‘I’ve booked Luigi to pick me up very early in the morning,’ she went on. ‘My flight goes around nine so I have to be on the road by six.’
‘You didn’t have to do that,’ Sergio said more sharply than he’d intended. ‘I would have driven you to the airport.’
‘That’s sweet of you, Sergio, but I thought you might like to spend some extra time with Jeremy, since he’s gone to the trouble of coming all this way. No, I think it’s best that I go with Luigi, but thank you for the offer.’
Her smile, he thought, was oddly false, pricking a memory of a feeling he’d had when he’d first arrived home and she’d been overly vivacious with him. He’d wondered at the time if it was because of Jeremy’s presence, the way she’d thrown her arms around him and kissed him before wishing him a happy birthday and apologising profusely for having forgotten.
‘Thank God for Maria telling me this morning,’ she’d fairly gushed. ‘It gave me the opportunity to buy you a present.’ Which she’d pressed upon him, smiling when he’d opened it and seen that the cologne she’d bought him was called Seduction. ‘An appropriate name, don’t you think?’ she’d added flirtatiously.
Sergio recalled being taken aback at the time, because it wasn’t like Bella to be either gushy or overly flirtatious.
Neither was it like her eyes to go cold when she looked at him. As they were doing now.
Something was wrong. He could feel it.
‘If you’ll excuse me, I must go and pack,’ she said before he could work out what was going on. ‘Then I might turn in. I’m sure you two boys have lots to talk about, and some more of that fabulous wine to drink. So I’ll love you and leave you. I dare say I might not see you in the morning, Sergio, so I’ll say my goodbyes now.’ He struggled not to shrink back when she came over to give him a very platonic peck on the cheek.
‘You’ve been a wonderful host,’ she continued as he just stared up at her. ‘I haven’t had a holiday this relaxing in years. I’ll send you a text once I’m in New York, let you know I arrived safe and sound. Lovely to have met you, Jeremy,’ she tossed off as she headed for the doorway. ‘Ciao.’
She was gone before Sergio could jump up and stop her. Though what he could possibly say at that juncture he had no idea. He was totally flummoxed by Bella’s total change of character. This wasn’t the warm, wonderful woman he’d come to know and love. None of this was making any sense to him.
He whirled towards Jeremy, who was sitting with legs outstretched at the kitchen table, a glass of red in one hand and a half-eaten slice of pizza in the other.
‘What in hell did you say to Bella after I rang you?’ Sergio demanded angrily.
‘Absolutely nothing,’ Jeremy said, indignation in his voice. ‘I didn’t even see her again till you came home. After we spoke, I had a shower, then lay down and fell asleep. For pity’s sake, Sergio, what kind of blithering idiot do you take me for?’
Sergio’s shoulders sagged as he slumped back in his chair. He still could not believe that she was leaving him like this; that she was leaving him at all! He’d been so sure this last weekend that she loved him, convinced that only a woman in love would trust him with her body the way she’d trusted him. He’d almost told her he loved her a dozen times. He wished now that he had. Because then he would at least know the truth. As it was, he was now left floundering with a whole host of conflicting thoughts and emotions.
‘If you want my honest opinion,’ Jeremy said, ‘then I think her leaving could be all for the best. It’s perfectly obvious that she doesn’t have the same intense feelings for you that you have for her. If she did, she wouldn’t be bolting off back to New York like this. Bella’s one priority in life is her work. That’s why she’s never married. Because she’s married to her career.’
Sergio winced at Jeremy’s brutally honest assessment. There had to be some truth in what he said. Bella had never married, yet surely at least one of her past lovers would have proposed. At the same time, he still could not accept this sudden decision of hers to leave tomorrow, some inner instinct telling him that something was very wrong.
‘You could be right,’ Sergio ground out, ‘but I’m not going to let her go without telling her how I feel about her.’
‘Not a good idea,’ Jeremy warned when Sergio stood up.