Aurora had doubts of her own.
Getting closer to Nico wasn’t going to snuff out the torch. Instead it would fan the eternal flame that burned for him. So Aurora said the bravest thing she could. ‘It is very nice of you to consider me—but, no.’ Aurora shook her head. ‘I don’t think that role would be for me.’
Tonight, when she was back in the hotel, she would cry one final time over him, Aurora decided.
There would be no bus tour.
She was a little tired of being with her friends. They saw each other every day and they were all so much older than she.
No, tonight she would recall with shame her own behaviour earlier with Nico and then she would weep into the pillow. And then…
Well, it was time she moved on—time she started dating.
Time to flirt.
To be twenty-four and single in Rome.
She might even download the dating app that Chi-Chi and Antonietta had told her about!
To hell with you, Nico Caruso, because I want to be with a man who wants me. I am finally out of your shadow.
And she was soon to be out of Marianna’s.
‘Where’s Aurora?’ Nico asked late in the day.
‘Oh, she’s with the marketing team,’ Marianna said and then glanced at the time. ‘Though they’ll all be off on their bus tour now.’
Nico gave a small eye-roll, though not with any malice. It was more in amusement that Pino had called and invited him to join them.
Again he had declined.
‘Do you know?’ Marianna said. ‘I have never met a more enthusiastic lot of people. With their energy and exuberance I’m sure the new hotel is going to be amazing.’
‘If you like Persian Orange,’ Nico said, and he pushed over the uniform order he had signed off on. Persian Orange! With bespoke tones of Butterscotch and Burnt Caramel for those who felt the shade might not suit their colouring.
Nico had a headache from looking at so much orange.
And he had another question. ‘Why was Aurora shadowing you today? I thought her role was in marketing.’
‘Correct,’ Marianna agreed. ‘But presumably you will be spending a lot of time in Silibri…?’
‘Not once the hotel is up and running.’
‘You are always between hotels. I have Teresa in Florence, Amelie in France… Francesca thought that Aurora might be suitable—’
‘No.’ Nico said it too fast, and with too much force, and he attempted a quick recovery. ‘Look, I’m sure Aurora will be excellent in her marketing role, but I don’t think she would work out as—’
‘It’s fine,’ Marianna cut in. ‘Aurora said the same.’
‘She did?’
Why did that feel like a punch to his guts rather than spread relief? And why did the thought of working closely with Aurora unsettle him so?
Nico grabbed his jacket and took the elevator down to head for home.
He did not need to ponder further to know the answer: there was way too much history between them.
The night that neither can forget…
‘YOU CAN TELL Nico that I’m not leaving my home.’
Just hearing Nico’s father say his name had Aurora’s heart both soaring and shattering anew.
It was a regular occurrence in Silibri. Nico Caruso’s name was mentioned often.
‘Since when did I have a direct line to your son, Geo?’ Determined not to give herself away, Aurora responded light-heartedly as she plumped the old man’s cushions behind him. ‘I haven’t spoken to Nico in ages.’
‘He’s sending his helicopter to take me to Rome.’
Aurora’s cushion plumping was paused for a moment.
Geo got confused at times, and was also known to exaggerate, but even by Geo’s standards this was too far-fetched to be believed.
‘Who told you that?’ Aurora asked as he rested back in his chair and she straightened up.
‘The doctor did.’
‘Oh? And is this the same doctor who told you that your drinking would kill you?’ Aurora checked.
Geo gave a reluctant smile.
‘The same doctor who said that you couldn’t manage here alone and needed to be in a nursing home?’ she continued. ‘Because I thought you told me that that doctor could not be believed.’
‘Perhaps,’ Geo conceded, ‘but he was telling the truth this time—Nico is sending a helicopter to fetch me.’
Wildfires had been ravaging the south coast of Sicily and steadily working their way towards their small village for more than a week. They had been told to get out—of course they had—but, like Geo, her father had refused.
She didn’t doubt that Nico wanted his father away from the fires, but a private helicopter was way beyond a boy from Silibri—even a successful one!
Geo’s lies were becoming more and more extreme. A few weeks ago, when Aurora had dropped off his shopping, he had told her that she had just missed seeing Maria. Maria, Geo’s wife and Nico’s mother, had died the year Aurora had been born—some twenty years ago.
Last week he had said that Nico owned three hotels across Europe. When Aurora had refused to believe him, Geo had corrected himself: Nico owned four!
‘He stole from me!’ Geo said now, and cursed. ‘He took what was mine.’
‘You tell tall tales, Geo,’ Aurora said gently.
‘Well, he can stick his nursing home in Rome. I hate him. Why would I want to live closer to him?’
Aurora knew that father and son did not get on. She knew it very well.
But, though she loathed Geo’s treatment of Nico, she could not walk past the old man’s house and not drop in. It was worth it if it made things a little easier on Nico to know that his father was being cared for.
‘Now,’ Aurora said. ‘Is there anything else that you need me to do?’
‘Take some money from my dresser and run down to the store.’
‘I’m not getting you whisky, Geo,’ Aurora told him.
‘Why not? We’re all going to die in these fires!’
Aurora beamed. ‘Then you will meet your maker sober.’
‘Take the money and get me my whisky.’
‘Don’t.’
The very deep voice caused Aurora’s stomach to flip over, but even before she turned to face its direction she knew its source.
‘Nico…’ she said. ‘You’re here?’
‘Yes.’
He wore suit trousers and a white shirt—which somehow, despite the ash floating in the air, looked fresh. His hair was black and clean, unlike hers, which felt heavy after a day spent sweeping leaves outside Geo’s home and trying to get his house as safe