Under a Siena Sun (Escape to Tuscany #1) - T.A. Williams Page 0,13

anything. I quite fancied him myself when I was fourteen or fifteen.’ She glanced around the room until she spotted him over on table four, positioned next to Virginia who was pressed tight up against him. ‘Still, it seems like he’s found himself a new love now. They look good together.’ And they did.

Annarosa lowered her voice, although they had already worked out that Daniela’s Auntie Rita alongside them was as deaf as a post and her husband far more interested in emptying the bottle of Chianti Classico on the table in front of him. ‘They’ve been together for about five years now but he still hasn’t asked her to marry him and they don’t even live together. I think Virginia’s getting a bit fed up.’

‘Well, at least she can’t accuse him of rushing into anything.’

‘That’s for sure. So, Lucy, how long are you staying here in Tuscany?’

‘I’m probably only here for a few more days and then I’ll be off again.’

Annarosa looked disappointed. ‘Oh, I was hoping you’d come back to stay. Why don’t you stay? We’d all love it if you did. It would be just like old times.’

‘I need to work, I’m afraid, and I doubt there’s anything for me here. Daniela and I were talking the other day. I might apply for something in Sicily, though. That’s still Italy, after all.’

Annarosa gave a dismissive wave of the hand. ‘Sicily’s hundreds and hundreds of kilometres away. You might as well be back in England.’

Lucy nodded sadly. Annarosa was right.

As soon as they had all finished their coffees, glasses of sweet Vin Santo and cantuccini biscuits, waiters arrived and started moving the tables to the sides of the room, revealing the dance floor. The band arrived and set up their instruments and soon the stage was set for the happy couple’s first dance together. Lucy joined in the clapping as Daniela and Pietro performed the dance she had seen them rehearsing for hours over the past week. In view of the fact that Daniela was expecting, they had deliberately chosen a slow, romantic waltz and they performed it gracefully and impeccably. Lucy was as relieved as they appeared to be when it went off without a hitch. After that, most of the guests headed for the dance floor and Lucy found herself dancing with a gangly fifteen- or sixteen-year-old who bore a passing resemblance to Bruno himself all those years ago. He even had the same spots on his cheeks. How strange that with the passage of the years, her attraction to Bruno had waned. She was still pondering why this should have happened as the music came to a halt and her partner thanked her awkwardly and led her back to her seat.

Before she could get there, however, she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to find Daniela’s smooth-talking colleague, Tommy, standing there, that same cocky smile on his lips.

‘Hi, again, Lucy. Would you like to dance?’

She couldn’t really say no, so she followed him out onto the dance floor and danced a couple of numbers with him. There wasn’t much opportunity to chat, but she could tell he was very interested in her and she found herself evaluating him. He was fairly good-looking in a showy way, definitely a charmer – but that probably came with the job – and he was a good dancer. She quite enjoyed being with him but that was as far as it went. There was something about him that jarred just a bit. He never seemed to stop smiling and he was so damn attentive it just felt fake. Although there was a tradition in some circles for bridesmaids to end up in bed with unattached male guests, she knew this wasn’t going to happen, so she danced with him, but knew that nothing was going to happen. She hoped he would gradually get the message.

After a quarter of an hour or so, as the music slowed, she decided to return to the table where she had left her glass just in case Tommy decided to get any more intimate. Before she could get there, she heard another voice.

‘You’re not giving up already, surely?’ Her immediate reaction was one of relief. It was Bruno, a smile on his lips.

‘Care to dance?’ He looked over at Tommy. ‘You don’t mind, do you? We’re old friends and we’ve got a lot of catching up to do.’

Tommy gave them a resigned smile and bowed out. Before going back onto the dance