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She had done her best to wrest Leonard away from his coterie of friends, but he had waved her aside. He’d been far too busy carolling the joys of his son finally settling down and saying it was‘about time, dammit.’
And now here she was. She’d cleared her throat and nervously ploughed into a stammering explanation of everything, pushing past the moment when all the excited voices had fallen silent—including Leonard’s.
She looked around her.
She could barely meet Leonard’s eyes, but she did it because he was really the one she was talking to and she was going to be firm but gentle.
‘We did it with the best of intentions,’ she said softly, motioning for him to come closer to her...close enough for her to reach out and hold his hand in hers.
Even so, everyone else clustered around her too, and she knew she was also addressing them—like it or not.
‘I don’t understand...’ Leonard blustered.
‘I was a coward,’ she told him. ‘You surprised us, and we rushed into an explanation we thought you would accept because we didn’t want to stress you out.’
‘Youweren’t the coward! Alessio—’
‘He did what he thought was best because that’s the kind of guy he is, Leonard. He’s a good man. What happened wasn’t his fault. It was mine.’
‘I’m not getting you, my girl. You’ll have to stop talking in riddles.’
Sophie could feel the prickle of nervous perspiration breaking out all over her body like a tingling, uncomfortable nettle rash, making her want to fidget even though she remained calm and composed. At least on the surface.
Inside, she was breaking up.
‘I made the mistake of falling in love,’ she said quietly, ‘and before you jump into any accusations, this wasn’t Alessio’s fault. He laid his cards on the table from the start. It just so happened that my foolish heart didn’t obey the rules of the game.’
‘Made the mistake... Falling in love... Wasn’t Alessio’s fault...’
Alessio had to strain to hear what she was saying, but it was possible because you could have heard a pin drop in the silent room.
He’d imagined an impassioned speech, but he was given instead a quiet, resigned and accepting confession.
And through it all, however she felt after his response to the outpouring of her heart, there was no bitterness in her lowered voice.
Something inside him twisted as the full force of the realisation he’d been hiding from hit him.
It wasn’t just a case of her lovinghim.
It was a case of him lovingherright back.
How had that happened?
And how had he not realised earlier?
The signs had been there. The need to see her...the peace and contentment he felt when he was with her...the way everything inside him took flight at the sound of her voice... The way she made him laugh and he thought about her all the time.
And yet he had pretended to himself that he was immune to the nonsense of love.
Of course Alessio knew just what he had to do.
But would she have him? Would she even believe him? After all, he was the guy who had been happy to launch into a convenient lie.
Would he be rejected?
Just like that, Alessio knew what love was all about. It was about preferring the pain of rejection to the safety of living in an ivory tower. It was about not having a choice when it came to taking a risk with your heart. It was about opening a door that had been kept locked his entire life.
He walked into the room.
