The Heavenly Italian Ice Cream Shop by Abby Clements Read Free Book Online Page B

him too. ‘You’ve done a wonderful job, Martin. I think Mum would like it, don’t you?’
    ‘Well, I must say that’s a relief,’ Martin said, breathing out. ‘Now all we need to worry about is getting the guests in.’
    ‘You’ll be fine,’ Imogen said calmly.
    Jan nodded. ‘We’ve had lots of local interest.’
    ‘It’s exactly what we need round here,’ Imogen said, ‘an affordable home from home – classy, not touristy. The launch party next month’s going to be great for building a buzz, too.’
    ‘Oh, absolutely,’ Jan said.
    Tom left the room quietly, and Martin and Jan looked at each other, uncertainly. Imogen followed her father out into the front garden.
    He was placing his sculptures of birds around the pond. He turned and saw her there, watching.
    ‘What do you think?’ he asked her, pointing at the arrangement.
    ‘They look great, Dad.’
    ‘I want to get this bit right. The garden. The first thing that guests see. It would’ve mattered to Mum.’
    ‘Is it strange for you, all this?’ she asked.
    He nodded. ‘I know it’s for the best – but it still feels a little odd, the idea of people paying to stay here. That’s the truth of it.’
    Imogen stepped closer to her dad and they hugged. ‘I just have to deal with things one step at a time,’ he said. ‘It’ll be OK.’
    ‘Of course. It’s what she would have wanted, you know – people in here, enjoying her house.’
    ‘I know,’ he said. ‘You’re right.’ He looked at her proudly. ‘You’re becoming quite wise in your old age, Imogen.’
    She nudged him playfully. ‘Less of that, eh, Dad? I’m only twenty-six.’
    ‘Here, there’s something else I want to show you,’ Tom said, going over to his bag. He took out a circular ceramic plate, with the words ELDERBERRY GUESTHOUSE on it in pale green. ‘I fired it over the weekend.’
    ‘That’s beautiful,’ Imogen said.
    ‘Help me put it up?’ he asked.
    She looped her arm through his. ‘Of course, Dad.’

Chapter 5
    Anna was walking on the pebbly beach in Hove on Saturday afternoon, wooden rowing boats on the shore beside her. Up to her right were the bright tones of beach huts, and, beyond that, a backdrop of elegant Regency hotels. Brighton and Hove’s landscape was deeply familiar to her, and she knew the places to go when she wanted to find calm. She had left the ice cream shop that morning, telling Matteo she was going to pick up some more milk – but the truth was she needed some time to think. What Matteo had said, about missing Italy, had really unsettled her.
    Almost always, walking this stretch of beach cleared her mind, but today the fog remained. All she could think of was Matteo saying those words: ‘
I don’t want to be that man, Anna
’. Until that moment, she’d always thought she made him happy – it was what he always told her – but in that conversation she’d seen an echoing sadness in him. It wasn’t possible for her to get rid of that feeling for him – and, worse, she’d realised that, by wanting to stay in England, she was the person causing it.
    But leaving? Leaving her parents, and Imogen, the business, their home, whether for a whole summer, or – and at this her stomach flipped over – for ever? It seemed too much to contemplate, particularly now that they had Bella. He was asking too much of her. And yet, now that he’d said it, she couldn’t see how it could ever be undone. She would always wonder now what discontent might be there underneath. What might surface after a year, five years, when Bella was grown. It was like a crack in the fabric of their home. She could try to ignore it, avoid looking in that corner of the room. But then one day – when she did – it might have grown so much she would no longer be able to fix it.
    A couple and a child were walking towards her on the beach, and, as they neared, she realised it was her ex-boyfriend Jon with Mia and their son Alfie. Her emotions whirled as she saw the