Under a Siena Sun (Escape to Tuscany #1) - T.A. Williams Page 0,74

little walk – not just seeing the porcupine.’ She hoped he would read between the lines of her reply.

‘I wondered if you have plans for today.’

‘Nope. I’ve washed the dishes and it’s getting too hot for any more gardening, so I’m completely free. Did you have something in mind?’ Various ways of spending a sleepy Sunday with him had already occurred to her, but she chose not to voice them.

‘I was wondering if you might like a trip to the seaside and a fritto misto?’

‘That sounds amazing. I love fritto misto. I used to dream about all that lovely seafood when I was in the wilds of Africa. Where were you thinking of going?’ She knew that from Siena to the west coast was an hour and a half, or twice that long going east, over the Apennines to the Adriatic.

‘I know a good restaurant down at Punta Ala if that sounds okay.’

‘I have no idea where that is but it sounds fine to me as long as you don’t mind a long drive.’

She heard him laugh. ‘It’s not that far, I promise. Listen, it’s almost eleven now. Would you be ready to go in, say, half an hour? If so, I’ll call ahead and book a table for one o’clock.’

Lucy was ready and waiting well before eleven-thirty and she shook her head in quiet resignation as she saw him arrive in the Ferrari. She had been hoping he would bring his anonymous Mercedes with the tinted windows, but such was not the case and she realised she would once more be on display. This only served to highlight to her the abyss that existed – and would always exist – between the two of them and she felt a flicker of regret.

She had checked out Punta Ala on Google Earth while she waited and had found that it was a little tree-covered promontory on the west coast of Tuscany, roughly opposite the Island of Elba. It looked lovely, but she had little doubt that in August, the month when Italy traditionally closed down for the summer break, it would be heaving with holidaymakers. Still, she would be with David and, for now, that was all that mattered to her, whether he was a multi-millionaire or not.

As the car came to a halt outside her front door, she climbed into the passenger seat and lent towards him. He kissed her on both cheeks, rather than the lips, and she felt a little shot of disappointment but, she told herself, the day was still young. He was wearing shorts and his strong brown legs were very much in evidence. He looked very good and he even smelt good.

‘Hi, Lucy. You look gorgeous as usual. Look out for your ears.’

‘My ears?’ A second later, she realised what he meant as a cold wet nose nudged the side of her head. She turned to find a very happy dog positioned directly behind her, squeezed onto the tiny back seat, his lead secured to the door pillar so he couldn’t jump out. ‘Hi, dog. Seen any more porcupines?’ She made a fuss of him and then turned back to clip her seat belt in, gently fending off Boris’s attempts to kiss her ear. Now if it had been his master… She did her best to dismiss the thought. ‘How about you, David? All well?’

‘All very well, thanks. Last night was great, really great. It was good to get out and meet a new person after my self-imposed isolation.’

He set off back down through the village and they were soon on the main road heading for the coast. At first as they travelled along Boris leant his head over the side and occasionally barked at passers-by, nearly deafening Lucy as he did so. As he gradually calmed and settled down to sleep, she and David got chatting and he told her more about Punta Ala.

‘We rented an apartment there right up until last year, but I was away playing so much that I rarely managed to go. After my injury, I gave up going there completely, but my wife used it a lot. The port’s a bit in-your-face, but the coastline’s beautiful.’

Lucy discovered what he meant by ‘in-your-face’ as they drove down through the pine trees into the little seaside town just before one o’clock. Every available parking space was crammed and it was evident even to somebody like herself with no great interest in cars that there weren’t many little Fiats to be seen.