Jackie muttered to herself as she took a hairpin bend with true Italian bravado.
What did she know? Did she have any more ‘permanence’ in her life? The truth was, after Romano, she’d never really let anyone get that close again. Oh, she’d had relationships, but ones where she’d had all the power. They’d dragged on for a couple of years until the men in question had realised she never was going to put them ahead of her work, and when they’d left she’d congratulated herself for having the foresight not to jump into the relationship with both feet.
Jackie slowed the car and pulled into a gravelly lookout point near the top of the hill. She switched off the engine, got out and walked towards the railing and the wonderful view of the lake.
She’d wanted to run, to get as far away from him as possible. Was that why she’d chickened out of telling Romano the truth? Was she once again thinking of herself, of keeping herself safe, of keeping the illusion of perfection intact?
No. She’d been scared, but not for herself—for Kate. She’d imagined all the different scenarios, all the different reactions he might have. Would Romano be angry? Horrified? Ambivalent?
What if she scared Romano off by dropping this bomb-shell? It was too sudden, too much, after seventeen years of silence. She wouldn’t get a second go at this. It had to be right the first time.
She swallowed and gripped the wonky iron railing for support, but instead of staring at the majesty of Lake Adrina, she just stared at her feet.
Her heart might just break for Kate if Romano didn’t want to have anything to do with her. She knew what it was like to lose a man like that. It hurt. Really hurt. And Kate might hate her for doing it all wrong and scaring him away. She couldn’t have that.
Lunch had been good, but it had only been a starting point. They had to build on the fragile truce they’d started to mesh together. Whether they liked it or not, she and Romano would be for ever linked once he knew the truth.
So she’d invented a reason to keep him talking to her, to keep them seeing each other. They needed to get to know each other again. Then she could work out a way of telling him about Kate that wouldn’t send him running.
She’d just have to ignore the glint of mischief deep in those unusual grey eyes, forget about the fact her body thought it was full of adolescent hormones again when she clapped eyes on him. At least Romano hadn’t tried anything; he’d been the perfect gentleman, even though she was sure there’d been a hum of remembered attraction in the air. Thank goodness they were older and wiser now and both knew it would be a horrible mistake to act on it.
When Jackie finally drove through the gateposts of her mother’s villa, she spotted Scarlett sitting on the low steps that led to the front door, watching her rental car intently as she swung it round and parked it beside her mother’s sports car. She pressed her lips together as she switched off the engine. She knew that look. Scarlett was in the mood for a showdown and Jackie really wasn’t.
She got out of the car and tried to ignore Scarlett, but as she neared the steps Scarlett stood up and blocked her path.
‘What?’ she said with the merest hint of incredulity in her voice. ‘Have you been waiting for me here all afternoon?’
Scarlett returned her stare. ‘Basically.’
Jackie shook her head and moved to pass her sister. Stubborn wasn’t the word.
‘Please?’ Scarlett said, just as they were about to brush shoulders.
It wasn’t the tone of her voice—slightly hoarse, slightly high-pitched—that stopped Jackie in her tracks, but the desperation in her sister’s eyes. Neither of them spoke for a few seconds, and Jackie found it impossible to look away or even move.
‘Okay,’ she finally said.
Scarlett nodded, a flush of relief crossing her features, and set off towards the garden at breakneck pace. Instead of heading for the table and chairs on the terrace, or the spacious summer house, Scarlett kept marching downhill through the gardens. Without even glancing back over her shoulder at Jackie, she launched herself at the old tree and swung her leg over one of the thicker, lower branches.
‘I thought we might as well talk on your territory,’ she said.
Jackie just stared at her. This week had to be the most bizarre of her entire life.
Scarlett smiled at her—not her usual bright, confident grin, but a little half-smile that reminded Jackie of the way she’d looked when she’d stuck her head round Jackie’s bedroom door and had asked her to read her a bedtime story when Mamma had been too busy.
‘I can’t believe I’m doing this.’ Jackie hoisted herself up onto ‘her’ branch again. ‘I thought you said this was silly,’ she said, shooting a look across at Scarlett, who was now sitting quite merrily astride a branch, swinging her legs.
‘It is.’
Jackie grunted and pulled herself upright and straddled the branch so she could look at Scarlett.
‘We always used to come here to whisper about things we didn’t want Mamma to know,’ Scarlett said. She picked at a scrap of loose bark on the branch in front of her, then studied it intently for a few seconds. ‘Are you going to tell her?’ she said, not taking her eyes off the flaking bit of tree she was destroying.
Jackie waited for her to meet her gaze.
‘I have to. It’s all going to come out into the open shortly.’
Scarlett nodded.
Jackie drew in a breath and held it. ‘But I have to tell Romano first.’
A look of pain crossed Scarlett’s features. ‘I’m so sorry, Jackie. I should have told you earlier…’
Jackie kept eye contact. Scarlett didn’t shrink back; she met her gaze and didn’t waver.
‘Yes, you should have,’ she eventually replied.
Scarlett sighed. ‘It was easier to pretend it had all been some horrible nightmare once I’d moved to the other side of the world. I thought I could run from it, pretend it hadn’t happened…But as time went on, I realised the true implications of my actions and I…’her chin jutted forward ‘…I chickened out. I’m sorry.’ She shrugged one shoulder. ‘What can I say? The gene for self-preservation is strong in our family.’
Jackie exhaled. She knew all about chickening out, all about desperately wanting to let the truth out but not being able to find the right word to pull from the pile to start the avalanche.
It was much harder than she’d anticipated to stay angry at Scarlett. Just yesterday she’d thought this fierce sense of injustice would burn for ever. But these weren’t just pretty words to smooth things over and keep the family in its disjointed equilibrium. Scarlett’s apology had been from the heart. After all that had passed between them, could they use this as a starting point to building their way back to what sisters were supposed to be?
‘At least I understand why you hated me all these years.’ She’d done it herself many times—made an error of judgement and turned her fury on the nearest victim rather than herself. A trick they’d both learned from their mother, she suddenly realised.
She wanted to say she was sorry too, for disappointing Scarlett, for setting up the series of events that had forced her to leave her home and live with her father, but she couldn’t mimic Scarlett’s disarming honesty. The words stuck in her throat.
In one quick movement Scarlett swung herself off her branch and landed on the same one as Jackie, side on, so both her legs dangled over one side. Her