Page 40 of A Chance in a Million
Jane hadn’t yet visited the Lido, the long island that separated Venice from the open sea, but she vowed to remedy this once they returned to the city and, while she was at it, to check out the Palazzo del Cinema. She glanced across at Diana. ‘When are you heading back to New York? You’ll still be here, won’t you?’
Diana nodded. ‘My flight’s booked for the seventeenth but I can always change it. It’ll be fun to mix with a few Hollywood celebs.’
From the expression on his face, Jane definitely got the impression that David didn’t share his sister’s idea of fun.
Later that evening, Jane thought she might take a leaf out of David’s book and checkhimout online. Getting into the regimental records of the Rifles wasn’t difficult, but her search only revealed what she already knew: Captain D.C. Cooper had left the regiment just over three years earlier. No detail was given, although there didn’t appear to be any question of incompetence or what was usually referred to euphemistically as ‘conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman’. Surprisingly, in view of what his mother had said, there was no mention of wounds either. He had just left, for whatever reason; presumably because his initial term had finished. What was also interesting was that Veronica had said he had been back in Italy for two years now since his father’s death. So what had he been doing and where had he been for the missing year?
Thought of David reminded Jane of her moment of epiphany when she had realised that this unhappy man now risked replacing Mark in her affections, whether or not he had any interest in being there. Was it because David, too, had been a soldier, or was there more to it than that? She had never before subscribed to the notion of love at first sight, but she had to admit that in David’s case that look into his eyes as they bobbed up and down in the lake had been electric. She had enjoyed being with him on their walk today and she knew there was a spark of something there, even if it was only on her part.
She was sitting, deep in her thoughts, when her phone rang. It was her mum. They had a long chat, during which Jane passed on the news that she had finally opened up to her employer about the circumstances surrounding her departure from the army, and her mum expressed satisfaction. For some reason, however, Jane decided not to mention that David had been the catalyst, or that she found him appealing. There would be time to let her in on that secret once she had had a real chance to digest the possible ramifications of this attraction. Apart from anything else, his mother was her employer, after all, and the last thing she wanted was to screw up what was turning into a wonderful job. Her mum then reminded her of something she had completely forgotten.
‘What are you doing for your birthday? Anything planned?’
Instinctively, Jane glanced at the date on her phone. Today was the twenty-first of July and her birthday was on the seventh of August, little over two weeks away. She hadn’t felt like celebrating her birthdays over the past couple of years but, as her mother helpfully reminded her, this one would be special.
‘Youaregoing to be thirty, after all. You need to celebrate.’
Turning thirty didn’t feel much like something that deserved to be celebrated but, grudgingly, Jane had to accept that maybe she should at least mark the occasion in some way. She was still thinking about it when her mum made a suggestion.
‘Your father and I were talking and we wondered how you would feel if we popped across to see you for a few days. That way we could celebrate with you and then go off and have a bit of a holiday.’
Jane and her parents had always been close and she had no hesitation. ‘I’d love to see you both. That’s a super idea and there’s bags of room here for you to stay.’ Her mind was racing. ‘Maybe we could all go out for dinner that night or something.’
They left it that her dad would look into flights and Jane settled down after the call to think about how she should celebrate the fact that in two weeks’ time she would be entering her fourth decade of existence.
Chapter 22
Over the course of the next week Jane worked for Veronica, paying bills, politely declining requests for interviews and fielding a host of emails from her agent, Eleanor, in London about the prospective Hollywood deal. At the same time she continued to plough through the hundreds and hundreds of unanswered letters and emails from fervent Veronica Leonard fans. She had taken the decision early on to do her best to try to answer each and every one personally – apart from the handful of abusive or bonkers ones – but she had underestimated the work this would involve. Still, she stuck to her guns and tried to knock off at least a dozen a day and the pile was gradually shrinking. In her free time she planned out her book, ran and walked, often with Dino for company, her mind occupied by two main thoughts: her birthday and David.
As far as David was concerned, she hardly saw anything of him. On a couple of occasions she almost went over to his house to see him on some pretext or other, but chickened out at the last minute. She spotted him out running a few times and considered joining him but decided there was no point in flogging a dead horse. If he wasn’t interested, he wasn’t interested.
As for her birthday, an idea came to her one afternoon when she was out for a walk in the woods with Beatrice and the dog. Veronica was looking after Linda, and Diana had gone to Padua to see some friends. They were talking about the events leading up to Beatrice’s divorce and Jane had a moment of inspiration when the subject came around to Paolo. It was quite clear that Beatrice was genuinely interested in him but felt she couldn’t make the first move, so Jane suddenly hit on a cunning plan to give her a helping hand, while celebrating her own birthday at the same time.
‘Beatrice, my folks are coming over quite soon and I was thinking about having a little party.’ She decided not to mention that it would be her birthday in case people might feel obliged to give her presents. ‘What if I were to invite Paolo along? That way you could spend some quality time with him and hopefully find out if he feels like picking things up with you again, if that’s what you want. For what it’s worth, I think he’s a good guy, and the fact that you have little Linda wouldn’t be an obstacle, I’m sure.’
‘That would be amazing…’ Beatrice hesitated uncertainly. ‘But what about you? Won’t he be coming here expecting to spend an intimate evening with you?’
Jane gave her a wink. ‘Hardly an intimate evening with my parents, Maria and Alvise, and your sister, mum and brother if they feel like it. Hopefully Silvana and Grazia and some of the others from Padua might like to come too.’ She was grinning by now. ‘No, I’ll spell it out to him that it’s just a group of friends getting together. What do you think?’
‘I think it’s a brilliant idea. By the way, leave David to me. I’ll make sure he can’t say no.’
‘I think you might have a struggle on your hands.’
‘He’ll do it for me. I’m his big sister, after all; I know how to handle him. Just you wait and see. Now, what can I do to help?’
Within twenty-four hours, the plan had taken shape. Jane’s parents would be arriving on Friday the fifth and driving themselves up to the villa in a rental car. The three of them would spend Saturday together and then, with her mum’s help, Jane would lay on a buffet supper in her house on the Sunday night. If the weather remained fine, people could spill out of the living room onto the grass. Beatrice was true to her word and surprised Jane by reporting that she had managed to twist her brother’s arm into agreeing to come. Along with him would be Veronica, Flora and Luciana, Maria and Alvise. Jane had to be gently firm in turning down all the offers of help from the kindly housekeeper because she wanted her to be able to relax as a guest for a change. Making up the numbers were a bunch of Diana’s friends that Jane had got to know over the past few weeks.
The Padua crowd also promised to bring ‘music’. Diego, one of the men, claimed to be a part-time DJ and Jane hoped his idea of music wouldn’t prove too overpowering for her parents, Veronica or the two elderly ladies. She also stipulated that Dino was invited. He was, after all, one of her very best friends by now. When she called Paolo with the invitation, he accepted straightaway. To be on the safe side, she spelt out to him as clearly as she could what sort of evening this would be and the fact that Veronica and her whole family would be there – including Beatrice – and he sounded delighted at the prospect.
One afternoon, a few days before the arrival of her parents, she was surprised – and delighted – to receive a visit from David. His hair was plastered down on his head and his beard was still soaked, as was the bouncy Labrador at his side, but the bouncy Labrador wasn’t wearing a wet T-shirt that stuck to his body like David’s did. Jane had to struggle not to give a little growl of attraction. It was no good; she was definitely hooked.
‘Ciao, Jane, we’ve just been for a swim.’
‘You don’t say!’ She repressed a giggle at this statement of the obvious. ‘Well, it’s always good to see you, wet or dry. It’s almost six. Why don’t you and your four-legged friend go round to the back of the house and you can both sit and drip on the grass while I open a bottle of wine?’
‘I don’t want to put you to any trouble. I just came to say thank you for the invitation to your little party.’
‘I gather your sister has bullied you into coming.’
