Page 56 of It's All Sun and Games

Beppe goes off to take a phone call, leaving us to it.

‘Well, I’m brilliant in the kitchen,’ Liz announces with her usual trademark level of smugness. ‘As good as I am in any other room.’

She gives James a playful nudge, which doesn’t even seem to register with him. He’s too busy staring over at me and Andrea. It’s pretty much a fact that, whenever Andrea and I are in a room together, James has his eyes on us. I still can’t get over how into me he is now that he’s realised other humans seemingly find me desirable.

Looking at the ingredients in front of me, I rack my brains for something I can do well, that won’t totally embarrass me. There is a large saucepan of Come a Casa tomato pasta sauce in a saucepan, simmering away, for us all to use. I can see crusty bread, mozzarella, fresh basil – oh, I know, I’ll make bruschetta.

Andrea must see the light bulb above my head.

‘What are you going to make?’ Andrea asks curiously.

‘I was thinking I might take a stab at making bruschetta,’ I tell him. ‘I’m not sure I’ll be able to compete with yours, or anyone else’s in your family, but surely I can’t get it wrong. It’s just fancy cheese on toast, right?’

‘Robin, no!’ Andrea practically moans.

I love it when he does that. I can’t think of anything more Italian than getting offended on behalf of food.

‘What?’ I ask through a laugh.

‘It’s not “fancy cheese on toast”, it’s bruschetta,’ he claps back.

‘Okay, okay,’ I reply, amused by his attempt at my accent.

Andrea tears off a chunk of bread before dipping it in the sauce. He pops it in his mouth and, I swear, you can see the cogs turning in his head as he almost forensically chews it.

‘Do you mind if I add to it?’ he asks.

‘Sure,’ I reply.

It’s the communal sauce, if such a thing existed, but I can’t imagine anyone else minding.

As I prep my bruschetta, I can see Andrea, out of the corner of my eye, adding things to the sauce. There are all kinds of fresh ingredients laid out for us, and I’m not sure which ones he is using, but he’s doing what he’s doing with so much flare.

‘Oh, we’ve got a professional in the house,’ Rick calls over.

Andrea smiles modestly as he tears another chunk of bread, dips it in the sauce, and offers it to me. My hands aren’t clean so – what’s a girl to do? – I lean forward, mouth first, and let him feed it to me.

‘Mmm,’ I groan.

‘Bloody hell, get a room,’ James complains.

‘We’ve got one,’ Andrea replies. ‘Next to yours.’

I’m loving this cheeky side of Andrea.

He turns his attention back to me.

‘What do you think?’ he asks.

‘It’s really good,’ I tell him. ‘I think I could eat that all day.’

‘Grazie,’ he says simply.

As Beppe comes back to join us, I put the finishing touches on my bruschetta. I want to say that the Come a Casa ready-made ingredients make things easier, but I suppose, technically speaking, a genuine Italian chef had a hand in tweaking this one.

‘Beppe says for everyone to eat,’ Andrea translates.

We all tuck into the food, trying each other’s creations, and everyone seems to be loving it. Then, all of a sudden, Beppe’s face falls.

---