The Heavenly Italian Ice Cream Shop (19 page)

At one in the morning, the party drew to a close and the guests emptied out into the square. Anna looked around for her sister, but couldn’t see Imogen anywhere. She’d been so busy talking with the guests that she had left Imogen to find her own way mingling at the party, hadn’t thought to check up on her until now.

‘Have you seen Imogen?’ Anna asked Matteo, as he tidied behind the bar.

‘I think she might have gone upstairs,’ he said. ‘Although that was a little while ago.’

Anna went upstairs. The buzz of the party was still with her – but it was mixed now with concern about her sister. She found Imogen upstairs in the bathroom, sitting on the edge of the bath. She looked pale and shaken.

‘You OK, Imo? What happened?’

‘It’s nothing,’ she said.

‘It can’t be nothing,’ Anna perched beside her. ‘One minute you’re the life and soul of the party down there, the next you’ve disappeared. What happened?’

Imogen bit her lip to stop it trembling. ‘You know when you think you know someone, and then you find something out that makes you challenge all of that?’

‘Finn?’

She shook her head. ‘No. Granny, actually.’

Anna raised her eyebrows, surprised.

Imogen told Anna about the letter she’d found, and how she’d tried to talk to Luigi earlier at the party.

‘But . . .’ Anna looked as puzzled as Imogen felt. ‘Luigi?’ She was piecing together the scraps of information, the things that Luigi had told her about his past in their chats together. It had never crossed her mind that he could have been involved with someone she knew – someone so close to her.

‘Yes. And the thing is, I don’t even know what happened. But from his letter . . . Well, I’ll show you.’ Imogen got the letter from her bag and brought it over to her sister.

‘Wow,’ Anna said softly.

‘You can tell that he cared about her, can’t you? There’s real passion there. And for her to get in touch with him again, well, that means something, doesn’t it?’

‘I can’t believe this,’ Anna said. ‘It’s crazy. But, at the same time, I guess it makes sense. There’s a reason Matteo and I came here, rather than anywhere else in Italy that we could have chosen to settle. And that’s because Granny always spoke about it. She must have had a connection with this place that was stronger than we imagined.’

‘I wish I hadn’t ever started looking into it,’ Imogen said, tears welling up in her eyes.

‘Too late for that,’ Anna said. ‘But we’re not having you leave with things like this. When you get back from Capri we’re going to go around to Luigi’s and find out what really happened.’

Chapter 27

Imogen boarded the boat to Capri in the early morning, the air crisp and fresh, before the heat of the day started to build. She didn’t know if she was doing the right thing. She was leaving Sorrento with things unfinished, and Luca’s message still fresh in her mind.

But the island jewel that had been glinting at her since the moment she’d arrived had become irresistible. Capri was growing closer as the boat travelled through the water, the hill rising out of the water, bright with bougainvillea. One of the most beautiful places on earth –
everyone
wanted to visit Capri. She’d be mad to let the small fact of her ex-boyfriend being there put her off. Even Finn would understand that.

When the boat docked, she made her way to her hotel. A short walk away, up a winding road, was a little white house with flowers round the door – her room was simple but just right for a night of peace. As she stepped out onto the roof terrace the place came alive – a stunning view out over the sea, and pot plants bright with pink blooms. Imogen sat for a moment, breathed the clean fresh air and felt grateful for the chance she had to see the beautiful place she was in now. After a rest, she freshened up, put on a white strappy dress and wound her hair into a loose plait, slipped into her flip-flops and went out to explore the island.

Taking only her camera, she walked through the town, with its chic boutiques and upmarket restaurants, until she reached a quieter part of the island, with small houses. She kept walking, snapping photos as she went of the vivid pink flowers and the birds that had come to rest on the rocks and cliffs. Zooming in, she captured every colourful feather, the sparkling blue water of the sea behind. Away from the bustle of Sorrento, and the loose threads of her grandmother’s story, a clarity had come to her. As she photographed the things she loved most, the natural world that calmed her, she felt her spirit return.

She turned a corner and reached a small fountain. She paused for a moment, sat down and looked back over the pictures she had taken. They may not be the pink dolphins of the Amazon, but there was something here, she thought.

She felt a hand on her arm. Startled, she looked up, and into the eyes of a man she knew well, but hadn’t seen for years. His tanned skin was the same, those dark, piercing eyes.

‘Luca,’ she said, softly.

‘I had a feeling I might find you out here,’ he said, smiling.

‘Hi – I’m sorry, I got your message, I just . . .’ she started.

‘It’s cool. I understand.’

‘I wanted to take some photos first of all. It’s so beautiful here.’

‘Isn’t it? No filters necessary,’ he laughed.

Imogen remembered the last night she’d spent with him – over four years ago. The two of them had gone night swimming together out in Koh Tao, feeling in that moment that the island was their own. She still had the shark’s-tooth necklace he’d given her. Even after the way things ended she hadn’t got rid of it. That time – for some reason she hadn’t wanted to let go of it altogether.

‘What brought you here?’ she asked.

‘Family,’ Luca said. ‘I’m staying with my aunt and uncle for the summer, working in a bar. You’re here with your sister, right? I saw the photo.’

‘Yes,’ Imogen said. ‘I mean . . . But she’s still in Sorrento.’ She pointed towards the town on the mainland. ‘I’m just here for the night.’

‘On your own?’ he asked. He glanced down at her hand, and Imogen was suddenly conscious of her bare ring finger.

The question hung in the air for a moment. Luca didn’t have to know everything about her right away, she reasoned. She would tell him about Finn in her own time.

‘Looks like it, doesn’t it?’

Imogen walked with Luca through the winding cobbled streets. She remembered the promise she’d made to Finn to call, and felt a pang of guilt. She’d ring him later.

‘I’m sorry, you know,’ Luca said. ‘About what happened.’

Imogen remembered how it had stung. When she’d told Luca that she’d have to stay in England longer than planned, to help Anna start up the ice cream shop, he’d been understandably hurt. They’d made no firm decisions about their future together – at least that was what Imogen had thought, until she saw photos online of Luca with her best friend on the island, Santiana.

‘Santiana . . .’ he said, looking flustered. ‘It was a rebound thing. I felt like you’d made your decision to leave me, and I guess it was my way of saving face.’

‘It’s OK,’ Imogen said, reminded of how much time had passed, how different things were for them both now. ‘I know that I didn’t offer you much incentive to stay with me, not knowing when or where you might see me again. I mean, yes, I was furious at the time – I’m not going to lie. But I don’t see the point of overthinking it now.’

‘Good,’ he said, looking relieved. ‘It didn’t even last the summer, you know. I was looking for another you, and she was never going to be you.’

Imogen felt her skin grow hot. This was definitely edging into not-OK territory. No, she was forced to acknowledge it: this had landed them right in the
middle
of not-OK territory. It was time to be honest.

She opened her mouth to confess.

‘You don’t have to say anything,’ Luca said quietly, calmly. ‘I’m just telling you what I felt, because maybe I wasn’t open enough back then.’

‘You . . . Luca. Look . . .’ Imogen ran a hand through her hair. ‘I should have said this earlier.’

‘You’re with someone,’ he said.

She looked up at him, disconcerted. ‘You knew?’

He shrugged. ‘Something about you is different.’

‘I’m sorry, I should’ve been honest.’

‘Don’t be sorry,’ he said. ‘You don’t owe me anything, Imogen. You didn’t then – and you don’t now.’

She let his words sink in. ‘I suppose it’s best if I go,’ she said.

But there was something keeping her there, drawing her towards Luca. A sense that here, in Capri, in his company, she could be that young, carefree woman she had been when she’d first met him.

‘It’s up to you,’ he said. ‘But, for what it’s worth, I’d like you to stay.’

Everything about the scene was perfect: the clear blue water, glittering as the last glimmers of light hit it, the chilled Prosecco in long-stemmed glasses, the warmth of the evening, which meant Imogen could sit there on the elegant cliff-top terrace in just her light summer dress. Everything, that was, apart from her being there with the wrong man. Finn was back in Brighton, and here she was with her ex.

‘Do you think they bought it?’ Imogen said, as Luca hung up the phone.

He shrugged. ‘I’ve never called in sick before, so I’m pretty sure they believed me. If I can’t have a night off every once in a while, when it’s as beautiful an evening as this – and I’ve just met someone I haven’t seen for years – then I may as well not be here.’

Imogen had wrestled with the decision of whether to leave Luca and continue exploring the island on her own, but in the end she’d opted to stay with him. There was no reason not to see him, she thought. He was a friend, nothing more, and, now that he knew the truth about her and Finn, she didn’t have to feel she was hiding anything from him. He’d told her stories about Capri as they’d walked through the cobbled streets.

‘Do you think you’ll stay here?’ Imogen asked him.

He shook his head. ‘Another month, maybe two, then I’m going back to San Francisco.’

‘Is that your home now?’

‘Yes. The start-up I was working for in San Francisco folded, but I’m putting together a business plan for a new technology idea, and I want to go out with that soon.’

‘Right. And back there – are you living with . . .?’ Imogen stopped herself.

‘No one,’ he said.

When he looked at her that way she couldn’t help but recall how it had been in Thailand, the two of them close in his hammock in the evening, as the sun set, sipping from bottles of beer and reading paperbacks before the light went completely. In those early days of their relationship – or what Imogen had thought then were the early days – it had felt as if they really could be something. They’d had a connection – a love of travel, of being free. She felt that way with him now. The pressure to plan for the future, it didn’t exist here.

‘You haven’t told me a thing about you,’ Luca said. ‘How is your photography going?’

Imogen wished she could give a better answer.

‘Still ticking away,’ she said. ‘I’ve been doing some underwater photography the past couple of years.’

‘Wow, that’s cool,’ he said, his eyes wide. ‘I mean, you’ve always been so into diving. You make your living that way?’ He was clearly impressed.

‘Kind of . . .’ she started. ‘Actually no. Not really. I’m at a bit of a crossroads careerwise right now. I know I should be more settled.’

‘Really? Aren’t you pretty young for all that?’ Luca asked. ‘You always said to me you’d be backpacking until you were at least thirty, and that’s a way off still. You should stay true to yourself. To the things that you care about.’

His comment hit a nerve. ‘I guess.’

‘Don’t give up. You’re talented, Imogen.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Look, I’m sorry about what happened between us. I feel like we could have been good together. I was too quick to give up, move on.’

‘The timing was out. I couldn’t leave so soon after my grandma had died, and when my dad was taking the news so badly.’

‘Which just shows what a caring person you are. A good person. And back then I guess I made it all about me. I thought if you liked me enough you’d come back to the island. I took it personally, and that was stupid.’

‘I would have handled certain things differently, too,’ she said.

‘Anyway, what does it matter?’ Luca asked. ‘You’re with someone now. You’ll probably be married soon enough.’

‘I suppose,’ she said, numbly.

‘But we still have today.’

Chapter 28

Jan cooed over the webcam as she watched Bella come toddling up to the screen. ‘Ooh, she’s grown so much!’

‘Hasn’t she?’ Anna said. ‘I can’t get over it. It seems like yesterday that she was just a little baby, and now here she is, starting to chatter away. Her Italian’s coming on quicker than mine!’

‘What are her favourite words?’ Jan asked.

‘
Nonna
,’ Anna replied. Bella had been saying it all the time to Elisa.

‘Oh,’ Jan said, seeming a little hurt. ‘Well, yes of course.’

‘Don’t worry, Mum. She hasn’t forgotten about her
English
granny – she carries the photo of you and Dad around the apartment, kissing it.’

‘That’s nice,’ Jan said.

‘Hello, love,’ Tom said, ducking into the screen. ‘Did you and Imogen have a good catch-up?’

‘It’s been wonderful to see her. We had a little party here, and spent some time just the two of us.’

‘We just tried to call her, actually – no answer. Is she not with you?’

‘She’s gone out to Capri; she left this morning. Maybe her phone’s out of battery.’

‘I told you, that’ll be it, Tom. You know what Imogen’s like.’

‘She’ll be back here tomorrow. There were a couple of things we wanted to do together before she flew home.’ She thought of Luigi and of what she’d promised Imogen that they’d do on her return. If their suspicions were correct, her dad would most likely be devastated by the news.

‘I’m sure she’ll fill us in on all your adventures when she gets home. It’s good to see you, Anna,’ Tom said. ‘Are you happy, living out there?’

‘Oh, yes,’ Anna said, but as she said it she wondered if it was really true. ‘It’s great. We’ve got Matteo’s mum and sister nearby. They’ll be dropping in for tea in a minute, actually, so we’d better go.’