Sadly, and despite her apparent remission, Miriam Turner had died shortly after Colette’s return from Italy – something Colette had never quite got over. To think that she’d been lazing around in the sun and living it up in restaurants and on boats, and worst of all focusing on stupid, trivial things like a summer romance, when she could have had three more weeks with her mother.
Three precious weeks she’d never get back.
She cast her mind back to that summer when she’d returned to Brighton, and Miriam had been so full of excitement to know how the trip had gone that Colette hadn’t noticed how frail her mother had become in the meantime.
Or perhaps she’d just been too preoccupied with her own stupid worries at the time.
‘What was the food like?’ Miriam was especially interested to learn all about Italian cuisine, and whether they should take Colette’s new-found knowledge and incorporate it into their own business. ‘We could try a version of cannoli in the bakery, maybe, put our own spin on it … ?’
‘I think that would go down really well, Mum,’ Colette agreed, telling her all about zeppole, struffoli and some of the other pastries Luca had introduced her to, but her heart wasn’t in it.
When just weeks later, Miriam took to her bed with what Colette thought was just a bout of exhaustion, but passed away within days, life was once again completely up-ended.
And all Colette could think about was that they never had the chance to introduce the cannoli to the bakery.
She had been inconsolable as she sat by her beloved mother’s side while Miriam’s life slowly slipped away. Colette felt like the world had spun on its axis twice over.
Then her mother, her rock, was gone. Just like that.
She wasn’t prepared for the surreality of it and the absolute numbness she felt once Miriam had taken her last breath. It was like stepping off a rollercoaster and being completely unable to find your footing.
Four long years of worrying and keeping things going, followed by the sheer relief of the so-called remission – she should have known it was too good to be true.
Colette often wondered if maybe her mother had lied about her miraculous remission just to get her to spread her wings and live a little, but she would never know for sure.
She was so devastated and completely useless that Noelle had to step up to make all the necessary arrangements and deal with the doctors and funeral arrangements.
Ed had been her crutch throughout it all, though, and following Miriam’s death, a budding friendship that had begun in Italy turned into something more.
The trip had transformed Colette in more ways than one.
Inside the suitcase, were various bits and bobs from over the years, important mementos from special times in her life: two tickets toThe Lion Kingmusical, the first West End show Ed had taken her to, pictures of their summer trip to the Cotswolds a couple of years before.
Then she saw what she was looking for.
Nestled among the various photographs was a picture from that summer in Italy.
She was standing in front of Delfino with Mama Elene and Luca. He had his arm around her shoulder. She looked so happy.
Right then Colette made a decision. She wasn’t going to wait until the day of the launch to fly out to the Amalfi Coast, like Ed wanted.
She’d go on ahead on her own, and spend a bit of time with Kim and hopefully Annie before the night of the party, but more importantly in the place where once upon a time, she had truly felt happy.
‘Where are you now, I wonder?’ Colette whispered as she trailed her fingers over Luca’s image on the photograph.
Six years ago, but it felt like it was yesterday.Even now she could almost feel the weight of his strong arm across the back of her neck and the delicious scent of his skin. She wondered if he still religiously visited Delfino every day for his usual espresso.
And whether she should look for him there when she returned …
Chapter 30
Then
‘Where are we going?’ Colette enquired, as she and Luca drove along the coast in the dusk, the lights of the buildings twinkling below them like a group of fireflies swirling around the mouth of a cave.
He smiled mysteriously. ‘You’ll see. It’s a surprise.’
She smiled as she leaned back in her seat and looked out the window. The smile broadened when she felt Luca’s hand move over hers.
