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

they were upon her and she received a hefty push on the bottom, almost knocking her over. She straightened up, fists clenched, and swung round, ready to defend herself, but then the culprit gave a happy whine and launched himself at her a second time, standing up on his hind legs and scrabbling at her waist with his big front paws. Unclenching her fists, she caught the dog’s big head in her hands and ruffled his ears.

‘Guinness, how good to see you.’ And it was. And even better was the sight of his master only a few yards away, hurrying towards them. As Matt approached, he called out to the dog.

‘Guinness, get off! No jumping up. We’ve been through this time and time again.’ As Guinness gave no sign of obeying, Matt addressed her directly, ‘Hi again, Alice. I’m sorry about Guinness. He’s clearly very pleased to see you. Just push him away.’

She gave him a big smile in return and was delighted to see an answering smile from him. He was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, and he looked fit and extremely appealing. ‘Good morning, Matt, it’s good to see you and Guinness.’ She almost told him she’d been looking for him at the cafe the past few mornings but managed to stop herself in time. That would have made it sound as if she were stalking him. ‘And I don’t mind him jumping all over me in the slightest.’ And, she found herself thinking, if his master felt like doing the same, she wasn’t going to object. But he clearly didn’t. He just stood there for a few moments and she could see that he was trying to think of something to say. When he finally found his voice again, it was hardly romantic.

‘You look absolutely boiling.’

Alice followed the direction of his gaze and saw that her light-grey top was now mostly dark grey and sweaty – and plastered tightly across her chest. As a look, it was revealing rather than stylish, and his eyes remained trained on her body for some seconds before he raised them again.

‘Did you sprint up here?’

Doing her best to sound unflustered, even though the feel of his eyes on her had given her goose pimples, she nodded. ‘A bit too fast, really. I was feeling annoyed and that made me overdo it.’

‘That happens to me all the time. I even outrun Guinness on occasions when I’m really angry. Can I ask what you have to be annoyed about?’

His tone was quite innocent, so maybe he hadn’t seen the news yet or maybe he still didn’t recognise her. Certainly, with sweat pouring down her cheeks, her face the colour of the tomatoes on last night’s bruschetta and wearing her soggy running kit, she was a world away from those photos of her by the pool in her bikini or Polly the flirt in her provocative tops. She decided not to enlighten him as to her identity or the source of her annoyance.

‘Oh, just stuff. A friend did something really stupid.’

‘I bet it was a man. We do stupid stuff.’ He hesitated for a moment or two. ‘It’s really good to see you again. I’ve been away for a couple of days and I was hoping to bump into you when I got back.’

‘It’s good to see you, too. Now that I’m a resident of the village for a few weeks, hopefully we can meet up again. I’d like that.’

A smile appeared on his face. ‘I’d like that, too. Maybe tomorrow?’

Alice shook her head with real regret. ‘Not tomorrow or the next day, I’m afraid.’ She saw his face fall and felt a little tremor of satisfaction. It really looked as though he’d miss seeing her. ‘I have to go back to the UK for an interview tomorrow and then I’m staying with my mum for the night. I’ll be back late on Friday, so hopefully I’ll see you at the weekend? The little house I’ve rented is just a short way from the piazza. Rita at the bar knows where it is.’

‘Fantastic, I look forward to it.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Anyway, Guinness and I need to get back. Virgilio’s coming over and we’ve got a busy day ahead.’

‘Virgilio?’

‘My next-door neighbour – you met him last week. He’s spent his whole life as a farmer here and he’s my agricultural guru. What he doesn’t know about vines and olive trees isn’t worth knowing. He lives on the farm just beyond my property and he’s been a mine of information.’

‘Well, don’t let me hold you up. Hope to see you at the weekend.’

‘Absolutely. Guinness, come on, we’re off.’

He turned away, and the Labrador dropped back down onto four paws and followed him, leaving Alice almost regretting having the interview tomorrow. Matt had definitely sounded interested, and judging by the way he had been eyeing her, maybe there really was a spark there. As she set off back down the hill again, this time at a much more moderate pace, she knew she was very much looking forward to seeing him again.

Back at the house, she showered and changed, and settled down to check her emails and messages. Unsurprisingly, after Carrie’s bombshell, there were a lot of them. One was even from her mum, asking if she had seen the news. Alice replied, trying to make light of it and telling her that she was looking forward to seeing her the following day. The others were from a variety of people – among them, a long grovelling one from Richie, addressed to her and all the others who had been at the villa last week. She nodded to herself as she read how Carrie had been so furious at his treatment of her that she had taken her story and her photos to a friend in the media. Alice didn’t reply. Somehow she felt sure even Benny would have been impressed at her choice of vocabulary if she had done. Instead, she deleted the