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It had to be the understatement of the century. ‘I’ve certainly had better.’ The irony in his tone drew a hesitant smile from her.
‘What would have happened if my flight had already taken off?’
Having contemplated that possibility for the whole of his crazy drive through Palermo, Cristiano had no wish to revisit those emotions. ‘I would have had to make an impromptu visit to London, which would have been a shame,’ he murmured, ‘because I hear that you are having a particularly wet English summer. Fortunately, both of us have been spared that.’
‘This is just temporary, Cristiano. I haven’t agreed to anything.’ Having delivered that less than encouraging reminder that the future of their relationship was still undecided, she glanced at the phone vibrating in his hand. ‘You need a new one.’
‘The state of my phone is the least of my worries right now.’ It was the state of his marriage that troubled him. His challenge now was to work out how to gain her trust again. He understood that for Laurel, trust was everything.
‘Answer it, before Santo decides that I’ve killed you and buried the body.’
Cristiano rose to his feet. ‘This will be quick—’ Without once taking his eyes off Laurel, he switched to Italian, giving his brother an edited version of the past few hours. When he hung up Laurel’s gaze was steady.
‘I expect he wanted to know whether you’d thrown me out yet.’
‘He knows I’m still in love with you.’ That declaration sent the tension rippling between them.
‘I can’t imagine that went down well.’
‘I don’t need my brother’s permission for the way I feel.’
‘He hates me, Cristiano. I saw his face yesterday. And your mother gave me a long reproachful look. I’m the evil daughter-in-law.’ Her eyes tired, she pushed her chair back from the table and stood up. ‘You can’t pretend it doesn’t matter. Nor can you punch everyone who says bad things about me. This place is beautiful, but it doesn’t change the fact that we’re a mess. Nothing can change that.’ She turned abruptly and walked to the edge of the pool.
Knowing that there was more that she wasn’t telling him, Cristiano strode after her and closed his hands over her shoulders.
Her arms were lean and strong but he could tell that she’d lost weight in the time they’d been apart and that knowledge was one more blow to his conscience.
‘A mess can always be cleaned up and this isn’t about anyone else. It’s about us. I want you to relax. The last few days have been horrendous for you.’ He thought of how she’d looked as she’d stepped off that plane, so brave and gutsy as she’d walked into hell so that she could be by the side of her best friend.
And he, instead of admiring her courage, had questioned her loyalty.
‘Stop thinking and worrying and sending black looks in my direction and just enjoy your favourite place on earth. This evening I’m taking you down to a restaurant I’ve discovered on the beach. Just locals, so far undiscovered by tourists.’ They were going to spend time together, he vowed. Time they hadn’t spent together after they were married.
There was a moment when neither of them spoke and then she drew in a little breath.
‘I don’t have anything to wear.’
That quintessentially female response loosened the tension in his muscles. If her biggest worry was what she was going to wear then they were making progress. ‘That is easily fixed. There are clothes in the dressing room.’
Her head turned. Those beautiful eyes cooled and narrowed. ‘Your bedroom is stocked with women’s clothes?’
‘Our bedroom.’ He found that uncensored display of female jealousy oddly reassuring. At least she cared who he’d been clothing in her absence. ‘I bought them for you. It was part of the surprise. The day after we discovered you were pregnant you went to London on business and I made all the final arrangements. When you landed in Sicily I was going to bring you here.’
‘Instead of which you flew off to the Caribbean and we didn’t even see each other.’
Another regret to add to the pile already littering his mind.
‘Yes.’
‘I only saw you once more after that, when I was packing to leave Sicily.’ She paused. ‘I expected you to come after me. Not that I wanted you to, but I expected it. Why didn’t you?’
It was a question he’d asked himself a million times. ‘I was blinded by my own sense of righteous injustice that you’d walked out on our marriage. I made many mistakes. Give me the chance to make it up to you.’
There was a long silence. ‘Can we go for a walk through the town? I always loved the little antique shops and the buzz.’
At that moment he realised just how afraid he’d been that she’d demand to be taken back to the airport. That she wouldn’t give him another chance. ‘It’s the middle of the day, tesoro. You will be sautéed in the heat and squashed by tourists.’
‘I’m sure you have a hat in the wardrobe you bought me and the two of us can elbow our way through tourists. Please? I really want to do something normal.’
