Page 160 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8

How?

He went to the sink and washed his hands, sticky from the ice cream. His intention to garner more information had proved futile. While he admired Susie’s discretion, it irked him that she’d told him nothing.

If he saw her tomorrow then he would speak to her again.

Directly this time.

He’d ask what she knew about the situation, and not get waylaid with language schools, cooking courses in Florence or ice-cream flavours...

Dante rarely got waylaid.

Susie had called herself predictable.

Oh, no.

Susie was far from that.

CHAPTER THREE

SUSIEAWOKETOthe bleep of her phone and ignored it.

Then her flatmate Juliet’s violin practice commenced, so she buried her head under the covers. Especially when Juliet’s bow, or whatever it was called, kept missing certain notes.

The same notes.

Over and over.

She shared the apartment with Juliet, who was English, and Louanna, who was a local.

It was Saturday, and she was determined to have a lie-in. There were no Italian classes at the weekends and nowhere she needed to be until she met Mimi later this morning.

Should she have told Dante that Mimi was giving her daily private Italian lessons so that she could keep an eye on Gio from a distance?

No, because Gio didn’t want his grandsons knowing about his relationship with Mimi.

Dante...

He dropped into her consciousness as she tried to sink back into sleep.

What would he say if he knew that Mimi had walked out on Gio because she was tired of being passed off as his housekeeper?

Surely he already knew?

Those knowing brown eyes wouldn’t miss much.

Susie lay on her side, her own eyes determinedly closed, and yet he refused to exit the stage of her mind. If anything, the spotlight shone brighter upon him, highlighting the scar above one of those knowing eyes.

Gio had shown her a photo of Sev and Rosa’s wedding, so she knew the injury was from then. And Mimi had told her how fractured the brothers’ relationship was now.

She recalled how he’d frowned as he’d pulled back the tea towel on her hand, and his slight smile as he’d realised there was no cut... How her skin had turned into goosebumps and she’d held her breath as he’d attended to her fake wound...

Louanna’s rather loud voice cut into her lovely sleepy recall, as she informed anyone who wanted to know that coffee was ready, then thankfully the violin stopped.

Susie had given up on sleep now and reached for her phone, delighted to see she had a message in the little Sisters Group they shared—a short message with a link attached.

So excited!

Frowning, muzzy from sleep, she was about to click on the link—it looked like an estate agent’s advert—when the message was deleted.