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“I can see why.”
He shook his head. “There are two sides to every story, and she had her reasons. We were blinded by love and loyalty for Fiero; we didn’t exactly give Elodie a chance.”
“You regret that?”
“Si.” His eyes narrowed. “I should have encouraged Fiero to put himself in her shoes, instead of blindly taking his side.”
“I can understand why you’d have regrets, but really, that’s a perfectly natural response. If someone hurts a member of your family, you take their part.”
He grunted. “I suppose so.”
“Anyway, all’s well that ends well.”
He nodded. “She’s been the making of Fiero.”
“How so?”
“She’s softened him, and made him humble in a way he needed.” Nico had visibly relaxed. “I’m one of his closest friends but he had a habit of pushing people away. Elodie and Jack made that impossible.”
“Jack seems adorable.”
“He’s a handful, just like Fiero as a child,” Nico laughed. “But he’s also a very sweet boy.”
“You’re good with him.”
“Thank you.”
“Did you –,” Her voice tapered off into nothing, the question she’d been about to ask surprising her for how intimate it was.
“What is it?”
“Nothing.”
“Not nothing,” he insisted, latching his fingers behind her back, wrapping her in the circle of his arms.
“I was going to ask if, after Alexander, you wanted children of your own?”
She was close enough to see his Adam’s apple shift in response. “No.”
“No, you didn’t think about it? Or ‘no’ you didn’t want them?”
“I didn’t want them.” Then, a moment later, “I still don’t.”
Maddie was surprised by the force of her reaction to that. She wanted to argue with him, to convince him he should have children. But to what end? She had no skin in the game – Nico was his own man, he could do whatever he wanted. But he was so good with Jack, seeing them together had made her realise he’d be an excellent father.
“That’s a shame.”
“Is it?”
He was quietly watchful and something pricked at her skin, lifting goose bumps all over her.
“And you?” he moved deeper in the water, so her feet could no longer touch the bottom, so she lifted her legs, wrapping them around his back, the intimacy of that warming her even as their conversation was sharp and pointed.
“And me?” She asked, breathlessly.
“Do you want children?”
“I always thought I did,” she agreed with a small shift of her head.
