The Rinucci Brothers: Wife and Mother Forever / Her Italian Boss's Agenda / The Wedding Arrangement

‘Because I promised him. You heard me.’

‘Yes, but—’

‘It won’t rain. I promised.’ She yawned. ‘I think I’ll go to bed too. Sea air makes me sleepy. ‘G’night.’

‘Goodnight.’

In her room she undressed and went to bed, listening for the sound of him coming upstairs. She was still listening when she fell asleep.

She didn’t know what roused her, but she awoke suddenly in the darkness. The clock by her bed showed two o’clock. She listened and thought she could hear a voice talking in the distance.

Pulling a dressing gown on over her pyjamas, she crept out into the corridor and went to the top of the stairs, from where she could see down into the main room.

Just as Mark had predicted, Justin had set up a laptop computer and was staring at the screen at the same time as talking into his cellphone. He spoke softly, but Evie could pick up the tense note in his voice.

‘I’m sorry but I just couldn’t take the call this afternoon—I know what I said but I had important business—’

She went quietly downstairs and into the kitchen. By the time she returned with two large mugs of tea he was off the phone.

‘Thanks,’ he said, taking one. ‘Sorry if I disturbed you, but I had to catch up with my work somehow.’

‘Yes, you’ve obviously come prepared. I’m surprised you could put work aside long enough to drive down here. All those hours not at the computer, not on the phone, not making contacts.’

‘I don’t bother to make contacts any more. I don’t need to. People contact me.’

‘You arrogant so-and-so,’ she said, amused. ‘Anyway, it isn’t true. There’s always someone bigger you can be doing business with.’

‘That’s true,’ he reflected. ‘Why don’t you say outright that you’re just surprised that I put Mark first?’

‘Well—’

‘Don’t worry, you’ve already made your poor opinion of me pretty plain, and I’m not arguing with it.’

‘Hey, I didn’t exactly—’

‘Are you saying you don’t have a poor opinion of me?’

‘Well, it improved when you took the trouble to drive down here for Mark’s sake. Although it takes a dive at your way of moving people around like pieces on your own private chessboard.’

‘Do I do that? Well, maybe sometimes.’

‘You know quite well that you do.’

‘Miss Wharton—’ he began in a patient voice, but she stopped him.

‘What did you say?’

‘Nothing.’

‘You did, you called me something.’

‘I called you Miss Wharton.’

‘But why?’

‘I thought it was your name.’

‘But why aren’t you calling me Evie?’

‘Because you haven’t given me your permission.’

She tore her hair. ‘I gave it to Mark.’

‘Yes, to Mark. Not to me.’

He was serious, she realised. Was it possible for a modern man to be so old-fashioned? Against her will she realised that there was something charming about it.

‘Why are you smiling?’ he asked suspiciously.

‘It’s nothing.’ It wouldn’t do to tell him she found him charming. He would hate it. ‘Call me Evie. And look, you can stay for a short time, but I’ll have to ask you to leave without warning. I’m expecting someone.’

‘Andrew?’

‘Yes, not that it’s any of your business.’

‘When’s he coming?’

‘I’m not sure, but when I know he’s on his way you really do have to go. He and I have a lot of ground to make up.’

‘You mean because of the other evening?’

‘Among other things.’

‘But surely you made it up when he called you?’

She made a face. ‘That wasn’t him. It was someone trying to sell me insurance.’

A tremor passed over his face as he tried to suppress his grin and didn’t quite manage it.

‘Oh, go on, laugh,’ she said. ‘The poor man who called me didn’t think it was so funny when I’d finished giving him a piece of my mind.’

‘Having been on the receiving end of a piece of your mind, he has my sympathy.’

‘Well, I apologised to him in the end.’

‘Did Andrew ever call you?’

‘I called him. Same thing.’