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‘Neverbe sorry for calling me.’
He sounded so calm and so steady and sonicecompared to the hell she had just left.
‘Where are you?’ he asked.
‘Sitting on a bench in the Prati district.’ She gave him the specifics.
‘I am ten minutes away,’ Nico said, for the streets would be empty.
Make that eight minutes, because he dressed so hastily and continued speaking to her as he climbed in his car. ‘What’s happened?’
‘I don’t want to talk about it.’
‘Okay.’
Sometimes she was grateful for the sparseness of his words, and grateful too that he did not fill every silence.
Aurora took a deep breath. ‘Nico, there is something I have to tell you before you get here. It’s not just me. I have my baby with me…’
‘Okay.’
No questions.
Not even one.
And then she saw an expensive black car slow down and come to a stop. She found she could not bear to see the disappointment in his face, so as he got out and came towards her she looked down at Gabe.
‘He’s here,’ she told her son.
‘Aurora.’
She looked up, and standing there, in a heavy black coat and with snow in his hair, was Nico.
And Rome, early in the morning, was suddenly beautiful again.
‘You haven’t shaved.’
‘Would you have preferred to sit a while longer on that freezing bench while I did?’
‘No,’ she admitted, and was surprised that he smiled.
She opened her mouth to speak again, but did not know what to say.
Nico spoke first. ‘Not here,’ he said. ‘Not now.’
Instead, he took off his coat and wrapped it around both her and little Gabe and led them to the car.
‘My car is just here—let’s get you both inside.’
Both.
He said it so easily, but the word felt as if it pierced his brain, for there were two of them now.
Nico didn’t quite know what he meant by that, but as he drove back to his home it played over and over…
There were two of them now.
The gates opened on their approach, as they had the first time she’d arrived. How had she ever thought his home intimidating? Aurora wondered as she stepped inside. It felt so delicious that she closed her eyes for a moment and breathed in the scent of Nico’s home.
