Nat gasped. ‘This is beautiful.’
‘Nonna gave it to me,’ Julian murmured.
Alessandro looked at his son as Julian reached out and pushed one of the stars with a finger. He smiled. ‘That’s right.’
His mother had bought it in Murano when she’d been visiting relatives in Venice. He remembered how Julian would lie on his back for ages as a baby in his cot and watch the constellations swing above him in bright disorder.
Julian looked at him as he clutched George tighter. ‘Can you hang it above my bed like in London?’
Alessandro expelled a breath. It was probably the first time Julian had directly addressed him for anything remotely personal. Was this the kind of breakthrough Nat had beenhoping for? He swallowed down a tightening in his throat as he nodded briskly. ‘Of course.’
They spent the next couple of hours putting things to rights in Julian’s room, hanging and placing, Julian actually engaged in the process, filling Alessandro’s heart to brimming. Almost like old times. When they were done, his room was hardly recognisable.
It actually looked like achildlived there.
‘What’s this?’
He and Julian both turned from admiring the transformation to see Nat holding up a box of fish food, a slight frown on her face. She held it up and raised her eyebrows at him but it was Julian who answered. ‘It’s Gilbert and Sullivan’s food.’
Alessandro remembered buying the two goldfish for his son’s third birthday. Julian had thought he was Superman. Camilla, however, had not been impressed. She certainly hadn’t mourned their passing.
‘You had fish?’ Nat asked Julian.
Julian nodded. ‘Daddy bought them for my birthday. But they got sick and died.’
‘Oh. I’m so sorry,’ she said.
His little shoulders moved in the tiniest of shrugs. ‘Fish don’t live very long.’
He said it so matter-of-factly it broke Alessandro’s heart. Julian had been through so much. His mother’s death, his pet fishing dying, and he’d had to leave his cat behind. No wonder he’d been so withdrawn. Today was the most animated he’d seen his son in a long time.
Apart from when he was with Nat – of course.
Alessandro’s heart thudded in his chest as he contemplated taking the next step forward. He’d been terrified of going too far too fast but Nathadsaid that sometimes pushing was needed. And this felt like one of those moments he could take a firmstep in his son’s direction. ‘I can buy you some more,’ he offered tentatively.
Julian’s face lit up. ‘Really?’
A lump lodged in Alessandro’s throat at the hope in Julian’s eyes. ‘Really.’
Hugging himself and hopping from foot to foot on the spot, Julian nodded vigorously. ‘Yes please!’
The lump grew to the size of the room. Julian hadn’t run into his arms and hugged him effusively but it felt like a true moment of connection. Like their first father–son moment in a very long time.
Sure, there was a long way to go but it was a start.
Flicking a glance at Nat, he found her grinning so big it snatched his breath away. Clearly, he’d finally done something right and he grinned back.
9
A couple of days later Nat was working triage when her friend Peyton walked through the doors, cradling her listless three-year-old daughter, McKenzie. The child was pale with mottled limbs.
Peyton had been through the wringer in the last few years. McKenzie, a twin, had been born at twenty-seven weeks. She and her twin sister, Daisy, had been very frail and while McKenzie had defied the odds, Daisy had died after a four-month uphill battle.
It had been a devastating time, compounded by her husband leaving shortly after and McKenzie’s chronic health issues. Peyton looked like she hadn’t slept in a lot of days, her brow furrowed. A far cry from the vibrant woman she’d known back in Perth.
Nat didn’t know how she kept going. Not only did she care for her high-needs daughter but she also had to work part time, as Arnie, her rat-fink ex, refused to pay for anything more than he absolutely had to.
‘Oh dear, she’s not looking well, is she?’ Nat murmured.
