Our Little Secret Rachael Stewart (best novels to read in english .TXT) 📖

But my feet are killing me.

It’s late, gone midnight, but, as I’ve learned this week, it’s early by Italian standards.

Still, no one will sniff at me slipping off the heels now. I toe one off, then the other, and sink my feet into the cooling grass. I’m out of the way, up on an elevated position that overlooks the outdoor dance floor with its ceiling of fairy lights that swing from tree to tree, illuminating the ground below and the people dancing beneath it.

Tyler and Dani have barely left the floor. Marianna and Giovanni have become ever closer as the week has progressed and are more than happy to entertain the young duo, Leo and Isabella, with their dance moves. Their parents caved and left the dance floor over an hour ago to cuddle up at one of the intimate tables still set out from dinner, their heads close together as they sip their wine and watch the dancing still underway.

Harry and Lisa are at another table, deep in conversation. Tyler’s parents are chatting to Antonietta, Nonna and Dante, off to the side, and Rafael...

I breathe in softly.

Rafael...

He’s talking to the head waiter, taking control, making sure everything is still picture-perfect and every need is catered for.

It’s an intimate affair, with more paid staff discreetly waiting in the wings than there are guests, and that’s all down to him.

Him and his huge heart.

Not his wallet.

Yes, money paid for all this, but it’s his heart that makes it so important to him. And ever since his wobble in Dani’s bedroom earlier he’s been back in control, commanding, taking care of everything. And I... I love him for it.

I accept the emotion for what it is and accept that it can never be.

Because he is still Rafael, the man who will never marry.

Not that I even want marriage.

I don’t need another ring to bind me to him; my heart will do that for me.

He finishes with the head waiter and takes two glasses from a tray, scanning the tables and the dance floor. I hold my breath.

His eyes find me in the shadows and something flickers in his face. Something that looks like so much more than it could possibly be. And I know I’m putting that look there, that the distance is playing tricks on me and aiding me in my quest to believe that more is possible. The drink too. All those bubbles we’ve consumed have gone to my head, not to mention the Chianti consumed with dinner.

I watch him approach, my heart racing, my eyes unblinking. I have the sudden desire to turn and run, which is ridiculous, but it’s there.

I curl my toes into the grass and plaster on a smile. He’s climbing the stone steps that weave through the lavender that grows wild up here and his eyes lift to me.

‘Found me, then?’ I say, feigning a confidence I don’t feel.

‘I’ve known where you are every second of every moment today.’

My heart dances in my chest, his words adding to the fanciful future I’m too quick to imagine. ‘Is that so?’

He offers me a glass, his body so close now I can smell his scent, his eyes near enough to see the ambient glow from the castle behind me sparkle in his darkened gaze.

‘Yes.’

I take the glass without looking, my eyes refusing to leave his.

‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’

‘And so you should.’ He raises his glass to me. ‘Cheers to a successful day.’

I clink my glass against his. ‘Cheers.’

We drink but the bubbles stick in my throat. Nerves, want, love...all the emotions claw their way through me, making it impossible to relax. I lower my lashes and cover my mouth on a small cough.

‘Are you okay?’

I force another smile. ‘Of course. Have you had a good day?’

‘Si.’ He frowns at me and hesitates. ‘It’s actually gone better than I dared hope.’

‘Really?’ I laugh now, wanting the mood to lighten, wanting him to quit worrying. ‘You say that so seriously. I know people panic that things will go wrong at weddings but to be so emphatic! Are we really all that bad?’

He laughs and I treasure the sound.

‘Not you, exactly, but...’ He turns and looks down on the dance floor, his eyes settling on his mother and Giovanni.

‘They look happy,’ I say after a moment.

He flicks me a look. ‘Si, they do. Turns out it was my aunt’s plan all along to bring Giovanni and remind my mother of what she could have if she would only move on from the past and come home.’

I study his face, watching him as he watches her. ‘Sounds...deep.’

He gives another laugh, softer this time, reflective. ‘Apparently, Giovanni has always been in love with my mother, only Papà got in there first.’

‘Really?’ I say, my smile genuine now, my surprise too.

‘Really. And now it seems they may have a future.’

I look at them on the dance floor, their hands entwined with Leo’s and Isabella’s as they dance in a circle. Everyone is smiling. Everyone is happy.

‘How perfect.’

He makes a non-committal sound and I frown at him. ‘You’re not happy for them?’

He looks at me, but not for long; his eyes are too quick to go back to the dancing figures.

‘I’d like to be happy for them.’ He gestures out to the dance floor with his glass. ‘I’d like to be happy for them all.’

‘But?’

‘Life has so many other ideas, doesn’t it?’

I study his pensive expression and stay quiet, sensing that the question is rhetorical and there’s more to come.

‘Take my mother and father. They were once happy. They argued, but they loved each other underneath it all. And I didn’t make life easy for them.’

‘In what way?’

His smile is small and one-sided as he looks at me. ‘I was something of a hellion.’

I laugh, happy that he’s opening up to me, and amused to imagine him as such. ‘You were that bad?’

‘Dio, si.’ He sips at his drink. ‘I wanted to conquer everything all at once and as soon