Page 71 of Italy and Forever

‘I didn’t lie,’ Ginny insisted. ‘Sophie made the assumption and I didn’t correct her.’

‘What? How could she think you’re with Laurie?’

‘Because it would never cross her mind that it could have been you.’

He had no response to that. He still didn’t quite understand how any of this had happened or what Ginny saw in him.

‘Then you don’t need to put her off the scent. The secret is safe.’ He crossed his arms. ‘We go home on Sunday anyway.’ And then I’ll be out of your life. ‘When are you thinking of starting up with the dating apps again?’

‘As soon as I get home,’ she declared, lifting her chin.

Ouch, that got him in the kidneys. It was a good thing he was leaving the continent.

But her shoulders drooped and her features scrunched up as she sighed. ‘I’m not serious. The ban has become an indefinite hiatus. I have some stuff I need to work out and… you made me think differently about some things. Don’t look so guilty. It’s good for me.’

‘It’s not great imagining I’ve put you off relationships, Ginny. It’s exactly what I’ve been afraid of all this time – letting someone down.’

With a glance over her shoulder, she stepped closer, letting the reflector sway in the breeze, apparently carelessly. But she used the cover of the silver fabric disc to press a furtive kiss to his lips that he in no way deserved.

He didn’t have a choice but to kiss her back and it was with some difficulty that they managed to stop before the reflector blew their cover. It took him an extra few seconds to remove his hand from her waist. The dress was velvety against his palm.

‘I thought you didn’t want to risk anyone getting ideas,’ he said with a crooked smile.

‘I don’t,’ she agreed, ‘but I also think on principle you should end an argument with a kiss.’

‘That was an argument?’

‘You were annoyed at me for letting Sophie think I was with Laurie.’

‘No, I wasn’t—’ It seemed pointless to deny it, when she could see through him. ‘Fine. I was. But I know I don’t have any rights to you.’

‘If this were a real relationship, I would never⁠—’

‘I know, Ginny,’ he reassured her. ‘There are a lot of things we’d be doing if this were a real relationship.’ Although he struggled to think of one – aside from yelling about it from the top of that mountain in the distance.

‘Running away as fast as you can?’ she joked.

‘Yeah,’ he agreed in dismay. Give it another few days and maybe all of that would happen. The thought was sobering. ‘Didn’t you call it a “situationship”?’

She shook her head with a chuckle, adjusting the collar of his blue checked shirt. ‘We haven’t even got that far.’

If that was true, he hated to think how he’d feel if they had something real and screwed it all up.

She turned to go and he was determined to let her, to allow the moment to pass, which was why it made no sense that he called after her, ‘Will I see you tonight?’ His voice was thin.

With a flirty shrug, she replied, probably loud enough to be overheard, ‘Maybe you’ll run into me at the condom machine.’

30

‘Are we sure this is a good idea?’ Toni whispered on the morning of the wedding as they made their way down the corridor to Sophie’s door, pots and pans and a cow-bell in hand.

Ginny was still in a haze of sleep and endorphins after waking up in a pleasant tangle of arms and legs. Although she’d tried not to wake Rhys, she inevitably had and he’d protested her departure with mumbles against her skin about how good she felt.

For something that wasn’t even a situationship, the tenderness was too powerful. He thought he wasn’t capable of letting someone all the way in, but she’d got an engrossing close-up image of him this week.

‘What?’ she asked, when she realised Toni was waiting for an answer. ‘Oh, yes, of course. Sophie told me all the traditions were important.’

Kira crossed her arms. ‘I doubt she’ll say that at—’ she checked her watch ‘—6.28 on the morning of her wedding day. Not to mention all the other guests.’