Instead, Marco had insisted on taking him to a jeweller in the village where he’d found the perfect replacement. Ben shook his head. He could have saved himself a lot of heartache if he hadn’t bothered.
Rose sighed.
‘I’m sure Luna will be able to lend you something. Failing that I’ve got at least one more clean T-shirt.’
‘Luna is tiny, the only thing I could borrow would be her socks,’ Rose grumbled. The bed creaked and he guessed she’d turned to face him. The breath lodged in his throat.
‘I’m sure Aurora has plenty more dresses for you to borrow,’ he said, and grinned.
‘That’s what I’m worried about. It’s very generous of her, but the style, all those colours and glitter, it isn’t quite my thing…’
‘Perhaps you could work together at the wedding. You can give advice on love and she can predict if it’ll work out.’ He was joking, but Rose didn’t laugh. ‘Sorry…’
‘Not everyone believes in what I do,’ she said quietly.
He frowned. ‘I didn’t say I didn’t believe in it.’ He sighed, suddenly wanting to make amends. He hadn’t been trying to insult her; he’d just wanted to make her laugh. ‘If I’d hired you two years ago, you might have saved me from making a big mistake.’
Ben shut his eyes, reliving the moment when he’d been standing at the end of the makeshift aisle the Marinos had set up in their garden. Waiting for his fiancée, Sophia, to joinhim. She’d been late and he’d been so nervous, but excited too. Marco’s father, Leonardo, had given him a high five trying to get him to smile and Marco had started to look concerned.
Ben let out a long breath, feeling a wave of grief wash through him. He hadn’t thought about that moment for a long while and didn’t particularly want to think about it tonight. Especially not now he was back in Italy and about to attend a wedding in the same place. He didn’t want to relive those feelings – he was over them and on a new and better path.
‘What happened?’ Rose asked carefully.
Ben pulled a face. He hadn’t meant to share. He didn’t give pieces of himself away anymore. It made it easier to stay intact. But he’d started this conversation, and he knew Rose was too tenacious to let it go. She proved that a few moments later when she cleared her throat.
‘I was jilted, at the altar,’ he said bluntly, keeping his voice clear of emotion.
‘I’m sorry.’ She sounded like she meant it, and Ben wanted to bat the words away. He wasn’t looking for sympathy. He didn’t need it. He’d got over what had happened and changed. He wasn’t looking for a happy ever after anymore. At least not for himself.
‘That’s okay. She did me a favour.’ He grinned into the darkness, injecting his voice with enough levity to prove he was telling the truth. ‘We had a big party afterwards, no one was standing by the end.’
He’d made sure of it. He’d laughed and joked his way through the whole event – proving to himself and everyone else that he didn’t care. Fake it till you make it had proved an effective blueprint to dealing with a shattered heart. One he’d continued to use until all that fakery had morphed into truth. ‘The food was amazing and the cake was better. I sent my ex a slice, it was the least I could do.’
She’d responded with a pretty note in her best handwriting, apologising. Telling him she wasn’t ready, that she’d realised she didn’t want to marry him. That she’d been infatuated, because of his looks.
Shame she’d only found her voice a few minutes after the wedding march had started playing.
Something seemed to wedge itself in Ben’s throat and he cleared it away with a cough, moving his leg in case it woke Coco and she wanted to go out. He’d welcome a walk around now. Didn’t want to stay in the room with the truth spinning between them like a plate about to come crashing down. He was about to get up when Rose spoke.
‘My parents got married after meeting on holiday thirty-two years ago.’ She paused, perhaps in an attempt to stop her voice from wobbling. ‘It was a mistake, but by the time they got back from the honeymoon, my mother was pregnant with me and they decided to stick it out for a while. For my sake. They stayed together for thirteen miserable years and they’ve both remarried more times than I care to remember. None of those relationships have worked out either.’ She sounded bitter. ‘I’m truly sorry about what happened to you. Your ex should have told you earlier – I can only imagine how much that hurt, but…’ She sighed. ‘Do you ever wonder if she did you a favour?’
‘Every day,’ Ben replied. ‘I got to keep the presents, so I won’t need a new toaster until after I retire.’
Rose didn’t laugh, but Ben could almost hear her mind whirring and wondered if her next question was going to hurt. ‘So your mother is marrying again?’ he said, before she could ask him anything.
Rose fell silent. ‘Yes.’ Her voice was matter of fact. ‘Actually, both of my parents are planning their next wedding – on the same day, as it happens.’ He thought he heard her gulp in the darkness and recalled the broken pieces of the conversation thathe’d overheard in the car. ‘I’m supposed to choose. It’s like a game they play. Who gets to have Rose today? I don’t know why, but they enjoy hurting each other.’
And in the process, they hurt Rose. ‘What are you going to do?’ Ben asked.
‘I’ve no idea.’ She sounded unhappy.
‘You could miss them both?’ he suggested, wondering why a woman like Rose would allow herself to be manipulated.
‘If I go, I’ll be able to give at least one of them some advice, see if this time their marriage might be different.’ She sighed. ‘If I don’t try, what does that say about me?’
That you’ve learned some things aren’t your responsibility, Ben thought. ‘Is that why you’re so against Marco and Luna marrying?’ he asked.
Rose sighed. ‘I don’t want to see anyone make the same mistakes. It leads to a constant cycle of unhappiness that’s difficult to break. It’s better to get it right from the start. Why choose to be with someone who might not be right for you? I like to think of it as putting down the right foundations. You do that when you build a house?—’
