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Frankie paused, hand hovering over the little coin bags. He had a meeting with Frankie’s dad? What affairs did her nonno need to get in order?

‘Yup, a simple process…’ she heard her nonno say. ‘Yeah, and if I do it now, there’ll be plenty of time to pass on everything I do.’ Frankie heard him chuckle. ‘I’ll have you know I’m full of worldly wisdom. And then it will hopefully continue to run smoothly when I’m not here.’

Not here?

Where was he going?

Her grandfather continued. ‘Yes, I was telling my GP when I was in seeing him. His sister was in the same position… yup, a year for her too… she felt that was plenty of time to do everything… but you never know, I may be able to squeeze out an extra month or two.’ There were a few moments of silence then Matteo gave a loud laugh before adding, ‘I know… telling them all will be hard, but they’ll be fine; they can manage perfectly well without me… hmm… yeah… when we’re all together… I need to pick my moment. No, don’t worry; Fraser’s sworn to secrecy, won’t breathe a word, especially as there’s client confidentiality. I thought I’d swing by Cedar Lodge later so we can look through the brochures again? I want the best accommodation.’ Matteo laughed down the phone to whoever he was talking to.

Numbly, Frankie closed the safe then grabbed a receipt roll, as she tried to process everything. Had she overheard her nonno say he only had a year left to live? She felt sick. Despite what he thought, it wasn’t enough time. Not nearly enough. Was he planning on moving into Cedar Lodge for the last few months of his life? Was it a degenerative illness? Was there nothing that could be done? Had he been seeing his GP for a second opinion? But Frankie guessed he must be quite sure of his prognosis if he was already meeting lawyers to arrange to put his affairs in order and hand over his beloved trattoria for it to continue to run when he’d be gone.

Hands shaking, Frankie got out her phone to call Rocco, but remembered he’d be in the middle of Christmas shopping. She didn’t want to upset Valentina. There was her mum and dad…

Thinking of her dad, Frankie stared at her contacts list on her phone then turned it off and slipped it back into her pocket. Her dad knew about her nonno’s plans but wasn’t allowed to say anything. If Frankie marched in, blabbing her mouth off, it would put her father in a compromising position.

She could hear her grandfather whistling “That’s Amore” nearby.

Frankie’s first instinct had been to call someone but maybe she shouldn’t say anything to her family, she thought. It would only upset everyone. She couldn’t speak to her nonno as he’d know she was eavesdropping on his private conversations, and she also had no idea what to say to him.

Frankie also briefly wondered who her nonno had been talking to on the phone… whoever it was knew about his situation so he clearly had someone to talk to.

Wasn’t there some old saying about nothing good coming of listening at keyholes? Well, whoever came up with that bon mot, had nailed it. Now Frankie would have to carry around this awful news, unable to share it with anyone else. Just like her father was doing. She wondered if she should mention to him that she knew too, but she thought against it and instead decided to bide her time. It was her grandfather’s news and he said he planned on telling everyone when they were all together, when he picked the time. What an awful bombshell that would be.

Frankie walked out to the front of the trattoria and put the coin bags into the till and changed the receipt roll, letting out a sigh as she did so.

‘You okay?’ Paul asked, glancing up from pouring a measure of Midori melon liqueur into a cocktail shaker.

‘Have you noticed a change in my nonno recently?’

Paul frowned as he added Cointreau and lemon juice then secured the lid and began to shake the mixture over ice. ‘In what way?’

‘Not being himself, just anything odd, really.’

Paul popped a maraschino cherry in the bottom of a glass then strained the green mixture over it. ‘I suppose he has seemed a bit… preoccupied, lately.’ He stuck a straw in the glass then cheerfully handed it to a waiting customer before getting two martini glasses and filling them with crushed ice as he continued. ‘He’s been finishing early, starting a little later and popping out during the day. Nothing major, but it’s like his mind is on other things.’ Paul picked up a fresh cocktail shaker.

‘That’s not like him,’ Frankie said miserably, but thought that could be the reaction of someone who’d just received a terminal illness prognosis.

‘I’m sure he’s fine,’ Paul said reassuringly. ‘Your grandfather is amazing. If I get to his age with half the energy he has, I’ll be a happy man.’ He smiled then glanced over Frankie’s shoulder. ‘I think table eight want to order dessert.’

As Frankie made her way to the table, her grandfather came out, full of bonhomie as he stopped to talk and joke with a couple lingering over coffees and liqueurs. He didn’t look ill. And he certainly wasn’t acting ill. But had he simply come to accept his fate?

Frankie felt more confused than ever.

CHAPTER 28

FRANKIE

Piper’s Bar in the Drumkeldy Arms was busy on the Saturday night. Frankie managed to grab the last free table by the window after ordering a gin and tonic at the bar. Dumping her coat and bag on the chair opposite hers in anticipation of Ben’s arrival, Frankie got her book out from her bag. But a few minutes later, Frankie closed the pages. It was no good; she couldn’t settle or concentrate. Normally, Frankie could block out any background noise and immerse herself in a novel, but not tonight.

But it wasn’t just the pub noise she found distracting, the thoughts going around her head made it impossible to focus. Frankie couldn’t stop thinking about her nonno and what she’d overheard the day before.

Frankie took a sip of her drink and looked out the window onto the car park. The ground glistened and sparkled with a hard frost and Frankie was glad to be sitting in the cosy bar with the fire roaring in the corner. And then her stomach took a further dip as she wondered if this would be her nonno’s last Christmas. The light from the street lamps started to go fuzzy and swim together as Frankie furiously tried to blink back tears.

‘Hey! How are you?’

Frankie’s head snapped round and she surreptitiously wiped under her eye as Jay approached the table. His face instantly went from cheerful to concerned.

‘Are you okay?’