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‘Maybe.’ Finally Matteo smiled. ‘What are you saying?’
‘Well, I’d rather he hadn’t put himself in that situation in the first place. But given that he did...’
Matteo chuckled. ‘Okay. The clinic’s first patient and we maybe saved his life. Happy now?’
‘Yes. That’ll do.’ It wasn’t easy to get Matteo to take credit for what he’d done, but he knew. And she knew, too.
‘Why don’t you go? I’m getting him transferred to the hospital in Palermo, and the ambulance should be here to collect him within the hour. Watch the fireworks with
William.’ Matteo had called up to the house, and his uncle had said that they would bring William down to the village to meet them.
‘I’d rather stay here. See it through.’ She wondered if Matteo would understand that, and his small nod told her that he did. ‘Will your uncle and aunt mind?’
‘Mind? Of course not. And Nannu Alberto will be thrilled. He’s always up for leading young minds astray...’ Matteo stopped suddenly, wincing slightly. ‘I’m joking. William will be quite safe. Nanna Maria keeps him under control...’
‘I know. He’ll be fine, and he’ll love watching the fireworks with Nannu Alberto.’ Rose wished that she didn’t have to borrow other people’s families in order to show William what a happy, supportive family was like. Her mum and dad were great but there was only the two of them, and it wasn’t quite the same.
‘We’ll stay here, then. Maybe catch the last of the fireworks.’
Maybe. But that didn’t matter, because today had already been special.
CHAPTER TEN
IT WAS NO surprise to see Matteo on site. He’d got into the habit of coming up here at least once a week, after work, to see how things were going. Everyone knew him, and she saw him stop to chat for a moment as he walked from his car to the lab.
Even after a hot, humid day, he seemed cool. Probably the result of good hydration and the hospital’s air-conditioning. Rose took a swig from the water bottle on her work bench, which had lain forgotten while she’d worked and lost its refreshing chill.
He popped his head around the door of the lab.
‘It’s hot in here. What you need is sorbetto di limone.’
Rose rolled her eyes. ‘What are you trying to do? Torture me?’
‘No. It’s plain wrong to offer temptation without the means to satisfy it.’
Yes, it was. But that didn’t mean that Matteo couldn’t turn up here looking like every woman’s dream, when he plainly wasn’t going to back her against her workbench and kiss her into oblivion. Rose stood up, taking a few steps away from the bench just in case she became overwhelmed by temptation and made a pass at him.
Meanwhile, he was taking an insulated food container out of his briefcase. ‘I drove as fast as I could...’
Kissing him right then and there did seem like an option. ‘Matteo, you didn’t...’ Clearly he had. ‘Bring it outside, this is a no-food contamination area...’
She hustled him out of the lab and then outside to the fold-up chairs that stood in the shade of a canvas awning. Matteo handed her a cardboard container, the kind you got from a street vendor, and then dug into his briefcase again for the spoon.
‘Mmm... This is...heaven. Thank you.’ Just enough sugar to take the tartness of the lemon away. Cold as ice and much more refreshing. ‘You want some?’ She held out the spoon to him.
‘No, thanks.’ He leaned back in his chair, grinning. ‘I’ll just watch.’
‘I’d forgotten you were a food voyeur.’
‘I bring you lemon sorbet, and you’d deny me the pleasure of seeing you eat it?’ The slight twitch of his lips made it all seem far less innocent than it was. Matteo was a man who liked giving pleasure, and she’d be willing to bet that he had other ways of doing it than with lemon sorbet.
‘So how’s everything going?’ He let her finish the tub, and asked the question that she’d been dreading.
‘Fine.’
‘Ah. Not so good, then.’ He always seemed to know when she was trying to divert him from something. ‘What’s up?’
‘It’s nothing, really. I got one of the students to do a reconstruction of Aemilia’s face. He’s done some before and he’s really quite talented.’
