“You know, I’m starting to feel kinda left out here,” Kim said, laughing. “The two of you have multiple guys crawling all over you and I haven’t even come across a single one that’s caught my eye.”

“That’s because you spend too much time sitting around here being zen, and not enough out there painting the town red,” Annie teased.

“Well, you know, maybe that’s no bad thing. I did way too much partying back home. I’m enjoying just soaking up life here and taking it all in.” She sighed. “Be happy in the moment—that is enough.”

Annie groaned inwardly at Kim’s words of wisdom. Good luck to Kim, but she herself didn’t believe in any of that inspirational mumbo-jumbo. She yawned. Hell, she really needed to go back to bed...

“So what do you think I should do?” Colette asked them. “If Luca didn’t ever really care about me and this was just a holiday fling, should I go and meet up with Ed, even as friends?”

Annie had to smile. Talk about a turn-up for the books. Who’d have thought shy little Colette, who wouldn’t say boo to a goose when she arrived, could now potentially have two men on the go? The change in her was a wonder to behold.

“Well, I know this isn’t easy to hear and it’s not easy to say, but maybe you have to also look at the big picture and think about what happens after you leave here. I know you like Luca and he seems to really like you, too, but, Colette, do you honestly believe it can be anything more than a holiday romance?”

“Same could be said for you,” Kim pointed out, and Annie knew she felt she was being a bit too blunt with the younger girl, but she needed to be.

Colette had to face up to reality eventually.

While Luca seemed nice enough, he was a player through and through, anyone could see that. Especially now after this whole thing about the mobile phone. Who didn’t use mobile phones in this day and age?

Someone who had something to hide, that’s who.

While Colette seemed to think all the little notes he left for her here at the villa when she wasn’t around were old-fashioned and romantic, to Annie her friend’s naivete was showing. She’d been around the block enough herself to recognize all the signs. And she truly didn’t want to see her get hurt.

If someone didn’t talk some sense into her, Colette could end up leaving Italy with a lot more than she bargained for.

Chapter 35

Then

It was a glorious morning, and Kim could smell the citrus from the lemon trees as she walked through the courtyard and out onto the cobbled path leading down to the center of Positano.