Page 28 of Change of Heart
She nodded and grinned at him. ‘Definitely. Tell me, is this the sort of picnic you always take with you on your rides, or is this a special occasion?’ A sudden thought occurred to her. ‘It’s not your birthday, is it?’
‘No, it’s not my birthday, and I don’t normally ride around with a bottle of Lambrusco on my back but, yes, this is a special occasion.’
She walked over and stood beside him. ‘How special?’
‘Very special. Mind out, after being shaken about on the way here, the wine’s going to be pretty fizzy.’ Sure enough, in spite of his best efforts to contain it, the cork came out with a loud explosion that startled the horses, and a fine mist of wine sprayed across Alice’s face. As she wiped the drops from her cheeks, Luca shot her an apologetic look ‘Sorry about that. Maybe fizz wasn’t such a good idea after all.’
Alice licked the foam from her fingers and accepted a glass of remarkably cool wine from him. Once he had set the bottle down in the water by their feet, she tried again. ‘You were going to tell me what we’re celebrating.’
He held out his glass towards her. ‘I’m not sure if it’s somethingyouwant to celebrate, but for me, it certain— LOOK OUT!’
The next thing she knew, he had thrown himself across her and was holding her tightly to his chest, both of them struggling to avoid dropping their wine glasses. There was the sound of splashing followed by the unmistakable noise of a large dog shaking himself dry. Moments later, Luca released his hold on her and jumped back, pointing down at her in dismay.
‘I’m so sorry, I stepped on your foot. I haven’t hurt you, have I?’
Alice glanced down and saw the outline of his boot still distinguishable on the top of hers. He must have landed on her with some force while trying to shield her from Frank’s unwelcome shower, but she hadn’t felt a thing. The reason for this was that there was no foot inside this boot. She stood there for a second or two, wondering if this might be the moment to tell him about the accident and its consequences, but things had been going so well between them this afternoon that she decided to wait, rather than risk spoiling the mood.
‘Didn’t hurt a bit. Don’t worry about it. Thank you for keeping the water off me.’ She gave him a smile and sat down on the boulder. ‘And they say the age of chivalry’s dead. Look at you, you’re soaked!’ She came close to suggesting he take off his shirt and hang it up to dry in the sunshine, but she stopped herself in time. There was a limit to the amount of self control a girl could muster, after all.
He smiled back at her. ‘I’m sorry about that. I should have seen it coming. Anyway, hopefully I managed to keep most of the water off you.’ He sat down alongside her but not touching her. She was feeling distinctly rumpled, but not unhappy – very much the opposite. At their feet the unrepentant dog sat down in front of them and subjected the box of pastries to a covetous stare, while his master did his best to wipe a tsunami of Labrador-scented water off his shirt.
She waited until he had relaxed once more before returning to her original question. ‘So, what’s the cause for celebration?’
For a grown man he suddenly looked remarkably sheepish. She had to wait several seconds for his reply and when it came it surprised her. ‘I’m celebrating the fact that this is the first time I’ve ever brought a woman here, and a very beautiful one as well.’
Now she was the one to look embarrassed. She could feel the colour rush to her cheeks and did her best to reply in a reasonably normal tone. ‘Thank you for the kind words, but I’m surprised you haven’t brought any of your lady friends here before.’ They were getting into much more personal territory now, and she felt a return of the nervous tension.
He shook his head. ‘No, you’re the only one.’
There then ensued a long silence that he filled by replenishing their glasses which had both lost half their contents when Frank the dog had emerged from the water and shaken himself. Finally, Luca took a big mouthful and turned towards her again, still with that same uncomfortable expression on his face.
‘This has always been a very special place for me. My mother used to bring Tommi and me here to get away from my father when he was in one of his moods. Some of my happiest memories are of splashing around in the water.’ He drained the last of the wine in his glass before continuing, his eyes now staring out over the water towards the waterfall. ‘I’m pleased to be able to share it with you.’
Alice reached over and laid her hand on his forearm for a moment. ‘I’m very touched that you’ve brought me somewhere that means so much to you. Thank you so much.’
The intimacy of the moment was interrupted by a yelp from the ground in front of them as Frank made clear that he didn’t feel he should be made to wait much longer for a pastry. His intervention broke the spell, but Alice didn’t mind. The thought going round and round in her head was that Luca liked her enough to bring her here to his special place and that he had described her as beautiful. That had to mean something, didn’t it? Whether he would still think she was beautiful when he knew all about her remained to be seen.
With a shrug of the shoulders and a resigned sigh in the direction of his dog, Luca picked up the box of little pastries and held it out towards her. Frank’s eyes followed it all the way. There were a dozen or so assorted little profiteroles, fruit tarts, tiny chocolate cakes and a handful of biscuits in there, and Alice couldn’t help smiling.
‘Say what you like about Frank, but he knows a good thing when he smells one. These look absolutely gorgeous.’
She helped herself to a white chocolate profiterole and looked on as Luca selected one of the plain biscuits from the box and passed it down to his dog. It disappeared in a flash. Alice, on the other hand, took her time and nibbled the delightful, sweet pastry while she collected herself and reflected on how pleased she was that it looked as though Luca really liked her. It now remained to be discovered whether this was as much as she liked him.
And whether he still would, once he knew her secret.
They chatted easily about generalities and even about work, rather than anything more personal, but Alice did her best to relax in his company and in these beautiful surroundings. If it hadn’t been for what she still had to tell him, it would have been perfect. By tacit agreement neither of them made any further mention of the newspaper article or his father, and the mood was comfortable and familiar. She felt as if she’d known him for years. Another glass of fizz and a couple more of the gorgeous little pastries completed the magical atmosphere as she readied herself to tell all. He really couldn’t have arranged it better and she compared it to some of her other first dates – if this was indeed a date. These had included a sci-fi movie followed by a curry, a fifteen-mile hike across Dartmoor into the teeth of a winter gale, and dinner with Maurizio in his father’s restaurant with his evil twin sisters scrutinising her every move. Yes, this was far more relaxing and satisfying.
Her reminiscing was interrupted by the sound of his voice.
‘I don’t suppose you’d like to come out for dinner with me tomorrow night? There’s a super restaurant I know just a little way down the valley from here. Although we’re in Emilia-Romagna, it has a Tuscan chef and the food there’s really great.’
‘I’d love that, thanks. I’ve never been to Tuscany but I’ve heard that Tuscan food’s really good.’ Her heart soared. This dinner invitation was unmistakably a date. She took a deep breath and braced herself. Now that it looked pretty clear that he was interested in her, she knew that the time had come to reveal her secret and risk the consequences. She was about to open her mouth when his phone started ringing. He gave her an apologetic glance and reached for it.
It was a short conversation but from what she could hear from his part it was clear that work had intervened, and when the call ended, she saw him glance at his watch regretfully. ‘I’m sorry, I was hoping these people would cancel as it’s the weekend but I’ve got to go and see them after all. They have a rather fine old stone house just to the east of Parma that they want to extend, so I’m afraid we’d better head back to the stables.’ He reached for the remains of their picnic and started pushing them into his backpack. ‘I’m really sorry. This was lovely, but I can pick you up at seven-thirty tomorrow night if that suits. Hopefully we won’t have any more interruptions.’
Alice realised that the moment had passed and she just smiled back at him. ‘That sounds great.’ Her story would have to wait until tomorrow.
When she got back home, she stayed in, did some ironing, and spent most of the time with a silly smile on her face. It had been a perfect afternoon – well, the only thing that could have made it more perfect would have been a declaration of undying love from him. Somehow she felt more at home with him and here in Italy. Her only lingering regret was that she hadn’t been able to summon up the courage to tell him about her leg.
