‘Come and help me with the washing up, Angelo,’ Lucrezia directed when Camilla was settled on the sofa and feeding the baby.
Angelo followed his mother into the kitchen, but before she could say anything he gave her a hug. ‘I’m fine, Mamma. Don’t worry. I’m over it.’ It wasn’t true, but there was nothing to achieve by dwelling on it and going over and over things that couldn’t be changed. ‘I’m really happy for Cammie and Ed.’
Lucrezia hugged him back. ‘I know, but—’
‘But nothing, Mamma,’ he cut in gently. ‘Everything is just fine.’ And it would be. He’d make it happen.
He stayed for dinner so he had a chance to see his brother-in-law and congratulate him on the baby, too. And leaving Serafina was a real wrench. By the time Angelo got back to Florence, Mariana had gone back to her hotel and Leo had gone to bed. Angelo showered and went to bed, but it was a long time before he could sleep. Seeing his niece had unsettled him, awoken longings he’d have to fight to bury again. His growing attraction towards Mariana had unsettled him, too. But he needed to be careful with her. She’d had a horrible time with her ex. The last thing she needed was to get involved with him. If she wanted a family of her own—he couldn’t give her that, so it was better not to start anything in the first place.
He needed to keep his distance. Keep things professional. He’d managed that with every other relationship in the last couple of years, being charming at dinner parties when he’d been invited as the ‘eligible single’ while making it clear that his career kept him too busy to date anyone properly. Why was it so much more of a struggle to maintain that distance with Mariana? Why was he even thinking about finding out how she felt, if she might be prepared to take a chance on him? Why couldn’t he think of her as dispassionately as he had about every other woman he’d met since his marriage ended?
* * *
On Wednesday, the rest of the boxes arrived, and Angelo packed everything into them. About the only order he managed to restore to the chaos was to put the journals together, along with some reels of cine films that he planned to have transferred to a digital format once he was back in London. There was no clue as to the content of the films, just a couple of years written on the outside—years when his grandparents had been newlyweds and his mother had been a small child, and he thought both his grandfather and his mother would enjoy seeing them.
But then he found some preparatory sketches that looked vaguely familiar, and took them out to Mariana to see what she thought.
‘That’s absolutely incredible!’ she said, her eyes glittering as she inspected them. ‘They’re dated and signed, and, look, there’s a note in Carulli’s own handwriting about the location. This is fantastic!’
She threw her arms round him and hugged him.
For a second, Angelo froze and panic flooded through him. Distance, he reminded himself. Distance.
But his body wasn’t listening to his head, and he wrapped his arms round her. This felt so right. He closed his eyes and dipped his head slightly to press his cheek against hers, breathing in the clean vanilla scent of her hair. A warmth, a closeness he hadn’t felt since Stephanie had walked out on him.
Then reality washed back in.
This was the last thing he should be doing.
So much for keeping things professional.
He released her and took a step backwards.
And then she flushed. ‘Sorry, I got a bit carried away just then. The excitement of finding the artwork.’
‘Me, too,’ he lied. It hadn’t been the artwork. As far as he was concerned, the sketch was nothing special. It didn’t make his heart beat faster. That reaction had all been because of her.
Not that he was going to make the mistake of telling her that.
‘I know which painting it is.’ She flicked into the photos she’d downloaded to her laptop the previous day. ‘You can see the cottage here, and this group of trees. It ties up.’
‘So we’re getting somewhere,’ he said.
At least, as far as his grandfather’s paintings were concerned. Where his heart was concerned, he needed to get a grip. He hadn’t been enough for Stephanie and he had no intention of putting himself in a place where he discovered that he wasn’t enough for Mariana, either.