Second Chances in Chianti (Escape to Tuscany Book 2) by T.A. Williams (online e reader .TXT) 📕

afraid of dogs. In one of the episodes he had had to handle a toy poodle and he had been petrified throughout. Ruffling the Labrador’s ears with both her hands, she glanced across at the older man, who was smiling affably at her, while his younger companion wrestled with the wire mesh. She gave them both a little wave of the hand.

‘Buongiorno, signori.’

‘Buongiorno a lei.’ The elderly man’s accent was unmistakably local. ‘Are you staying at the villa?’

‘Yes, just for a few days.’ Alice read comprehension on his face, so she assumed her Italian wasn’t too bad. ‘What’s this lovely dog’s name?’

‘Guinness, but he answers to food like all Labradors.’

As the man on his knees looked up and gave her a wave of the hand, she noticed, for the first time, how light blue his eyes were – and how strangely appealing. No sooner did the thought occur to her than she hastily reminded herself she was here with David, so she would do well not to start checking out other men. She transferred her attention to the dog, who was happily nibbling at her fingers. ‘Well, hello, Guinness, my friend. I’m pleased to meet you.’ He also appeared to understand her Italian and she took that as a little triumph.

‘What happened to the…?’ She didn’t know the word for ‘fence’, so she pointed.

The fair-haired man carried on working and left it to the elderly gentleman to reply. He leant on his stick and sucked his teeth in annoyance. ‘Wild boar. They’re a real pest. They do so much damage every year. Ripping a hole in a fence is the least of it. They can destroy a whole vineyard by uprooting the vines with their tusks. We’re going to have to organise a hunt to get rid of at least some of them.’ His face cracked into a grin. ‘Besides, they taste so good.’

‘They certainly do. I had pappardelle al cinghiale last night. They must be very strong to tear a hole as big as this. Were they coming into or out of your property?’

‘In from your side, we think, judging from the direction of the footprints – although, God knows how they got into your property in the first place. And they’re strong, all right, however many of them there were.’ He pointed vaguely towards the ground at his feet with his free hand and Alice could clearly make out the faint impression of trotters in the dry soil. ‘We’re closing the gap so that the dog doesn’t get out. He’s still young and he’s always keen to explore.’

‘I’d better tell the people at the villa about this. There has to be some way the animals got in. I wonder if they did any damage over this side.’

Alice remembered the surveillance cameras by the main gate. Wild boars were unlikely to have got in that way, so presumably there had to be another hole in the fence somewhere. She stood there for a few more seconds, finding that she was enjoying watching the fair-haired man at work, in spite of her scruples. He pulled the bent wire back into shape and began to crimp it together again. She could see the muscles of his chest flexing along with his arm muscles as he worked and it was a most appealing view, but then she told herself to snap out of it. She decided she had better return the dog to his own side of the wire and leave the men to their work.

‘Off you go, Guinness. Back into your territory.’ She gave his head a final pat and he dropped back onto all four paws and obligingly squeezed through the gap in the fence to the other side. ‘Well, I’d better carry on with my run.’

The elderly man gave her a knowing look. ‘You don’t want to keep your boyfriend waiting! Goodbye.’ He gave her a half-wave of the hand, before returning to supervising the repairs once again.

‘Arrivederci.’

As she jogged away, she wished she had specified that Harry was nothing to her and then spent the rest of the run wondering why she should have felt it mattered to either man that she and Harry weren’t an item. After all, Harry or no Harry, she was here with her boyfriend and she reminded herself sternly that she shouldn’t be thinking about strange men with their shirts off – and she would do well to remember that.

Back at the villa, she found David nursing a headache and with the sort of morning-after breath that could probably kill at ten feet. Even so, she went over and gave him a kiss, reminding herself that he was her boyfriend and that she loved him… or at least liked him a lot. They both showered and changed, and came down to a sumptuous breakfast. This was again served outside on the terrace and it was pleasant to sit there, looking out over the rose beds, the wonderful scent filling their nostrils, while colourful butterflies flitted about their heads. Beyond the gardens the ground sloped upwards towards the old stone tower. She wondered how long it would take the two men to fix the hole in the fence and she found herself revisiting the view she had had of the fair-haired man with the bare torso. She hastily dismissed him from her mind but, interestingly, she omitted to mention him to David.

As Paolo appeared and took their orders, she told him about the wild boars and he sounded unexpectedly pleased.

‘That’s good to know. Presumably that means they must have got out again. This morning Pierangelo, who looks after the grounds, discovered a load of plants in our kitchen garden uprooted and chewed, and the unmistakable tracks of at least one wild boar. He then found a gap in the fence, not far from the main entrance, where the things must have got in. He was worried they might still be here on the estate – they can do an awful lot of damage and