Page 1 of Italy and Forever

1

For someone so keen on the idea of love, and a wedding planner to boot, Ginny Weller was getting sick of that particular four-letter word.

First, she’d had to live with the indignity of her employer, I Do Destinations, merging with an adventure travel company run by mountain guides with no respect for tear-jerking romantic commitment. Then her colleague and friend Sophie-Leigh had got engaged to one of them during their first joint venture – an outdoor wedding at the top of a mountain.

Ginny was glad to have befriended Kira Watling, one of the guides who now reluctantly helped out with I Do events, but that friendship had been forged under trying circumstances where Kira had found love, despite the very serious obstacle of her own stubbornness, while Ginny had got stuck on a snowbound road in a car full of mistletoe with no one to kiss.

To make matters worse, the widowed receptionist at their new partner agency, Great Heart Adventures, Toni Goschl, had now stolen Ginny’s best florist from one of their most popular wedding destinations in Italy, by making him fall in love with her and move to England.

Now everyone was busy and distracted by Sophie’s wedding and their own newfound happiness, and Ginny was stuck peering into her wine glass at the Admiral, the pub around the corner from Great Heart’s climbing gym in Weymouth, blabbering about her own desolate love life while Kira poorly concealed the fact that her boyfriend was texting her how much he loved her – or maybe simply what he’d had for dinner. Kira gave the same smirk at everything he wrote. On anyone else, it would be a giddy grin, but Kira didn’t do giddy.

At least Kira’s opera singer boyfriend lived a few hours away and they weren’t joined at the hip. Otherwise Ginny would be staring into her wine all alone and possibly talking to herself.

‘I tried hypnotherapy,’ Ginny blurted out, after she’d already waited too long for this opening.

Kira looked up sharply. ‘Really? Why?’ She’d apparently been paying even less attention than Ginny had thought.

‘To find a solution to my dating problem!’

‘What dating problem? I don’t think hypnotherapy can put more guys in your path.’

‘Quantity isn’t the issue,’ Ginny grumbled. ‘It’s the fact that they all ghost me or dump me by the third date – the ones I like, anyway. They all say I’m too much, too soon.’

‘That’s their problem, not yours,’ Kira said with a sigh, making Ginny squirm. Ginny was sick of being the one who wanted love, while all her friends found it when they weren’t looking – when they were actively scorning it. ‘I suppose guys might find your eagerness a bit intimidating but that really is their problem. Can you actually imagine marrying any of the guys you’ve dated, though?’

‘I am not intimidating,’ Ginny insisted. ‘But if I want to see them for a second date, then of course I think it’s possible that they might be The One. I don’t know them well at that stage, but I wouldn’t bother with another date if I didn’t think there was some potential. Surely that’s the reason they’re dating me too. I don’t know why I have to be all coy and pretend I’m not looking for the love of my life – when I am!’

Ginny took an enormous slug of wine, but it didn’t help. Kira obviously didn’t have much to say either, because she grimaced and fiddled with the label on her beer bottle.

‘What did you find out in hypnotherapy? Anything interesting?’ Kira asked eventually.

‘I don’t know what to make of it,’ Ginny replied. ‘She said that subconsciously I don’t want a relationship, that I’m pretending to myself. I know I’m not the most realistic or self-aware person, but that sounds like quack reverse psychology.’

Kira laughed, but Ginny knew her well enough to know it was conspiratorial and not mocking. ‘That’s a lot of layers of delusion. But maybe there’s something behind this reverse psychology thing. Maybe you should try not wanting a relationship.’

‘That’s what my sister says,’ Ginny groaned. ‘But why should I have to pretend not to care, in order to find someone who might care? Just because she’s been with the same guy since she was fifteen doesn’t mean she knows what it’s like to be twenty-eight and single – and surrounded by weddings.’

‘All right, settle down,’ Kira said in a tone that would have got Ginny’s back up a year ago. Recently she’d developed an appreciation for Kira’s grumpy honesty. ‘I’m not suggesting you pretend not to want a relationship, but maybe you should just take a break from looking for one.’

‘Then what would we talk about?’

‘I’ll let you worry about that,’ Kira answered with a smile. ‘You could do less talking and more climbing. It would be good for your confidence.’

‘Ha, that’s what you’d like,’ Ginny replied with her own indulgent grin. ‘I like climbing – with you, on the easy route on the indoor wall – but it’s not going to become my whole personality.’

‘You have far too much personality for that,’ came a familiar voice. Ginny looked up to see Great Heart’s receptionist, Toni, dumping her bag on the bench seat and leaning down to give her a one-armed hug. ‘Sorry I’m late. What did I miss? Have you asked Rhys yet?’

The zing of nerves in Ginny’s stomach was unwelcome. She was surprised at how well she’d grown to like her adventurous colleagues, although Sophie’s fiancé, Andreas, still kind of scared her, but Rhys Bowen was the exception.

A climbing and nature photographer with awards and solo exhibitions under his belt, he would have been an excellent addition to her database of wedding suppliers, except that he flatly refused to work for I Do and made no secret of his disdain for weddings in general – his disdain for people in general.

He wasn’t always in England; he travelled the world taking photos for magazines. But when he was around, he had the unique ability to make Ginny feel as though she didn’t belong: in the climbing gym or with his friends from Great Heart. She got that they didn’t like emotions at Great Heart, but the way his forehead wrinkled and his mouth turned down whenever he caught sight of her killed her vibe.

Back in winter, he’d agreed to a photo shoot inside a glacier, which she’d thought was a coup at the time, but when the wedding had been postponed due to a snowstorm, he’d had to step in and photograph the ceremony too, and he seemed to hold Ginny personally responsible for forcing his hand. He’d been clear that he wasn’t going to take another assignment for I Do after that.

So it was distinctly inconvenient that he was rapidly becoming her only option for a professional photographer for Sophie’s wedding. She needed to get him booked in, which was difficult when she couldn’t seem to approach him without hyperventilating.

‘I don’t think he’s here yet,’ Kira answered Toni. ‘He said he might come later.’