I wonder what exactly she means but study our accounts and see she’s altered the bios and captions to present the castello as a family home.
“You’re right,” I say. “And look at all the lovely comments!”
Theo beams. “You’ve done a superb job, Mabel!”
Callum joins our huddle. “Do you want some more good news?”
“Yes!” I yelp.
“We’ve just had our first booking!”
I give a little leap on the spot. “Amazing!”
“It’s for two weeks in October,” Callum elaborates. “I’ve just had a notification on my phone.”
Theo puts his arm around his son and gives him a squeeze. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Callum so happy.
He shows me his phone and I notice that the customer has asked some questions I need to answer, but I’ve had several glasses of Prosecco, so am not going to do it now. Instead, I pause themusic and relay the news to the party. It’s greeted by a rowdy cheer, followed by the sound of a balloon popping—which generates another, even rowdier, cheer.
By this stage, most of the guests have been drinking for hours. The Hungarian builder is leaning against the garage, straddling and kissing the student digger. Dom has a string of Italian flags draped around his shoulders, his shirt crumpled up by his feet, and Vito wrapped around his waist. And Gloria has opened Grindr and is showing it to Angelika—until he spots the profile of a man he’s sure is our Egyptian builder. I watch him take a few drags on his vape, top up his lip gloss, and stagger off in the builder’s direction.
Ian moves in mine. “Is now a good time to whisk you away for a few minutes?”
I look around for Theo and see he’s dancing with the kids. “It probably is, yeah.”
We find a quiet seat on the doorstep to the cottage.
“It was great to meet your dad,” Ian says, taking out his lip balm and running it over his lips. “And great to see him getting on so well with Theo.”
I swivel to face him. “I know. I hadn’t realized but in some ways they’re very similar.”
Ian corrugates his brow. “Had youseriouslynot realized? I always thought that was obvious.”
“Ian, I’m not going there,” I say, smirking. “You can have your abandonment issues, but I’m not going near any daddy issues.”
“Alright, alright!”
I roll my eyes. “Anyway, how aboutyourlove life? When you see Dom with Vito, are you not tempted to give it another go?”
Ian pushes his glasses up his nose. “No, thanks. Greg and I would have been together for twenty years this summer. And in some ways it feels like we still are. He’s with me all the time, even when I’m not thinking about him.”
“That’s lovely.” I think the same is true of me and my mum, or at least it is now I’ve got to know her better, now I understand what she did and why.
“I don’t want to find love again,” Ian goes on. “I’ve done thatand I couldn’t possibly improve on the experience. I’d rather do something different.”
I narrow my eyes. “Oh yeah? It sounds like you know what that is.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” He runs his hands down his legs. “You know I’ve been doing these group coaching workshops in Manchester?”
“Yeah. …”
“I was wondering about doing something similar here. You and me running them together.”
I cock my head. “Tell me more.”
Ian gestures to the party. “Well, you’re great at hosting. You like creating a warm, welcoming atmosphere and bringing people together.”
We’re distracted by the sound of someone throwing up and scan the crowd to see Signor Mancini bent over a hydrangea bush, his wife rubbing his back.
