Second Chances in Chianti (Escape to Tuscany Book 2) T.A. Williams (early reader books .txt) 📖

– and you’ll be fine. Just forget about me, will you? At least, I hope we can stay friends, but that’s as far as it goes. Okay?’

She deliberately didn’t invite him to sit down and he stood there, looking blank, before finally accepting the inevitable.

‘So what you’re saying is that it’s all over as far as you and I are concerned?’ She nodded firmly and saw him take a deep breath. He held out his arms towards her. ‘Okay. One last hug for old times’ sake?’

She couldn’t begrudge him that, so she rose to her feet and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She felt his arms tighten around her for a moment, but she gently disentangled herself and sat back down again. ‘Are you staying here tonight?’

‘I was going to but I wanted to talk to you first. If this is the way it is, I think I’m going to leave. There’s an early flight out of Florence tomorrow morning, so I’ll head for an airport hotel. Goodbye, Al.’

And he left.

She enjoyed an excellent meal, but if asked afterwards to describe what she had eaten, she would have struggled. It had been a stressful twenty-four hours and her head was full of conflicting thoughts. There was David, the man she had once thought she loved and who had behaved so shabbily, and then Richie – another man for whom she had once had strong feelings, but had now rejected. And of course she couldn’t stop thinking about Matt, who was almost certainly unavailable. The overriding sensation running through her was one of annoyance. As Millie had said, she had always been the grounded, sensible one – and now? What on earth was going on? If any of the diners at the neighbouring tables heard her grumbling to herself, they were polite enough not to comment.

Back in her room, she sat on the bed and did something she hadn’t done for quite a few years. She dug out her iPad and pulled up an old episode of Pals to watch. It was the one where she and Richie’s character had first hooked up and fallen in love. Polly the flirt had been unusually serious in this one and she remembered how easy it had been for her to appear infatuated with Richie. Indeed, it had been during the filming of this episode that she had admitted to herself that she had feelings for him off-set as well as on it. She paused it on the scene of their first kiss and stared at the screen blankly for some minutes, thinking back over what had been and what might have been. In spite of the apparent love in their eyes, it had all ended badly – on-screen and off.

But then a funny thing happened. As she stared at the screen, Richie’s face somehow morphed into Matt’s and she found herself wondering how a relationship with him might end. Was the growing attraction she felt for the man in the tower destined to end in tears, just as her previous two relationships had done? In spite of the beautiful surroundings, her heart sank. She was still sitting there, deep in her thoughts, a few minutes later when the iPad, deciding she was no longer interested, switched itself off, and by that time there were tears at the corners of her eyes. It had been an eventful week and there was no way of knowing how the rest of her stay in Chianti was going to pan out. What would happen over the next four weeks?

Chapter 13

In spite of her swirling thoughts, Alice slept remarkably well and got up late next morning. After a swim in the pool and a sumptuous breakfast, she drove back to the village at noon and met Signor Innocenti at the little house. Everything looked clean and smart inside, and there was even a lovely bunch of freshly picked flowers in a vase on the fine old kitchen table. What looked like a brand-new sofa was positioned in the lounge area, as well as a big flat-screen television, but most of the rest of the furnishings were old and, in some cases, almost certainly antique. She smiled as she spotted a print of the Mona Lisa hanging on the wall. He proudly showed her the selection of utensils in the kitchen cabinets and opened the fridge to display a bottle of what looked like Prosecco as a welcome present.

Upstairs, she was delighted to see a fine old wooden bedstead in the larger of the two bedrooms and a brand-new bed in the other room, both fully made up. The bathroom was spotless and, all in all, the place was perfect. She thanked him warmly and he left her with some helpful advice.

‘My phone number’s on the fridge door – do, please, call if you run into any problems. As some things are brand new, there are bound to be a few surprises. As far as food is concerned, there are lots of shops in Greve, which is only ten minutes by car, and the bakery here in the village sells a bit of everything, so you shouldn’t starve. If you feel like treating yourself, Giovanni’s restaurant in the village serves remarkably good food. Don’t be put off by the appearance of the outside. It’s a good place.’ He explained where the shop and the restaurant were and left her to it.

Alice checked the time on her watch: it was almost a quarter past twelve and she knew that shops here in Italy often closed at twelve thirty, so she hurried off to buy some supplies. The bakery stocked a limited selection of essentials, mainly consisting of canned vegetables, tuna and other long conservation products, so she resolved to do a run into Greve in Chianti later on that afternoon to stock up. While she was in the shop, she bought a freshly baked big round loaf of the traditional Tuscan bread she had come