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‘When did she wake?’
‘Shh,’ she warned, finger to her lips, her arm wound around Aimee as she rocked back and forth.
Aimee stirred.
Elene was holding her breath.
Mattia eased down beside her, wrapped his hand carefully around one tiny covered foot and enjoyed being with his girls, hoping his action wouldn’t wake Aimee but unable to resist her.
Slowly Aimee settled again.
As did Mattia’s heart. This was special, being part of his own family. Yet there was something hovering in the back of his head like a warning. Get real. You’re already including Elene in every picture you have of Aimee’s future. Aimee and Elene and you. Stop hiding behind your daughter and accept Elene means the world to you. Get over the past.
Swallowing hard, he croaked, ‘Aimee woke you?’ This was such a normal family scene—he wasn’t used to it but he wanted more. Lots more.
Elene nodded, that messed-up hair covering half her face. ‘About forty minutes ago. She needed changing. When that didn’t settle her I gave her milk which, fingers crossed, has worked.’
‘I was out of it.’
‘I thought I was, but seems I’ve developed the mothering instinct.’
So this was what his brothers meant when they said having kids changed everything and yet everything remained the same. He wanted Elene in his bed again, yet knowing he’d have to wait wasn’t a problem.
‘Can I do anything?’ he whispered.
Her swollen lips cracked into a big smile. ‘Probably not what you’re used to post-coital, but I’d die for a cup of tea.’
‘You’re right, haven’t had that request before. But then I haven’t had my own child, or anyone else’s, to wake me after I’ve been having amazing sex.’
‘You’re not looking too concerned about it.’
‘Surprising, isn’t it?’ Aimee looked so cute, snuggled against Elene, her little chest rising and falling on each noisy breath. He risked running a finger over his little girl’s arm, felt her vulnerability. A lump formed in his throat. ‘You know what? I like having her here. With you,’ he added. ‘You’re a pair.’ My pair. ‘I’m glad, relieved, happy, to know Aimee’s got you.’
A solitary tear rolled down Elene’s cheek, and he followed it with his finger.
‘I mean it. You’re her mother now, and always will be. We’ve a way to go making this work but I believe we will.’ His lips brushed her cheek, where that tear had left a trail. ‘I promise to do all I can to achieve it.’
Elene wanted to lean into Mattia and accept his promise without thought. It would be so easy. He accepted her role in Aimee’s life. He accepted Aimee for his own, and wanted to share her life. What more could she want? It was her turn to give back, and she was more than willing. They’d spent the most magical time in his bed. She was halfway to being in love with him. Did she say now that she’d move to Sorrento permanently? When she’d missed her family these past days more than she’d have believed? Could Mattia and Aimee become her new family? He hadn’t offered that. She’d be foolish to leap in and show all her cards. Or would she? Part of her wanted to. Her past warned her not to. ‘Thank you,’ was all she managed.
‘I’m not sure where that leaves me,’ he said. ‘So I’ll go make that tea, just to show I can be of use when required.’
‘Mattia.’ Elene reached for his hand. ‘You’ve paid me a huge compliment. I feel it in here.’ She tapped her chest beside Aimee’s head. ‘I arrived in Sorrento expecting—and looking for—a fight, for your reactions to be about what you wanted, with little regard for me and how I felt about Aimee. I was wrong. Sorry.’
His smile could’ve lit up a town. It certainly lit up her heart. ‘We’re doing fine, Elene. Just fine. There’s a way to go, but I’m liking the journey so far.’
Her return smile came from her heart. ‘You just want more sex.’
‘There is that.’ His hand splayed across his chest and his smile became a wicked grin. ‘Before or after the cup of tea?’
Aimee chose that moment to open her eyes and stare up at them. Elene felt her heart expand. Then she looked at Mattia and saw the love shining out of those dark eyes, and her heart grew to include him. She was lost to him. Fight it, argue with herself, whatever—she loved Mattia. Probably had begun to since that night back in Wellington. He was handling this so well, and he wasn’t as closed to accepting what life tossed at him as she’d believed. It made sense for her to make the major sacrifice over where to live. He had more to give up and, while moving here would bring difficulties, it wouldn’t be all bad.
‘Ma-ma-ma-ma.’ Aimee interrupted her thoughts.
‘Hey, sweetheart. Say Papà.’
‘Ma-ma-ma-ma.’
‘Okay, we’ll get there.’ Standing, she stretched up to kiss Mattia. ‘Let’s skip the tea.’ He was never going to fall in love with her. Because of what Sandy had done to him, the shackles weren’t going to fall from around his heart. So she’d love him from the sidelines, and hope that was enough. But for the next week there was nothing stopping her having a good time, while getting to where they needed to be on a wave of optimism and not through a mire of disagreements and second-guessing.
She got her tea an hour later, sitting up in Mattia’s bed, her muscles barely able to function enough to keep her upright. If that was what great sex did then she’d been missing out all along. Until Mattia. Man, oh, man. Did he know what he was doing? Her doubts over being good enough had fled. Mattia made her lose her inhibitions, turned her more adventurous and willing to give as good as she got.
Lying beside her, hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling, Mattia took her breath away. Then his next words tightened her throat. ‘Please don’t take the timing of this next question the wrong way. I’m feeling more relaxed than I have since the moment I set eyes on you nearly two weeks ago, and I want to ask you something important.’ His gaze moved from the ceiling to her. ‘Is there any possibility that you would move to Sorrento permanently? I think we’ve shown we can make it work.’
D-day. Make that D-hour. She should be getting in a pickle, but she’d already reached the decision, found her answer. Deep down she’d accepted what Mattia wanted, and there weren’t enough reasonable arguments to put up against him. She’d miss her family not being close by on a daily basis. Her job, her cottage, her sports groups? Replaceable. Her closest friend was gone, and there weren’t others so much a part of her life she couldn’t move away. ‘Yes.’
‘That’s it? Yes?’ Hope started rising in his eyes.
Hope she understood because she felt it every day. For her, the hope was that Mattia wouldn’t fight her over the joint custody issue, that they’d share. If that meant moving to a country she wasn’t exactly a foreigner in, then getting brave and stepping up had to happen. ‘Yes.’
‘Thank you.’ He sat up and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. ‘We can decide how this all comes together over the next few weeks. Thank goodness for phones, eh?’
She smiled through the doubts already creeping in and shoved them aside to get on with her new life. ‘Not quite as good as face-to-face though.’
‘I want you to be completely happy with whatever arrangements we make.’
Throwing in some unbelievable sex would make it that much easier. Though that would stop soon. Mattia didn’t do permanent, and she was only just coming round to the idea of trying for permanency herself. Except she’d gone and fallen in love with the man. The truth had been niggling away at her for days. Now it was right in front of her eyes, in her heart. She was in trouble. Warm tea sloshed onto her chest.
‘Hey, careful.’ He handed her the box of tissues to wipe up. ‘What were you thinking about that got you all jumpy?’
You. Me. Love.
‘All the stuff I’ll have to pack and shift over here.’ It was the best she could come up with and
not spill her heart.
Mattia took her chin between his fingers and turned her head so she had to look at him. ‘I’ll let you off this one, but let’s try and stay truthful with each other. It’ll make everything that much easier.’
Like why you couldn’t make it to breakfast?
Elene sighed. She wasn’t getting into an argument. ‘Just my nerves getting in the way of logic.’ She put her mug aside and slid down the bed, tugging Mattia to join her. If they weren’t going to be this close for ever then she would take what she could while it was available. She chuckled. Overnight she’d become insatiable, and so far she couldn’t fault it.
* * *
Sunday morning brought more sunshine. ‘Doesn’t it ever rain here?’ Elene was thinking of the storms that regularly lashed Wellington. Her home town wasn’t known as Windy Wellington for nothing, and while this endless sunshine was wonderful she could almost wish for a small storm. Almost.
Mattia laughed. ‘Are you seriously saying you’d prefer to be back home with winter screaming across the Cook Strait?’
