His lips pressed tenderly against my skin. It sent so many memories flickering through my mind. “I’ve got to go meet our son.”
Give him a kiss for me.
But he was already gone.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX: LEO
As I stood in front of Luca’s bassinet, my chest constricted. I reached my hand out to touch the top of the plastic. When I did, Luca turned his head towards me.
The sound of a voice caused me to jump and jerk my hand away. “Hello, Mr. Neretti. I’m Bea,” an older nurse with salt and pepper hair pronounced as she sashayed into the room.
“Hello.”
If she was a famiglia nurse, I would have told her to call me Leo. But I didn’t want to do anything to put her at ease. He might not have been my blood, but Luca would receive the best care possible since he bore the Neretti name on his bassinet.
With a bright smile, she asked, “You’re wanting to do some skin to skin, aren’t you?”
“Not really. I just came to check on him.”
It appeared she hadn’t heard me because she practically shoved me away from the incubator before guiding me over to the chair. “Go on and take your shirt off.”
“Excuse me?”
A girlish giggle escaped her lips. “From the looks of you, I’d never imagined you’d be a shy one.”
“I’m not.”
I’d barely spoken the words before her hands came to the buttons at my collar. Too fucking floored by her audacity to smack her hand away like I normally would have, I merely stared open-mouthed as she began unbuttoning me.
When she met what had to be my astonished eyes, she winked. “Don’t you be getting any ideas. I have a son your age, not to mention you’re a married man.”
“I’ll try not to.”
After spreading open the lapels of my shirt and baring my chest, she gave me an appreciative smile. Her reaction caused a laugh to burst from me. “You’re a donna civettuola,” I mused.
“Is that cougar in Italian?”
“It means a flirty woman.”
She tsked at me. “Those looks and that language–you could make a good woman go bad.”
“Is that right?”
“Mm, hmm.”
She then turned and went back over to the bassinet. With the ease of years of practice, she effortlessly picked up Luca. “He is such a fighter,” she mused as she swayed him in her arms.
At her words and tone, Luca flailed his tiny fists and made little cat-like noises, which caused Bea to smile broadly. “You’re going to be a tough guy just like your daddy, aren’t you?”
I didn’t correct her. If I was going to get Drea back, I was going to have to start thinking about Luca as my son.
After Bea eased Luca into my arms, she draped a blanket over us. Since I hadn’t held many babies in my life, I glanced up at her. “Am I doing it right?”
She gave me a kind smile. “Like a pro.”
A shaky laugh echoed through me. “It doesn’t feel that way.”
“That’s because for the first time in your life, you’ve met your match.”
