Dario opened his eyes to find her on her back, flailing around like a beetle.
‘Mamma mia! Are you okay?’ he said, dashing over and helping her to her feet.
She had to steel herself before glancing up. ‘Fine, just fine,’she whispered, all peely-wally legs and crippled with embarrassment.
Dario grinned. ‘I am very proud of you.’
A self-mocking smile played across Lucy’s lips. ‘Hah! Proud?’
‘You swear just like an Italian.’
She shrugged. ‘I guess that’s ’cos I have an excellent teacher.’
As they weaved around the city on two wheels, Lucy side-saddle, she felt a combination of exhilaration, fear and freedom. Her inner Audrey had been unleashed at last.
‘Hold tight!’ yelled Dario over the buzz of the engine as they whizzed uphill.
Lucy dared to let go of the seat strap, slid forward and placed her hands around Dario’s waist.
Following his lead, she swayed left and right, as if to the gentle rhythm of a dance, until they eventually slowed to a halt.
Slithering to the ground, Lucy removed her helmet, eyes drinking in the jaw-dropping, panoramic vista.
High up on the hill, away from all the chaos and noise, the lights glittered like jewels across the bay, and there, in the distance, against the backdrop of a moonlit sky, loomed Mount Vesuvius,like a quietly ticking time bomb; a reminder of the unpredictability and fragility of life, of the need to live for today.
Dario rested his chin on top of her forehead and wrapped his arms tightly around her.
Unspoken words hovered in the air.
Lucy finally felt she was where she belonged; now she couldn’t imagine not waking up to the sights and sounds of the Mediterranean Sea, to the sweet, roasty aroma of fresh coffee drifting under her bedroom door, or gazing at the twinkling lights of thelampare– fishing boats – from her balcony at night.
Turning to face Dario, she tentatively touched his scarred cheek.
He drew a deep breath, nervous of the unknown territory he was about to enter. ‘I must tell something to you.’
She braced herself for theI-really-like-you-butspeech.
‘I have found the woman I love, but I am no certain she feel the same.’
Lucy looked up at him, heart beating so fast she thought she might faint, hardly daring to believe what could finally be happening.
‘Oh? Do I know her?’
‘Perhaps you do. She is Scottish, funny, warm, natural, a little …goffa…’
‘Goffa?’
‘Goffa, goffa…How you say?’He clicked his fingers. ‘Clumsy.’
‘Scusami? I take offence at—’
‘Sì,she is alittleclumsy. She bake delicious cakes, and—’ He lowered his gaze, his voice sombre and low – ‘and I nearly lose her in a fire. I know then how important she is to me, but I must accept she may no feel the same.’
Lucy couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It was as if a light had been switched on inside her.
‘And what if… what if she does feel the same? What then?’
Dario pulled back slightly to look at her, eyes roaming her face. Gently sweeping a strand of hair from her mouth, he drew her to him, tightening his hold on her waist and kissing her gently on the lips.
