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“Want to tell me anything about this mystery job I’m due to start tomorrow?”
“No.” Bea took a big gulp of water and grinned, obviously grateful for the change of topic. “Although it will make use of both your physio skills and the assistance dogs.”
Fran frowned. “I thought you said she had a doctor looking after her?”
Bea blinked, but said nothing.
“The girl’s in a wheelchair, right? Lower extremities paralyzed?”
“Yeah, but...” Bea tipped her head to the side and gave her friend a hard look. “You’re not going to waste all those years of practicing physio are you?”
“What? Because the person I was stupid enough to go into business with saw me as a limitless supply of cash?”
“You’re clear of that, though, aren’t you?”
Fran grunted.
People? Disappointing. Dogs? They never asked for a thing. Except maybe a good scratch around the ears.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Fran flipped the topic back to Bea. “Don’t you want to stay in the palazzo with your family?”
“And listen to my mother screech on about the disaster of the century? How I’ve ruined the family’s name. The family’s genetic line. Any chance of happiness for the di Jesolos forever and ever. Not a chance. Besides—” she scanned the sumptuous surroundings of the room “—your suite is great and I’d much rather be with you, even if the place does smell all doggy.”
“Does not.” Fran swiped at the air between them with a grin. She’d washed the dogs to within an inch of their lives before they’d checked into Venice’s fanciest hotel. A little trust-fund treat to herself before heading out to this mystery village where Bea had organized her summer job.
“You don’t need to watch over me, you know,” Bea chided gently. “I’m not going to do anything drastic. And you are allowed to take the dress off. Don’t know if you’ve heard, but the wedding’s off!”
“Just wanted to get my money’s worth!” Fran said, knowing the quip was as lame as it sounded.
The truth was, she hadn’t felt so pretty in...years, really. When your workaholic dad bought your clothes from the local menswear shop, there was only so much ironic style a girl could pull off. When she’d graduated to buying her own clothes it had felt like a betrayal even to glance at something pink and frilly. It wasn’t practical.
“Not exactly what a proper engineer would wear, Frannie!”
So much for that pipe dream! It had died along with a thousand others before she’d found her niche in the world of physiotherapy and then, even more perfectly, in assistance-dog training. Dogs. They were who she liked to spend her time with. They were unconditionally loyal and always ridiculously happy to see her. When she had to hand over these two dogs to her mystery charge at the end of the summer...
Fran swallowed down another rush of tears. Bea shouldn’t have to be the one being stoic here. “I’m so sorry, Bea. About doing things the way I did. There just wasn’t time to catch you after I’d seen them, and before I knew it, we were all up there at the altar and—”
“I’m not sorry at all.” Bea said. “I’m glad you said something. Grateful you had the courage when no one else did.”
“That’s pretty magnanimous for someone who just found out they were being cheated on!”
“Others knew. All along. Even my mother.” Bea chased up the comment with a little typical eye roll.
Fran’s hands flew to cover her mouth. Wow. That was just... Wow.
“They were all so desperate for me to be one half of the most enviable couple in Europe. Even if it came at a cost.” She shuddered away the thought. “You were the only one today who was a true friend.”
Fran’s tear ducts couldn’t hold back any longer.
“How can you be so nice about everything when I’ve ruined the best day of your life?”
“Amore! Stop. You were not the one who ruined the day. Besides, I’m pretty sure there will be another best day of my life,” Bea added, with a hint of something left unsaid in her voice.
“Since I barely see you once a year, it would’ve been nice to be honest about something else. Like how ridiculously beautiful you looked today.”
Fran’s heart rose into her throat as at long last Bea’s eyes finally clouded with tears.
“Everyone has their secrets,” Bea whispered.
“Including you?”
Bea looked away. Fair enough. There had to be a full-blown tropical storm going on in that head of hers right now, and if she wanted to keep her thoughts to herself, she was most deserving. Thank heavens her family had the financial comfort to sort out the mess The Wolf’s infidelity would leave in its wake.
“You all ready for your new job?” Bea turned back toward her with a soft smile.
“Yes!” She gave an excited clap of her hands. The two dogs she had trained up for this job were amazing. “Not that you’ve told me much about the new boss, apart from the pro bono bit. I can’t believe you offered to pay me.”
Beatrice scrunched her features together. “Best not to mention that.”
“I have no problem doing it for free. You know that. If I could’ve lived in one place for more than five minutes over the past few years, I would’ve set up a charitable trust through Martinelli Motors years ago, but...”
“He was too busy making his mark?”
“As ever. We don’t have ancient family lineage to rely on like you do.”
“Ugh. Don’t remind me.”
“Sorry...” Fran cringed, then held her arms open wide to the heavens. “Please help me stop sticking my foot in my mouth today!” She dropped her arms and pulled her friend into a hug. “Ever wished you’d just stayed in England?”
Bea’s eyes clouded and again she looked away. This time Fran had definitely said the wrong thing, brought up memories best left undisturbed.
“That was...” Bea began, stopping to take a faltering breath. “That was a very special time and place. Those kinds of moments only come once in a lifetime.”
Fran pulled back from the hug and looked at her friend, lips pressed tight together. She wouldn’t mention Jamie’s name if Beatrice didn’t. The poor girl had been through enough today without rehashing romances of years gone by.
“Right!” Fran put on a jaunty grin. “Time to totally change the topic! Now, as my best friend, won’t you please give me just a teensy, tiny hint about my new boss so I don’t ruin things in the first five minutes?”
“You’re the one who wanted a mystery assignment!”
“I didn’t want them to know who I was—not the other way around!” Fran shot Bea a playful glower.
She’d already been burned by a business partner who had known she was heiress to her father’s electric-car empire. And when it came to her social life, people invariably got the wrong idea. Expected something...someone...more glamorous, witty, attention seeking, party mad.
It was why she’d given up physio altogether. Dogs didn’t give a damn about who she was so long as she was kind and gave them dinner. If only her new boss was a pooch! She giggled at the thought of a dog in a three-piece suit and a monocle.
“What’s so funny?” Bea asked.
“C’mon...just give me a little new-boss hint,” Fran cajoled, pinching her fingers together so barely a sheet of paper could pass between them.
Bea shook her head no. “I’ve told you all you need to know. The girl’s a teenager. She’s been in a wheelchair for a couple of years now. Paraplegic after a bad car accident. Very bad. Her uncle—”
“Ooh! There’s an enigmatic uncle?”
“Something like that,” Bea intoned, wagging her finger. “No hints. They need the dog so she can be more independent.”
“She needs the dog.”
“Right. That’s what I said.”
“You said they need the dog,” Fran wheedled, hoping to get a bit more information, but Bea just made an invisible zip across her lips. No more.
“That’s not tons to go on, you know. I’ve been forced to bring two dogs to make sure I’ve got the right one!”
“Forced?” Bea cackled. “Since when have you had to be forced to travel with more than one dog?”
“C’mon...” Fran put her hands into a prayer position. “Just tell me what her parents are like—”
Beatrice held up her hand. “No parents. They both died in the same accident.”
“Ouch.” Fran winced. She’d lost her mother to divorce and her father to work. Losing them for real must be devastating.
“So does that mean this devilishly handsome uncle plays a big role in her life?”
“No one said he was handsome!” Bea admonished. “And remember—good things come to those who wait!”
Bea took on a mysterious air and, if Fran wasn’t mistaken, there was also an elusive something else she couldn’t quite put her finger on. How could a person glow when their whole life had just been ripped out from beneath them? Bea was in a league of her own. There weren’t too many people who would set up a dream job for a friend who was known to dip in and out of her life like a yo-yo.
“Well, even if her uncle is a big, hairy-eared ogre, I can’t wait. Nothing beats matching the right pooch to the right patient.” Fran couldn’t stop herself from clapping a bit more, drawing the attention of her two stalwart companions. “C’mere, pups! Help me tuck in Her Majesty.”
Bea batted at the air between them. “No more royal speak! I don’t want to be reminded.”
“What?” Fran fell into their lifelong patter. “The fact that you’re so royal you’d probably bleed fleurs-de-lys?”
“That’s the French, idiot!”
“What do Italian royals bleed, then? Truffles?”
“Ha!” Bea giggled, reaching out a hand to give Fran’s a big squeeze. “It’s not truffle season. It’s tabloid season. And they’re definitely going to have a field day with this. I can’t even bear to think about it.” She threw her arm across her eyes and sank back into the downy pillow. “What do you think they’ll say? Princess left at the altar, now weeping truffle tears?”
Fran pulled her friend up by her hands and gave her a hug. It was awful seeing her beautiful dark eyes cloud over with sadness. “How about some honey?” she suggested, signaling to the two big dogs to come over to the bedside. “That mountain honey you gave me from the Dolomites was amazing.”
“From the resort?” Bea’s eyes lit up at the thought. “It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Maybe...”
“Maybe what?” Fran knew the tendrils of a new idea when she saw one.
“Maybe I’ll pull a Frannie!”
“What does that mean?” She put on an expression of mock horror, fully aware that it wasn’t masking her defensive reaction.
She knew exactly what it meant. A lifetime of trying to get her father’s attention and failing had turned her into a wanderer. Staying too long in any one place meant getting attached. And that meant getting hurt.
“Don’t get upset. I envy you. Your ability to just pick up and go. Disappear. Reinvent yourself. Maybe it’s time I went and did something new.”
Fran goldfished for a minute.
“That phase of my life might be over,” she hedged. “Once this summer’s done and dusted I’m going home.”
“Home, home?” Bea sat up straight, eyes wide with shock. “I thought you said you’d never settle down there.”
“Dad’s offered to help me set up a full-time assistance-dogs training center—”
“You’ve never accepted his money before! What’s the catch?”
“You mean what’s going to be different this time?” Fran said, surprised at the note of shyness in her voice.
Bea nodded. She was the one who had always been there on the end of a phone when Fran had called in tears. Again.
“We spent a week together before I came over.”
“A week?” Bea’s eyes widened in surprise. “That’s huge for you two. He wasn’t in the office the whole time?”
“Nope! We actually went to a car show together.”
Bea pursed her lips together. Not impressed.
“I know. I know,” Fran protested, before admitting, “He had a little run-in with the pearly gates.”
“Fran! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It turned out to be one of those cases of indigestion disguising itself as a heart attack, but it seems to have been a lightbulb moment for him. Made him reassess how he does things.”
“You mean how he’s neglected his only daughter most of his life?”
“It wasn’t that bad.”
“Francesca Martinelli, don’t you dare tell me your heart wasn’t broken time and time again by your father choosing work over spending time with you.”
Fran met her friend’s gaze—saw the unflinching truth in it, the same solid friendship and loyalty she’d shown her from the day they’d met at boarding school.
“I know. But this time it really is different.”
“Frannie...” Bea’s brow furrowed. “He took you to a car show. You hate cars!”
“It was an antique car show. Not a single electric car in sight.”
Bea gave a low whistle. “Will wonders never cease?”
“Martinelli Motors is doing so well it could probably run itself.”
