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Mia walked inside and Stefano took a seat beside me. “I hope that I didn’t scare her away.”
“It takes a lot more than that to scare Mia Venturi.” I turned in my chair to face him and smiled, taking his hand in mine.
He studied me for a moment before tilting his head and angling himself to better face me. “Is everything alright, amor mio?”
I took a deep breath, trying to work up the nerve to tell him. “I hope so.”
He gently squeezed my hands and scooted to the edge of his seat, leaning in to be closer to me. “What’s going on? Tell me.”
“I’m pregnant,” I blurted out before I could lose my nerve.
He blinked, staring at me for a moment with his mouth fallen slack. “Pregnant?”
“Yes.” I nodded, nervously watching for him to react.
He let out a breath, the corner of his mouth twitching up before he broke out into a huge grin. “This is wonderful.”
I was surprised at his excited tone. It wasn’t what I had been prepared for. “It is?”
“Of course, it is. We’re going to have a baby.” His voice rose in excitement with each word.
He jumped up from his chair, pulling me to my feet, and wrapped his arms around me.
I squealed as he lifted me off of the ground and he lowered me again. He cupped my face and pulled me in for a passionate, excited kiss before pulling back with a beaming smile.
“You’re really happy about this,” I said, still half in disbelief.
“Of course, I am. Aren’t you? You said that you always wanted kids, and I’ve seen you with Elio. You’re going to make an amazing mother.”
I grinned, almost in tears from the relief at his reaction. “I am. I just wasn’t sure how you’d feel about having a baby so early in our relationship.”
“Mira, as far as I’m concerned, you’re it for me. We’re going to be together, and this was going to happen at some time or another. I already see that my future is with you. In fact,...” he paused, taking a step back and lowering himself down onto one knee right there on my family’s patio. “Mirabella Venturi, you are the only woman that I can picture spending the rest of my life with. I know we haven’t been together all that long but when I see something I want, I go for it. You are already going to be the mother of my child, I want you to be my wife as well. Marry me and make me the luckiest man in all of Italy.”
I was shocked but my heart swelled with his heartwarming proposal. So why, at that very moment, did Luca’s face come to mind?
I closed my eyes and willed the image away before opening them to see Stefano still on one knee, looking up at me hopefully.
“Yes,” I blurted out. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
Stefano practically leapt from kneeling to pull me into a big hug, and he kissed me again. “I’m so happy. I can’t believe we are getting married and having a baby—an heir.” His excitement shifted to urgency. “We have a lot to do to be married before the baby arrives.”
“I don’t want to have a big pregnant belly for the wedding. I want to feel beautiful on our special day, not like a beached whale.”
“Do you know how far along you are?”
“From my calculations, I’m seven weeks.”
“And when will you start showing?”
“I’m not sure. I can look it up.” I pulled out my phone and went to one of the sites I’d been using to look up information on early pregnancy. “This says twelve to eighteen weeks. Usually on the later side with a first pregnancy.”
“Okay. So, we’ll plan the wedding in the next eight weeks, and you’ll pick a wedding dress that isn’t overly form-fitting around the belly, just in case.”
“Wow, that’s fast.”
“You said that you helped plan your brother’s wedding and we won’t have all the crazy obstacles like he did. I believe that you can make this happen for us.”
I felt a little overwhelmed with everything happening so fast, but Stefano looked so excited. If we were going to get married, why would it matter how fast it happened?
