‘Is that why you don’t see much of them?’
‘That and distance,’ she said with a nod. ‘They’re now halfway up a hill in Wales.’
‘I can see why Georgie means so much to you, even if I don’t get it.’
‘What don’t you get?’
‘The depth of your relationship.’ He took a sip of his beer and she really wished he’d take off his sunglasses.
‘How deep do your relationships go?’
‘I don’t have any.’
Just as she suspected, she thought, and her heart squeezed at the realisation of how lonely he must be. ‘That’s a shame.’
‘It’s never bothered me,’ he said with a casual shrug that made her suddenly wonder if she was wrong. Maybe he wasn’t lonely at all. Maybe he was perfectly content with his life the way it was. Maybe that was why he had no interest in meeting Finn.
‘Well, Georgie and I are closer than sisters,’ she said, not entirely sure what to make of that, ‘and I owe her a debt I’ll never be able to repay.’
‘Is that why you accepted my invitation to dinner?’
‘Partly,’ she said. ‘I also needed to assuage my guilt.’
‘Your guilt?’
‘I allowed you to leave that day. That shouldn’t have happened
. I should never have left you alone. I made a mistake I’d never normally have made.’
‘Then why did you?’
‘You threw me off balance.’
‘Did I?’
‘You must have known you did.’
‘You are a master of concealment.’
‘Takes one to know one. And, talking of relationships and that afternoon,’ she said with a deep breath, not willing to consider the idea that he might genuinely be fine on his own and that her mission might fail, ‘have you had any thoughts about meeting Finn?’
‘No.’
‘Because I really think you should, Rico, and not just because he wants it but because it would be so good for you too.’
‘It’s none of your business.’
‘Well, no, but—’
‘Are you trying to ruin the day?’
The smile he gave her was faint, but she could hear a chilly bite to his words. Her throat went dry and her stomach clenched. ‘Of course not,’ she said, the wine in her system turning to acid.
‘Then stop.’
* * *
Having got through the rest of lunch with mercifully little conversation, Rico left Carla in the hands of the top personal shopper at the top department store he’d rung earlier, and took himself off to the Capella di Santa Maria, not because he was remotely religious but because he’d always found comfort in the shady coolness of the small but perfectly formed building, and since it wasn’t on the tourist trail, which meant it had never been a location for any of his adolescent scams or thievery, it dredged up no memories.