Page 83 of Italy and Forever

He choked on his first sip, clutching his chest and spluttering until he got his breath back.

‘You’re probably right,’ Ginny said carefully.

Sophie peered at something below Ginny’s line of vision. ‘I don’t know what you’ve done to your lipstick, but you might need to fix it before we go in.’

Ginny’s gaze flew to Rhys’s mouth, to find him already rubbing his thumb over his lips. She couldn’t see any traces of her lipstick, but she panicked inwardly anyway. There was something in Sophie’s expression that worried her.

‘It’s not as heavy-duty as advertised,’ she mumbled.

‘Not as…’ Sophie repeated thoughtfully, her brow drifting lower and lower. She glanced at Rhys and Ginny’s stomach twisted in a knot. ‘You two weren’t planning photos up here, were you?’

34

‘Are you seriously telling me you were up here kissing Rhys?’ Sophie hissed.

‘I wasn’t actually telling you,’ Ginny pointed out delicately.

‘That’s even worse! You didn’t want to—’ She drew herself up in a decent impression of a meerkat. ‘There was never anything with Laurie, was there?’

‘Of course not!’ Ginny groaned. ‘I don’t even know why you’d think that.’

‘I certainly didn’t think…’ She blinked, looking from Ginny to Rhys and back again as though she were watching a tennis match. ‘If you didn’t want to tell me, I’m assuming the rest is true – the, uh, “casual” nature of the…’

Rhys stifled a sigh and rubbed the back of his neck. He didn’t say anything, even when Ginny eyed him urgently.

‘Well, yes,’ she answered flatly. She left a long pause, waiting, hoping Rhys would pipe up and say that it had all started out as completely casual, but then they’d stumbled upon this unique connection and maybe Ginny would declare an end to her dating ban so they could see where things led, if everyone would still give them some space and time to work things out, because Rhys had been hurt before – had had his whole life turned upside down – and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to undertake another relationship⁠—

‘How did you let this happen?’

Ginny snapped her attention back into the present to find Sophie confronting Rhys, who was gradually losing all colour from his face.

‘I don’t really know.’

‘Why do you assume it’s his fault?’ Ginny answered for him. ‘It was pretty much all me. Since I’m still on this dating ban, it seemed like a good idea to try out a non-dating… thing.’ She didn’t think she should say ‘relationship’.

Rhys was bristling and she imagined he wanted nothing more than to escape this conversation.

‘So you were just “trying out” kissing at the top of the tower?’

The colour flooded back into Rhys’s cheeks.

‘It was… good,’ was all Ginny could think of to reply.

‘But you always wanted more. You’re looking for your soulmate. That speech you just made⁠—’

More footsteps on the stairs cut off the point that Ginny had been expecting Rhys to mention, but suddenly dreaded addressing.

‘Du Rotzbua, Lucas!’ Andreas grumbled as he took the stairs two at a time, pausing at the top to catch his breath.

‘If you want your bride, you need to earn her, my friend.’

‘I will never deserve her or understand why she puts up with me, so I’m not sure how I can do that.’

‘Drink with us!’ Lucas declared.

Sophie shared a look with Ginny and rolled her eyes. ‘Some wedding night we’re going to have. Every person he passes makes him drink. And I can’t stand the smell of schnapps right now.’

‘You could tell him to stop,’ Ginny pointed out.