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‘Or I have chefs down the road,’ Nico said. ‘And, anyway, you need to shop.’
‘Why?’
‘Because you need new clothes. And a haircut.’ He picked up her hand. ‘And a manicure, my dear elegant wife.’
She had never in her life had a manicure.
‘I don’t have time for that. I have a son to take care of.’
‘And a husband to please…?’ Then he stopped teasing her. ‘You have taken care of our son alone for the last two months, so today is for you. Go to the boutiques at the hotel and then to the salon. I shall let them know to expect you.’
‘Nico, I can’t—’
‘You never have to say that again, Aurora.’
But he was not saying it with the tender care she needed this morning. He was not holding her in his arms and telling her the nightmare of her world without him was over.
Instead, he was basically telling her that the money was taken care of.
Which was nice, of course. But it wasn’t even the icing on the cake. It was like a sugar ball that rotted your teeth and stuck in your throat.
She could not bear to spend the day without him—without knowing what went on in his head and what his reaction was to the fears she had shared last night.
‘I could come and see you on your lunchbreak?’ she suggested.
‘Aurora, I don’thavea lunchbreak.’
‘Is that only for peasants?’ she sneered.
‘Yep.’
‘Well, I might bring Gabe up to your office…’
‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘You need a day off to take care of yourself. Anyway, I’m too busy today.’ He glanced at the time. ‘I really had better go…’
Finally he handed her Gabe, and looked right into her eyes. For a second she thought he might kiss her, but it was a fleeting second, for he’d already pulled back.
‘You need to shave,’ Aurora said.
‘Funny, that, because suddenly I don’t have time.’
The nanny came in then, with another shirt. He dressed hastily and left.
Oh, what had she done…?
She looked at the baby bottle on the kitchen bench, at the dinner plates and wine glasses still on the dinner table from last night, and she thought of her dishevelled appearance and all the chaos she had brought into his supremely ordered life.
Nico was a man who liked order and calm.
Well, he would get it, Aurora decided. He would come home tonight to the fabled perfect wife.
Nico would get the woman he truly wanted.
‘Aurora!’
Luigi greeted her like a long-lost friend. ‘Marianna called and said you were coming in! It is so wonderful to see you again.’
‘I look terrible,’ Aurora grumbled as she sat in a chair in the luxurious salon. She looked so sallow in the mirror that she barely recognised herself.
