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And probably a Santa suit.
* * *
Maria woke on Christmas Eve, bleary-eyed and sore-headed, to find Frankie clambering into bed beside her. As she snuggled his little body close, she tried to find the courage and energy to face the day ahead.
They were leaving. In just a few hours she and Frankie would be on their way back to that little cottage on her parents’ estate in Italy, ready to spend Christmas together, just the two of them.
And she was glad about that. Really.
Glad that she’d made a decision at least. Glad that she wasn’t going to spend the rest of her life waiting for Seb to wake up and see the woman he’d married. Glad that she could look to her future and—
Oh, who was she kidding? She hated it. But that didn’t change the fact that it was the right choice.
She’d asked for what she needed at last. Had opened up and given him the chance to be the husband she needed.
And he’d thrown his phone out of the window instead. As if that equalled all the ‘I love you’s she’d never hear from him.
‘Come on, piccolo,’ she said, nudging Frankie to sit up. ‘Let’s go and find your aunt Noemi for a last play before we have to go home.’
Frankie nodded sleepily—apparently he hadn’t been entirely awake when he’d crawled into her bed. He snuggled some more with his fox while she got washed and dressed, then decided that Frankie could stay in his pyjamas a little while longer at least. She listened at the door to make sure that Seb wouldn’t be waiting to ambush her. Then, satisfied that he was either still asleep or had already left for the office, she led Frankie out and down the main stairs of the chalet, heading for the kitchen.
Only to stop and stare as they reached the top of the flight of stairs to the ground floor.
Beside her, Frankie gasped, clasping his hands together and looking up at her with wide eyes, before turning his attention back to the scene below again.
There, beneath the giant Christmas tree with all its glistening ornaments and lights, was a pile of presents in shiny wrapping paper. And standing next to the presents was—
‘Santa!’ Frankie cried, looking completely overcome by the whole situation.
Maria didn’t blame him. But Leo in a Santa suit wasn’t what was surprising her most about the whole tableau.
That was Sebastian in an elf costume next to him, with Anissa in a matching girls’ version, while Max and Noemi both wore headbands with reindeer antlers. She almost didn’t want to know what Seb had held over his siblings and sister-in-law-to-be and brother-in-law-to-be to get them to take part in this. Especially since it had been gone midnight when she’d walked out on Seb, and it was barely six in the morning now.
Apparently Seb really could pull off anything he set his mind to. He’d promised to make it up to Frankie, and he was. This was basically the dream, and a lovely way to finish the trip, since they wouldn’t be there for actual Christmas Day tomorrow. This was fine—if utterly bizarre.
And it didn’t change her decision one bit.
‘Can I, Mamma?’ Frankie asked, and she nodded, watching as he skipped down the stairs towards Santa. He stopped a few steps away as he recognised Santa’s chief elf, though.
‘Papà?’ he asked, baffled.
Seb crouched down beside him. ‘That’s right, Frankie. I’m so sorry I wasn’t here to take you to meet Santa yesterday like I promised.’
‘Santa’s here now, though?’ Frankie glanced between the elf that was his papà and the man in the big red suit with the white beard next to him.
‘That’s right, Frankie,’ Leo said, in a suitably booming Santa voice, the beard disguising him well enough to fool a two-year-old. ‘Your papà told me how sorry he was, and how much you wanted to meet me, so I made a special trip back to be here this morning—and made him promise to help me by being my special elf for the day. Now, how would you like a present?’
That was, of course, the magic word. As much as she’d told Seb he couldn’t just bribe kids with toys, they weren’t exactly likely to turn them down either.
Leo picked up the first parcel next to him, one with bright green shiny paper, and handed it to Frankie—who was almost the same size as the box. Max and Noemi both darted in to help him and Maria thought, not for the first time, how lucky their twins would be to have them as parents. Prince or not, she could tell how much Max loved Noemi, and how much effort he would put into always being there for her.
Which thought, of course, drew her back to Sebastian, who stood beside Frankie—but his eyes were on her. As soon as she looked his way, he took a step towards her, obviously wanting to continue their conversation from the previous night.
Maria shook her head, hoping he got the hint. There was nothing he could do now to change her mind anyway.
But then Santa looked up, too, a large envelope in his hand. ‘Now, Frankie, it looks like this present is for your mamma. Would you like to give it to her?’
Frankie, engrossed in the toy train set he’d just unwrapped, shook his head. ‘Papà do it.’
With a smirk that twisted his fake beard up, Leo handed the envelope to Sebastian, who smiled. So did Noemi and Max. And Anissa.
Oh, Maria didn’t like how this was going one little bit.
‘Why don’t you take it into the other room to open it?’ Noemi said, gesturing to the doorway to the snug with her antlers and giving Seb a little push in that direction, so Maria had no choice but to follow if she wanted her present.
She wasn’t at all sure that she wanted her present.
But Frankie wanted her to open it. ‘Go on, Mamma. I stay here with Santa.’
Okay, then. ‘I’ll be right back,’ she promised.
Then she followed Seb into the next room, feeling suspiciously like she was heading into the lion’s den.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
SEB HELD THE door to the snug open for Maria as she walked through it, rehearsing what he wanted to say one last time. He hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours, he was dressed as a freaking elf, but, heaven help him, he was not going to mess up what had to be his last-ever chance to win his wife back.
Maria turned to face him, leaning against the back of the small sofa in the snug. ‘Seb, look, this was a nice gesture for Frankie. And I appreciate it. I do. But I think we said everything we needed to last night, don’t you?’
‘No,’ Seb disagreed. ‘You may have done, b
ut I have a lot more to say. Starting with this.’ He held out the envelope on which Noemi had stuck a giant bow, even as she’d nagged at him to tell her what was inside. He hadn’t, and Leo—the only one who knew about the contents by necessity—had kept his secret.
He wanted Maria to know this first.
She took the envelope gingerly, staring at the garish bow. ‘You know, Seb, you can’t buy me with gifts either.’
‘I swear to you that is not what I’m trying to do.’ Although now he thought about it rationally—or as rationally as he could after so little sleep—it could definitely look that way. ‘Just...open it. And then let me explain, please. Okay?’
Maria nodded and peeled off the bow. Seb held his breath as she lifted the flap and pulled out the thick, creamy paper inside. ‘This is another contract?’
‘Not exactly.’
Her eyes widened as she read through it. ‘This is...this is a controlling share of Cattaneo Jewels. You’re giving me Leo’s shares?’
‘Well, Leo is, as soon as he’s allowed to. Once it goes through, the family business will be more yours than mine.’
‘Why...why would you do that?’ she asked, exasperation leaking out in her tone. ‘Seb, I told you, you can’t buy me back. That’s not what I want. I just—’
‘You want to be free to find someone who loves you, the way my parents loved each other, the way Leo and Noemi have found someone, right?’ Maria nodded, and Seb allowed himself a small smile. ‘See, I do listen sometimes.’
‘I know. And I appreciate this gesture, Seb. I do. And I know I’ll always be in your life because we’ll always have Frankie. But I don’t need this. And I don’t think... I don’t think it would help, working so closely with you.’
‘That was sort of the idea,’ Seb muttered, and Maria’s gaze turned suspicious.
