‘Will you come back to Rome one day?’ Lucetta asked as she drove.
‘It’s funny; I was just thinking about that,’ Kate replied. ‘I’d like to. I don’t think I’ll be ready to leave at all. I think it’s helped that I’ve met such wonderful people here.’
‘I would not live anywhere else.’
‘I don’t blame you. Do all your sisters still live in Rome?’
She nodded as she screeched around a corner so precariously that Kate grabbed for the door handle and held on tight. ‘We all stay close to Mamma.’
‘I can understand that,’ Kate said, her mind going back to her own mother who’d remarried after the death of Kate’s dad and moved up to Scotland, and whom she didn’t see nearly enough of. She and her sisters all made excuses, though the truth was that seeing their nervy mother was a strain on their nerves too and hard work, but their mother she was and they loved her just the same. It was probably time for a visit, and she made a promise to herself that she would drive up there at the first opportunity once she got home.
‘Does it worry her that Alessandro is in the police?’ Kate asked. ‘Does she think it’s a dangerous job?’
Lucetta laughed. ‘She is very proud of him. We all are. Papa was a policeman too.’
‘He died, didn’t he? What happened to him?’
‘A hole in his heart. Nobody knew. One day – boom. Dead.’
‘Oh, that’s awful.’
Lucetta shrugged. ‘I was very young and I remember little of it.’
‘My dad is dead too.’
‘I know; Alessandro told me. I am sad for you.’
‘That’s life; we carry on, don’t we? I miss him every day though.’
‘Of course.’
They were silent for a moment. Kate wondered what else Alessandro had told Lucetta about her. Had they discussed her at any length? If so, why? What conclusions would they have come to?
‘My brother is fond of you,’ Lucetta said into the silence. Kate whipped around to look at her, but Lucetta stared straight ahead and her expression gave nothing away.
Fond? What did that mean? He liked her friendly company? He wanted it to be more? He was fond of her in the way an uncle was fond of a favourite niece or she was fond of carrot cake? ‘I like him too,’ she replied carefully.
‘I see that when you look at him. He knows people’s hearts very quickly. He told me the first time you came to the questura he knew you were a good woman. I think he would marry you one day if you were Italian.’
Kate wondered what not being Italian meant for the possibility of that scenario. And why on earth was she even thinking about that? ‘Does Alessandro know you’re telling me all this?’
‘No,’ Lucetta said.
‘Would he be angry if he knew?’
‘I do not know. Perhaps.’
‘Then. . . I don’t understand why you’re telling me.’
‘Because I think you love him.’
Kate stared at her. ‘That’s crazy. . . And I couldn’t do anything about it even if I did.’ But even as she said it, the realisation hit her. When she had feared earlier that evening that she was falling for him. . . there was no falling; she’d already fallen. Her thoughts exploded, like someone had just thrown a grenade amongst them. And it hurt. She’d fallen for him, like a stupid, inexperienced teen clutches for the first boy who will kiss her, and Alessandro was simply fond of her. Whatever that meant.
‘Why not?’
‘I live in England! I’m only on holiday. . .’ Kate let out a sigh. Why was she even having this conversation with Alessandro’s sister? Aside from being crazy it was none of her business, and she was quite sure Alessandro wouldn’t thank her if he knew.
Lucetta shrugged. ‘What are you willing to do for love?’
‘Alessandro doesn’t love me – he doesn’t know me.’
Lucetta shrugged again. It was infuriating. ‘I think he would.’
‘So I’m supposed to do what?’
‘I do not know. If I loved a man I would go anywhere to be with him.’
What was Lucetta trying to say? That Kate should give up England for a man she’d only just met? Or that Alessandro would come to England, something she would never ask or expect him to do? What was the point? What was Lucetta trying to achieve by telling her any of this? It was obvious to anyone with half a brain that this was a situation with no happy ending for anyone, and torturing herself with the promise of anything else was not going to do Kate, or Alessandro for that matter, any good. When she’d first booked her flights to Rome, if she had foreseen any of this, would Kate still have booked them? She couldn’t honestly say what the answer to that question was right now. While the trip had been more than she could have possibly hoped for, the complications had been beyond anything she could have imagined.
‘But that would be foolish unless he loved you back.’
‘I will speak to Alessandro, and I will find out what is in his heart.’
‘Don’t you dare!’ Kate squeaked. ‘Please don’t do that.’ She grappled for something to throw Lucetta off the scent. Why did the girl have to be so bloody persistent about it anyway? Was the whole family simply obsessed with marrying Alessandro off to the nearest available woman? ‘Tell me about your fiancé. Is he from nearby?’ she said, trying to level her voice.
‘Gian is Roman. My sisters married Romans too.’
There was silence for a moment, and Kate couldn’t tell whether Lucetta was bored of the conversation, had admitted defeat, or whether she was offended at Kate’s refusal to discuss her feelings. But then she spoke again, and Kate wished any of those things had been true.
‘Do you love Alessandro?’ Lucetta’s question was blunt and forward. She could have been asking whether it was raining outside.
‘I don’t think I should come tomorrow,’ Kate said slowly. ‘It’s not a very good idea.’
‘Do you love him?’ Lucetta repeated.
‘Even if I do there’s no point in saying it because nothing can come of it. Please apologise to your mother and your sisters; tell them I’m sorry I can’t come to lunch after all.’
‘Forgive me,’ Lucetta said. ‘I did not mean to make you unhappy. Please, come tomorrow. Mamma will be sad if you don’t. I will be sad too, and I would like to meet your friend Jamie.’
Kate didn’t reply. Instead, she gazed out of the window and the car was silent until they pulled up outside Kate’s hotel.
‘Thanks for bringing me back,’ Kate said.
‘You will come tomorrow? I will be here at midday.’
Kate paused. God, Alessandro and his family could be so irritating, and they were all as bad as each other for assuming that their plans were agreeable to everyone regardless of any other factors. Hadn’t Kate made it perfectly clear that it wasn’t a good idea? Despite that, she still liked them all immensely and part of her did want to go for lunch, even if the sudden truth of her feelings for Alessandro did threaten to break her heart – particularly as he didn’t feel the same way. When she returned to England, she would think of him all the time, and he would forget her quickly until she became just a jumble of fond memories of a girl he’d flirted with for a week. Perhaps Jamie being there would help take her mind off that, though, and she would persuade him to come even if she had to pay him a million dollars. And she’d wanted the authentic Italian experience – it didn’t get more authentic than spending the day with an Italian family. Against her better judgement, she nodded. ‘Twelve. I’ll be ready.’
Just as she had promised herself earlier, it would be the last time she’d see Alessandro, and she could spend the rest of her time being a normal tourist, whose only worry was where the next stop for gelato was or how to find the nearest toilet – just like all the other visitors to the eternal city.
Chapter Eleven
‘I’m so excited to meet this family!’ Jamie said as they stood on the pavement outside her hotel waiting for Lucetta, who was proving to be fashionably late.
>
Kate threw him a sideways look. He was like a little boy waiting for his birthday party and, despite the churning of her stomach, she had to laugh. When she’d asked him that morning if he fancied lunch with a family he’d never met she’d expected some hesitation, some concern about the eleventh-hourness of the request or the social awkwardness of the situation, but his reply had been a very excited and immediate yes. His work could wait, he’d said, and he could be ready in plenty of time. True to his word, he had reported for duty an hour later with a grin stretching his face that had lit up her morning. One thing was very true – it was impossible not to feel happy around her new friend. She would take many precious memories back home from this trip, and meeting Jamie was one of the best.
‘You must have seriously impressed them to earn lunch,’ he continued. ‘It sounds like they’ve practically adopted you. And you look stunning again today. Your cop won’t be able to take his eyes off you.’
‘I doubt that,’ Kate said, trying to calm the ferocious beating of her heart at the mention of Alessandro. She had barely slept, turning the night’s events over and over in her mind and ending up back at the conversation with Lucetta in the car on the return to the hotel, each time its meaning perplexing her more. What did Lucetta think she was going to do? What did she mean by opening up this whole can of worms? Why couldn’t she have kept her big mouth shut? And why hadn’t Kate had the balls to do the sensible thing and refuse this lunch offer?
‘You’re always trying to be humble,’ Jamie scolded. ‘Take a bit of praise and enjoy it. You have a talent for creating fabulous clothes, and you look lovely in them and I won’t hear you argue anything else.’
‘Sorry.’
‘And please stop saying you’re sorry for everything! How many times have you told me that this morning? Sorry for making me come out on a date, sorry for making me skip a boring day of work, sorry for being great company. . . just stop it already!’
‘Sorry. . . For saying sorry, that is.’ She shot him a sheepish smile.
‘That’s the last one,’ he said, wagging his finger like a pantomime dame.
‘That’s the first time I’ve seen you look actually camp,’ Kate said, unable to prevent herself from laughing.
‘I reserve my full rainbow glory for very special occasions.’
‘I feel privileged, then, that you let it out for me today.’
He smiled and nudged her. ‘See, that’s better. I like it better when you’re happy.’
‘I’ve been happy all morning.’
‘Not as happy as when I saw you last. Do I have to get tough with Alessandro? Has he broken your poor heart already?’
Jamie was joking, of course, but Kate wondered what he would say if she told him he wasn’t so far from the truth. ‘No, I’m fine. I suppose I’m just tired; I didn’t sleep all that well.’
‘Missing home a little now?’ Jamie asked.
‘I suppose I must be a bit.’
‘I did too the first time I travelled away on my own, but it gets easier. And next time you’re planning to come to Rome you can check in with me first and I’ll see if I can get any business trips to coincide.’
‘That’s very presumptuous of you,’ Kate said.
He laughed. ‘It’s what I do best.’
‘I don’t even know if I’ll ever come back to Rome. There’s such a lot of world to see.’
‘You’ll always come back to Rome in the end; it’s like an irresistible force. Why do you think all the Roman roads lead here?’
‘Silly,’ Kate said. But then her smile faded. He was right – she loved Rome and she wanted to come back one day. But it might not end up being that simple. ‘Maybe I’ll come and see you in New York.’
‘I’d love that. I just know that Brad will adore you as much as I do, and I could show you the sights. . . You’d need weeks to see everything but you’d be more than welcome to stay at our apartment.’
‘Thank you; that’s so sweet of you. I’d feel better if I got a hotel, though. Tell you what – you get to take me for dinner instead, you and Brad. And I know that if he’s anything like as funny as you I’ll adore him too.’
‘You could bring your sisters.’
‘I could, though I’m not quite sure what their partners would have to say about it. Plus, Lily will have her baby by then I imagine; I’m not sure she’ll be going anywhere for at least eighteen years after it’s born.’
‘She could bring the baby too – we like babies.’
‘In principle I like babies too. I’m not sure about the stinky reality, though. I don’t suppose I’ll be finding out any time soon either, at least, not for myself. I’ll just have to make the most of Lily’s and spoil him or her rotten.’
‘Doesn’t she know which she’s having yet?’
‘She’s not far enough along for that scan yet. She’s past the danger zone – about fourteen weeks I think – but the gender scan isn’t until you’re twenty weeks gone. I don’t think she wants to know even if they offer to tell her; she’d rather have the surprise.’
‘That’s cute,’ Jamie said. He turned to her and suddenly looked earnest. ‘You’re OK, though?’
‘Me?’ Kate laughed. ‘Of course.’
‘I just know that when we first met you told me you’d wanted children before Matt left you.’
‘Well,’ Kate replied, her smile fixed even though inside it had died, ‘that was before. That was my old life and it’s gone now. I’m happy, I’m moving on and whatever will be will be.’
‘Que sera sera, huh?’
‘Exactly.’ She stared into the distance as she mused on her own words. Whatever will be will be. Did she mean that? If she did, then why did she suddenly feel so wretched?
In the distance she saw Lucetta’s car. From here Kate couldn’t see her face, but she could imagine the look of impatience on it just from the way she was driving. She didn’t know what was worse – Alessandro’s crazy moped or being thrown around Lucetta’s passenger seats.
‘Here’s our lift,’ she said. ‘Get ready for a white-knuckle ride.’
‘My favourite kind,’ Jamie said and grinned.
If Kate had thought the dinner prepared by Signora Conti the day before was sublime, the spread she’d put on in anticipation of a new guest was in a whole other league. It seemed she had gone full out and what was on offer was far more than an ordinary family lunch. There was antipasti of artichokes, olives, cheese and various meats, bread, a simple but delicious pasta dish in tomato sauce, succulent pork cooked with vegetables followed by lemon and ricotta cheesecake. Signora Conti and Abelie were still preparing it when Lucetta arrived with Kate and Jamie, and through the course of the next half hour the rest of Alessandro’s family began to arrive. Kate had not been prepared for this, although now it seemed obvious that they would all come, and meeting everyone was a little overwhelming. First Maria with her husband and four children, who subjected her to the type of scrutiny that made Kate feel she’d been undressed and examined by customs. Next came Jolanda without her husband (who was working) and her three children (a friendlier greeting), then Isabella, also husbandless, with her trio. Last to arrive was Gian, Lucetta’s fiancé, who greeted Kate warmly and thanked her for the work on Lucetta’s dress. They all went through to the kitchen for a while to speak to their mother and youngest sister before returning to the main living area to inspect Kate en masse. . . or at least that was how it felt. She had to wonder just how much they knew about her friendship with Alessandro, but it seemed that Maria, at least, knew quite a lot. It wasn’t a huge leap of the imagination that Lucetta might have told all her sisters exactly what she had told Kate the night before, too, and they might have discussed it at great length. It was less of a leap and more of a skip to assume that Orazia had filled Maria in on her encounters with Kate too. If she had, then it was no wonder they were looking at Kate like a prize specimen in a zoo.
Jamie seemed to take it all in his stride, however, breaking into spora
dic bits of Italian every now and again even though all Signora Conti’s offspring spoke very good English, which gained him huge smiles. This was despite telling Kate he knew hardly any at all. He might have thought it was hardly any, but it was a great deal more than she knew, and it made Kate even more determined that when she got home she was going to learn some, so if she did come back she could gain the favour that Jamie seemed to from trying to speak a little of his hosts’ native language. It helped that Jamie was charming and funny as well, two qualities Kate felt very lacking in. Before long he was the absolute life and soul of the party, regaling everyone with funny stories about his travels, life in New York and his work, and taking the heat off Kate – something she was very grateful for.
The children, ranging in age from fourteen to two, were all incredibly well behaved and polite, the smaller ones sitting on laps around the table while the older ones squeezed into whatever space they could find. And it was a squeeze around Signora Conti’s dinner table for sure, and Kate couldn’t imagine how on earth she managed it every week (apparently she called the family together for a meal at least once a week) but somehow she had found enough chairs and they all just about fit. They were close to their neighbours, however, and Kate felt the heat of Alessandro’s body pressed against one shoulder, Jamie at her other. Jamie she didn’t mind so much, but she desperately wished Alessandro would move, because the contact was causing strange and inappropriate feelings that were hard to ignore.
‘Lucetta’s wedding dress is perfect now,’ Isabella said, smiling across at Kate as she helped herself to some cured meat. ‘She says you worked all night.’
Rome is Where the Heart is: An uplifting romantic read, perfect to escape with (From Italy with Love Book 1) Page 13