice words he had for Rory Brent – including several colourful insults in dialect about cabbage and cucumbers – the calm, considered ones he actually said hit deepest.

‘Being there to comfort her was an honour you should have appreciated.’

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