‘Si,’ Evelina confirmed softly. ‘This is our beautiful family.’
Intrigued, Poppy strolled over to the wall. Her eyes skimmed over the twenty or so frames, stopping on one of a boy holding on to the stern of a yacht. ‘Is this you as a boy?’ she asked Sebastiano, smiling at the carefree look on his face as the breeze caught his dark hair, the potential of his wide shoulders already evident even though he must have been about ten in the shot.
Sebastiano stopped beside her. ‘Yes,’ he said curtly.
Poppy glanced at him curiously, unsure as to why he wouldn’t be happy that she was looking at the photos. She glanced at the other frames that showed a very normal, happy f
amily. For some reason she had expected that Sebastiano’s family would be snobbish and distant but, seeing this wall of coveted memories, she could already tell that they were the type of family she admired the most. Close. Supportive. Loving. It made her heart ache for something she had always wanted but had never been able to find.
‘And this?’ She pointed to a photo of a young girl in a ballet costume.
‘My cousin.’ He leant close and she instinctively stilled. ‘What are you doing?’ he murmured gruffly, his hand firm on her shoulder. To his grandmother it might look like a loving gesture, but there was so much tension radiating off him Poppy knew it was the exact opposite.
‘I’m looking at photos,’ she murmured, risking a glance into his stormy gaze. ‘Just as you did at my place. Why are you so tense all of a sudden?’
‘I’m not tense.’
Before she could check herself, she ran a hand over one corded shoulder and felt the muscles bunch beneath her fingertips. Fire flitted along her nerve endings and she did her best to ignore it. ‘You certainly feel tense. You just jumped six foot in the air.’
‘Listen, I—’
‘Sebastiano, come stai tesoro mio?’
Poppy turned to see a willowy blonde woman heading towards them, a wide smile on her face.
Embracing Sebastiano, she gave him a traditional kiss on each cheek. ‘E così bello vederti.’
‘It’s good to see you too,’ Sebastiano murmured.
Poppy swallowed heavily, a sick feeling invading her stomach. Was she about to meet one of Sebastiano’s ex-girlfriends?
‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be speaking in Italian.’ The woman smiled at her warmly, her brown eyes alight with interest. ‘I’m Nicolette, Sebastiano’s cousin—and you must be Poppy. Welcome. You can call me Nicole, like everyone else does.’
His cousin! Poppy was disconcerted to find that she didn’t have to pretend her sense of relief. She smiled in greeting and had no choice but to accept a warm kiss on each cheek as well. Unused to being welcomed into a family so wholeheartedly, she felt something inside her clench in reaction. She had always been openly affectionate with Simon, replacing the mother he’d never known from an early age, but she wasn’t so used to being embraced herself.
As if sensing her unease, Sebastiano ran his hand down her arm, as if he were gentling a startled animal. The gesture of comfort was so unusual, she felt instantly overwhelmed.
‘Please don’t tell me Nonna invited the whole family over tonight?’ he drawled to his cousin.
Nicolette laughed. ‘We invited ourselves.’ Then she turned to Poppy. ‘Giulietta and I are dying to hear all about how you landed our elusive cousin. We think it’s fantastic, by the way.’
‘Oh, well, thank you. I think.’ Now that she’d had a moment to take stock, Poppy couldn’t help liking this woman and she gave Sebastiano an amused look. ‘It wasn’t easy. What with all the supermodels he always has hanging off him.’
Nicolette laughed and Sebastiano scowled. ‘Okay, I can already see you two are going to be trouble together. I think I’ll take Poppy upstairs to rest before dinner.’
‘Rest?’ Nicolette gave him an impish wink. ‘Is that what they call it nowadays, cousin?’
‘Don’t embarrass Sebastiano and his guest, Nicole,’ Evelina scolded, her eyes shining with happiness. ‘I don’t want to scare him away when he has not been home in so long.’
Poppy felt Sebastiano tense again and wondered what had put that distant look in his eyes. Then he put his hand in the small of her back and she couldn’t think at all.
‘No fun, Nonna,’ Nicole complained. ‘We’ve been waiting for Sebastiano to fall in love for a long time. At least let me enjoy the moment.’
‘Just wait till it’s your turn, cousin,’ Sebastiano drawled, ushering Poppy ahead of him.
‘Pah, it’s never going to happen!’ Nicole lamented. ‘I’m going to die an old virgin.’
‘Nicolette!’