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

feeling of bewilderment, plus considerable regret. It had all been going so well last night, up to the moment when the paparazzi arrived, and she knew she had been looking forward immensely to getting him back to her house. Now that had all been blown out of the water and she still didn’t know why. She also didn’t know where that left their fledgling relationship. She considered sending him an email to see how he was feeling, but somehow she felt it would be better to give him a bit of time and space. The fact of the matter was that the strange events of last night had dented her trust in him. She still didn’t really know much about him, but she had believed everything he had told her up to now. Could it be there was a far less palatable Matt Livingstone hidden beneath the handsome exterior?

She didn’t feel like a run so she went over to the bar for a chat and a cappuccino. Rita was most apologetic for revealing Alice’s address to David. She had remembered seeing the two of them together earlier in the month and it hadn’t occurred to her to query why he didn’t know her whereabouts. Alice told her not to worry and explained that she had sent him off with a flea in his ear.

While she was there, her phone bleeped and she saw she had a message from none other than Felicity.

Hi Alice. Just arrived back in LA. It was great to meet you at last and we must stay in touch. I’ve already passed on your name and the signs are good. I reckon they’ll go for it. I do so look forward to working with you. Fliss x

This was brilliant news and Alice sent her a quick reply, thanking her and echoing the hope of working with her. This, coupled with the guest appearances and her very own art series, made it almost certain that she had a great future ahead of her.

Back at her house, she found an email from Matt and she clicked on it eagerly. She would have preferred a phone call, so she could speak to him directly, but she sensed he was trying to give himself time to explain – but he didn’t. The message contained a long and profound apology for ruining her evening – which he said he had been enjoying immensely – but there was no explanation of what he had meant by his ‘dirty little secret’. It did, however, contain an invitation to dinner with him in the tower that evening. She took her time before replying but, whatever her doubts and reservations, she knew she wanted to see him again so she sent him a friendly reply saying she would be there – not least in the hope of finding out just what on earth was going on.

That afternoon was still extremely hot, so she went for a short walk around the village, ending up at the bar again around four o’clock for an ice cream. As she waited for Rita to finish scooping up her portion of white chocolate and lemon ice cream, her eyes alighted upon a well-thumbed copy of today’s paper, lying open on a nearby table. A photo on the right-hand page suddenly caught her attention. It was a picture of none other than Felicity at the foot of the Spanish Steps, in Rome. What was really weird, however, was that she was arm-in-arm with a man – and not just any man. He had obviously just realised that they were about to be photographed and was in the process of turning his head away from the camera, but Alice recognised him instantly all the same. To her amazement, she saw that the man was none other than Matt. The megastar was gazing at him with affection and the headline above it read: Felicity Winter and Her Mystery Man in Rome. The article went on to produce a handful of fanciful suggestions as to the mystery man’s identity, but none even came close.

Alice just stood there, stunned. How on earth could it be that these two knew each other? Had they somehow met while Fliss had been at Conrad’s villa? Why hadn’t Fliss said anything to her about him? Of course, Fliss had no way of knowing she had even met Matt, let alone had a massive crush on him, but seeing them together was such a colossal coincidence that Alice struggled to get her head round it. Assuming the photo was genuine, could it really be that Matt had fallen under the thrall of the Hollywood star just as David had done with Layla? Alice took her ice cream to a table and sat down, trying her best to think logically. She knew only too well how the media could twist, misconstrue and invent stories. A single photo of two people arm-in-arm proved nothing. Fliss was a touchy-feely sort of person, and gripping somebody’s arm was eminently normal behaviour for her. Somehow these two had met up and had been photographed together. It wasn’t as if they had been caught in bed together, after all.

But how on earth had they come to be there – and just who was Matthew Livingstone? The seed of mistrust planted in her head now began to blossom and she came close to sending him an email, telling him she couldn’t come to dinner with him after all. In the end, natural curiosity got the better of her and she decided to go, just to find out what the hell was going on.

She drove up to the tower that evening in a state of considerable agitation. Her head was still filled with the image of him arm-in-arm with Felicity and, to make matters worse, another thought had suddenly occurred to her: if Matt really was from a criminal background, he might have darker plans for her. Had she seen things she shouldn’t have seen at the restaurant last