My Italian Doctor

Chapter Fifteen

I walked through the door and just wanted to head upstairs, turn the shower on as hot as it would go, and curl up into a ball beneath it. I swore inwardly when I saw Mamma approaching me from the kitchen, then chastised myself for it. She had been nothing but kind to me and welcomed me into her home, and I was resentful of seeing her. It was bad form, there was no doubt about it. I flashed her my most positive smile and pushed everything I was feeling as deep inside as it would go.

"Hello, dear. Did you have a nice evening?"

"Yes, I did thank you. I'm just going to head up and read for a little while, though I'm feeling a little run down."

"Is that all it is, dear? You seem sad."

"I'm fine. Just need some rest, I think."

"Well, Rylie has already headed out somewhere, so you will have the place to yourself. Apparently, Luca and she have decided to just be friends." She made a half-scoff, half-laugh sound, which only indicated both her disapproval and her disbelief at the pair of them.

I ignored her reaction and walked away, not wanting to get into with her. I just wanted to be alone. I headed for the stairs, taking two at a time and planning on heading straight into the bathroom and locking myself away from the world, or at least the vineyard, for a little while at least.

As soon as I landed on the top step, I heard him. Ignoring him, and continued on my mission, but he grabbed at my arm. It was a big mistake to even consider touching me in the mood I was in. I shrugged him off but turned to face him despite my better judgement. "What do you want, Luca?"

"Please Em, we've been friends for a long time. Please, just listen to me for a minute."

"I've done nothing but listen, Luca. I've not said anything to you this whole time, despite wanting to scream and shout at you."

"Yeah, well, I understand your hostility now. I just wanted to thank you."

"Thank me for what, exactly?"

"For looking after Rylie and the baby when I couldn't."

"Except you could. You chose not to. From what Mamma said, you are still choosing not to."

"It's not like that." I really wasn't in the mood for more male bullshit. I'd had enough of that recently and I already had a tonne of pent-up anger to unleash on Luca for his own actions, never mind the actions of men in general. He was picking the worst possible time for winding me up.

"Luca, you need to man up and face your responsibilities and then leave me out of them. I will be here for Rylie for as long as she needs me, but you and I are done. I'll be pleasant to you for Rylie's sake, but that's it. We are no longer friends and I highly doubt we ever will be. You need to stop being a moron if you have any chance at all of not losing her. Trust me when I say you will regret it if you let her slip through your fingers. Just fix it already."

I stalked off into the bathroom and closed the door before the git could follow me. I slid the lock across on the door and felt the relief of knowing I was finally alone and wouldn't be accosted further. I shed my clothes faster than ever before and slid beneath the burning stream. I felt it easing the kinks in my shoulders that I didn't even know I had. It was the best I had felt since waking up and I wanted the feeling to continue.

I decided right then, as the water dripped from my fingers, that I wouldn't let any man turn me to mush. George didn't owe me anything, and I was being ridiculous to pretend that he did. I needed to be more guarded with my feelings. The fact that I hadn't been wasn't his fault.

Within minutes of me being back in my bedroom, Mamma was at the door. I pulled my top quickly over my shoulders and opened the door. "Sorry dear, I know you said you were going to rest, but I wanted to check that you didn't want any food before you settled down." I knew at that moment that I wasn't going to get any peace in the house. There were just too many people in the house, and they all seemed to want to intrude on my time alone.

"I'm fine, thank you, though. I think I'm going to head to work in the warehouse instead, anyway."

"Alright dear, I will make you some food to take with you."

"Thank you, Mamma. I'll be down shortly." I closed the door on her and sighed. It wasn't her fault, either. She was just trying to be caring, but I just wasn't in a place where being cared for was going to help. I grabbed my trainers and sweatshirt and looked in the mirror. It was quite the difference from the night before. Things had changed so much since I had come to Italy. In England, I always strived to look my best, even at work, but things were different at the vineyard. Most of the time, there was no one to even care what I looked like there.

I checked my phone one last time before I headed out of the door and down the stairs. Still slightly disappointed that I hadn't heard from him, but even more, annoyed with myself for still caring enough to check. The short walk to the warehouse helped me put it all to bed and get in the right frame of mind to be in polite company. Not that working with the lads in the warehouse was particularly polite company. I was one of only two women who worked exclusively in the warehouse and as was typical, the banter in a male environment wasn't for the easily offended.

I knew most of the Italian swear words and it was funny listening to how often they cropped up between the men. It was the parts of their conversation I understood most. I kept to myself mostly in the warehouse and the lads did me the favour of not trying to engage with me much at all. It made the warehouse the perfect place for me to escape and be with my thoughts or even forget thoughts completely.

They were all too hard at work when I got there to pay me any particular attention. I headed straight down to the oldest area of the warehouse and got to work organising an inventory system. It amazed me that no one had documented what stock they had down there, especially given the age and valuable nature of the contents. Everything on the vineyard seemed to be done on trust and I could understand why. They were all considered family. Despite that, my nature was to make sure everything was recorded.

It was part of the job at the restaurant that I loved the most. Locking myself away in the storeroom and away from people for a little while. Lost in the numbers and the stock.

I had only been at it about twenty minutes when I heard Aurora's voice come over the radio. I instantly regretted having picked one up in the first place. It was crackly, and the radios were old and needed replacing. Despite that, I got the message that she wanted to see me in the office clearly enough.

When I stepped into the office, I was surprised to find Rylie in there. She was hardly a frequent visitor. "What's up?"

"We're going on a road trip."

"Do I get to ask where we are going?" I looked between the two of them. Rylie shrugged, but that was as much as she was planning on adding to the conversation. There was something going on that I was unaware of, but I wasn't sure I even wanted to know. I sat in silence in the car as we headed down towards Lake Garda. Rylie and Aurora were chatting around, or more accurately conspiring away. I just wasn't in the mood to even be getting involved in the drama. It felt less and less like my battle. I seemed to have my own battles to fight, and they were enough for me.

I tried to stay out of all the drama as much as I could, but when Rylie launched herself at Amelia, I had no choice but to intervene. It brought me back to the conversation I had with George about burying bodies for her. No matter how stressed I was, I would always be there for her and would bury all the bodies she needed me to. I dragged her back to the car, but it wasn't easy. She suddenly seemed to have gained super strength, and I seemed to have had mine ebbed out of me.

The one thing the drama did was pull me away from thoughts of George. That was until we arrived back at the vineyard and Rylie used George to try to manipulate Amelia into telling the truth. It had become apparent that she had conned Luca into the engagement by claiming to be pregnant and it was all complete bull. I had no idea how anyone could lie about such a thing. When Rylie claimed that George had told her that Amelia wasn't being treated at the hospital because she wasn't pregnant, I wanted to lose my s**t.

She was my best friend, but that gave her no right to use my relationship with George for her own means. George would never reveal anything about a patient and her telling people that he had done just that, felt like a slap in the face. If George had any idea she had said anything remotely like that, he would lose his mind. His career was too important to him, not to mention his character. He had enough issues breaking the moral code that his grandad had imparted to him and I could only imagine what a crime of that magnitude would do to him.

After Rylie shoved Amelia into the pool, all hell broke loose. Luca dragged her inside, but that wasn't even noticed by most of us standing around the pool. As usual, Amelia was wearing some stupidly large puffy dress, and the water was making it so difficult for her to get out of the pool. One of her friends stepped forward to help her out, but all that resulted was that the girl was pulled into the pool with her. Both Aurora and I were laughing hysterically at the sight in front of us. It was just too comical for words.

After I checked on Rylie, I snuck back out of the house and pulled my phone from my pocket. I knew I shouldn't I knew it would only make things worse, but I couldn't help it. With everything that had been going on around me, I just wanted to hear his calming voice. I pressed the button and listened to it ring out. I couldn't leave it there, I just couldn't. I rang again and after what felt like a lifetime, he finally picked up.