The evening ended with fireworks – but not just of an incendiary nature.
The official firework display started at ten o’clock and was impressive. It was fully dark by this time and the sky over the sea was lit up with magnificent multicoloured swirls and shimmering stars interspersed with ear-shattering explosions. Sophie hadn’t realised it was coming and as the first rockets whooshed up into the air from pontoons in the water, she dropped to her knees to comfort her dog and to grab his collar in case he should decide to run off in terror. She needn’t have worried. Unlike his reaction to thunder and lightning, apart from a couple of louder bangs that had him pressing against her leg, Jeeves appeared to be as fascinated as everybody else by the display and even wagged his tail from time to time.
When it ended, Sophie left the beach festival and took Jeeves back up to the castle. Rachel also declared herself ready to go home and Sophie left her to round up the others, hoping they wouldn’t drag it out too much. She was feeling quite weary by now and the idea of being woken up in the small hours by the revellers’ return didn’t appeal in the slightest. When she reached Paradiso, she drove round to the piazza in front of the castle and climbed out to open the main gates.
It was then that the trouble started. She had just unlocked the gates and pushed them open when she heard footsteps and then a voice behind her.
‘Ciao, bella.’
She instantly recognised that voice and spun round in horror. In the light of the single street lamp he was unmistakable.
‘Claudio, what the hell are you doing here? I told you not to come.’
‘Yes, but I knew you didn’t mean it. I just had to see you and I know you really want to see me, don’t you?’
She stood there, rooted to the spot but, as he moved closer, her brain finally kicked into gear and she held up her hand to stop him. In the orange streetlight he was as handsome as ever, without a single hair out of place, but she could feel the anger bubbling up inside her like a volcano.
‘What did I say I’d do if you came here?’ She was almost hissing at him.
‘Give me a kiss, hopefully.’ He held out his arms towards her and she took a step backwards while reaching in her pocket for her phone.
‘Never in a million years. As you appear to have forgotten, I said I’d phone the police.’
He assumed an innocent expression. ‘Why? I haven’t done anything wrong.’
Sophie made a quick decision. ‘Then I’ll call my boyfriend. He’s on his way up here now.’
‘Your boyfriend?’ He didn’t sound so sure of himself now.
Sophie glanced down at her phone and typed a hurried text to Rachel and to Dan.
Old habits die hard. It occurred to her as she pressed Send that she could have saved a few milliseconds by omitting the word please.
‘Now there’s no need to do that, Sophie. It’s me, Claudio. I don’t mean you any harm.’
‘I should think not.’ Even so, she took two more steps backwards.
‘Listen, Sophie, I really miss you. Ever since you went off and left me I’ve been miserable.’
‘Like hell you have!’ She could feel the anger building again. ‘Now, stand aside while I put my car away.’
She climbed back into the car, drove it slowly through the gates and parked. She toyed with the idea of locking herself inside it to wait for the cavalry to arrive but, going round to open the boot for Jeeves, she decided she owed it to herself to get out and face him. The dog jumped out and, to her surprise and delight, he didn’t immediately trot over to Claudio to give him a friendly greeting. Instead, sensing something in the air, he stopped dead and stared suspiciously at the Roman. For once, his tail wasn’t wagging and Sophie could hear what might even have been a low growl from him – something decidedly out of character. She took heart from his reaction.
‘Please don’t come any closer, Claudio. My dog’s very protective of me.’
By this time she could clearly see that the hairs on the back of the Labrador’s neck were bristling. Good old Jeeves! This did wonders for her confidence. Claudio was still standing by the gatepost, looking uncertainly at Jeeves but, as she tried to close the gates, he didn’t move out of the way.
‘So you’re going to just slam the gates in my face after everything we’ve meant to each other?’ There was an edge to his voice now that she didn’t like one bit. She glanced at her watch. The text had only been sent five minutes ago. Even if Rachel and Dan had already left the beach, it would take a while longer before they arrived – assuming they had seen the message. Sophie choked back her anger – and a tiny tremor of fear – and did her best to keep the conversation on a level footing. For now, all that counted was keeping Claudio on the other side of the gates, so she tried to keep him talking for now.
‘Tell me, why are you here, Claudio? Even you must realise that there’s no chance I would ever trust you again or give you a second chance.’
‘You give me a second chance? You left me, remember? I’ve come to tell you I’m prepared to take you back.’
Sophie couldn’t believe her ears. Talk about thick-skinned. Deliberately taking a deep breath before replying, she tried to keep her voice as neutral as possible so as not to antagonise him. ‘I left you because you were unfaithful to me, or are you trying to tell me that’s not true?’
He shrugged his quintessentially Roman shrug, shoulders almost reaching up to his ears and with his palms splayed outwards in front of him. ‘So I played around a little. We all do that. But you don’t need to worry – the other girls mean nothing to me.’
‘Clearly neither did I. And as for playing around, it’s not what everybody does and it most definitely isn’t what I do.’ She pricked up her ears as she heard a car’s engine approaching fast. He must have heard it too as he turned to take a look. Sophie took advantage of his momentary distraction to slam the left-hand gate into position. Now just the right-hand one remained.
To her delight, Dan’s little Fiat squealed to a halt just outside, closely followed by one of the Spanish cars, from which Rachel and a bunch of others emerged. Dan came running across and Sophie was mightily relieved.
‘What the hell’s going on here?’ Ignoring Claudio, he looked across at Sophie. ‘Are you all right?’
She nodded as the two men turned to face each other and she knew she had to act fast to stop the situation spiralling out of control. On the spur of the moment she reached out her hands, beckoning Dan but addressing Claudio.
‘I told you my boyfriend was coming, Claudio. Please go. It’s all over between us and I really, truly never want to see you ever again.’ She caught hold of Dan’s hands and tugged him towards her, anxious to keep him out of the way of Claudio, who, she knew well, had a very short temper. ‘Thank you for coming so fast, Dan.’
He took his cue and appeared quite unphased at having been described as her boyfriend as he encircled her shoulders with his arm and pulled her towards him.
‘That’s what I’m here for.’
A few seconds of silence followed while the two men sized each other up. To Sophie’s surprise, the silence was broken by Jeeves who let out a real sinister growl. His lip curled and the streetlight reflected on his gleaming white teeth while his hackles were still up. It was clear that the hackles of both men were equally raised. The last thing Sophie wanted was for there to be a fight and she was about to dive between them when help arrived from a formidable source.
Into the space between the two men stepped the Incredible Hulk. Juan looked decidedly threatening, especially when, in true Hulk tradition, he pulled his T-shirt off – admittedly without tearing it into shreds or turning green, but still… He threw it disdainfully into the shadows, exposing ridge upon ridge of rippling muscles glistening in the orange light, and spoke to Claudio in a voice that, while calm, brooked no argument.
‘Listen, cabrón, you have a choice. The lady wants you to leave, so leave. If you decide not to go, then I’m going to pick you up and throw you into the horse trough over there. Understood?’
The standoff lasted barely another handful of seconds before Claudio finally got the message. Without a word he spun on his heel and strode off towards his car which was parked outside the restaurant where he had, presumably, been waiting for her. He climbed in, slammed the door and gunned the engine, shooting off with a vicious squeal of tyres.
Everybody relaxed.
First things first, Sophie wriggled out of Dan’s grip and ran across to catch hold of Juan and give him a massive hug – barely managing to get her arms around his broad back. ‘Thank you so very much, Juan. You’re my hero.’
She kissed him on the cheeks and hurried back to Dan who was now ruffling Jeeves’s ears. She threw herself at him and hugged him tight.
‘And you are my knight in shining armour. Thank you for being prepared to play the part of my boyfriend.’
She reached up and kissed his cheeks as well.
‘My pleasure, Sophie. I’m here for you any time you need me. Just shout.’ He glanced around at the others. ‘But you didn’t need me. Juan did all the hard work and you had your trusty hound to defend you. I had never thought of Jeeves as a guard dog before, but he was awesome. It’s good to know he has your back.’
Sophie dropped to her knees and hugged the Labrador to her chest.
‘Another hero. My big brave boy, Jeeves, you’re a really, really good dog.’
He nuzzled her with his cold wet nose and wagged his tail gently. He already knew that.