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

small villa – by Tuscan standards – and her room was in the recently restored former outbuildings, but still very luxurious. It was light and airy, completely painted in white – even the massive beams and joists supporting the roof – while the floor was composed of terracotta tiles laid in a herringbone pattern. Her bed was enormous, but she knew she was only going to use a small portion of it. Interestingly, the sight of her bed took her mind to Matt, rather than David, and she couldn’t help wondering – yet again – whether she would see him over the next few weeks.

As she had said to Millie, she was at a loss to explain how a man she barely knew had been able to affect her so deeply. Over the years of Pals, the script had decreed that a number of cast members, herself included, had been afflicted by sudden attacks of love at first sight. These had led to often hilarious situations which had all, without exception, ended in tears. Of course, Pals was fiction and this was real life but she couldn’t help wondering whether her own inexplicable infatuation with this man would also end in crying.

The pool was an ‘infinity pool’, set into the sloping hillside with no raised lip on the far side, so she was able to float around like a seal, with just her chin above the water, and look straight out over the beautiful Tuscan countryside. Two massive old umbrella pines leant drunkenly over the water, providing welcome shade – although at the expense of shedding pine needles in the water. Having had a pool in her garden back in her Hollywood days, she wondered how often somebody had to come along here with a net to skim the surface. Still, on a boiling hot day like today, she was glad of the shade. As she floated lazily about, she wondered whether the Mona Lisa had really been painted here and if it really had been a portrait of a woman, rather than a convoluted self-portrait by a self-absorbed painter. Either way, it was exciting to imagine that maybe Leonardo da Vinci himself had once looked out over this exact same view. The thought was stimulating and helped to raise her spirits further.

Dinner was served on the terrace outside the old villa and, unlike the terrace at Villa delle Vespe, the view from here was downhill and across the valley, rather than up towards Matt’s tower. The whole terrace was bordered by a dense bed of rosemary and the aroma was intoxicating. Along with the scent of the flowers came the inevitable background buzzing of the bees and she felt sure there would be honey on the breakfast table the next morning. Beyond the bushes were gnarled olive trees and then more vines, stretching away until they were replaced by dense woodland.

She ordered a glass of the villa’s own Chianti Classico and took a sip, relaxing after what had been a fascinating day. That feeling didn’t last long.

‘Hi, Al. Millie told me you’d be here.’ She looked up in surprise to find none other than Richie standing at her shoulder, a nervous grin on his face. ‘Pleased to see me?’

For a moment she was genuinely speechless, but she managed to collect herself. ‘Amazed is more like it. What on earth are you doing here, Richie? I thought you and Carrie were on your way back to the US.’

‘She is. I’m not. Millie told me about David going off and leaving you, and I wanted to stay on and talk to you.’

‘So Carrie’s gone home on her own?’

‘The fact is, Al, I’ve dumped Carrie. I wanted you to be the first to know.’

‘You’ve done what?’

‘We broke up… on the way to the airport, actually. I left her there and she should be on her way back to the States by now.’

‘You did what? That’s appalling, Richie. She seemed like a nice girl.’

‘Yeah, she’s nice, but she’s not you. But don’t worry about her, she’s a big girl. She’ll be okay. It’s you I want, Al, honestly.’ He was staring nervously out over the hillside, unwilling to meet her eye.

Alice just sat there in amazement. This certainly was a very different Richie from the one she had known five years ago. Yes he was looking good, yes he was communicating and interacting far more than before, and he no longer had bags under his eyes and a lingering aroma of cannabis about him, but that wasn’t the main difference. Even at his lowest, he had never been unkind. The Richie she had known would never have dumped a girlfriend in such cavalier fashion. He really had changed, and she realised she didn’t like this new version of her former boyfriend one bit. Suddenly, the little spark of attraction she had felt stirring inside her when she had first seen him again was completely extinguished – and that had nothing to do with any possible, if unlikely, future connection she might be able to forge with Matt. In consequence it was remarkably easy for her to make her position absolutely clear to him.

‘You shouldn’t have done that, Richie, and you certainly shouldn’t have done it for my sake. Like I said before, it’s all over between you and me, and I’ve moved on. You need to do the same.’

He looked back at her sharply. ‘You’ve moved on? Does this mean there’s somebody else?’

Alice was now faced with a dilemma. Her natural instinct was to tell the truth, but that would mean admitting that she no longer had a man in her life, which might just encourage him. Instead, she decided to ignore the question and spell it out to him as clearly as possible.

‘Anything there was between you and me is long gone, and you’ve got to accept that there’s no future for us together. Find yourself a new girl – there must be thousands of them out there just clamouring for you