Rome is Where the Heart is: An uplifting romantic read, perfect to escape with (From Italy with Love Book 1) Read online

  ‘You can tell us that, but it doesn’t mean it’ll happen,’ Anna said, and Lily nodded agreement. ‘Mum is worried to death as well. She’s even mentioned coming back home.’

  ‘I don’t know why. I’ve told her the same thing, and I most certainly don’t want her to leave Scotland on my account; I know how much she loves it up there and living in the Highlands with Hamish has been the making of her since her breakdown after Dad died. Her coming home to baby me would just give me a guilt complex on top of all my other problems and would hardly do anything for her mental health either.’

  ‘You’ve never really been without Matt, that’s why. Mum was the first person to warn you about marrying young, but she accepted it because it was Matt and you’d been with him for so long it somehow seemed inevitable that you’d end up married. She hadn’t expected it to happen so soon after college, but even though we worried, deep down we all thought it would last forever. You and Matt . . .’ Anna paused.

  ‘We were meant to be?’ Kate finished with a wry smile. ‘I thought so too. Why else would I have built my life around him?’

  ‘Exactly!’ Lily said. ‘Which is why we’re all just trying to look out for you. Nobody wants to interfere – we only want to make sure you’re OK.’

  Kate dropped to the sofa and reached over for her mug. ‘I know. It’s hard to come to terms with everything and I think I’ve buried my head in the sand a bit, tried to ignore it. But everyone worrying is somehow making it all real, because if you can all see the monster looming on the horizon then I have to look and see it too.’

  Lily sat beside her and pulled her into a hug. ‘But you have us and we’ll all help you come to terms with your new life.’

  Kate smiled at her. ‘I know you will. I’m luckier than some in that respect. I just wish right now I could have a sneak peek of what that new life will look like – I might feel a bit easier.’

  ‘You know what I think?’ Anna said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I think your new life will be fabulous.’

  ‘Hmmmm,’ Kate replied as she sipped her tea. ‘So this is based on . . .?’

  ‘A hunch,’ Anna laughed. ‘But if I know you, you’ll make the best of the hand you’ve been dealt and will come out of this OK.’

  ‘I absolutely agree,’ Lily said. ‘And we’ve got lots of exciting things coming to take your mind off all that rubbish with Matt.’

  ‘Such as . . .?’

  ‘You’ll be an aunty for the first time! That’s got to be exciting!’

  ‘Well, yes, I suppose it is. But I’ll only have a little part to play in junior’s life really.’

  ‘It’s something to look forward to, though,’ Anna said. ‘For all of us. And you never know, the man of your dreams might be around the corner.’

  ‘Maybe you’ll bump into him when you come to antenatal classes with me,’ Lily said brightly.

  ‘I bloody hope not,’ Kate said. ‘If he’s at antenatal classes I suspect he’ll already have quite a packed relationship schedule.’

  ‘Lily just means that you’ll meet someone where you least expect it,’ Anna put in.

  ‘That would be very unexpected,’ Kate said. ‘But I take your point. Somehow I just don’t see it happening any time soon. I think I’m just done with men, at least for the foreseeable future.’

  ‘You say that now . . .’ Lily wagged a finger at Kate as she reached into the biscuit barrel Anna had just passed to her. ‘I have a feeling you’ll be proved wrong. You’re lovely and still young. I think there’ll be a queue of men to date you when it becomes common knowledge that you’re back on the market.’

  ‘On the market – fab. Now I sound like a well-maintained semi-detached.’

  ‘You know what I mean,’ Lily laughed.

  Kate tried to smile. It was comforting to think her sisters had faith in her. She only wished she could feel quite as confident herself.

  The house felt too quiet and too big once Anna and Lily had bid their goodbyes and left. Kate almost wished she’d asked them to stay for supper, but even though they would have said yes, it would have been selfish. They both had early starts for work in the morning, Anna in her pressured number-crunching job for an investment firm and Lily at the PR company where she had only just begun to make a name for herself – and so had Kate when it came to it. Mr Woofy, the pet-supply warehouse where she worked as a sales executive (a posh name for an old-fashioned clerk Kate often said, though at other times she felt the word skivvy was more appropriate) was hardly as glamorous, but it was her job nonetheless, and she needed to be sitting at her desk by eight thirty if she was going to keep it. And she’d be used to the solitude of her empty house again after a couple of days.

  Her gaze flicked to a pile of post on the mantelpiece, still unopened from that morning. She could try to fool herself that she hadn’t opened it because she hadn’t had the time, but she’d recognised the logo on the envelope and couldn’t face the finality of what it contained. Perhaps she should have asked her sisters to stay after all; at least she wouldn’t have been alone when her future stared her in the face – a future she hadn’t asked for and didn’t want.

  As she tidied away her sewing box, dumped unwashed mugs in the sink, plumped up cushions in the living room and wiped down the kitchen surfaces in readiness for an early night, her mind kept going back to the letter mocking her from the mantelpiece. She could open it in the morning, and perhaps a day at work would put it all into perspective. At least she’d be too busy to dwell on it and maybe it wouldn’t seem so bad when she finally got home. If she opened it now, she’d cry, and she wouldn’t be able to sleep, and it would all look a hundred times worse tomorrow because she’d be tired as well.

  All this was a lie, though, and lying to yourself was no kind of lie at all. There was no point in putting it off any longer, and if she was going to put her life back on track she needed to do this. If she cried herself to sleep, then so be it, but at least she’d be facing the new day knowing that it was the first day of her new life as a single woman.

  Snatching the pile of post from the shelf, she flicked through it until she found the envelope bearing the logo of Lennon & Lennon Solicitors. There was a heartbeat of doubt as she stared at it, a sick feeling in her stomach, like the floor was falling away from her. But then she slid her thumb beneath the flap and ripped it open.

  Decree absolute. There it was. The end, the beginning, whichever way you wanted to look at it, the absolute bit was what mattered. She had once seen a future where Matt would be with her forever, just as he had been with her all through her teenage years and beyond, but now all she saw were the letters of the word swimming before her. Absolute. Final, no going back, the end of the road.

  Chapter Three

  Kate blinked in the sunshine as she stepped off the plane and made her way across the tarmac, a lone traveller swept along with her fellow passengers on the 10.37 flight to Fiumicino Airport. Moments before the pilot had advised them in warm, friendly tones tinged with a rather sexy Italian accent that the temperature on the ground was a balmy twenty-one degrees, pleasant for early June, reminded them that they needed to set their clocks an hour forward from Greenwich Mean Time and that their flight was bang on schedule. Then he had gone silent, and the descent had begun, Kate craning to get a first glimpse of her destination, her stomach churning with both excitement and apprehension, laced with disappointment that, due to the angle of their approach, all she could see from her window was azure skies. A brisk, warm breeze greeted her as the air hostesses said their goodbyes, sweeping the stray hairs from her clip into her face, and the smell of aviation fuel rose from the ground in a shimmering heat haze. Baggage handlers shouted to one another over the steady roar of idling engines and the screech of planes taking off.

  Rome. She was finally here.

  On the night she had opened her decree absolute, there had been disbelief. And then sadness, followed by anger and resentment. But as the night wore on, sleep no
closer at 3 a.m. than it had been at ten the previous evening, she had settled into a weary acceptance. She had given up waiting for sleep, and had got up to make herself a drink of something warm and comforting in the hope it might dull her senses and wear her out. But as she looked around her silent kitchen, the senses she had hoped to dull instead became heightened, and she began to think about what the future might hold. This life was hers now, and the decisions she took were hers alone. What had she always wanted? What paths had been denied by her marriage to Matt that she might explore now he was gone? She’d wanted children, but without a partner or a stable home environment that wasn’t going to happen any time soon. She had wanted a perfect home and thought she almost had it, but that was about to be snatched away from her, and she had no idea where she might end up. On her wages it was hardly likely to be perfect. She had wanted a lifetime of happiness and contentment in a loving relationship, but that seemed a long way off now too.

  That life was lost to her now, but she could salvage another one from its ashes. She had always loved to watch travel shows on TV, collected glossy holiday brochures for no reason other than to stare at the photos, and would listen to colleagues and friends talk about their adventures in foreign climes for hours, but for someone who was so interested in other countries she had been to very few. She had wanderlust in her veins, but she had suppressed the urge for the sake of an easy life, keeping Matt – who had no desire to see the world – happy. He especially hated large cities, and though he wasn’t averse to the idea of holidays as such, his idea of a break was some cosy English seaside resort or a cottage in the country. While those holidays had been lovely, Kate longed to experience more of the world – new sounds, smells, languages and culture, the hustle and vibrancy of an alien landscape, a place without Tesco’s or Johnny’s Fish and Chips or the Rose and Crown. The one time she had cajoled and persuaded him to relent, they had spent a dismal weekend in Dublin. Kate had argued that it was so close to Britain it might as well be, and that at least everyone spoke English and he would be sure to find food similar to his old favourites. But he spent the two days sulking, despite the abundance of Guinness and chip serving establishments on every corner. The fact that it had rained continually, and that Grafton Street was so busy they were practically swimming against a tide of sales-obsessed shoppers only served to strengthen his conviction that big cities were awful places (except for Manchester, he said, because it was his home and different altogether, though Kate could never really see the logic in that argument), and the ones where the majority of residents were cursed with an accent not like his own were even more so.

  So all the places Kate had wanted to visit remained unseen, and even though Anna and Lily had sometimes offered to go with her, something always got in the way. Or was that just Kate making excuses so that she wouldn’t rock the boat with Matt? When she thought about those times now, she realised that she hadn’t been keeping the peace in their marriage at all – she’d been a doormat. It had taken divorce to make her finally see that.

  With sleep continuing to elude her and no nearer to figuring out what she wanted to do with the rest of her life, Kate took to searching for bargain flights online, putting in a range of dates to see what might come up. Before she knew it she was booking a flight to Rome. It was a place she had longed to visit above all others.

  Anna and Lily had been horrified of course. As had her mum, all of them warning her of the dangers of a lone female travelling by herself. But her mind had been made up, and she had come to an important decision. She was not going to be afraid of life, and she was not going to be afraid of it without Matt by her side. He had chosen to go his way and she was quite sure he was doing all the things he wouldn’t have been able to do had they still been married (though she doubted that he was doing anything different than going to the pub and sitting in front of the telly in the flat he was now sharing with his single friend, Connor, which was what he’d mostly done when they were married) – and why should she be any different? It was time for a shake-up, to throw herself out into the world and see what it gave back.

  Her boss at Mr Woofy’s was hardly happy at the last-minute request for leave either, but Kate figured they owed her more than one or two favours for all the unpaid hours she’d given them, and she said as much, threatened to quit, and then basically nagged until she got a yes. It wasn’t as if they were rushed off their feet. Neither was her job so demanding that the place would fall apart without her. The eventual agreement was a sign, she was sure, and she grabbed it with both hands.

  Hustle and vibrancy was certainly what she was getting right now. The baggage carousel was a free-for-all, customs manned by a stern-looking woman who had simply flicked a sneering look over her passport before handing it back without a word, and she got lost in the airport for a good half an hour before she reached the taxi rank where cars waiting to take her to the city centre were lined up. Wiping a film of sweat from her brow, her cheeks already glowing as she laboured under the jacket that she had needed in Manchester but would have happily chucked into the nearest bin now, she stood and stared at the queue of people waiting. Though queue perhaps wasn’t quite the right word, as it resembled a rugby scrum more than it did an orderly line.

  Then she spotted a car, its driver on the pavement alongside, leaning against the door as he pulled on a cigarette. For some reason people weren’t scrambling for him, though he didn’t look too concerned about it. Despite her vague misgivings, Kate marched over, dragging her suitcases behind her.

  ‘Buongiorno,’ he greeted smoothly. ‘English?’

  ‘Yes,’ Kate replied, taken aback by his immediate identification of her homeland. ‘Are you going into the city centre?’

  He tilted his head this way and that, as if he might or might not, but he hadn’t quite decided whether the fancy had taken him yet. ‘Where is the hotel?’

  Kate took a scrap of paper from her jacket pocket and unfolded it to show him. He raised his eyebrows as the cigarette went back into his mouth and he took a long drag. ‘It is a long way.’

  ‘Oh. How much will that cost?’

  He shrugged. ‘The meter will run. I do not know until it stops.’

  Hell. She’d only just got here and already she felt like a country mouse. She had the feeling she was about to get royally ripped off and there wasn’t a thing she could do about it. Part of her didn’t care – as long as she got safely to her hotel she’d just have to write it off and hope to get a bit savvier once she got used to being in the city. If only she’d spent a bit longer on TripAdvisor . . .

  She was about to give him her luggage when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

  ‘Excuse me.’

  Kate turned to see a tall man, in his late twenties at a guess, blond hair sculpted to perfection by some kind of product, nicely tailored shirt and slacks, and a broad, apologetic smile. His American accent was unmistakable, and rather sexy.

  ‘This might sound out of turn, but I couldn’t help noticing you were alone. Might I ask if you’re travelling alone or whether the rest of your party is going to pop up in a minute?’

  ‘Oh, there’s just me,’ Kate replied, wondering whether she ought to be telling him this or not. But he seemed so harmless and friendly that she just had to go with her instincts. And it seemed as if he wanted to help too, which would be very welcome.

  ‘I’m travelling alone too and I need a taxi. Would you like to share the cost?’ He cast a glance at the taxi driver who was still leaning nonchalantly against his cab, inspecting a cigarette that was now almost smoked down to the filter. ‘But I would recommend one of the official ones . . .’ He pointed to the queue where white cars bearing the words Roma Capitale lined the kerb. ‘Over there.’

  ‘It’ll take hours waiting in that queue,’ Kate replied doubtfully.

  ‘But you won’t pay more than forty-eight euros,’ the man said. ‘Split between us that’s even better. I promise I’ll be a perfect gentleman and you can even take my photo
and send it to your friends and family back home if it makes you feel better.’

  ‘Why would I do that?’

  ‘So you have a number-one suspect if I kidnap you,’ he laughed.

  ‘Oh.’ Kate smiled. Regardless of the cost, it was a comforting prospect to share the cab with someone who appeared to know what he was doing. ‘Where’s your hotel, though? We might not be going anywhere near each other?’

  ‘Don’t worry about that,’ he said cheerfully. ‘At the very most we’ll get charged forty-eight each, which is still better than not knowing how much you’re going to get charged at the other end. Your hotel is within the walls, I take it?’

  ‘The what?’

  ‘The Aurelian Walls? Central Rome? Only these guys can get away with charging more if it’s not.’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Kate showed him the piece of paper. He pulled out his phone and tapped on a map, studying it for a moment.

  ‘We’re good. In fact you’re just a couple of blocks away from me. That’s got to be fate, right?’

  ‘Perhaps.’ Kate smiled. ‘OK.’

  The man looked at the driver. ‘Sorry my friend, but we’ll be taking one of the other cabs today.’

  The driver threw him a sour look, followed by one for Kate, before reaching into his pocket and taking a new cigarette from a box.

  ‘This way,’ the American said, leading Kate back to the huge scrum for official taxis. ‘First time in Rome?’ he asked as they walked.

  ‘Yes. I’ve always wanted to visit but I never got the chance. I get the feeling it isn’t your first time.’

  ‘God, no. I’m here far more than I want to be.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Work trips. I make a lot of them.’

  ‘Right. . .’ Kate wanted to ask what he did for a living. Whatever it was sounded glamorous and exciting if it meant him travelling to Rome on a regular basis. But she’d only just met him and her Britishness wouldn’t allow it.