Danilo arrived to take their drinks order and soon the table was dotted with glasses of beer, wine and water.
Sheenagh lifted her glass of cherry-red sforzato. ‘Let’s drink to getting to know each other – and to Leo getting his dosh back.’
‘Dosh?’ asked Erin.
As it seemed a new story to her and Rosalie, Leo explained what had happened. He decided that it would be unkind of him to dish dirt on his ex-girlfriend, saying, truthfully but economically, ‘I think it was one of my old business partners.’
As the conversation moved on and Erin and Rosalie chatted to his parents, Leo noticed afresh the differences between Jade’s sisters. Both were confidently at ease, but Erin smoothly so and Rosalie unselfconsciously animated. Jade had told him about Erin’s aspirational mother, and of course Rosalie had been brought up by Joey, though she didn’t at all seem the self-absorbed arsehole he’d always sounded.
As if Joey’s name was in the air, Rosalie said to Sheenagh and Ferdinando, ‘I believe you knew my father when he was young?’
Sheenagh looked wrong-footed. ‘I think he’d be sixteen to eighteen when I first knew Mairead,’ she said carefully. ‘But young men do try to be away from home as much as possible.’
Erin joined in. ‘And our grandparents and Joey lived here at that time?’ She circled her finger to encompass Villa Panorama.
‘Sì.’ Ferdinando answered, his dark eyes kind behind his glasses. ‘Your grandparents owned this hotel and we ran apensionein Piazza San Fedele – in the historic centre like yours.’
A pause followed, as if the word ‘yours’ had landed badly. Sheenagh sent her husband a look that screamedtactless. Erin and Rosalie wore matching expressions of embarrassed wonder, as if Ferdinando’s remark had brought it home to them that they each owned one-third of Pensione Three Sisters, but they didn’t want to look too pleased.
Jade looked as if she’d been slapped, and at her startled, wounded expression, Leo felt as if his rib cage was suddenly too small for his heart and lungs. Beneath the table, he linked his fingers with hers. ‘Sorry if Papà was clumsy,’ he whispered.
She managed a smile. Her hair was caught up at one side, but the hairslide wasn’t enough to prevent her wild curls spilling over her shoulders, back and breasts. She was the most beautiful of the sisters, he decided.
The meal was wonderful, of course. Olives and cheese sat alongside grissini and bites of fish on tiny crackers, followed by tagliatelle in a pesto sauce orfritto di baccalà con verdure– fried cod and vegetables.
They’d almost finished when Leo’s phone rang. Although he pulled it out to silence it, he halted when he read the caller ID. Jade, beside him and able to read it too, sucked in her breath. ‘You’d better answer that, hadn’t you?’
Rising to his feet, he accepted the call. ‘Teddy?’ He couldn’t move far because the doorway between Lounge Panorama and Bar Fiori had become blocked by a noisy group of men who looked like business barflies winding down after a day of meetings.
Teddy’s voice was strained, devoid of his usual bumptiousness. ‘Leo.’ He hesitated. ‘I need to talk to you.’
Although his first impulse was to observe that it was usually why people rang each other, Leo said, ‘Oh? Now that you’ve been arrested driving a stolen vehicle, you mean? And now the police have got hold of you, you’re facing an enquiry into who emptied a few bank accounts?’ The bank might be close-mouthed about the details, but Leo didn’t see why he shouldn’t shake Teddy’s tree to see what fell out.
Teddy coughed. ‘I realise that I acted badly and you have every reason to be angry.’ He sniffed, theatrically. ‘Things seemed to get out of hand. Bad company and all that. I acknowledge myfailings.’ He paused. Leo remained silent, hiding his satisfaction that Teddy had all but confessed, but wondering where the hell the conversation was going. Teddy became ingratiating. ‘I’m hoping that our relationship will mean something to you.’
Leo’s jaw dropped. ‘What relationship?’
‘Well.’ Teddy sounded surprised. ‘I was like a father-in-law to you. I know you and Isabella weren’t exactly married...’ He gave an embarrassed harrumph.
‘I never thought of you that way,’ Leo said stonily, and not completely truthfully. At first, he’d welcomed his girlfriend’s father, the fabled figure that Isabella had been so overwhelmingly excited at meeting again.
‘Oh.’ Teddy clearly hadn’t expected Leo to be so blunt.
One of the group of businessmen arrived with a tray of shots and every man took two, one in each hand. Leo hoped they weren’t going to get rowdy. Villa Panorama didn’t usually attract the type. ‘Why have you called?’ he said into the phone.
Teddy emitted a long sigh and abandoned his wheedling. ‘I may have no right, but I’m asking you not to press charges. Things are getting sticky.’
Leo snorted. ‘If anyone presses charges, I expect it to be the UK police and my bank. And Isabella’s. Have you asked her about charges, too?’ He hoped not. Isabella had received a horrible return for her love for her dad and deserved not to be pressured.
Sulkily Teddy responded, ‘She won’t speak to me.’
The group of men chanted something in a language Leo didn’t understand, and each sank first one shot and then the other. ‘Well, you did shit all over our relationship, abandon her and steal her money.’ Switching his attention to his own table, he noticed Sheenagh regarding him with the same eyebrows-raised reproof with which she’d met Ferdinando’s earlier tactlessness. Jade wasn’t looking his way, but her colour was heightened.Inwardly he winced, because, yeah, it probably had been clumsy to sound injured over the end of things with Isabella. Swiftly, he added, ‘But that’s the past and I’ve moved on. I don’t see how I can help you, but I will help the police if I can.’ He ended the call with a satisfied stab at the screen.
Returning to his seat, he took Jade’s hand and squeezed it. ‘Bloody Teddy.’ He recounted the gist of Teddy’s request – which meant filling Erin and Rosalie in on the grubby fact that it was his ex-girlfriend’s dad who’d cleared out Leo’s bank accounts.
‘Holy shit,’ said Erin.
Rosalie widened her eyes incredulously.
