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I hoped it never would.
I didn’t sleep at all that night. Not just because the kid woke three times screaming desperately until Aurora fed him a bottle and rocked him in her arms.
She and I didn’t speak as she took care of him. She, because she was exhausted and pissed at me, and I because I was in awe of her and still trying to figure out how to handle the next few weeks. Hell, the next few days even.
Aurora and I would need a good excuse for why we didn’t stay for the race, why we’d return to Las Vegas and have her move into the apartment early. People expected that kind of erratic behavior from me but not Rory, though she’d been unpredictable ever since our night together.
I got several messages from Massimo and Alessio that night, and especially the latter made it clear what he thought of me being out somewhere with Aurora.
It was before sunrise when I finally got up and dressed. Lying in this moth-eaten bed and staring at the ceiling splattered with fly shit, my pulse seemed to thump in my ears and my heart to hammer a hole into my rib cage.
I felt restless, erratic, like a junkie who needed a fix. If it weren’t for Rory and the kid, I would have gone in search for someone to kill, but this seemed like the worst possible moment to do so.
Aurora needed me; they both needed me here. I pulled a chair up next to the bed, sank down in it, and propped my feet up on the mattress. The curtains didn’t block out the lamp in front of our room, so I could see Rory’s face as she slept.
Tonight, she didn’t have any naughty dreams but her sleep was fitful nonetheless. Battista stirred around five in the morning, and Rory’s eyes opened slowly, then went wide when she saw me watching them.
She frowned and slowly sat up. Her hair was a tousled mess and her eyes were a bit puffy. She was still the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen, and that thought made me want to get up and run like a fucking coward.
I didn’t like the turn my thoughts often took when I looked at Rory, especially in recent weeks, and I felt the last twenty-four hours had worsened the situation.
“How long have you been watching me? It’s really unsettling,” she said in a sleep-roughened voice as she stroked Battista’s head. I doubted he would fall back asleep.
“For two hours perhaps. I couldn’t fall back asleep.”
Aurora lifted Battista into her arm. “Can you heat his morning oatmeal in the microwave?”
I got up and picked up one of the food jars labeled as breakfast meal, then popped it in the microwave.
Aurora got up. “Can you feed him so I can grab a quick shower?”
She raised her eyebrows expectantly. I really didn’t want to be alone with the kid, much less feed him, but I sank down on the chair and let Aurora put him on my lap. Battista tried to cling to Aurora, obviously as opposed to us being alone as I was. She eventually managed to put him down. “You got this.”
Battista and I both watched as Aurora disappeared in the bathroom.
With a sigh, I picked up the spoon and dipped it in the food. Battista allowed me to feed him, even if his eyes kept moving to the bathroom door, waiting for Aurora’s return.
“You and me both, buddy,” I muttered.
The next day, after convincing my parents of my early move, I called Carlotta to tell her I would move in to our apartment today and not in two weeks as had been my original plan. She had been suspicious right away, wanting to know why and if Nevio had done something. I lied that I just couldn’t bear his obnoxious presence at the race circus anymore and asked her if she could move in early too. Diego had forbidden her from moving into the apartment by herself, even just for a few weeks.
When Nevio and I arrived in Las Vegas in the early afternoon, I warned him again, “You need to spend the day with him until the coast is clear. I’ll give you a call when you can bring him to my place tonight.”
Nevio stared at the boy who was shaking a rattle with huge eyes and sucking quickly at his new dummy. I doubted he’d ever had a rattle before considering how mesmerized he seemed by the thing.
“What am I supposed to do with him?”
“I don’t know. Take him to a park and go on a walk with him in his stroller. I prepared his milk portions for you and put enough bottled baby food into the nursing bag to last for a week.”
“I can’t take care of him for more than a few hours, Rory, trust me.”
I gritted my teeth. “You’ve said that before, and I’ll try to get rid of everyone except for Lotta as soon as possible, but until then, your son is your responsibility. My parents are suspicious anyway. They probably think I’m about to have a mental breakdown soon.”
If things kept progressing like this, maybe I would.
He nodded slowly but I could tell he didn’t like it. He could deal with it. I hopped out of the car and walked toward the security gate of my family’s mansion. It opened when I arrived in front of it, and Nevio pulled away when Dad appeared before me.
“What’s that about?” Dad asked as he watched Nevio race away.
