Honeymoon For One (17 page)

She put her fingers to her lips and forced herself
to regain composure. “Why would you think I was a widow?” she asked, becoming
more serious as she slowly started to piece everything together.

“Gina told me. She saw the papers from the travel
company. They had commented that you got married towards the end of January and
this trip was your honeymoon. Gina saw you’re your wedding ring and believed
you got married and then when you turned up without your husband, crying and
looking so sad, well, she obviously got the whole thing wrong, though she never
does. I can see how she came to that conclusion.”

“A widow? What a thing to think!” cried Ava,
looking down at her shoes. Her brows knitted together as she reframed all the
things that had happened recently. She looked up again and examined Nico’s face
before calmly declaring, “He didn’t die on me, Nico. My fiancée called off the wedding
six weeks before we were due to get married. He said he couldn’t go through
with it. He told me he didn’t think he loved me anymore.”

Her
face was expressionless.

Nico
was silent for what seemed like the longest time. “The man is a fool. And a cruel
one at that.”

Pretending not to hear him Ava continued, “I
cancelled everything, the wedding, the hotel, the food, the flowers, the dress.
I couldn’t bring myself to cancel the honeymoon though. I love Italy. I needed to get away. I needed time away from my friends and family. So I thought I
would come alone anyway.”

“And so you did,” Nico said softly, starting to
move towards her slowly but the cold look on Ava’s face made him change his
mind. He stopped where he was.

“Then at the airport, I saw the hotel signs you
were carrying and thought you were a driver from the hotel. I wasn’t thinking
straight. You took me to the hotel and then you were so nice and helpful,
taking me here and there. Showing me Verona, Montova, Montagnano.” He listened,
with his hands in his pockets and she found relief in finally telling her
story. “But why didn’t you tell me who you were the next morning?” she asked.

Nico took a step closer towards her and started to
open his mouth but Ava beat him to it. “Let me see now, you felt sorry for me
right? Poor little Americano girl. You believed that her husband had recently
died so you thought you would show me a good time.”

“No, Ava. That’s not it at all,” countered Nico
slowly.

“But you could have told me who you were. Why
didn’t you?”

“Would it have made any difference? You were here
for a few days. Would it have mattered who I was? You were upset that first
night when you landed, even if it was because of your awful trip and losing
your luggage; it didn’t seem important to correct you. You thought I was the
driver and when you burst into tears, how could I not drive you to the hotel?
I’d just driven my father to the airport. I’d picked up the hotel signs along
the way. You thought I was the driver and you were upset. It didn’t seem to be
the most important thing to put you straight.”

“But why not tell me the next day? Why drive me
everywhere and lie?”

“Because by then Gina had told me, wrongly it now
turns out, that you were recently widowed and this trip would have been your
honeymoon. We wanted to make your trip as comfortable as possible, given the
circumstances. We didn’t think for a moment that we might have got the facts
wrong.”

“So you pitied me?” she asked gruffly.

“I didn’t think you needed any more obstacles in
your way. I didn’t mind taking you to Verona the next day and I thought nothing
of dropping you off there where, if you remember correctly, I left you to your
own devices, to visit Juliet’s balcony. I sat and waited for you. I didn’t
think you needed to know.”

Ava stared at him lost for words and then stupidly
said something she immediately regretted. “Yeah, I bet that’s what you tell
yourself each time a young and single woman turns up at your hotel.”

She could tell by the way his jaw hardened that
her words had incensed him. He was suddenly quiet. Instead he threw his hands
up into the air in frustration.

“I never took you to be such a diva!” he said,
staring at her in disgust. He shook his head in annoyance. “I’m not sorry I
ever met you. But I am sorry I came here to Venice after you.” These were the
last things he said before he turned around and walked away across the piazza.
 He didn’t look back.

Ava’s heart thudded as she watched Nico drift
away. She could tell by his swift gait and his downturned head that he felt as
wretched as she felt right now.

Why was she treating him so badly?

Nico walked back to his hotel which was also the
same one that Ava had checked into. Being in the hotel business had its
definite advantages and being able to book into an exclusive hotel such as the
Hotel Sant Adelina at a moment’s notice, was definitely high up on the
advantages list.

He opened the doors to the balcony and stared out,
looking over the blue gray water of the Grand Canal under the orange dappled
sky. This was most definitely Venice at it’s most beautiful. The famous city by
the sea captured in so many films, photographed on so many postcards and it
looked exactly the same; magical, vibrant and mystical.

He had to give it to them, Ava and her fiancé had
chosen the two most beautiful parts of Italy for a honeymoon. Verona and Venice.  He sighed loudly. What a shame their love story hadn’t lived up to the
expectations of the places they had chosen. He tapped his fingers on the edge
of the balcony.

So
she wasn’t a widow after all. As it now turned out, she hadn’t even been
married.

Why did he feel relieved to hear this news?

She had been so frustrated and ill-tempered when
she had arrived at the airport, and all that time he had put it down to her
being in mourning. Now he knew the truth, that she really was a bride who had
been jilted by her fiancé. It all made sense. She must have thought that he was
trying to hit on her from the moment she had arrived, when all he had been
trying to do was to make her visit bearable, because he thought, because Gina
had told him so, that she was a widow. In fact the two of them had only wanted
to make her stay as pleasant as possible. He had thought at the time that it
must have been an incredibly hard trip to make and he had admired her for her
courage in light of her circumstances.

With a start he understood exactly her
motivations. Ava hadn’t been consumed only by sadness and self-pity. She had
been angry too. All she had wanted was to have a bit of peace. But in trying to
help her out, he had ended up spending too much time with her and not allowing
her to have that peace. And now things were a complete mess because of him.

Too much had happened in too short a time. He felt
that she was the most genuine woman he had ever met. And the real test of it
all was that she had gotten to know him, the real Nico Cazale. He was just a
normal person to her. Such a shame it had ended like this. At least he had
tried. At least he could not blame himself for not coming out here after her.

Had he come here to woo her? No. But a tiny part
of him had been excited by the thought of seeing her again. He had come after
her because he did not want the two of them to part in such a bad way. The last
time they had been together, they had argued. And on top of that, unknown to
him, Ava had had to bear with Silvia and her lies.

He hung his head in shame. He hadn’t had any
inkling of the damage Silvia had done and he had been unaware of most of it. He
thought Ava had left Verona early because of their argument after their kiss.
He stopped in his thoughts as memories of their kiss came back to him.
Remembering the feel of her soft skin and her warm, moist lips made his heart
beat faster. He felt a stirring deep in his core as he recalled how close to
impossible it had been for him to pull away.

In wanting to make this a memorable holiday for
Ava, he had succeeded in doing the opposite. And it had all been his fault. Not
only had he hurt her, but he had gotten her embroiled in the problems with Silvia.
Way to go Nico,
he thought miserably.

He would be sorry to see her go. He wondered how
long he would have to wait to meet another woman who would see the real Nico
instead of his wealth and his inheritance.

At least he had straightened things out and she
was now aware of the real story. He would leave for Verona tomorrow morning and
he could return to Verona knowing he had tried.

The next morning, Nico checked out of the Hotel
Sant Adelina. It was still only early morning and he decided to have one last
cup of espresso in the Piazza San Marco before catching the noon train to Verona. The sun was casting her silken glow over Venice again, as she normally did at this
time of the year.

Before he checked out, Nico handed a small package
over to the clerk in reception, asking the man to give it to Ava Ramirez.

Ava hadn’t slept well at all. It had been as bad a
night as the night Connor had dumped her.

Back then, she had alternated between moments
where it all seemed to be a dream and then she wondered whether it was real.
After four hours of tossing and turning, she hadn’t been able to fathom what
was real and what was not.
It was the same now. Only it was a different man.

She
replayed the argument with Nico over and over in her head.

Had he really thought she was a widow?

She
thought about all the things he had gone out of his way to do for her. The
small ways he had tried to make her trip pleasant.

A shiver slid down her spine and the hairs on her
arms stood up as she recalled their brief moment of passion by the bench. Theirs
was a kiss that promised the allure of deeper things. She knew that as surely
as she felt his strong hands caressing her face when he had kissed her.

He thought she was a widow. He had only been
trying to be respectful.  The thought of what could have been churned her
insides and set her heart racing.

She needed to see him. She couldn’t return to Denver leaving things as they were.

She leapt out of bed, showering up and getting
dressed as fast as she could. She flew out of her room and down the stairs.  Where
would she find him? She didn’t even know where he was staying. The queasiness
in her stomach increased as she realised that she might never see him again and
that he might have returned to Verona, still angry at her. Ava’s face dropped
and for a moment the world around her seemed empty.

“Ms. Ramirez?” the hotel desk clerk walked up
behind her. “Ms. Ramirez, a gentleman left this package for you early this
morning.” He handed Ava a small brown envelope. Ava smiled at him before
peeking inside. She pulled out the small black box, no bigger than the palm of
her hand and walked to the large sofa nearby and sat down. Her hands were
shaking uncontrollably as she opened the box.

Inside, nestling against a backdrop of dark red
velvet, was the beautiful bracelet that she had admired from the shop window at
the jeweler’s in Montova. Her heart jumped. She gingerly ran her fingertips
over the intricate beadwork and metal design. She picked it up and laid it out
on palm of her hand. It was breathtaking in its beauty.

She closed her fingers around it and pressed her
clenched fist against her chest, taking a deep breath in as she held the
bracelet against her thudding heart.

He had remembered.

When had Nico had the time to drive out to the village
for this? Now she felt really foolish, as she thought of everything she had
said to him yesterday. She had been in a particularly foul mood when she had
arrived in Venice yesterday. And rightly so.  But now the truth was out. She
realised that she had seen but one side of the story and believed the worst. Nico
had explained the other side. And it all made sense. As it was, he had his
reasons for behaving the way he had. And he had only done it out of kindness
for her.

Silvia, the child, his decision to allow her to
think he was nothing more than a hotel driver, all of these things, had slowly
unraveled and the fog had cleared.

It was not too late to put things right.

She raced to the reception desk, with the bracelet
dangling from between her fingers and the dark velvet box in the other hand.

“The man who left this for me,” she said breathlessly,
“did he say where he was going?”

“Madam, he checked out this morning,” he said, and
then his eyes saw the bracelet that dangled from Ava’s hands. “Ah.  A Flamentagostini?
Yes?” he asked, the excitement in his voice barely concealed. Ava remembered
the name of the shop.

“Yes. Flamentagostini.”

“Exquisite. Highly desirable and beautiful. And
very expensive too. Be careful you don’t lose that madam.” The clerk was unable
to take his eyes off the bracelet.

“But did he say where he was going?” asked Ava,
anxious to find Nico before he left and completely ignoring the clerk’s
fascination with the bracelet.

“No madam. I’m afraid he didn’t. I don’t think he can
be too far,” the clerk added.