Page 14 of Italy and Forever

Ginny had vague memories of the looming slopes from their drive from Innsbruck airport, but she couldn’t have described the lake in any detail. Now that Sophie mentioned it, the silence was remarkable.

‘Remember you’re a guest too,’ Sophie said, giving her hand a squeeze.

‘And you’re a bride!’

Sophie’s laugh in response was indulgent and Ginny’s thoughts returned to what Kira had said about the marriage being more important, but that wasn’t an excuse to skimp on the celebrations. Surely Sophie wouldn’t think that. She was probably just tired.

‘Where’s Andreas?’ Ginny asked.

‘He went to pick up Rhys from the train in Brixen.’

Ginny frowned. ‘He came on the train? What about all the equipment?’

‘I don’t think he has too much – he doesn’t need much. He’s used to travelling light. Maybe… don’t question him about that, when he gets here?’

‘I wasn’t planning on asking him anything when he gets here,’ she replied, giving herself a kick when she realised she’d said that too emphatically.

‘I thought you’d worked things out after the… incident,’ Sophie said carefully. ‘I mean, I don’t expect you’ll ever be best friends, but I thought you were going to give him some help at the ceremony.’

‘I—What? What kind of help?’ She’d made every effort to push Rhys from her mind over the past few weeks. She’d even succeeded some of the time.

‘With his face blindness,’ Sophie continued. ‘You might need to point out who everyone is. It’s going to be so difficult for him, this whole week of friends and family, all wearing different clothing from usual.’

Ginny blinked, trying to run back Sophie’s words so she could listen to them again. Understanding took a moment, but when it dropped, it landed with a fresh blush of embarrassment.

Was she supposed to know about this? Did he think someone had told her? She wanted to take out and examine each of her interactions with Rhys under this new light, but more important for now was convincing Sophie she’d known all along.

‘Oh, yes, of course. I’m going to stick to him like glue, make sure he knows who’s who and doesn’t get disturbed from his… art.’

For a moment, she was terrified that Sophie could tell how her thoughts scrambled and her heart pounded every time Rhys looked at her.

Except… was he even looking at her? What did he see in her face? Oh, God, maybe some of the times she’d found him looking at her, he’d simply been trying to work out who she was.

She’d had it all wrong. Ginny, who prided herself on being able to read people and empathise with them, had got Rhys entirely wrong. He’d been telling the simple truth at their last meeting: she made him nervous.

It was terrible, how her stomach sank at that thought. She’d quite possibly made a fool of herself – every single time they’d met.

‘Maybe not like glue, Ginny,’ Sophie said with a laugh. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Yep, completely fine,’ she replied, which was a brazen lie.

After helping Sophie’s sister, Tash, stow the wedding dress safely without her four-year-old daughter, Eliza, getting sticky hands on it, Ginny hovered in the lobby, ticking guests off her list. It was probably an unnecessary roll call. There was no schedule for the day and the rest of the staff of I Do were off duty, including her boss, Reshma Bakshi, who was ensconced in a corner of the lobby talking to Willard Coombes, the founder of Great Heart Adventures.

Talking ‘business’ again, as they seemed to do more and more often, even though the merger was fully operational now and Ginny couldn’t imagine what practical matters they had to discuss. Reshma had firmly denied there were any romantic undertones, even if her foot did seem very close to his under the table.

Ginny was probably oversensitive to these suspicions, with her dating ban entering its third month. For two full months, she hadn’t been on a single date. Not a kiss, not even an arm around her at the cinema – nothing.

Which was fine. She was working on being less self-absorbed and thinking of others, like Sophie and Andreas – and Rhys, she added to herself with a wince, since she’d got him all wrong. If she was honest with herself, she was standing here waiting to see if she’d interpret anything different in his manner, now she knew he couldn’t recognise faces. She was hoping it might improve their odd dynamic.

They’d managed a whole conversation back in August in Bath – well, kind of. Perhaps there was a constructive working relationship to be had after all. She hoped so, now that she knew she’d have to help him with the guests.

She’d initially assumed Sophie and Andreas would opt for a small wedding, somewhere off the beaten track – like the mountaintop nuptials that had brought them together. But no, they were marrying in the little chapel where Andreas’s parents had also tied the knot, up on a hill overlooking golden vineyards and lush apple farms in South Tyrol, the German-speaking corner of northern Italy.

The reception was booked at Castle Bruneck, an imposing mediaeval structure that now housed a mountaineering museum, a nod to Andreas’s career. The grandeur of the event was a significant about-face from the man who’d scoffed at the idea of marriage for so many years, but Ginny liked to think that was the power of true love.

Their base was this beautiful hotel with its wooden terrace overlooking the lake, with a sauna and spa pool and a roaring fire in the lobby for the evenings.

‘Feel free to go and explore,’ Trina said during a lull in the arrivals. There were only two more guests on Ginny’s list, plus Andreas and Rhys. ‘Then you can personally recommend the pool or the bar to your guests. I certainly do. Go on.’