A lava lamp brightened things up considerably in the stark room, as did the orange and russet bedding. Impressionist prints along with her much-loved Venetian masks added colour to the walls. Finally, she looped some rich purple gauzy fabric she’d bought in Turkey years ago along the curtain rod, letting it drape haphazardly over the bare window.
She stood back and admired her endeavours. Not bad for an hour’s work. At least the room no longer looked like the inside of an igloo.
‘What do you reckon?’ she asked Julian.
Julian beamed at her, raising Flo to his face and stroking his chin along the top of her soft head. ‘It’s… beautiful.’ He sighed.
Nat laughed. The awe in his voice was priceless.
‘Do you think you could do this to my room? Make it like my old one? Before Mummy died?’
Nat’s heart lurched in her chest at his matter-of-fact words. She scanned his face for signs of distress or grief but found none. Instead, he was looking at her as if she were Mary Poppins and had done it all with a snap of her fingers.
‘Sure,’ she replied. ‘We’ll go through the boxes tomorrow and see what we can find.’
Nat heard Flo’s half-hearted protesting meow as Julian bounced on his haunches and squeezed her a little too tight. His eyes sparkled and he looked like a normal excited four-year-old. And she knew in an instant that coming to live under Alessandro’s roof had been the right thing.
The night at the crèche with the picture had been the last straw. She hadn’t been able to stand watching this… farce of a relationship any longer. It was like her childhood all over again. Once her father had moved on to his new family it hadn’t seemed to matter what she’d done, he’d never seemed to notice.
And it hadhurt. Man, had it hurt.
Alessandro was obviously clueless, so someone had to teach him how to be a father. And regardless of every flashing light blaring at her, regardless of the attraction that simmered between them, she knew she had to be the one. She needed a place to stay and she couldn’t witness Julian’s emotional isolation one second longer.
This was a classic win–win situation.
Her stomach grumbled and she looked at the smartwatch that adorned her wrist.Midday. Julian yawned in her peripheral vision and his eyes drifted shut briefly as he continued to rub his chin against Flo’s head. They’d been having such fun she’d forgotten he was only four and still needed his afternoon sleep.
And lunch probably, too.
‘Wow,’ she announced. ‘Look at the time! Let’s get something to eat.’
Julian followed her down the stairs, Flo bundled up in his arms, purring loudly as she wallowed in cat heaven. He led her to the kitchen and Nat braced herself to face Alessandro again. He was working on a laptop at the dining table, which wasthrough an archway to the right off the massive gourmet kitchen gleaming in all its stainless-steel and white-tiled glory.
‘Sorry,’ he apologised as he looked up. ‘Just keeping abreast of the health alerts from the Australian government concerning the new influenza strain.’
Nat nodded. ‘You think it’ll spread here?’
‘With international travel, sure. Thankfully the epidemiologists aren’t predicting a pandemic but if we’re going to be treating cases of it in theERthen I want to be forearmed.’
‘Of course,’ she murmured. Made absolute sense.
With Julian preoccupied with the cat, Alessandro shut the laptop lid and changed the topic. ‘I trust you’ve settled in?’
Nat’s gaze settled on his broad shoulders. ‘Yes, thank you. Julian and I are going to attack his room tomorrow.’
‘Okay. I’ll locate his boxes and take them up there in the morning.’
‘Thank you.’
His gaze held hers, boring into her soul, like he already knew her, and she suddenly felt out of breath. A lock of hair fell across his forehead and Nat’s fingers tingled with the desire to push it back. She could actually see herself doing it in some weird slow-motion flash forward.
Except he didn’t have a shirt on. And neither did she.
Nat dragged her gaze away and nervously looked around for something to do. Anything. The stainless-steel fridge was right there and she reached for the door with relish. ‘I was just going to make some lunch for Julian and I before he goes down for his nap.’
She stared in the fridge unseeingly for a moment while her pulse settled and her panties unknotted. ‘Shall I make you something as well?’
‘There’s not a whole lot there, I’m afraid. I really need to do a proper shop.’
