Page 8 of An Italian Wedding Adventure

‘I thought you needed my help with a wedding.’

‘I need a guide, but I didn’t come here for you. I honestly thought you’d be long gone from Weymouth.’ She mumbled something about K2 which made him want to provoke her into speaking more clearly.

‘I haven’t climbed K2 – yet,’ he grumbled.

‘Oh, um, commiserations that you still have all your toes?’ She was jiggling her foot in agitation.

‘I don’t,’ he commented lightly.

‘What?’

‘I don’t have all my toes.’

‘Whaat?’

He was childishly satisfied to have reduced her vocabulary to a single word. ‘I lost two on Gasherbrum.’ Flicking on the indicator, he threw the Land Rover around the next corner into his street, avoiding her gaze.

Did she even know what had happened after they’d said goodbye? She hadn’t kept in touch with anyone.

‘They didn’t say that in the news reports,’ she said faintly.

‘They were little ones, so I can still climb,’ he said casually as he heaved the car into a parallel park. It would be so much easier with power steering.

‘Hurray for that,’ she said under her breath. Sitting up suddenly, she asked, ‘Where are we?’

‘My place. You’re supposed to be squeezing me for information for a wedding – not that that makes any sense to me. But if you’re just here to chat old times?—’

‘Andreas, can you stop baiting me for a minute so I can think straight?’

He deserved the hit, but he wasn’t ready to let her off the hook. A thick strand of dark-blonde hair had come loose from her clip and he liked her more like that.

‘Where did all of this come from? Is it because it’s a leap year? You think of me every four years and this time, you realised I might be useful? At least you’ve stopped with the “Mr Hinterdorfer”.’

She turned to him, her eyes bright with indignation. ‘The reason I’m here hasnothingto do with “us”. If I’d known I’d have to deal with you, I’d have?—’

‘What? Run in the other direction?’

‘I don’t know, but I’m not here to beg you for another chance or rehash what happened. Trust me, I’m the last person who wants to rememberanythingabout back then. You don’t have to worry.’

He frowned, wondering why she thought he’d be worried about her begging to have him back. ‘So, it’s just a great coincidence that your company is buying my company? Or did you hear Will was doing badly and tip off your boss? Do you think Kira or any of the other guides are going to be happy about this? Weddings! Um Gottes Willen.’ He articulated the curse at the end through gritted teeth.

‘But it’s notyourcompany, is it? It’s Willard’s. All I did was ask my boss if we could subcontract a company “like Great Heart Adventures” for a specific wedding I’m working on. That’s all. The rest is not my fault. I didn’t even know what she was planning until a month ago when the due diligence was completed. And it’sdefinitelynot my fault that Reshma thought about consolidating the admin function, but she changed her mind anyway. Toni’s job is safe, so you can quit being a bear with a sore head.’

She reached for the handle to make her dramatic exit from the car, but the door stuck, leaving her pushing ineffectually at it, more curses on her tongue. Andreas had the satisfaction of slamming his own door before coming around to give hers a shove and then jimmy it open. The way she sucked in a breath of fresh air gave him a stab of guilt.

‘You don’t live at Miro and Toni’s place any more?’

He shook his head. ‘Toni had to move after…’

‘I was sorry to hear about that,’ she mumbled.

She hadn’t heard about it from him. She hadn’t been there when he’d arrived back at Heathrow, Miro in a box – obviously the wiser of the two of them.

He jingled his keys. ‘This place isn’t much,’ he warned her. ‘I don’t spend a lot of time here.’

‘I’m not the one who suggested we come here,’ she pointed out.

Wrenching open the boot, he hauled his backpack out, stifling a groan. ‘I need a shower.’

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