Page 45 of Far from Home
When they got back to l’Ospedaletto, she was feeling quite breathless and by the time he walked her to the door she could hardly keep her hand steady as she put the key in the lock and turned it. She glanced back towards him and waved him inside.
‘Coming in for coffee?’ She decided not to add Lucy’s provocative ‘or something’. Maybe she should have done, because his response wasn’t what she’d been hoping for.
He ducked towards her, kissed her softly on the cheeks and then stepped back. ‘Thanks for the offer, but I’d better head back. Some other time?’
Swallowing a hefty helping of disappointment and an unwelcome feeling of rejection, she did her best to sound unmoved as she replied.
‘Of course. It’s been a great evening. Thank you very much for dinner and for introducing me to that lovely restaurant. Shall I give you a call tomorrow about that award application?’
‘Oh yes, thanks, that would be great. Ciao.’
He gave Max an affectionate pat – quite a bit more affectionate than the little kisses he had given her – and then he was gone.
Chapter 26
Amy didn’t sleep well that night. This was for a variety of reasons, all of them rattling around inside her head. At first she found herself thinking, of all people, about Gavin, wondering what he was doing and if he had really removed all his stuff from her flat. She had heard absolutely nothing from him and if Lucy had seen anything of him at the gym, she hadn’t mentioned it. The other man who occupied her thoughts was, of course, Adam. The way the evening had ended had been far from the sexually charged scenario Lucy had painted or, indeed, the more intimate and romantic vision she herself had harboured. It had all been going so well: the restaurant, the meal, their conversation, the walk in the woods. To her mind, everything had been moving smoothly towards a much more romantic conclusion.
But he had just gone off and left her.
What was the problem? They were both grown-ups and she felt sure he must have realised the way she was feeling about him. If not, it showed that he was far less sensitive than she had imagined. She was quite sure that he didn’t share his brother’s sexual orientation – not least as she felt sure Pierpaolo wouldn’t have been so obvious in his matchmaking if that had been the case. Could it be there was another woman already in Adam’s life? If so, neither he nor the other two men had mentioned her existence. Could it be that he was just so totally fixated on his job that romance didn’t enter his head? Alternatively – and this was the most disconcerting of all – maybe he just didn’t fancy her.
She was under no illusion as to how she felt about him. She liked him a lot and he ticked so many boxes in her head. Apart from his physical attributes, he was bright, creative, articulate and caring – his relationship with her father proved that. She couldn’t help reflecting that the immediate impact he had made on her was not dissimilar to what her father had written in his letter about his first impression on seeing her mother. She knew full well that if Adam had responded as she had hoped when they had got back to her place after their dinner, she would have abandoned herself in his arms.
But he hadn’t.
She spent quite a lot of the night tossing and turning, wondering why and hoping that it wasn’t just a simple matter of a lack of chemistry on his part. By the time she was woken by a cold wet nose prodding her bare shoulder at seven o’clock next morning she had reluctantly come to the conclusion that this had to be the most likely answer. In all probability he didn’t feel the same way about her as she did about him and that was that. And if this were the case, what did it mean as far as the big decision about whether to return to London or stay here permanently was concerned?
As she and Max walked up through the vineyard and across the fields in the blissful cool of the morning air, she did her best to tell herself that the decision to give up her job wasn’t dependent upon Adam. Yes, he would have been the icing on the cake, but if she were to decide to uproot herself from London and come here to live, it needed to be for more than just one man, however desirable. If she moved here it would be for this wonderful house and all this land in which she was now wandering about, as well as the attraction of the much less stressful environment of Sant’Antonio. The other great attraction of this place was, of course, the big black dog at her side and she knew she would miss him if she returned to her old life in London. But then there was always the question of what she would do if she did settle here.
It appeared that today the Labrador had sensed that something was troubling her and, unusually, instead of disappearing into the vines, he trotted along with her and she soon found herself addressing him directly. He didn’t give her much in the way of answers, but it was good to have somebody to talk to all the same.
‘Look at it this way, Max. If I sell this place, I can buy myself somewhere really nice in London. The sky’s the limit as far as my job’s concerned, too. I know I can make it to the top and the satisfaction of doing that would be immense, wouldn’t it?’
She stopped and looked down at him. He stopped as well and looked up at her while he rubbed his head against her bare leg. It was hard to work out whether he was agreeing or disagreeing.
‘Yes, I know the specialist told me to take life a bit easier, and of course I have to make sure I do that. My health is the most important thing, isn’t it? But I can do that, can’t I? I can take things easy. I’m not stupid, you know.’
He sat down and started scratching one ear with his rear leg. It wasn’t clear whether he thought she was stupid or not, but she decided that in the interests of balance she had better give him the other side of the argument as well.
‘If I give up the day job and move here I’ll have clean air, pretty much guaranteed sunshine, wonderful food and drink, and I’ve already made quite a few friends. Above all, talking of friends, I’ll have you, Max.’
This time it looked as though she had got through to him as he stopped scratching, stood up and started licking her knee. She reached down and tousled his ears.
‘Who needs a man when I’ve got you at my side? I bet if I ask Signora Grande, she’ll let me keep you, and that would be good, wouldn’t it?’
Tired of licking her knee, he sat down again and rested himself against her so heavily that she felt sure that if she moved sideways he would fall over. Taking this as a sign of solidarity, she carried on.
‘The thing is, Max, what the hell would I do with my time if I go for it and decide to settle down over here: do a bit of gardening, go for some long walks with you and probably drink far too much wine? I need a job that gives me more than that. You have to understand that.’
This time when she glanced down at him he was licking his private parts. She decided not to get into whether this indicated how he felt about her predicament.
She spent the morning doing little jobs around the house until there was a knock at the door. She opened it hoping to see Adam and found Signora Grande instead.
‘Thank you so much for looking after Max, Amy. That’s been such a help. My sister’s had a bypass operation and she’s doing much better now, so I can take Max off your hands if you like.’
‘I’m very pleased to hear about your sister, but Max has been no trouble at all. Very much the opposite. Would you like a cup of coffee?’
While Amy made the coffee, she told Signora Grande to feel free to have a wander around the house to see what the builders had done, and by the time the coffee was made, the old lady joined her in the kitchen, nodding approvingly.
