Page 64 of A Very Italian Wedding
Cesare let out a pitiful sigh and muttered something about being a stupid old fool, before he headed to his own house with his shoulders slumped, leaving Rose feeling wretched for them both.
The garden fell silent. What would her rules say? Rose rubbed her temples again. Get the couple to open up and talk. A marriage didn’t end because of a dead olive tree – her years of experience had taught her that at least. There was definitely something else bothering Isabella, something she hadn’t admitted to yet.
Rose took in a deep breath and glanced back at the villa. Her bag was packed, and it would be so much easier to find Luna andsimply escape. But something was telling her it wasn’t time to leave yet.
Isabella was sitting at a table in her kitchen when Rose approached the open doorway. She hovered for a moment, watching as the older woman tried to stick fragments of the broken fertility statue back together. The figure’s head looked a little skew-whiff and there were a lot of pieces missing. A shard fell off and the older woman cursed and dropped her head into her hands.
‘Are you okay?’
Isabella glanced up and took in Rose, her steely expression returning. ‘Sì.’ She sounded defensive. ‘You want coffee or wine?’ she snapped, waving at the light blue chairs surrounding the small wooden table, indicating Rose should use one.
‘Coffee please, black,’ Rose said, pulling out the seat furthest from the statue. It might be broken, but she wasn’t taking any chances.
Isabella grinned as she put a mug in front of Rose perhaps sensing her thoughts. It was the first time Rose had seen the older woman do anything but frown, and she thought she could see glimmers of the smiling woman she remembered from the photo Ben had shown her in the Citroën.
Had that just been a few days ago? It felt like a lifetime. Rose sighed.
‘Problem?’ Isabella asked, her eyes pinning Rose as she took her seat again. ‘I heard you fighting with Ben when I was in the garden today.’ She narrowed her gaze. ‘He isun brav’uomo– a good man – this is rare.’ Her eyes momentarily darted to the wall that separated her house from her husband’s and she frowned.
‘I’m fine,’ Rose said lightly. ‘But I know something’s troubling you.’ She let the words sink between them. She knewfrom her work with clients that getting people to open up took time. Time she didn’t have. She didn’t want to bump into Ben again which meant she needed to find Luna and leave soon. There was no point in rehashing old ground or raking over new hurts. She was simply too raw.
‘I’m fine too,’ Isabella said softly, her crooked mouth, signalling she knew Rose was lying.
‘Okay, Ben and I did have an argument,’ Rose muttered. A little tit for tat wouldn’t hurt.
‘Sì,’ Isabella said, her expression wily. ‘As did Cesare and me.’
‘About the tree,’ Rose checked. ‘Or something else?’ She waited, but the older woman simply picked up the glue and stuck what looked like an arm back on the statue, only it was the wrong way up. ‘I should give you a job as a relationship coach, you’d get everyone to talk,’ Rose said grumpily after a lengthy silence. ‘If I tell you, will you tell me?’ she asked.
Isabella gave Rose a toothy grin, her wrinkles stretching across her face.
Rose sighed giving in. ‘Marco asked Ben to keep me occupied while I was here and—’ She swallowed because the idea that it had all just been a trick really hurt. ‘He did.’
‘Occupied.’ The older woman cocked her head, her blue eyes brighter now. ‘He seemed happy enough to be occupied,leonessa. He seemed happy with you, and this is new for him. Are you sure he listened to my foolishnipote– grandson,’ she translated. ‘Or did he do what was in his own heart?’
Rose’s stomach churned and she couldn’t respond. Ben’s denials had fallen on deaf ears. She’d forgotten one of her biggest rules, the one that said you should hear someone out. ‘You know love turns us all into idiots,’ the older woman said sympathetically, reading her mind again.
‘Sometimes.’ Rose leaned forward. ‘But Ben says I don’t know anything about love.’ The words almost glued themselvesto her tongue, perhaps because she suspected he might be right? For all her rules, what did she really know? She’d never been in love and had spent a lifetime finding fault with it. Because shewasafraid. Afraid of so much.
More of Ben’s accusations flooded her head, filling her with shame.Maybe it’s just easier for you to watch a relationship burn from the sidelines, to criticise and find things wrong while expounding your unrealistic rules…That way you can pick and pick away until there’s nothing left. That way you never get hurt and you’re never in the wrong.
Is that what she’d done with Marco and then Ben? Expected them to repeat the patterns her parents had taught her? Rose’s stomach sank.
‘Do any of us know about love?’ Isabella asked, her eyes fixed on Rose’s face. ‘The question isn’t what we know, it’s what we’re prepared to do to fix things when they break.’ Her face sagged as her attention flickered to the wall again as she clearly recognised what she’d just said. ‘Ifthings can be fixed, that is…’ Her gaze drifted to the statue, and she shook her head. ‘Not everything can,’ she said huskily.
‘Was it just about the tree burning down?’ Rose blurted. ‘I mean is that the only reason you and Cesare fell out?’
She had nothing to lose. Isabella was either going to open up or she wasn’t, and she didn’t have much time to find out.
Rose thought the older woman wasn’t going to answer for a moment because she simply picked up her coffee and took a slow sip, her gaze thoughtful. ‘No,’ she said eventually.
‘Then what is it?’ Rose asked.
When Isabella raised an eyebrow, Rose sighed and her attention fixed on the statue knowing she’d have to confide too if she wanted her to talk. ‘If I thought what happened with Ben was real, I’d try to fix it,’ she said slowly, the words emerging from her mouth before her brain could stop them.
‘If it feels real, it probably is.’ Isabella sighed. ‘Besides, some things are meant to be mended.’ She paused. ‘Ben is a good boy. He was hurt once, and he’s not someone who would want to do the same to someone else. Aurora’s crystal ball predicted you are supposed to be together, and she told me Aldo says the same.’
‘Aldo,’ Rose snorted, shaking her head. For a man who didn’t exist he seemed to have a lot of opinions about her life.
