Free The Heavenly Italian Ice Cream Shop by Abby Clements

look?’
    Anna thought about it for a moment. She trusted Carolina’s opinion completely – the two women had similar taste, and Carolina was smart with good business sense. They’d clicked from the moment they’d first met, and Anna often felt that, if Carolina lived nearer, the two of them would have been good friends.
    ‘I’d love it if she could go and view the place. But it’s a long way for her to travel, isn’t it?’ Anna said.
    ‘She loves a road trip. And she was saying the other day that she could do with a break from Siena. Filippo’s been away for work a lot lately and she says the house feels too big with just her in it.’
    ‘OK, great. It would certainly give us more of an idea.’
    ‘I’ll talk to her now,’ Matteo said, getting to his feet.
    It was all starting to feel more real – a genuine possibility that she and Matteo might be giving up their lives in Brighton.
    ‘Are you all right?’ Matteo asked.
    ‘Sort of,’ Anna said. ‘But sort of not. I mean, what about this place?’ she asked, gesturing to the flat. ‘I saved up for years for it. And now what? We rent it to strangers?’
    ‘I’m sure we could find someone who’d look after it. A friend of a friend maybe.’
    Anna recalled how she’d felt in the days leading up to the opening of the ice cream shop – the meetings in banks, the nagging doubts that she might be making a huge mistake. It had been a really stressful time in her life. Was she really willing to enter into that uncertainty all over again so soon, and now, when they had their young daughter to think about?
    ‘Shall I still call her?’ Matteo asked.
    This was her chance, Anna thought. She could still back out.
    Then she thought again about Vivien’s. OK, so setting up the business hadn’t been easy, but without a doubt it had been one of the best decisions she’d ever made.
    ‘Call her,’ Anna said, excitement building. ‘Let’s find out if this shop is the one.’
    Carolina’s face – her tanned skin and large brown eyes – filled the screen of Matteo’s tablet and she spoke animatedly. ‘I’ve just had a very quick look and a chat to the current owners,’ she said. Behind her was a sun-drenched square, with pretty stone buildings. ‘But look at this place.’ She panned round with her tablet’s camera so that they could see the town. ‘I think you are going to love it.’
    There was something contagious about Carolina’s enthusiasm. Anna had warmed to her sister-in-law from their first meeting, in her family’s gelateria in Siena. Back then she’d been working as a graphic designer, busy but never hesitating to linger over a coffee or ice cream with friends and family. She had come over to England at Christmas with her parents, Elisa and Giacomo, but had stayed fairly quiet during the visit. Carolina’s husband Filippo had been busy with the business and hadn’t been able to make it.
    ‘So the owners are getting ready to retire. It seems like it would be a fantastic opportunity for you to put your own mark on the place.’
    ‘Great,’ Matteo said, the excitement in his voice echoing his sister’s.
    ‘It’s only a short walk from the coast, and it’s a proper old-fashioned gelateria, well loved in the town. And the Amalfi coast . . . Well, I had the most fantastic drive down here. Matteo, you already know it – but Anna, you’ll need to take my word for it. It’s totally spectacular.’
    Anna pictured the place, Bella playing in the sunshine on the picturesque Amalfi coast, rather than stuck indoors on one of the many rainy days like this one.
    ‘Anyway, follow me,’ Carolina said. Holding her tablet up, she showed them the front of the shop, with a pretty balcony with tall wooden shutters above it. ‘Look up there – the apartment comes with the shop, and it’s two bedrooms, so there’d be plenty of room for all of you. There’s this outside area.’
    She panned round to show a few tables and chairs in the square, and