(2012) Evie Undercover (23 page)

‘I must have
been
longer than I real
ise
d
.
I’m sorry about that. W
e
’ll be able to
get
off
in a moment
. I see that your bags
are
already
here
. T
hey’ll be bringing mine out any minute now.
’

‘That’s them, isn’t it?’ She pointed to a couple of black leather bags being carried on to the terrace.

‘You’re right. You wait here and I’ll go and get the car.’ He turned to Gabriela. ‘There’s not much point in saying goodbye now, Gabriela
.
I’m sure we’ll meet up
in the
next
couple of
week
s
. And if we don’t
, which
I regret
is possible
– I’ve got a mass of work to do for the case that’s starting shortly
– if we don’t, I’ll make sure that we get together as soon as the case is finished. You can count on that. So
arrividerci
for now!’ He kissed her on both cheeks and started to
go across to
the parking area.

‘My car is in the
parcheggio
, too. I’ll walk with you,’ Gabriela said quickly. ‘I have your telephone number, Evie, and I shall ring you when I am in London.
Ciao
per il momento
!
’ With a little wave at the air beside Evie, she joined Tom.

A few minutes later, Evie saw
Gabriela’s
car drive out of the car park, and soon after that, Tom appeared in the four
-
by
-
four. He pulled up on the terrace in front of her, jumped out and loaded their bags into the car. Then he went round to the passenger side and opened the door for her. Bowing low, he indicated with a sweeping gesture that she should get in. She giggled.

‘You see, I’m catching on to the Italian way of doing things.’ Grinning, he swung the door shut behind her, walked round the back of the car, climbed into the driver’s seat and switched on the engine. Then he threw the car into gear and began to drive slowly out of the hotel precinct.

‘It’s a pity that Eduardo had to dash off
.
I wanted to thank him again for his help this week,’ he remarked as they reached the foot of the slope and
turned
in the direction of Todi. ‘It’s been a superb week.’ He glanced at Evie. ‘And its success has been down to you,
Evie. Y
ou’ve been great fun and a bloody good translator.’

She laughed. ‘OK.
What’s the punch line?
’

He sent her a quick smile.
‘For once, there’s no punch line.’

‘Well, then, I’ll say that I, too, think it’s been a brilliant week. And, what’s more, I’m returning to England with the offer of a job
.
’

‘A job? What job?’

‘Eduardo’s asked me to work for him.’

‘The hell he has!’ He looked quickly at her, then his eyes returned to the road and he
headed
the car
for
the
Rome
motorway. ‘Doing what exactly?’

‘Doing a bit of this and that, I think. Although he said he’d teach me what I need
ed
to know about the property business, I think the main thing
w
ould be
to translate
for
prospective
American and English
buyers
,
and he’s just tarted it up a bit.’

‘He’s got a nerve, trying to poach someone who’s working for me, don’t you think?’

‘
But
I’m not exactly working for you, am I? I work for the agency. I’ve only got two more weeks with you – Eduardo knows I’m a temp.’

There was a short pause. ‘Well, what answer did you give him?’

‘That I wanted to stay in England, of course. Why would I want to leave my mates?’

‘Good answer, Evie.’ He smiled broadly at the road ahead. ‘Very good answer indeed.’

Chapter Fifteen

Yes, it’s only just begun
…

Reaching Fiumicino Airport in excellent time, they checked in their luggage and found a sofa in the executive lounge. Tom ordered them each a cappuccino.

‘Right,’ he said when their coffees had arrived, ‘tell me about these mates of yours that you don’t want to leave. You share a place with them, I think you said earlier in the week.’

‘
That’s right
. Rachel, Jess and I go back a long way – we were at school together. I certainly wouldn’t want to live in a different country from them. No way.’

‘Where did you say
you lived
?’

‘
In
Camden Town. Not that far from you, in fact – we’re at the bottom of the hill and you’re
at
the top.
It’s
a fun place to live
. I
t’s got a great mixture of people and a real buzz to it.
And you can’t beat the
Camden Lock market, which is very nea
r us. Most weekends we
have a
trawl
a
round it
. Y
ou can get some fab things there, like amazing vintage clothes.’

‘A
nd a
re Rachel and Jess also temps?’

‘Temps?’

‘Yes, temps like you. Do they work for an agency like you do?
’

‘No
.
Rachel is a PA
for a production designer. Come to think of it, she and Eduardo might get on well together
.
P
erhaps not
–
she doesn’t know a word of Italian and I can’t see her lasting long in a silent relationship.’

‘Most men would describe that as the dream relationship. I can see that it might be viewed differently by a woman, though.’

She smiled at him across the low coffee table. ‘I’m not going to rise to that.
A
s for
Jess
, she’
s an events’ planner.’

‘Th
e three of you sound
quite a mix
, with
Rachel sort of in the world of production design, Jess planning extravaganzas and you the sharpest agency temp that I’ve ever met.’

‘
Don’t say that word!
I
inwardly groan
every time you say agency. I think we should
ban the use of th
at
word for the whole of the next two weeks.
More and more I’m hoping that Zizi Westenhall can come up with something.’

‘
I’ll have a word with her
as soon as I’m able
. I promise. In the meantime,
are you going to let me see you next week?’

‘That’s a strange question, unless of course you’re planning to
walk
in, out and around your house with your eyes shut. If you’re not, you can count on seeing me next week
, and hopefully the week after
.’

‘
Not so strange, literal
Evie.
Much as
my eyes
might wish to
,
my
work schedule
is unlikely to allow me to see you by day, so
we must focus on the
night
, and
in fact,
only on Saturday night
as
I’ll be working the other nights
.
’

Thank you, thank you, God! He
did
still
want to date her when they were back in London
.
Bloody fucking brilliant! And since in her head she’d already quit
Pure Dirt
–
as
they’d soon find out
– she could let rip and have an amazing, guilt-free time with Tom. It didn’t get much better than that. She felt
the
tension that she hadn’t known she
’d felt
drain away from her.
It was all coming together
.

The sound of Tom’s mobile phone cut into her thoughts.

He pulled his grey jacket towards him, took his phone from his pocket and flicked it open. ‘Why, Gabriela
,
this is a surprise
. W
e only spoke a couple of hours a
go.’ He l
ean
ed
back against the sofa, stretched his legs out in front of him and pushed his jacket away from him.

In the sweeping movement of his arm, she glimpsed his ligh
tly tanned chest through
his open-necked shirt. God, he was gorgeous, and he was hers – well, for the
time being
anyway. Her gaze travelled from button to button
, moving slowly
down his crisp white shirt to the belt of his charcoal grey trousers, skimm
ing
his hips and settl
ing
on his thighs, and on the hint of hard muscle beneath the light material. Absolutely gorgeous.

‘Fine, Gabriela. T
hanks for passing that on. Tell Eduardo to do what he thinks is best. I trust him.’ He was silent for a moment as he listened to the voice at the other end of the line, then he laughed, said goodbye and flicked shut the phone.

‘Some problem with the poplar we wanted for the chests of drawers. The co-operative phoned Eduardo about it, and Gabriela was anxious to catch me before we left.
You heard me say that
Eduardo can sort it out.
I suspect she’s a bit of a worrier, Gabriela.
I suppose it’ll be quite pleasant to see
her
in London
, though
. In a way it’ll be like having a part of Umbria with us in England, don’t you think?’

No, she didn’t think. And even if it was, she’d much rather that
the whole of
Umbria stayed in Umbria.

Before she could come up with a tactful yet honest reply – she was done being a fake – Tom
suddenly sat up and stared intently at the information board above her head.

‘What’s up?’

‘We’ve been a
sked to go to the boarding gate,
that’s what’s up. What perfect timing. They’ve waited for us to finish our coffee and now they’re asking us to board the plane. So, Evie, let’s go home.’

S
lipp
ing
on his jacket
as
he stood up
, he
held out his hand to her. She took it, and they joined the stream of travellers who were making their way towards the airport train that would take them to
the area of
their boarding gate.
After
a short wait to board
the plane
, they found
their seats and settled down. He c
lick
ed
his seat belt shut, leaned back against the headrest and turned to look at Evie.

‘You know that song
“
We’ve only just begun
”
? Wel
l, that’s exactly how I feel
– we’ve only just begun, you and I. It’s been a marvellous week, and I know we’re going to have a lot more weeks
just like it
in the future.’ He paused. ‘Well, haven’t you anything to add, then?’

She laughed. ‘Are you fishing for an ego-massage?’

‘If that’s the only massage on offer,’ he said with a grin, ‘bring it on.’

She glanced across at Tom. His eyes were shut
, and
she turned back to look out of the window at the world
in miniature
beneath them.

They’d only been gone a week, but it felt a zillion times longer. What a week it had been.

When she’d left London
, she hadn’t been in love,
and now she was.

A week ago, she’d thought she’d make a
n awesome investigative journalist,
and now she knew she wouldn’t.

Seven day
s ago, she ha
dn’t know
n
that she was going to defy her editor, and now she did.

Her editor. She felt a stab of
cold
fear.
Knowing how best to tell him was
going to be a
problem.

It was essential that she and Tom had some quality time together before she
told
hi
m
the truth
, which
meant that s
he mustn’t quit her job till after that. If she did,
her pi
g of an editor might go berserk
, pick up the phone and tell Tom why she’d really gone to Italy
with him. And i
f she hadn’t already told
him
the truth by then, it would certainly be the end of their relationship. So somehow or other, she was going to have to string the editor along for at least the first week
she was
back.