‘I’m not that sort of woman, Matteo,’ said Toni, stretching her neck so he had access to the whole silky column.
His mouth moved downwards to trail kisses along her neck and onto the curve of her collarbone. ‘I understand.’
‘I’ve been with the same man for seventeen years.’
‘Lucky man.’
‘He has no idea how lucky he is. Or was,’ Toni corrected herself. ‘I’m rusty.’
Matteo paused. ‘Rusty?’
‘Out of practice,’ Toni corrected.
‘Ah.’
The nibbling continued. ‘It is like the bicycle,’ said Matteo.
‘Bike?’ Toni sat up straight.
‘We don’t forget how to make love,’ he said, ‘in the same way we do not forget how to pedal the bicycle.’
Toni sank back down. Just a few kisses.
Trinity, Fabiola and Daria were watching YouTube on a big TV in the den off the kitchen. Fabiola was obsessed with pandas and watched endless footage of them being raised in special compounds.
‘We will go after this,’ Fabiola said as they started another twenty-minute video.
‘Are you staying?’
Trinity nodded.
‘They are your aunts?’
Trinity thought it might be too difficult to explain. She didn’t entirely understand it herself. ‘Yes,’ she said.
When the girls had gone, she found Renata to say goodbye.
‘You cannot go,’ Renata commanded.
Trinity put her hands into the older woman’s. ‘I must,’ she said. ‘I’ve outstayed my welcome,’ she said gravely. ‘I know what I’ve got to do now. I needed time.’
Renata nodded. Trinity was impressed with the way the other woman accepted her decision. ‘You go back to Syracuse?’
Trinity nodded.
‘I will organise a ride for you. You do not pay. You are young and the young never have money.’
An hour and a half later, Trinity was back in the apartment, which felt empty without Lou and Toni. She’d sent both of them a text message to say she was going back so they wouldn’t be worried.
Then she picked up her phone and dialled Ferdie’s number.
She’d decided. She couldn’t tell anyone else, especially not Dara and Marc, in case it upset their honeymoon, and she didn’t want to discuss it with Pete, not yet. Ferdie knew the whole story.
Lou woke in the morning in a beautiful pale green room which looked out onto the sparkling Mediterranean. It had been a wonderful evening, although Toni had disappeared off with Matteo at some point and Trinity had gone unexpectedly back to the apartment.
Late in the evening, Lou had been wandering round the downstairs looking for her sister, while the party raged on all over the large villa.
She’d asked Renata, who’d replied, ‘I think she went somewhere with Matteo.’
