‘Good question. I’m not sure.’
‘Do you paint?’
‘No.’
‘Write?’
‘Sadly not. This would be the perfect place to write a novel.’
She paused for a rest and looked at him pensively. ‘What was it that banking lacked?’
‘It didn’t leave me with anything concrete.’
‘Just figures on computer screens. Nothing to take home with you at the end of the day, like these lemons.’
He took a lemon from the fruit bowl and squeezed it. ‘Nothing concrete about these lemons. What are you grinning at?’
‘You,’ she replied, scraping her finger on the spoon and putting it in her mouth.
‘Why?’
She added more icing sugar and continued to stir. ‘Because it’s very clear to me what you should do.’
‘Do tell me. I’ve been trying to work it out for weeks.’
‘Plant something and watch it grow.’ It was as if she understood his deepest desire. She placed the spoon in front of his mouth. ‘Try a little, it’s good.’
The mixture melted on his tongue. ‘Very good.’
‘But it needs more lemon.’ She cut one in half and squeezed it into the bowl. The juice ran through her fingers.
‘You smell of lemon. Do you spray it on, or do you bathe in it?’
‘Neither,’ she replied, laughing. ‘I drink it.’
She wiped her hands on her apron, went to the drawer and took out two spatulas. ‘One for you and one for me. This goes all over the cake, not into your mouth.’ She placed the sponge cake in the middle of the table then scooped a large dollop of icing on to the end of her spatula and began to spread it over the cake. Luca copied her.
‘You’re not bad,’ she said. ‘For a beginner.’
He pretended to be offended. ‘Are you saying I don’t know how to ice a cake?’
‘You only know how to count. This is creative.’
‘I have a dormant creativity, remember.’
‘Well, let’s wake it up then.’ She brought over a tin of small colourful sweets. ‘Let your imagination flow.’
‘You want me to put these on the cake?’
‘Yes. It’s a children’s cake. You can’t go wrong.’
‘I’m not afraid of a few sweets,’ he scoffed. He longed to kiss her. How different she was from the woman he had chased outside the church. He placed the sweets around the edge of the cake.
‘That shows a methodical mind,’ she commented, leaning across and resting her chin on her hands.
‘What does this show?’ He dipped a red sweet in icing then very carefully stuck it on the end of her nose.
‘Now I’m going to kiss it off,’ he said softly. She didn’t move. Luca leaned forward and kissed the end of her nose, licking off the icing and the sweet. He pulled back a little to gauge her reaction. ‘I didn’t come here to do this,’ he said. ‘But you’re so beautiful, I can’t restrain myself.’ He placed his lips on hers and kissed her again.
There was the sound of footsteps. They sprang apart and continued to decorate the cake as if nothing had happened. Cosima wiped her nose with her hand.
‘Hello Luca.’ It was Beata, woken from her nap. ‘I didn’t see you come in.’
‘You were asleep, Nonnina,’ said Cosima calmly. ‘Do you want to help us with Panfilo’s cake?’
Beata leaned over to take a look. ‘I think you’re doing a good job of it by yourselves. How are you, Luca?’
‘Well, thank you.’
‘Good. I’ll leave you to it then. The children will be thrilled.’ Beata left the room.
Cosima began to giggle. ‘We’re behaving like school children.’
‘I never kissed anyone at school.’
Cosima shook her head. ‘I don’t believe that for a minute!’
‘Why don’t we go somewhere where I can kiss you properly, without being caught by the headmistress!’
Cosima put the cake in the fridge, took off her apron and led Luca out through another door. ‘I’ll show you my favourite place in the whole of Incantellaria,’ she said. As they walked through the olive grove, he took her hand. She didn’t pull away. ‘I used to play here as a child,’ she said. ‘I didn’t have brothers and sisters to play with, so I played with my father or Alba. We’d always walk here and I’d skip around the trees. It’s quiet but for the rhythm of the sea and the chirping of crickets. I like the smells too. Pine and wild thyme. Can you smell them?’
‘Yes. And lemons.’ He looked at her and the sweet way she looked back at him made his stomach flip.