“We are not. But there was an issue with her catering company and they needed somebody to prepare the food. I offered to assist.” He looked at the throngs of guests surrounding them. “Can we go somewhere quieter to talk?”

“No,” Colette said quickly. “I need to get back to Annie—and my husband.”

“Please. It will only take a minute.”

She didn’t know what it was but there was something in the way he looked at her, and the sound of his voice, that made her waver.

But what could Luca have to say to her now that he couldn’t have said six years ago?

“Why should I give you even a minute?”

“I think you owe me that much,” he replied.

She scoffed. “Owe you? After what you did?”

Luca looked confused. “What I did? You mean what you did.”

“What are you talking about?” Colette answered. “I didn’t do anything but wait around on the beach like a fool when you were never coming.”

“Wait on the beach—for me? When?”

Colette couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was he really trying to pass this off as if it were nothing?

“My last night—at L’Incanto. I waited for you for over an hour but you didn’t show. And then you sent me that...text. You didn’t even have the decency to tell me to my face.”

Luca took hold of her arm and began to lead her away from the crowd. He guided her to the far end of the terrace where there were fewer guests.

“Colette, I do not know what you are talking about. I never made any arrangement to meet you anywhere close to Spiaggia Grande. For your last night, I asked for us to meet at Delfino.”

She was incredulous. “Are you standing here pretending that you didn’t send me a note to meet you there, and then while I was waiting around like a fool, send a text telling me that our time together was just a summer fling?”

“I never did any of that,” Luca replied evenly. “It was you who left me.”

“But I didn’t do anything! You dumped me. You broke my heart.”

“You broke mine,” Luca replied with feeling. “I would never have hurt you, Colette. I loved you. I wanted to be with you. I was going to tell you that, and ask you to maybe come back to Italy sometime, or if perhaps I could go to you in England—find some way for us perhaps to have a future together. That night, I had arranged a party in the restaurant with Mama Elene—she was going to help me show you what your life in Italy could be. But you never showed.”