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Chapter 14
HE SLEPT IN THE guest room that night. If he’d gone to bed he knew what would have happened. No matter what passed between them during the day, their bodies sought solace and comfort in their inevitable coupling. If he’d gone to bed, they would have made love, and he wasn’t sure he could do that to her.
Not when she was so obviously being torn apart by guilt.
A guilt he would have said he wanted her to feel, only weeks ago. A guilt he would have sworn until he was blue in the face that she deserved. And now? He knew only that he couldn’t take her in his arms, make her desperate with her own desires, and offer her nothing other than pleasure in return.
They barely spoke the next day. She was quiet and insisted she had to get herself ready for the wedding.
He slept in the guestroom again that night. It was ridiculous, but he was holding onto the fact that they would deal with all of this after the wedding.
And in the meantime, he had Joshua. He took him to school, picked him up, and he was certain that they were doing the right thing. The current state of affairs wouldn’t continue. They’d find a better way to interact in time, he assured himself.
On the day of the wedding, his parents arrived, and he was glad to see them, despite his mother’s consternation.
“You’re getting married?” His mother demanded, as she swept into the house, her eyes looking for whoever his bride might be. Maria Salbatore was clearly unhappy with this development – doubtless because she expected to have been consulted prior to the day of the wedding. And given her closeness to Bella, he could understand how this situation would have blindsided Maria.
“She’s upstairs,” he answered her unspoken question, hugging his mother and then shaking his father’s hand.
“I’ll say. How could you not have mentioned her to me?”
“Mother, do we have to do this today?”
“It’s all a surprise,” Roberto interrupted. “That’s all.”
“I wanted to tell you about her in person,” Xavier said, gesturing for them to take a seat.
“You could have done that weeks ago. Spain is only a short flight away; you couldn’t have brought your bride home to meet us? Is your wedding day really when you’d choose for us to see her for the first time?”
“It’s better this way.” And at precisely that moment, before he could expand, the door to the lounge room flew open and Joshua tore into the room, a shoe in one hand and a giggle erupting from his mouth.
Janice followed. “Come here, you little Master Salbatore, and let me straighten that suit up.”
“No,” Joshua giggled and then, realizing that there were other people in the room, coming to an abrupt stop. With his innate sense of curiosity, he stared at the two newcomers, and they were staring back, utterly watchful and completely robbed of breath and words.
“Mother, father,” Xavier drawled, “I’d like you to meet Joshua.”
“But he’s…”
“Yes, I know.” Xavier forestalled any comment they might make. Though Joshua was only three, they still hadn’t explained to him exactly who Xavier was, having agreed to wait a little longer.
“Go into the hall and put your shoes on, please, Josh.”
Joshua began to giggle once more and ran for the door, pitching himself at it like a little cannon, but Janice was there and she scooped him up as he ran past. And then they were both laughing, having no idea of the little localized tsunami they’d left in their wake.
When they were alone, Maria said, “You … he looks exactly like you did as a boy.”
“There is some of his mother in him, too,” Xavier murmured meaningfully.
“I don’t understand.” Maria fanned her face and Roberto held her arm, supporting her.
“Four years ago I had a brief relationship with a woman. Joshua is the result.”
“Four years ago you were… engaged to Arabella,” his mother said, her eyes dragging to Roberto’s.
“Arabella and I had broken up.”
Shocked silence met his pronouncement. “But you were engaged. At the hospital. She was --,” Maria turned to Roberto. “They were engaged.”
