Page 75 of A Winter Wedding Adventure
Wavering lights in the distance announced the arrival of their rescuers, but Kira clutched Mattia’s arm, refusing to move for a moment longer. He might be the right person, but how long did they have this ‘right time’ magic? Would he still hold her when they arrived down in the valley?
What if he wanted to stay in touch? Could she risk all the uncertainty of that?
‘Kira!’
She snapped her head up, startled by the voice she knew well, the familiar figure jogging in her direction. He paused, taking in Mattia, his expression contorting with alarm.
‘Are you all right?’
Reluctantly stepping out of Mattia’s arms, she approached her friend and threw her arms around him. The tight – almost too tight – hold made her heart squeeze, but not the way her loopy heart bumped in her chest when Mattia looked at her.
‘I’m all right. What are you doing here?’ she asked as two paramedics rushed past to take charge of Yolanda, preparing a stretcher to load her into the helicopter to be evacuated first.
‘We drove up yesterday as soon as I heard you were stuck here. I discussed the situation with the mountain rescue team. I was coming up to get you today, as soon as it was safe.’
She hugged him tight again, remembering all the reasons why Great Heart was her family. ‘I didn’t need rescuing, but it’s nice to know you had my back.’
‘I’m not surprised you were the one doing the rescuing,’ he said with a gruff laugh. His smile dimmed when he looked over at Mattia. ‘But who is he?’
She extricated herself and gestured awkwardly in Mattia’s direction. ‘This is… the opera singer.’ How inadequate that introduction was.
‘The opera singer?’
‘Mattia, this is my friend Andreas.’
30
Mattia was reeling from the range of experiences the night had shot at him: suspense at dinner, wondering whether Kira would talk to him; the beautiful moments when they’d done much more than talk; the sudden emergency; and now, the harsh lighting of a hospital waiting room, seated next to a stranger of few words and many, many muscles.
Kira’s bed friend. Both of them had been her bed friends.
She’d shrugged off all offers of help and waited until first Yolanda and then Alessandra, Joe and their parents had been airlifted from the chalet to Innsbruck to be checked at the hospital. Only then had she reluctantly showed the rescue officers her scratched and bleeding hands and allowed them to escort her to the helicopter.
Mattia still wasn’t sure how he’d managed to remain standing under the hot, disapproving look from Kira’s ‘friend’ in the helicopter. Possibly, he should have handed her over to Andreas to look after her, but he was the one who’d held her while she shuddered in the aftermath of giving life-saving first aid. He didn’t imagine she would run back into his arms, but he would stay until she told him she didn’t want him there – at the very least until she came out of the treatment room.
‘You made the emergency call?’
The question from Andreas broke the silence in the waiting room out of nowhere, making Mattia jump. ‘Yes,’ he managed to answer. ‘She was… busy. It was lucky her phone wasn’t in her room, as it was the only one charged.’ The way the man looked at him, Mattia felt as though he stood in the witness box.
‘What do you mean?’ Andreas asked.
‘We didn’t have electricity. She only charged hers?—’
‘I mean about her phone not being in her room?’
Mattia’s throat closed and he bit his lip, his mind racing for an appropriate response. ‘Her room was on the wrong side of the building. It’s basically full of snow now.’
He didn’t miss Andreas’s indrawn breath. He might have been a frightening figure, but his obvious concern for Kira settled Mattia’s nerves. But the next question brought a fresh blush of heat to his cheeks. ‘She got out in time?’
Opening his mouth, he grimaced before answering, ‘She wasn’t in her room.’
Andreas’s only response was a tic in his jaw. Mattia looked away, tapping his foot compulsively, imagining various disapproving – or threatening – things that might be running through her friend’s mind.
What he eventually said was nothing like any of the scenarios Mattia had prepared himself for. ‘I didn’t know. About this guy – her ex. I thought she was just scared of commitment like the rest of us. I didn’t realise she’d been hurt.’
‘I’m sure she didn’t want you to know.’
Andreas looked at him askance. ‘Are you giving me sympathy?’
