Page 26 of A Winter Wedding Adventure (Adventure Weddings #2)

Just when he’d thought he’d done something right.

Hurrying to catch up with Alessandra, he thought absently that at least he didn’t have to worry about drenching his trousers, as they were already soaked. He needn’t have hurried either. Alessandra hadn’t got far through the snowdrifts.

Mattia walked more easily now in the brand-new snow boots he’d hastily bought while waiting for the pizza – boots that had pleased him mainly when he imagined showing them to Kira. She hadn’t even seen them; she’d been so busy being grumpy at him.

Being grumpy about the wedding, he was beginning to understand, but she’d told him to kiss Carla too and he was less willing to forgive that.

Alessandra clutched at his arm, muttering in relief when he reached her, and he realised Kira had been right again: Alessandra needed help. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, he concentrated on taking solid steps and let her lean on him.

‘Are you okay?’ he asked over the wind. ‘I mean about Joe?’

‘Non lo so, Matty,’ she said, her voice barely strong enough to carry. ‘I don’t know. I feel like he’s insulting me.’

‘I’m sure he doesn’t realise?—’

‘Are you defending him? You ?’

‘I don’t know him well,’ he responded, peeved, ‘but I can’t imagine anyone purposefully insulting their fiancée the day before their wedding.’

Alessandra stopped, blinking at him. ‘What’s happened to you?’

‘You can stop worrying about me for a minute while you get married, Ale. I’m not the emotional wreck I used to be.’

She studied him closely enough that he came up in goosebumps – or perhaps that was the cold. He considered asking her to stop pushing him with Carla, but the wind picked up her hair and now certainly didn’t feel like the right time.

He urged her on. ‘Dai, it’s freezing, carissima. Joe’s waiting for you.’

‘He’s probably passed out by now,’ she muttered.

Battling across the slippery street together, they found the van – ice caked around the wheels – and Rav opened the door for them to get inside.

‘Where’s Kira?’ he asked.

‘’sKira?’ Joe repeated, his eyelids heavy.

‘She’s finishing up in the chapel, but Joe, here’s Alessandra.’

The man had the good grace to look sheepish as he hoisted his brow high enough that he could squint at her. ‘’m s-s-sorry, baby. I’ll be better tomorrow. Promise. I love you s’much.’

Mattia could almost see Alessandra’s resentment crack – that quickly. A smile touched his lips. His old friend was no stranger to resentment; she’d been known to hold a grudge – for months, on occasion. But with Joe, she barely lasted a minute.

He had no doubt Joe had some grovelling to do to get back in her good books, but he could already see she’d forgive him. Mattia only hoped Joe understood what a gift that was.

A distant buzz alerted him to Norbert’s approach and he peered through the gloom to see the headlights of the snowmobile tracking slowly down the mountain. When the concierge pulled up, he was wearing ski goggles and heavy-duty gloves, and his moustache was caked in snow.

The sled that had brought them down this morning was attached to the snowmobile and Mattia shuddered, imagining another loud, juddering trip in heavy snow.

‘Where’s the wedding planner?’ he asked gruffly after he cut the engine. ‘This is record snowfall and I’d like to get home to check on my cows.’

‘Ah,’ was all Mattia could say at first, not quite understanding the comment about the cows. ‘She’ll be here soon. But maybe you could take this group up first? By the time you’re back, the others will be finished.’

He offered Alessandra his arm for balance as she settled into the passenger sled while Rav and Hugh kept Joe steady. She clutched at him when he would have tugged his arm back.

‘Aren’t you coming?’

He shook his head. ‘The van’s not locked.’ That was his excuse anyway. She looked ready to protest, so he continued, ‘Go get warm and then talk to him. You can work it out, the two of you. It’s not your wedding day yet. He’s allowed to see you.’

She nodded, placated, but what she said next made him grit his teeth. ‘And you can wait here for Carla – and the mistletoe. I’m sure Ginny will need help hanging it.’

He waved off Alessandra and the groomsmen as the sled leapt forward.

After they’d disappeared into the gloom on the other side of the stream, he shivered, stomping his feet to keep warm.

Even inside his new boots, his toes were turning numb.

He considered retreating into the van and closing the door, but it was cold in there as well, so he kept moving instead.

He hoped Kira would notice what he’d put himself through because he wanted to talk to her, if he could still speak through his chattering teeth.

‘What are you still doing here?’

With the wind whipping in his ears, he hadn’t heard Kira approaching. She trudged over to the van, shoving the box of decorations inside and locking up. He didn’t answer her question, preoccupied by her belligerent tone.

The buzz of the snowmobile reached his ears again and he glanced warily at Carla and Tonya before leaning close and saying, ‘I was waiting for you.’

He let that sink in, watching surprise and pleasure give way to dismay on her face. She’d kissed him – kissed him, in a way no one else in his life had ever kissed him. But she seemed keen to forget it had ever happened, pretend she’d never felt anything.

‘Did Alessandra tell you to wait for Carla?’

He suspected her flat tone might hide jealousy, but he wanted that too much to trust his judgement. ‘Yes, but?—’

Norbert roared back into the car park, the layer of ice in his moustache even thicker than before. He shook Kira’s hand.

‘I’m glad you made it. There’s some food for Yolanda to warm for you later, but Katy had to go and collect her children and I don’t want to make any more trips up after this.’

Mattia frowned, glancing between Kira and the concierge in alarm.

‘Thanks. What about tomorrow?’ she asked. ‘The forecast is clear, but what state will the road be in? Are we going to be able to get down?’

Norbert grimaced. ‘I’ll organise you a snow groomer, just to be safe.’

Mattia’s mind wandered, picturing a snow groomer as a dapper older man with slicked-back hair and a wide selection of razors for shaving snowmen, before he remembered it was the hulking vehicle that had taken them down the slopes to the restaurant yesterday.

‘Okay, thanks,’ Kira responded.

‘Where’s the other one?’ Norbert asked gruffly, gesturing just below his lip to indicate Ginny’s piercing. Mattia’s gaze shot to Kira’s in alarm.

She muttered a curse and rummaged for her phone. ‘Give me a second to find out where she is.’

* * *

‘This cannot be happening!’ Ginny whined over the line. Kira heard a thud that was probably her colleague banging a hand on the steering wheel. ‘I’m not going to make it. The traffic isn’t moving and I’m only just out of Mayrhofen.’

Kira pulled the phone from her ear to check the time. There were barely two hours of daylight left. ‘Okay, Ginny, listen up. Turn around and go back to Mayrhofen.’

‘What? There’s a wedding tomorrow!’

‘I haven’t forgotten,’ she said drily. ‘But I’m a guide, remember, and this is a snow emergency, not a wedding emergency.’ The kind of emergency she could actually deal with.

Ginny took a deep breath. ‘Right. You’re right.’

‘I don’t want to risk you getting stuck on the road in the middle of nowhere this afternoon.

Find a hotel in Mayrhofen and keep warm.

Overnight, the snowploughs will clear the roads and you’ll get here in plenty of time.

Norbert has said he’ll arrange a snow groomer, so you’ll be able to catch a lift back up.

’ At least she hoped so. If she ended up in charge of this wedding, she didn’t want to know what might go wrong.

But ensuring Ginny stayed safe was a bigger priority even than the vows.

‘A snow groomer?’ Ginny said. ‘But I booked reindeer. Alessandra wanted to arrive at her wedding in a sleigh with reindeer. They’re coming all the way from?—’

‘I’m sorry, Ginny, but I doubt Alessandra is getting her reindeer,’ Kira said tightly.

‘This is such a dis?—’

‘It’ll make a great story once it’s all over,’ she assured Ginny – another mountaineering dictum that she didn’t exactly trust in this context.

‘I could tell my grandchildren,’ she said with a chuckle, ‘if I ever meet someone to have the children with,’ she added with a groan. ‘Isn’t this just my rotten luck? I haven’t kissed anyone in a year and now I’m up to my neck in mistletoe – all alone! ’

Kira couldn’t stop her gaze sliding to where Mattia was gazing up at the mountain, which was partially obscured by the thick fog of snow.

She hadn’t kissed anyone in longer than a year – until yesterday.

And this morning. But then he’d kissed Carla under the mistletoe and reminded her of how stupid she’d been.

With tingles up to her hairline, she wrenched her eyes off him and focused on her conversation with Ginny.

‘But you’ll be back in the morning to help me get them to the church, because right now, I can’t guarantee that this wedding will go ahead. They need therapy, the lot of them.’

‘All normal. Love is for the brave. If they start yelling at each other, distraction works well – on wedding parties as well as toddlers. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

Kira ended the call with a grimace. Love is for the brave . That would have looked better on the banner over the church door.

‘Everything okay?’ Mattia asked. The wind picked up his curls and his intent look made her feel as though all of her worries were shared, which was strange, because he was one of them.

Nothing is okay. I don’t know how you feel – I don’t know how I feel and I’m thinking about my fucking feelings instead of fretting about Alessandra’s reindeer!

‘Everything’s fine,’ she said with a sigh and dropped her gaze – which fell on his feet. ‘You bought shoes?’

‘I heard there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad shoes.’ His expression was so inviting – inviting her to come far too close and do too many things she really shouldn’t.

‘Is that true?’ she asked drily.

‘Unfortunately not,’ he said with mock earnestness. ‘I bought these shoes and the weather is still atrocious! Plus they don’t match my outfit.’

‘Maybe you need a new outfit.’

‘I will if you will.’

Were they still talking about clothes?

He leaned closer. ‘I kissed her on the cheek,’ he said in a low voice. ‘And even that… I didn’t want her to be the one there under the mistletoe with me.’

Kira’s breath was suddenly too tight. ‘It doesn’t matter. We agreed it shouldn’t be us under the mistletoe anyway.’

‘I know, but…’ His sigh held a thousand unspoken words.

‘Uh, guys?’ Tonya’s voice was a bucket of freezing water over the silly flirtation that Kira shouldn’t have indulged in anyway.

Kira forced her eyes from Mattia’s face only to meet Carla’s wary gaze, and heat flushed up her neck. At least her cheeks were already red from the cold.

The wedding was a mess. Kira suspected even she needed therapy – or she would when this was all over. On top of everything, she had to put on her dress tomorrow, an outfit that made her feel ten kinds of exposed. And she had to wear it in front of Christian.

Sharing her worries was a complete illusion. She was all alone and she always would be, because although it was sad sometimes, it was safe.

‘We’d better head up,’ she said flatly, stomping over to where Norbert was waiting with the snowmobile and the passenger trailer.

‘Is everything okay? Are we going to get snowed in up there?’ Tonya asked.

Carla cut straight to the point. ‘Is the wedding going to happen?’

Kira was already the worst wedding planner in the history of the profession, so she rubbed the deep groove between her brows and muttered, ‘Who the hell knows?’