Peyton laughed as Valentino got back in his chair. He looked utterly exhausted. His stubble darker than earlier, his clothes more rumpled. His hair looked as if it had been raked to within an inch of its life. ‘You should go home,’ she murmured. ‘You look totally wrecked.’
He shook his head. ‘I’m not leaving,’ he said. ‘I’m never leaving.’
Peyton swallowed. She believed him. The man had seen her at her lowest ebb and was still here. Arnie had never been good with her tears and hadn’t been able to cope with her grief. He certainly would have been at a loss with her withdrawn state.
Valentino had just taken it in his stride.
‘I’m sorry about earlier. I don’t know where I went… I totally freaked out.’
His hand slid back to re-join hers nestled against her belly. ‘You went where you needed to go. It’s okay.’
Peyton gave him a small smile and yawned as her eyelids fluttered shut.
‘Go to sleep,’ he urged. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’
The words were like music to her ears, but something niggled at the back of her mind as she drifted off. Three seconds later she was wide awake, rising to her elbows, her heart in her mouth. ‘McKenzie!’
‘She’s fine,’ he said. ‘She’s at your parents’. I’ve been giving them regular updates.’
‘Really?’ she demanded, her pulse still racing as she castigated herself for being so self-absorbed that she’d completely forgotten about herdaughter. McKenzie had been with her parents when it had all gone down but still…
‘Really,’ he assured her, urging her back down. ‘Look. Your mum sent me a snap of her reading a book with your dad.’
He tapped his phone screen and showed her, Peyton’s anxiety melting away at the sight. Now she could hear, McKenzie loved being read to, being able to just follow the pictures rather than watching for the signs.
Peyton handed back his phone, their fingers brushing as she whispered, ‘Thank you.’
He nodded and whispered back, ‘Shut your eyes.’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ she murmured with a smile but, wrung out from the tumult of the day and overwhelmed by a surge of relief she had not expected to be riding, it took no time to slide into the oblivion of deep, restive sleep.
Peyton wasn’t sure how much time had elapsed since she’d last woken but she could see a slight pink hue lightening the sky through a gap in the blind covering the window in her room.
Her gaze drifted to Valentino’s sleeping face. For the first time he actually looked his thirty-seven years. A lock of hisluscious hair had fallen forward and was kissing his eyelid. It was such an endearing picture, her heart filled with her love for him and she forgot all about her anger from yesterday.
It had been irrational and unreasonable, and it just didn’t matter any more. He had been her true hero through this whole frightening episode and she loved him completely. Like he loved her.
Yeah, now she wasn’t in a panic, memories were filtering back. He’d told her he loved her and today, at the breaking of a new dawn, after a night of miracles, she was going to embrace it and choose to be happy.
Peyton advanced her finger slowly, gently lifting the stray lock of his hair back into place. She smiled as he uttered something unintelligible and stirred awake, his eyes drifting open.
He looked completely dishevelled but so damn good all at once.
She gave him time to focus before she murmured, ‘Good morning.’
Licking dry lips, he smiled as he levered himself upright. ‘Buongiorno.’
Peyton returned the smile, her toes curling at how his husky morning voice made his accent more pronounced. ‘You told me you loved me.’
For a moment he tensed, going very,verystill as he searched her face. But then, slowly, as her smile grew bigger, he relaxed. ‘Yes.’
‘Did you mean it?’
‘Assolutamente.’
That word didn’t need translating and Peyton loved its definitiveness. ‘And when did you have this particular epiphany?’
‘Two weeks ago on the plane as it took me as far away from you as possible.’
