Dreaming of Rome

by Dreaming of Rome (retail) (epub)

  Angie took a sip of wine before answering. ‘You’d better see what Corrado says about that, but I’ll tell you this: he hasn’t been himself since you left.’

  ‘…but, heartbroken? He’s not that kind of man, surely?’

  ‘He never used to be, but Mario and I have been quite worried about him lately.’

  ‘You mean he’s really been upset?’

  ‘Upset, preoccupied, quieter, different. Something must have happened on that boat. But all he says is that it was a marvellous holiday, nothing more.’

  Jo was secretly pleased to hear that he had respected her decision not to burden the other members of the family with their problems, but she was still very intrigued. For a moment she almost came right out and told her sister exactly what had happened, but she was saved by the bell. Just as she was thinking about starting, Mario arrived, followed by Daisy. He looked bothered. The dog looked affectionate.

  ‘Angie, we’re running out of Prosecco. I thought I’d got enough in the fridge, but everybody seems to be drinking it. Corrado and I are just dashing across to the restaurant for some more. There are hot canapés in the oven. Can you keep an eye on them while I’m away?’

  Angie jumped to her feet and Jo followed her. As they headed back into the house, she saw Corrado with his car keys in his hand. Just then, Angie had an idea.

  ‘Jo, would you mind going with Corrado to help? That way Mario and I can stay here and make sure everything’s okay.’

  Jo was quick to agree and Mario looked relieved. ‘Thanks, Jo. That’s very kind. Tell Corrado to ask for Loretta. I’ll give her a call now.’

  Jo and Daisy headed across to Corrado and she explained the change of plan. He nodded and led them out to the little Fiat. They jumped in with the dog and he set off up the drive towards the restaurant. As he did so, she shot a glance across at her.

  ‘You’re looking wonderful, Jo.’

  ‘Thanks.’ She didn’t know what else to say.

  They had almost reached the restaurant before he spoke again, this time hesitantly. ‘Jo, it’s so great to see you again. Could we talk?’

  ‘Isn’t that what we’re doing?’

  ‘I mean sit down and talk properly.’ He drove round to the rear of the restaurant and pulled up by the kitchen doors. ‘Please…’

  Jo didn’t reply, her brain churning. She had imagined this would happen sooner or later and she didn’t know how to react. On the one hand she was fascinated to hear more about this alleged heartache he had been suffering, while on the other she had no intention of accepting him back into her life – or her bed – after he had confirmed just what sort of man he was.

  The kitchen doors opened and it was the work of a few moments to squeeze four cases of cold Prosecco into the boot of the car alongside the excited dog. A minute later they were on the move again and Corrado was heading down the drive towards his brother’s house. They completed the trip in silence. As they reached Mario’s house once more, she made her decision.

  ‘Yes, we can talk, Corrado, but we both know where we stand now. You made yourself perfectly clear about that. So, by all means let’s talk, but we both know it’s over between us. You want what you want and I want something different.’

  They carted the wine into the house and restocked the fridge. Once they had finished, he caught her eye.

  ‘If you’re free, Daisy could do with a little walk. Do you fancy coming with us?’

  She nodded. ‘I’m always happy to go for a walk with Daisy.’

  They walked out of the back door and along the drive, away from the river in case Daisy should decide to go for a swim. The havoc a soaking wet Labrador could cause to a host of people in party frocks and smart clothes was definitely to be avoided. As they walked, and the dog disappeared from time to time into the shadows either side of the drive before reappearing like a green-eyed ghost, Jo felt the nervous tension between them grow. The atmosphere was so tense, she had to keep reminding herself to breathe. Finally, Corrado began to speak. Jo listened attentively and with increasing amazement.

  ‘Jo, I want you to know something. Telling you to take the job in New York was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.’ His voice was low and strained.

  ‘Being told I was being discarded by the man I thought loved me wasn’t exactly a bed of roses for me either, you know.’ Her voice was little better.

  ‘I know, Jo, and I’m really, really sorry. But what else could I say? It would have been crazy for you to turn down a job at the UN for an uncertain future over here.’ He slowed his step and she saw his shape turn towards her in the darkness. ‘If I had told you how I really felt, would you have left? Would you? I’ve done some pretty shabby things to women over the years – all right, in my defence, I didn’t set out to treat anybody badly – but I knew – I know – I would never, ever want to do anything that would harm you.’

  ‘And breaking my heart and reducing me to tears doesn’t count as harm as far as you’re concerned?’ In spite of her bitter words, Jo couldn’t help wondering where he was going with this.

  ‘I know.’ His voice was low. ‘It must have been awful for you. It was awful for me too, you know. But it was the only way. I told you then and I’m telling you again now: you had to take that job. If you hadn’t, if you’d ended up as a receptionist behind a counter in some little office in Rome, sooner or later you would have regretted it. And I knew I couldn’t be responsible for doing that to you.’

  ‘So you’re telling me you deliberately broke my heart so as to save me from some future, unspecified, heartache?’

  ‘So as to prevent you from getting to a stage in a month, a year, five years, when the regret you felt would change into resentment towards me as the cause of it. Without me, you were free to make the right decision. I had to remove myself from the equation and make you go.’

  Jo stopped and tried to make sense of what he was saying. ‘Well, it worked. I took the UN job and I have no regrets.’ No sooner had she spoken than she realised this was a lie too far. ‘No, of course I have regrets. Not about the job. I love the job. It’s what I’ve spent the last ten years of my life working towards. But I can’t even begin to explain the regret I felt, and I still feel, that the man I loved, the man I thought loved me, could just stab me in the back so callously.’

  ‘I still love you, Jo.’ His voice was so low, she could barely hear what he was saying. ‘I never stopped loving you, in spite of what I said.’

  Jo was totally baffled now. As she struggled to make some kind of sense of what he was telling her, she felt the warm comforting presence of the Labrador at her side and she reached down to ruffle her ears. As she did so, Corrado carried on.

  ‘If I could have done it any other way, I would have, Jo, I promise. I tried all sorts. You know that working lunch I had with my accountant in Porto Santo Stefano?’

  ‘Paolo? I met him earlier on this evening. He accused me of breaking your heart.’

  She heard Corrado give an exasperated sigh. ‘He had no business telling you that.’ There was a pause as he controlled his frustration. ‘Anyway, it’s like this: I knew you had to take the American job and I knew there was no way a long-distance relationship could ever work for more than a few months. I had a simple choice: follow you to the US or break up with you.’

  ‘Follow me to the US? You considered doing that?’

  ‘More than considered. That’s what the meeting with Paolo was all about. I’ve been thinking about expanding overseas for some time now and where better than the richest consumer market in the world? I called that meeting so as to see if there was any way we could bring our plans forward and set up in the US sooner. Unfortunately, as you know, the reply I got from him wasn’t what I wanted to hear. Paolo’s an old friend and he’s far too fond of his wine, but he’s a brilliant accountant. He told me, and then he demonstrated to me with spreadsheets, that it would have been too much of a risk, unless we could find an American partner, and at that time
we didn’t know anybody suitable. He told me to wait for a few years, and so I was left with no alternative. I was sure you wouldn’t have taken the UN job unless I did something radical. So, Jo, I took it upon myself to break your heart and, in so doing, I totally shattered my own as well.’

  Jo could feel her head spinning. ‘Is there somewhere around here we can sit down?’ Suddenly, her legs felt quite weak.

  She felt Corrado take her arm and lead her a little way down the drive to a wooden bench, set underneath an old-style lamppost. They sat down on it together with the dog at their feet. As they did so, she shivered and realised she was cold. He must have felt it too, as he shrugged off his jacket and stretched it around her shoulders. She murmured her thanks and sat there for a good minute, turning over and over in her head everything he had said before attempting to speak again. When she did, her voice was barely more than an emotional croak.

  ‘You expect me to believe that everything you said to me in the car at the airport was a lie?’ It seemed barely credible. ‘You deliberately told me you didn’t love me so I would take the job in New York?’

  ‘Yes.’

  His voice didn’t sound much stronger than hers. At their feet, she heard the dog give a puzzled whine. Jo knew how she felt.

  ‘Well, if that’s true and, as you can see, I really am glad I took the job, why tell me all this now? It’s too late. There are three thousand miles of ocean between us.’

  ‘Not necessarily.’ His voice was still low, but there was a stronger, more assured note to it now.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Her eyes were stinging with emotion and she had to clear her throat before she got all the words out.

  ‘You know that meeting I had with your tall Californian friend, Doctor Paris, Ricky Paris? Well, the upshot of it is that we came to an agreement. I just got the contract through to sign two days ago. He represents a big American environmental group – you probably know that already – and together, we’re setting up a company in the US specialising in the disposal of plastic waste. By the way, he told me some of the ideas we’re going to be working on originated from you.’ She felt him take a deep breath. ‘And the new plant is going to be situated just outside New York.’

  Jo twisted round until she could look up at his face.

  ‘You and Ricky are setting up a factory in New York?’

  She saw his head nod and his eyes drop towards hers, the deep blue now green in the orange glow of the street light. ‘That’s right. And I’m planning on moving to New York to supervise it personally.’

  ‘You’re moving…?’ So many things were falling into place in her head, she could almost hear the cogs turning. Could it be that her subconscious and her limbic system were singing from the same hymn sheet at long last?

  ‘That’s right, Jo. I told you once that I couldn’t imagine life without you. These last three months have hammered that home to me.’ There was another pause. ‘Could I just get something out of my pocket, please?’

  She felt him reach into the pocket of the jacket hanging round her shoulders and then, to her total astonishment, she saw him drop down onto one knee in front of her. She sat there speechless, now heedless of the cold, as she saw him holding a little square box. From it he extracted a ring that sparkled in the light. Beside him the dog looked as astounded as Jo felt.

  ‘Joanne Margaret Green, will you marry me?’

  Jo suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to burst into tears, but she fought hard to stay rational.

  ‘You abandon me, you break my heart and now you want to marry me?’

  She saw him nod uncertainly and her heart almost burst. Her willpower gave way and she felt tears stream down her cheeks as she buried her face in her hands and sobbed. A second later, two things happened almost simultaneously. She felt Corrado lean forward and stretch his arms around her shoulders while a warm, hairy body did its best to climb onto her lap, snuffling at her face, emitting little whining sounds. This, as much as anything, returned her to reality. She raised her face from her hands, wiped the tears from her cheeks and looked up, straight into two sets of eyes barely a couple inches from hers. Addressing herself to the blue ones, she took a deep breath and found her tears suddenly transformed into the broadest smile she had ever smiled.

  ‘The answer’s yes. Corrado. Yes, I will, with all my heart.’

  She leant her lips towards him and, as she did so, a big hairy canine head threatened to get there first as Daisy – no doubt caught up in the moment – pushed her long nose between them. Jo gave the dog a cuddle and then gently pushed her to one side and reached for Corrado, seeing his eyes sparkle and a smile spread across his face. As her lips approached his, she heard his voice, soft and warm and loving. ‘You know what they say; love me, love my dog.’

  ‘I do.’

  Epilogue

  It was a magical setting, and everywhere she looked there was romance in the warm evening air.

  Especially at their table.

  They were sitting under the same parasol on the west side of Piazza Navona in the heart of Rome. She was, once more, sipping Prosecco while he had again opted for a cold beer. The sun had dropped low on the horizon by now and the ground was already in the shade, although the residual heat from the scorching July sun still radiated up from the cobbles. All around them were crowds of happy people, mostly tourists, laughing and chatting. Along with the tourists were also lots of Romans, like the man sitting alongside her. She reached over and caught hold of his hand.

  ‘Going to miss all this?’

  He glanced across at her and gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

  ‘I love my city, but New York’s a good substitute.’

  ‘And we’ll be coming back pretty often, won’t we?’

  ‘Of course. Besides, as long as I’m with you, I really don’t care where I live.’

  ‘And you’ll keep the house?’

  ‘Of course. We’ll need somewhere to stay when we come back to visit.’ He caught her eye. ‘Besides, who knows what the future will bring?’

  ‘Does Daisy know she’s going for a long flight next month?’ Jo glanced down at the dog, snoozing at their feet.

  Corrado shook his head and smiled. ‘She doesn’t even know she’s got a passport, but she’ll be fine. As long as she’s with you and me, she’ll be happy.’

  ‘And you’re not too freaked out about next Saturday?’

  He shook his head again. ‘Why should I be freaked out? Marrying you is everything I could possibly ask for.’

  ‘At least you’ve seen the place and you know what’s in store for us.’ Angie and Mario’s wedding in the spring had gone very smoothly, and all the friends and family from Italy had been blown away by the picturesque little stone church in the equally picturesque little English village.

  ‘And then there’s going to be the honeymoon.’ Corrado reached across and draped his arm around her neck. ‘Three weeks on Ippona with my two favourite girls. I’m a very lucky man.’ He pulled her towards him and kissed her tenderly on the lips. She rubbed her cheek against his and looked up into those amazing blue eyes as she rested one hand on his bare knee beneath the table.

  ‘You know something, Corrado?’ She grinned at him. ‘A whole bunch of neurochemicals have just hit my limbic system. There’s definitely a bio-chemical reaction happening.’

  He kissed her again, harder this time, before replying.

  ‘And I love you, too, Jo.’

  Acknowledgements

  With many thanks to Michael Bhaskar, Kit Nevile and the whole team at my wonderful publishers, Canelo, for their help and encouragement. Special thanks to editor Federica Leonardis for her knowledge of Rome as well as of English grammar, Robin Fox at ButterfliesinItaly.com for setting me right on Lepidoptera, and to Stephen Leger who knows all about luxury yachts.

  First published in the United Kingdom in 2019 by Canelo

  Canelo Digital Publishing Limited

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  Copyright © T.A. Williams, 2019

  The moral right of T.A. Williams to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN 9781788630979

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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