“So sorry about that,” Colette was saying as she tried to distract Kim’s guests from the scene Annie was making. “My friend has had some bad news.” She couldn’t believe that Annie had ended up coming all the way back here to just get trashed and make a fool of herself on Kim’s big night.
Some things never changed.
“Is she OK?” the couple she was speaking to asked with some concern.
“She’ll be fine. My husband is taking care of her now. Please do go and enjoy the party,” she urged as she tried to divert their attention from the villa to the main party area back outside. The entire courtyard and terrace had been turned into a reception hall, and even the poolside was hosting guests for the evening. “Can I get you another drink or anything?” she asked the couple, who didn’t seem to be getting the hint. Their eyes kept glancing in the direction of the villa.
The last thing she wanted was for Kim to get word of this, especially with all the pressure she’d been under lately.
“That would be lovely,” the woman answered. Colette didn’t remember their names but Kim had introduced them earlier. They were some wealthy hoteliers from Denmark. The husband was into racehorses.
“Have you seen the pool area?” she asked as she led them back across the courtyard. Along with champagne trays, a bar had been set up poolside to keep the guests well-supplied with beverages.
Hors d’oeuvres were being passed around by the waitstaff and, despite the last-minute catering issue, there seemed to be a plentiful supply of food and drinks.
“Not yet,” the man replied.
“Let me show you,” Colette insisted with a winning smile. Annie was in good hands with Ed. He’d take care of her. She just wanted to be sure that any unpleasantness the couple had witnessed was thoroughly erased before she left them.
Once she was sure the mini fire had been put out, she headed back up toward the house and was just ascending the steps to the courtyard when she saw him again. She attempted to walk past but he stopped her, reaching out to touch her arm lightly.
“Luca,” she said tightly, as her cheeks automatically flushed.
He smiled. “I see you still blush easily.”
“It’s warm tonight,” Colette replied, as she forced herself not to meet his gaze. He still looked the same, exactly the same. As if he hadn’t aged a day since the last time she saw him, the day they swam together at Fiordo di Furore.
Right before he dumped her.
Luca seemed to search her face for something. What? She didn’t know.
“I was hoping you would be here tonight,” he replied.
She fidgeted, unsure what to say to this. “What are you doing here, Luca? I didn’t realize you and Kim were close.”
“We are not. But there was an issue with her catering company and they needed somebody to prepare the food. I offered to assist.” He looked at the throngs of guests surrounding them. “Can we go somewhere quieter to talk?”
“No,” Colette said quickly. “I need to get back to Annie—and my husband.”
“Please. It will only take a minute.”
She didn’t know what it was but there was something in the way he looked at her, and the sound of his voice, that made her waver.
But what could Luca have to say to her now that he couldn’t have said six years ago?
“Why should I give you even a minute?”
“I think you owe me that much,” he replied.
She scoffed. “Owe you? After what you did?”
Luca looked confused. “What I did? You mean what you did.”
“What are you talking about?” Colette answered. “I didn’t do anything but wait around on the beach like a fool when you were never coming.”
“Wait on the beach—for me? When?”
Colette couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was he really trying to pass this off as if it were nothing?
“My last night—at L’Incanto. I waited for you for over an hour but you didn’t show. And then you sent me that...text. You didn’t even have the decency to tell me to my face.”
Luca took hold of her arm and began to lead her away from the crowd. He guided her to the far end of the terrace where there were fewer guests.
“Colette, I do not know what you are talking about. I never made any arrangement to meet you anywhere close to Spiaggia Grande. For your last night, I asked for us to meet at Delfino.”
She was incredulous. “Are you standing here pretending that you didn’t send me a note to meet you there, and then while I was waiting around like a fool, send a text telling me that our time together was just a summer fling?”
“I never did any of that,” Luca replied evenly. “It was you who left me.”
“But I didn’t do anything! You dumped me. You broke my heart.”
“You broke mine,” Luca replied with feeling. “I would never have hurt you, Colette. I loved you. I wanted to be with you. I was going to tell you that, and ask you to maybe come back to Italy sometime, or if perhaps I could go to you in England—find some way for us perhaps to have a future together. That night, I had arranged a party in the restaurant with Mama Elene—she was going to help me show you what your life in Italy could be. But you never showed.”
Colette was mystified. “What? But this is impossible... I don’t understand it. You say you never left a note about meeting in L’Incanto but I know I got one. So who did?”
Luca looked at her, his jaw working. “Annie.”
“What?”
“Annie. When I came to the villa the day before, you were out with Kim but Annie was there.”
Colette thought back. “You left the note with Annie?”
“Yes, I asked her to give it to you. Maybe she was a little distracted; there was someone else there at the time.”
“Someone else? With Annie at the villa?”
Maybe it was him, the guy Annie had been seeing? Charlie’s father. Maybe that’s why she’d never mentioned the visit?
Luca looked uncomfortable at first, but then something—a realization—crossed his face, and his mouth set in a firm line.
“I need to talk to Annie,” Colette stated as she turned and rushed inside. She needed answers. She needed the truth.
Luca’s revelation had floored her. Something had gone wrong that last night, and she was going to find out what.
She hurried across the courtyard and back inside the villa, Luca bringing up the rear, and opened the door to the old living room.
To find Annie locked in an embrace with Ed.