by Anne Fraser
At least there was little he could do to agitate her as they walked in companionable silence around Monaco. The shops were amazing. Filled with clothes and jewellery that didn’t deign to have price tags, Katie guessed that if anyone needed to ask the price they couldn’t afford it.
‘It’s all kind of make-believe,’ she said finally. ‘Almost like a film set. Everything about this trip feels unreal.’
Fabio studied her through half-closed eyes, a small smile playing on his lips. ‘Don’t you like it?’ he asked.
Katie thought for a moment. ‘It is beautiful but, no. I don’t think I’d feel comfortable living here. I think being surrounded by so much wealth all the time feels a little obscene when there’s so much poverty in the world. What about you?’
Fabio looked thoughtful. ‘I always thought I liked it, but I understand what you mean about not wanting to live here. As for the wealth and it being obscene, I feel like that sometimes about Brazil. People there are either enormously rich or pretty impoverished. Not easy to live with.’ His words surprised her. He seemed so comfortable with the rich and glamorous lifestyle.
Fabio stopped next to some tables and chairs of an outside café and raised an eyebrow. ‘Ready to eat?’
‘I’m okay. But something cool to drink would be good.’
Unsurprisingly, there were no prices on the menu. After they had ordered their drinks, Katie leaned back in her seat and turned her face to the sun.
‘Tell me more about Brazil,’ she said. ‘Is there really such a divide?’
Fabio nodded. ‘I wasn’t aware of it until I qualified as a doctor. I spent a year working in the inner city and it opened my eyes. Maybe one day, I’ll go back and work there again.’
Katie regarded him through half-closed eyes. ‘What? And leave all this?’ She indicted the square with its magnificent fountain and the immaculate buildings with a wave of her hand. ‘All this luxury?’ Could he be pretending to be something he wasn’t in order to impress her? If that was the case, she didn’t know whether to be flattered or annoyed. She was in a state of constant confusion around him. One minute his natural mode of operating seemed to be to flirt with every woman he met—she had no illusions she was special in any way—although when she was with him he made her feel as if she was the only woman on the planet. On the other hand, he seemed to genuinely care about Lucy and her family. She sighed inwardly. Men like him were beyond her scope of understanding.
The sun was warm on her face but a gentle breeze coming off the sea kept it from being too hot. She closed her eyes again, breathing in the scent from the baskets of flowers and taking in the sounds, content to feel at peace, even if only for a little while.
Fabio sipped his coffee and studied the woman opposite him. When he’d seen her poised at the side of the boat in her borrowed bikini, the sight of her had blown him away. Her petite figure was just as curvaceous as her sundress the night before had suggested. She had tied back her blonde hair in a ponytail, exaggerating her high cheekbones, and when she had dived into the sea, he had caught a glimpse of her sexily rounded bottom emphasised by the high cut of the bikini.
It wasn’t just that she was sexy and cute in way that made him want to kiss her senseless. He loved watching her in her unguarded moments when her eyes would light up with wonder at everything she saw, although he believed her when she said it wasn’t for her. Every moment he spent with her, she intrigued him more and more. Most of the women he dated were only too happy to talk about themselves, but not Katie. What caused that sad look in her eyes when she thought she wasn’t being watched? The one that made him want to make her laugh instead? And why had she become so upset last night? What secrets did she have? He wanted to know.
He gave himself a slight shake. He had to remember that she was out of bounds. He was pretty certain women like Katie weren’t into casual relationships. When they fell in love it was for ever, and one thing he could never promise was a happy ever after.
Later that day, after they’d watched Mark’s race, which to everyone’s delight he had won, and they were back on the yacht, Fabio checked Lucy over. Announcing himself satisfied, he left Katie to give Lucy her physio. Katie organised some pillows on the deck to do postural drainage.
‘Isn’t it great that Dad came first?’ Lucy said. ‘I wish I could have gone to the party with them.’
They’d all been invited, but Katie had opted to stay behind with Lucy. Fabio reappeared, wearing a dinner suit and bow-tie, just in time to catch Lucy’s words.
‘I think you’ve had enough excitement for the day. We all have,’ Katie told Lucy.
‘I’m too excited to go to bed. Can’t I stay up? We could all play a board game. You, me and Fabio.’
‘I think Fabio is going to the party, Luce.’ Katie glanced at Fabio, suppressing a smile as she saw the fleeting look of horror on his face. No doubt staying in and playing a board game was as far away from a night out as was possible for him.
But to her surprise, Fabio loosened his bow-tie and shrugged out of his jacket.
‘Sounds cool. I’m sure your folks won’t mind me not going, Lucy. I’ll let them know and I’ll meet you ladies in the lounge.’
Realising her jaw had dropped, Katie quickly recovered. This was more like the behaviour she expected from Lucy’s doctor, although, to be fair, participating in a board game went beyond the call of duty. She decided to ignore the little surge of pleasure she felt that he’d chosen to spend the evening with her and Lucy instead of at some glamorous event.
The three of them gathered round the coffee table, sitting on piles of cushions scattered over the thick pile rug. Soft lamps glowed in the corners and the lights of Monaco twinkled outside in the distance. For the first time in a long, long while, Katie felt almost happy.
‘No cheating this time, Fabio.’ Lucy giggled. ‘Katie and I are on to you.’
Fabio mimed shocked horror. ‘I’m a genius at Scrabble! I don’t need to cheat.’
Lucy’s first word scored eleven, Katie’s nineteen and, much to their delight, Fabio’s five. The next few rounds saw him lag even further behind, until he pulled a big word score out of nowhere.
‘Hey! What does that word mean?’ Lucy asked, suspicious.
‘It’s Portuguese,’ Fabio replied, doing his best to look innocent. ‘It’s a term for a beautiful woman.’
Katie and Lucy nodded at each other. ‘Get out the dictionary!’ they shouted in unison. Lucy looked up ‘quezob'. ‘Nice try, Dr Fabio, but no such word exists.’
The rest of the game descended into a chaos of laughter as they all vied to win by cheating and using the most outrageous made-up words.
Finally, Fabio held up his hands in submission. ‘I surrender—I can’t compete with you two ganging up on me.’
‘I think it’s time for bed, Luce,’ Katie said a short while later, noticing how tired the girl looked suddenly. A yawning Lucy allowed Katie to lead her away to bed, where Katie left her sleepily watching a movie.
When Katie returned to the lounge, she hesitated at the door. Fabio was sitting on the floor, leaning against one of the sofas with his arms behind his head. How could anyone seem so relaxed yet like a coiled spring at the same time? He was a mass of contradictions. Part of her wanted his company, but being alone with him suddenly seemed too intimate; too intense.
He jumped to his feet when he noticed her. For a moment they stood looking at each other and Katie’s heart kicked against her ribs. He stepped towards her.
‘I think I’ll follow Lucy’s example and have an early night,’ she said, backing away quickly. His expression was unreadable.
‘Did you have a good day?’ His voice was low as if her answer really mattered to him.
‘It’s been wonderful.’ She sounded breathless, even to her own ears. ‘Goodnight, Fabio.’
But once in her bed, sleep evaded her. She was feeling very restless. Slipping on her dressing gown, she stepped outside her cabin and onto the balcony.
&n
bsp; ‘Hello.’ His voice came out of the darkness. ‘Couldn’t sleep?’
Fabio was sitting on his balcony, leaning back in his chair with his long legs propped up on the railings. Her heart started its annoying thumping all over again. If it wouldn’t have looked crazy for her to head straight back inside, she would have.
She shook her head. ‘No. I thought some air would help.’
‘How is Lucy?’
‘Fast asleep. Tired out from her day.’
‘She’s a good kid.’ Fabio stood up and leaned his back against the railing so he was facing her.
‘My heart goes out to her and her parents. I don’t know how they manage to keep everything so normal. If this can be called normal.’ Katie indicated the sweep of the marina with the thousand lights sparkling from the hundreds of yachts.
‘It’s normal for them. Don’t let all of this fool you, Katie. Amelia and Mark love their daughter very much. They won’t have any more children because they can’t take the risk of having another child with CF. They both have to be carriers for Lucy to have inherited the illness in the first place and they have a one in four chance of having another child with CF. It’s not a risk they’re prepared to take I suspect they’d swap places with you in a heartbeat.’
She sucked in a breath. Would they? At least, for the time being, their family was safe and together.
‘Maybe, maybe not,’ she replied. As soon as the words were out she could have bitten her tongue. God, that sounded callous.
Fabio vaulted over the railing, joining her on her side of the balcony. He was so close she could smell his expensive aftershave, almost feel the heat of his body. Her heart went into overdrive. Why couldn’t he have stayed where he was?
He tilted her chin gently so he could hold her gaze. ‘Something is making you sad. Do you want to tell me what it is?’
Katie shook her head and stepped away. She wasn’t ready to share what had happened to Richard with anyone, least of all him. Keeping everything locked up inside was the only way she knew how to cope with her grief. She was terrified that once the floodgates opened, she’d fall apart.
‘I don’t think it’s something you’d want to hear about,’ she said quietly.
‘Don’t judge me too quickly, Katie.’ Although his tone was light, his expression was deadly serious.
He seemed so sincere, she found herself wanting to confide in him. But talking about it wouldn’t change anything. It wouldn’t bring Richard back. And Fabio was a colleague. One she barely knew. She’d already revealed more to him than she wanted to. ‘Thanks, but I’m fine, Fabio.’
He took a step towards her and her heart almost stopped beating. For a moment it was as if she was being held in his arms and he wasn’t even touching her. She needed to keep her distance from this man in more ways than one.
‘I’ll see you in the morning,’ she said, and before he had a chance to respond, she was back inside her cabin.
Back on his side of the balcony, Fabio stared up at the sky. Katie wasn’t the only one who was struggling to find sleep that night. Perhaps it was because he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Which was ridiculous.
Wasn’t it?
Why was he letting her get under his skin? Okay, so something was upsetting her, but that wasn’t his problem. There was no reason on this earth that he should feel this sense of protectiveness. No reason at all that he should keep imagining the feel of her lips, the touch of her fingers, the sensation of her hair on his chest, the swell of her hips under his hand. No reason why he should be remembering her bare skin with little droplets of water rolling down between her breasts.
He had almost kissed her back there and if she hadn’t turned away, he would have. Even if he knew he was playing with fire. Deus! There were plenty of women he could be dating. Women equally as beautiful and far less complicated. So why didn’t any of them make his pulse beat the way Katie did?
Fabio stood up and with his hands thrust into his pockets paced the small balcony. He’d had a surprisingly good time earlier that evening. Who would ever have thought that Fabio Lineham would enjoy playing Scrabble with Katie and Lucy more than any other date he could remember in the last year? He chuckled as he remembered the heated look on Katie’s face when she’d caught him cheating. The impish smile as she’d tried to get her own back by nudging his letters away from the triple-score square.
At one point, when Katie had been frowning over her letters, it had struck him that this what being part of a family must be like for most people, and for the first time in his adult life he’d experienced a stab of envy.
He had to stop thinking like that. He had to get Katie out of his head and there was only one sure-fire way left to cure himself of his desire for her. As the thought flashed through his head, he felt an unexpected prickle of shame but quickly dismissed it. She would have to take her chances.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE flight back home to London was uneventful, except that this time Amelia was with them. A car picked them up and, after dropping off Amelia and Lucy, along with Fabio who said he wanted to give Lucy a quick once-over at their mansion, carried on towards the part of London where Katie was staying with her sister-in-law.
Katie stood at the front door of the little maisonette in the gathering darkness and took a deep, steadying breath. Richard and Suzy had only moved in eighteen months ago and she still remembered how excited they’d both been with their first home. As soon as they’d decorated, they’d announced they were trying for a baby and they had both been so happy when Suzy’s pregnancy had been confirmed. How could they have known that less than a year later it would all fall apart?
Swallowing the lump in her throat and plastering a smile on her face, Katie let herself in.
She wasn’t surprised to find that her sister-in-law was still up, little Rick cradled in her arms.
‘Oh, hi,’ Suzy said lethargically. She was clutching a crumpled letter in her hand. ‘How was your trip?’
Katie felt a rush of sympathy and immediately dismissed her own fatigue. ‘I’ll put this little one down, shall I, and make us a snack, then tell you all about it,’ she said, holding out her arms for her nephew.
Gently, Katie removed the sleeping baby from Suzy’s arms. She breathed in the particular baby smell and her heart contracted as two small eyes, exact replicas of his dead father’s, opened and fixed on hers. Recognising his aunt, Ricky fell back to sleep.
She put him down in his cot and returned to the sitting room. Suzy was still sitting in the same position as when Katie had left her.
‘His commanding officer wrote to me.’ She waved the pages of the letter listlessly. ‘He’s going to recommend him for some medal. As if that would make things better.’
A crushing sense of guilt threatened to overwhelm Katie. If Richard hadn’t needed the money to support her as well as himself, he would have never joined the army. But that wasn’t all. When Richard had been offered the chance to serve abroad, before he’d fallen in love with Suzy, he’d come to Katie and asked her what he should do.
‘I don’t want to leave you on your own, kiddo,’ he’d said. ‘But this is something I need to do.’
‘Hey, I’m all grown up now. I’ll be fine,’ she’d said, although she’d wanted to beg him not to go. He had looked after her practically all his adult life, supporting her, encouraging her to follow her dreams, and it had only been fair that she should let him follow his.
Crouching by her sister-in-law’s side, Katie took the pages and read. As Suzy had said, Richard’s commanding officer was recommending Richard for a medal. It was pretty much as they’d been told. Her brother had been stationed at a forward operating post when some of the soldiers under his care had come under fire. Without regard for his own safety, Richard had left the protection of the FOB and rushed out to pull one of the injured soldiers to safety. Then he had gone back for another. It had been at that point he had been shot and killed.
‘I’m so angry with him,’ Suzy
said softly. ‘I know it sounds crazy, but he was a doctor, not a soldier. He didn’t have to do what he did.’
Katie rested her head against Suzy’s shoulder.
‘He had us to come home to,’ Suzy continued. ‘All he had to do was keep himself safe for another two weeks then he would have been back where he belonged. Here. With his family.’
‘I know,’ Katie said.
Suzy sighed deeply. ‘But he wouldn’t have been Richard, would he, if he hadn’t done what he did? He wouldn’t have been the man I loved. Whatever you think, Katie, Richard wouldn’t have been happy doing anything else.’
Her words were an echo of Amelia’s. A reminder that loving brought pain and that you couldn’t help who you fell in love with. An image of Fabio floated into Katie’s head. In many ways he reminded her of Richard. He had that same insatiable desire for excitement and danger as her brother had had. However much he made her nerve endings tingle, however much she was drawn to him, she had to remember he wasn’t the man for her. For all sorts of reasons.
Tears were running down Suzy’s cheeks and Katie knew that, despite her best efforts to be strong for her sister-in-law, her own cheeks were wet.
‘Oh, Katie, how am I going to live without him?’ Suzy wailed.
And then the two women were in each other’s arms, seeking comfort that they knew they could never find.
When they had dried their tears and made some tea, they made themselves comfortable on the sofa.
‘So tell me about your trip. Was it fun?’ Suzy said.
Suzy was always trying to get Katie to get out and start enjoying life again, so Katie told Suzy about the yacht, Monaco and the people she had met. She tried to make her stories as amusing as possible and was rewarded when Suzy laughed.
‘And this Dr Lineham—Fabio? Tell me more about him. I’m guessing he’s gorgeous. Your eyes light up every time you mention him.’
Suzy had always been too perceptive for her own good. Katie felt her cheeks redden.