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Alice stared at her and the other woman smiled.
‘He has had girlfriends, yes, of course. He is an attractive, healthy young man so that is natural. But love…’ She gave a fatalistic shrug. ‘That only happens to a man once in a lifetime, and for my Giovanni it is now. Don’t take too long to realise that you feel the same way, Alice. To lose something so precious would be nothing short of a tragedy.’
With that she turned and walked back across the courtyard into the house, leaving Alice staring after her.
Gio stood on the beach and stared out to sea, unable to drag himself away. Disappointment sat in his gut like a lead weight that he couldn’t shift.
He’d relied on this place, his home, to provide the key he needed. To unlock that one remaining part of Alice that was still hidden away. But his plan had failed.
Maybe he’d just underestimated the depth of the damage that her parents had done to her.
Or maybe he was wrong to think that she loved him. Maybe she didn’t love him at all.
‘Gio?’ Her voice sounded tentative, as if she wasn’t sure of her welcome, and he turned with a smile. It cost him in terms of effort but he was determined that she shouldn’t feel bad. None of this was her fault. None of it.
He glanced at his watch. ‘You’re right—we should be leaving. Are you ready?’
‘No. No, I’m not, actually.’ She stepped away from him, a slender figure clothed in a blue dress that dipped at the neck and floated past her knees. Her feet were bare and she was wearing a flower in her hair.
The transformation was complete, he thought to himself sadly. A few weeks ago her wardrobe had all been about work. Practical skirts and comfortable shoes. Neat tops with tailored jackets.
Now she looked relaxed and feminine. Like the exquisitely beautiful woman that she was.
‘Well, you have five more minutes before we have to leave.’ He prompted her gently. ‘If there are still things you need to fetch, you’d better fetch them fast.’
‘There’s nothing I need to fetch.’ In four days on the beach her pale skin had taken on a soft golden tone and her blonde hair fell silky smooth to her shoulders. ‘But there are things that I need to say.’
‘Alice—’
‘No, I really need to be allowed to speak.’ She stood on tiptoe and covered his lips with her fingers, the way he’d done to her so many times. ‘I didn’t realise. I didn’t realise that giving up surgery had meant so much to you. You hid that well.’
He tensed. ‘I—’
‘It’s nice to know that other people hide things, too. That it isn’t just me. It makes me realise that everyone has things inside them that they don’t necessarily want to share.’ She let her fingers drop from his mouth. ‘It doesn’t stop you from moving forward. It’s nice to know that, even though you didn’t smile for a while, you’re smiling again now. And it’s nice to know that I’m the only woman that you’ve ever brought home.’
‘You’ve been speaking to my mother.’
‘Yes.’ She glanced down at her feet. Curled her toes into the sand. ‘And I want it to stay that way. I want to be the first and last woman that you ever bring here. I should probably tell you that I’m seriously in love with your mother. And your sisters and brother, grandparents, uncles and aunts.’
‘You are?’ Hope flickered inside him, and the tiny flicker grew as she lifted her head and looked at him, her blue eyes clear and honest.
‘You’re right that I’m afraid. I’m afraid that everything that’s in my past might get in the way of our future. I’m afraid that I might mess everything up.’ She swallowed and took a deep breath, her hands clasped in front of her. ‘I’m afraid of so many things. But love only happens once in a lifetime and it’s taken me this long to find it so I can’t let my fear stand in my way.’ She held out her hand and lifted her chin. ‘I’m ready to climb, Gio, if you promise that you’ll be there to catch me. I’m ready to marry you, if you’ll still have me.’
He took her hand, closed his eyes briefly and pulled her hard against him. ‘I love you and I will always love you, even when you’re ninety and you’re still trying to talk to me about work when all I want to do is lie in the sun and look at my lemon trees.’
She looked up at him, eyes shining, and he felt his heart tumble. ‘I have another confession to make—I haven’t actually been thinking about work as much lately.’
‘Is that so, Dr Anderson?’ His expression was suddenly serious. ‘And that’s something that we haven’t even discussed. What we do about work. Where we are going to live.’ Did she want to stay in Cornwall? Was she thinking of moving to Italy?
She shrugged her shoulders. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
He couldn’t hide his surprise. ‘Well, I—’
‘What matters is us,’ she said quietly, her hand still in his. ‘You’ve shown me that. I love you, Gio, and I always will. I believe in love now. A love that can last. This place makes me believe that. You make me believe it.’
For the first time in his adult life words wouldn’t come, so he bent his head and kissed her.
The Sicilian’s Surprise Love-Child
