Sam stared, in shock. She hadn’t imagined the slight catch in his tone. Hadn’t imagined the bob of his Adam’s apple. He sounded on edge. Stepping back, she looked up into his face, and something slid into place. “Wait, did Angelina tell you about my accident?”
“Does it matter, Sam?”
“Yes, it does,” she said, her voice rising, aware that her parents were staring at them. “Where’s your blasted honesty now?”
“Fine,” he said with that infuriating calm in the face of her temper. “She was at the house yesterday. She mentioned that you had a short stay in the hospital two weeks ago. I flew here overnight.”
She felt as if she’d been punched in the gut. Pushing away from him, she’d have stumbled if not for the wall at her back. “Did you come because you thought I was dying?” Tears pricked, never far these days. “As you can see, I’m perfectly fine, and you can fuck off with your pity. I don’t have—”
She never finished. Because the blasted man picked her up in his arms all the while being extremely gentle with her foot and walked up the stairs.
Sam buried her face in his chest but didn’t protest. Or fight. Or say anything. She was too busy crying, falling apart, to put up a fight. And it felt like her heart was breaking all over again.
To leave him once had been heartbreaking, but to do it again…she wasn’t strong enough.
Alessandro deposited Sam onto the small bed in the attic room. While every cell in him wanted to crowd her into the bed, kiss her and generally railroad her into submission, he backed off. This wasn’t a small thing, and the last thing he wanted was to restart their relationship with him minimizing her complaints.
He looked around the small room. Pictures of Sam greeted him from a bulletinboard, from all ages and sizes. Framed art hung from the wall, some her own pieces and some not. Her room was a kaleidoscope of colors and sunlight and shimmer. Just like her.
Seeing a familiar face on the board, he went closer for a better look. It was a picture of Matteo and Sam with his arm around her, younger and grinning into the camera.
He backed away, that prick of jealousy as fresh as always. But before he turned, one last thing caught his attention. It was a sketch of him, rendered in nothing but dark lines. That dark void that had opened up within him since she’d left ate it up hungrily.
Finally, he turned to find Sam glaring at him, her face etched with exhaustion. “Go to sleep,bella. You clearly need…” He swallowed the rest.
“As soon as you leave.”
“I’m not leaving, Sameera. Not until we talk. It’s not too late to go to the hotel. We’ll have privacy and more room,” he said, eyeing the single bed. There was no way he could sleep next to her on that.
“There’s nothing I want to do with you that requires privacy.”
He crawled onto her small bed, nuzzled into her temple and whispered, “I do.”
She sniffled, and a tear made a track down her cheek. He wiped it away with his sleeve. “That’s gross. I have tissues,” she said.
“I’ve licked things off of your body,tesoro. This is nothing.”
Pink crested her cheeks, and a tentative smile curved her mouth. When he reached for her hand, she gave it reluctantly. He laced his fingers through hers, and something in his chest settled. Like a key sliding into place, turning tumblers, unlocking a whole new world of joy and contentment for him.
It had started turning from the first moment. He’d been too numb inside to see it happening, to appreciate it.
“Why did you leave without saying good-bye?”
“My cousin Kavi…remember her?”
“The one that called you a stubborn goat?Sì.I like her.”
He felt her surprise rather than saw it. Did she think he’d forgotten a single moment of the time they’d spent together?
“She finally told me what was happening here. She always tells it like it is. Mom and Dad…are pregnant. That’s what set her off to a near breakdown. She…she’s forty-six, and she was terrified the baby might have the same genetic heart condition I have. They were doing all these tests to see if it was even viable. Her blood pressure was out of control. A little baby brother… Can you imagine?”
Fresh tears filled her eyes, and he tucked her face into his shoulder.
Relief made him shudder when she stayed there. “Anyway, they’re having this baby, and I told them I’d cut them off completely if they kept secrets from me ever again. Or if they treated me like a child anymore. I love the idea of him so much already, Alessandro. I think I understand some of her overprotectiveness with me.”
“She and the baby are healthy?”
“Everything’s good. Perfect.” She pulled back to look into his face. “After Kavi told me, I wanted to be here for them. But of course I had an accident not two weeks after coming back.”
