Sergio’s heart flipped right over. ‘She honestly said that? That she loved me and wanted to marry me?’
Maria’s hands found her hips as they did whenever she was exasperated. ‘I do not tell lies! So what happened to make her leave? What stupid thing have you said now?’
Sergio struggled to think. ‘I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.’
‘Everything was good yesterday. Maybe Mr Jeremy said something when she took him up the towels.’
‘What? When was that?’
‘Just before I go. He went upstairs to shower and I worry he might not have enough towels. I ask Bella to take him some more.’
‘You sent her up to Jeremy’s room with some towels?’ Sergio said, his mind racing as he tried to picture what might have happened.
‘Sì. Are you deaf now as well as stupid?’
Sergio jumped up from his chair. ‘That’s it. That has to be it!’ Excited and appalled at the same time, he raced upstairs and burst into Jeremy’s room without knocking.
‘Wake up, Jeremy! Wake up!’
Jeremy bolted upright in the bed with a startled gasp. ‘What the...? What’s going on?’
‘Go into the bathroom, close the door, then say something to me.’
‘Huh?’
‘Just do it!’
Jeremy staggered, naked, into the bathroom and closed the door. Sergio groaned when he heard his friend’s deep voice as clear as a bell. Without taking the time to explain, he ran to his room, grabbed a fresh shirt and his phone, then bolted for the garage. He was on the road to Milan within five minutes, his heart in his mouth but hope in his heart.
* * *
Bella was sitting in a quiet area of the first-class lounge, staring blankly through the large plate-glass window at the comings and goings of the airport, when a pair of black trousers materialised in the corner of her eye. She groaned silently at the thought some man was going to try to pick her up. It had happened before when she’d been waiting for a flight in first-class lounges.
‘May I join you?’ a very familiar voice asked.
Shock had Bella’s head jerking round and up, the silky hair of her red wig swinging around her ears.
‘Sergio,’ she choked out, thinking how dreadful he looked, his beautiful brown eyes all bleary and bloodshot. ‘What...what are you doing here?’
He sat down in the chair opposite her, his expression an odd combination of resolve and remorse.
‘I have come to tell you that I love you, Bella,’ he said in a heartfelt voice. ‘And I know you love me back. Maria told me so this morning in no uncertain terms. And she does not lie. I also finally worked out what happened yesterday. You took towels up to Jeremy’s room and overheard one side of our telephone conversation. You heard him say that I planned to marry a young Italian girl, plus other possibly damning things as well. What you didn’t hear, however, was what I was saying. I told Jeremy how much I loved you and wanted to marry you. I told him that that stupid plan about marrying an Italian girl had gone out the window within a day of your coming to the villa. He was the one who had doubts. Not me. Never me.’
When Bella absorbed the sincerity in his voice and saw the love in his eyes, she could not help it. She burst into tears, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed with happiness and relief. Sergio loved her. He hadn’t been using her. He loved her!
‘Please do not cry, my darling,’ Sergio choked out as he reached over and took her hands away from her tear-streaked face.
Her seeming distress sent lots of worried eyes swinging their way, one gentleman actually coming over to say something to Sergio in Italian, his voice sharp with disapproval.
Sergio said something back to him and the man smiled, before turning to speak to the other curious patrons. They all smiled then, with one woman actually clapping.
‘What did you say to him?’ Bella asked after she got her crying under control.
‘I told him I’d just proposed to you. And that you were crying with happiness.’
‘Oh...’
‘So now I had better ask you officially,’ he said, winding his fingers through hers. ‘Will you do me the honour of being my wife, my darling Bella?’
Bella struggled to swallow the huge lump in her throat. Blinking back a new rush of tears, she bent down to kiss his hands before glancing up at him with still-glistening eyes. But her voice was quite steady when she finally said, ‘Yes, my darling Sergio. I will.’
A ragged sigh shuddered from his lungs. ‘I am in danger of weeping myself. Which will never do. Let’s get out of here.’ And he pulled her to her feet.
‘But what about my luggage?’ Bella asked breathlessly as he hurried her away. ‘It’s already on the plane.’
‘Once I tell them that you won’t be on the flight they will unload it. I will get Luigi to pick it up later and take it to the villa.’
Bella just shook her head, in awe of this man she loved. ‘What would you have done if you hadn’t got here in time? What if my plane had already taken off?’
‘I would have caught the next flight to New York,’ he replied without missing a beat.
‘Really?’
‘You’d better believe it. I wasn’t about to let you get away, my darling.’
Bella had never felt so loved as she did at that moment.
When they emerged from the terminal several minutes later, Bella was amazed to see Sergio’s silver Alfa Romeo waiting for them at the kerbside, a uniformed security guard holding the passenger door open for her.
‘Now there is one thing I must ask you,’ Sergio said once they were safely out of the airport and on their way, not back to Lake Como but heading for the Morelli factory. ‘Is there really a movie deal, or did you just make that up?’
‘No, it’s real all right. But they don’t need me in New York till the first of August,’ she confessed.
‘I see,’ he said thoughtfully.
‘If you don’t want me to do it, Sergio, I won’t. I’ll give up my career entirely if that’s what you want.’
His shock was genuine. ‘I would never ask that of you, Bella. That wouldn’t be right. And it wouldn’t work in the long run. You were born to perform.’
Bella bit her bottom lip as a new wave of emotion threatened to overwhelm her. How lucky was she that she had finally found that dream husband she’d always wanted and who she’d imagined did not exist.
‘I don’t have to work all the time, Sergio,’ she reassured him. ‘I will want to take lots of time off to be here in Italy with you, especially when the children come along.’
‘You do want children, then?’ he asked, sounding a little surprised.
‘I would love to have children. Especially your children.’
‘You’ve no idea how glad I am to hear that. Maria said you did but I thought she might have been getting a little carried away. Oh, dear God...’
‘What?’
‘I need to ring Maria and Jeremy and tell them everything’s sorted out between us. When I found out what had happened, I just bolted out of the place without explaining anything. Here! Take my phone and ring Jeremy. His number’s in the menu.’
* * *
Sergio couldn’t help smiling as he listened to Bella explaining everything to Jeremy. He could well imagine that doubting Thomas choking on the news that they were going to get married.
‘And tell him to tell Maria,’ Sergio said at one stage. ‘Also, we won’t be back at the villa for a while. After I do what I have to do at work, I’m taking you ring shopping.’
‘Jeremy said congratulations,’ Bella informed Sergio once she’d hung up. ‘You know, I wasn’t sure about him when he first arrived, especially after what you said about him being a Don Juan. But it’s hard not to like him, isn’t it?’
‘Yes. He’s very charming. And a very good friend. But he’s terribly cynical about love.’
‘He might surprise himself and fall in love one day. The way we did.’
‘I wouldn’t hold your breath.’
Bella nodded. ‘I suppose not everyone can be as lucky as us. Sergio, would you mind if I asked you about something I overheard Jeremy say yesterday? Nothing too bad, I assure. Just something which puzzled me at the time. And still does.’
‘Ask me whatever you like,’ he replied. ‘I want no secrets between us.’ Except perhaps my rather ruthless intentions when I first invited you to stay.
‘Okay... So how long, exactly, have you had the hots for me?’
Sergio chuckled. ‘Would you be scandalised if I told you since your sixteenth birthday?’
‘Good Lord! Truthfully?’
‘Cross my heart and hope to die.’
‘So when I kissed you and you acted like a dead fish, then you were just pretending?’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘But I don’t understand. Why did you have to pretend like that?’
‘You were my stepsister at the time. It wouldn’t have been right.’
‘I wouldn’t have minded.’
‘Your mother would have.’
‘Oh, dear heaven, my mother! Can you imagine how she’s going to react when I tell her we’re getting married? She’ll probably have a pink fit.’
‘She’ll cope, once you tell her I’m a billionaire.’