“Them?” I asked, playing dumb. Really, I just needed her to say his name.
“Massimo and Luca. It’s been ages since we all sat down for a proper meal and it’d be fun to get more time to talk.” She was glancing back and forth between her stall and me then, needing to rush off. “Eight o’clock down at Taverna Del Capitano. Say yes!”
I laughed. “Yes. Okay!”
“Brilliant.” She grinned and reached her hand out as if to shake on it. “I’m Katerina by the way.”
“Georgie.”
Our hands hung together in the air for another moment and then she let go to rush off, throwing a farewell over her shoulder.
“Welcome to Vernazza, Georgie! I’ll see you tonight!”
MY VILLA IN Vernazza sat up on a terraced hill overlooking the square. It was private and secluded, surrounded on three sides by grape vineyards and gardens. Everything was overgrown, greedy for sun and water, soaking it up until most of my house itself was covered in bougainvillea vines. They sprouted up bright purple in late spring and I didn’t have the heart to cut them back. Eventually, the plants would completely overtake the crumbling villa, but I’d do something about it then. Maybe.
A single rocky road led from the square up to my villa. It was half a mile long and though a few houses sat at the base of the trail, most of it belonged to me. When it was level, I could use my motorbike; when it wasn’t, like now, I had to walk. During the last storm, the ground had soaked through and started to erode the stone wall built to prop up the hillside along the path. It was a long section of trail that I was responsible for maintaining and I’d been putting it off for the last few months. The job would be tedious to say the least.
All the walls around Vernazza were built using dry-stone masonry. Centuries ago, they’d skipped mortar and concrete, opting to lay the walls by skill alone. Over the last few weeks, I’d started to pick apart the wall, pulling off stones that had shifted or fallen. Once I got it down to its bones, I could build back up from there.
Now, I was working on it with the late afternoon sun on my back and the wind ruffling my hair beneath my cap. I lugged a heavy stone from the wall and dropped it into a small wheelbarrow resting beside my feet. Then, another. My muscles were tired. I’d been going at it for most of the day, but it needed to get done and I had no plans of hiring someone else to do it.
A small green lizard scurried across the top of the wall, trying to hurry away from me. I bent down for my water, giving him the time he needed, just as Massimo’s voice carried up the trail. He was cursing in Italian, specifically cursing me, wishing I’d fall into the depths of hell for forcing him to make the trek up to my house.
I smiled and moved a few more stones before he finished his ascent.
“Merda,” he groaned, breathing hard and propping himself up against the stone wall.
“There’s water inside if you need it,” I said, continuing my work.
He propped his hands on his hips and glared at me, but that wasn’t new. Massimo was always going on about something. It was easier if I pretended I didn’t notice until he’d calmed down.
“Do you have a phone in that house of yours?”
I glanced back at the two-story villa my grandmother had left me when she’d passed. It’d been ancient and crumbling when I’d found it, but I’d done a good job of restoring it over the years.
“Last time I checked.”
“I phoned you half a dozen times.”
I shrugged. “I’ve been out here, fixing the wall.”
He shifted in front of me, stopping me from grabbing another rock. “Forget about the wall! We have plans.”
I arched a brow and shifted around him, starting on a new section. “Plans?”
“Dinner plans.”
I held in my reaction. He and Katerina were good mates, but lousy dinner partners. Even years after getting on, they couldn’t make it through a meal without hanging on each other, sipping from each other’s wine glasses and sharing meals. Given the choice, I’d have rather gone hungry.
“You go on ahead, I’ve got to—”
“No, mate, you haven’t let me explain. It’s not just me and Kat. We’ve got another person coming.”
I was still working then, removing stones from the wall. “Who?”
He’d gone suspiciously quiet then, so I dropped the stone I was holding into the wheelbarrow, tugged off my gloves, and turned to watch as he let out a big grin.
“Georgie.”
He seemed to think the name would hold weight with me, but my mind came up utterly blank.
“Who?” I asked, frowning.
He threw his hands in the air. “Oh, bloody hell. The damsel in the dress! She’s the girl you carried into Nonna’s bed and breakfast.”
I nodded, not bothering to correct his idiom. “Right. You go on then. I need to keep working.”
Massimo was an easygoing bloke, but every once in a while, I pushed him too far. This was one of those times. He ripped my gloves from my hands and tossed them over the side of the hill, down into the trees along the edge of the cliff so that I couldn’t go after them unless I had a death wish.
“You’re coming! You can’t continue living the life of an eremita! A recluse!”
We had a standoff then. I stayed silent, a bit cross about my gloves, and he fisted his hands and puffed up his chest as if warning me away from a fight. It was laughable, really.