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CHAPTER 58
ROCCO
‘Now you decide to show your face?’ Rocco hissed to the man standing on the other side of Valentina’s bed.
The man turned to him. ‘This is as much a shock to me as it is to you. I only found out a few hours ago.’
Rocco was momentarily stupefied.
‘I flew up from London and I’m staying with Jay. It was just gone midnight when he told me. I’ve been up all night trying to get my head around this. I was on my way round to your house when Jay called to say Valentina was in labour and heading to the hospital.’
Rocco looked down at Valentina who was sucking deeply on a plastic tube pumping out gas and air. She took it out of her mouth and fell back against the pillow.
‘I’m so sorry. It’s my fault. I didn’t tell him.’ She turned to the other man. ‘I didn’t tell you.’ She sighed. ‘Rocco, meet Arlo. Arlo, Rocco. Arlo’s the drummer. Jay’s drummer. In the band. He has very toned arms.’ Valentina gave a little giggle. ‘Oh, Rocco, don’t be mad. I went to see Drive With Care when I was in London with Leanne. I didn’t know it was them as it was a secret concert but then I went backstage and we spent the weekend together, holed up in a hotel room. I don’t mean me and the band, that would have been odd. I mean me and Arlo.. And now… ow… oww. Owwww.’ She bit down on the plastic again and breathed in deeply. A few seconds later she took it away and waved it about as she carried on speaking. ‘And now we’re all here.’
‘I think you may be missing some parts of the story, sis.’
‘I agree,’ Arlo said. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘Even after a one-night stand, he deserved to know,’ Rocco said kindly to Valentina.
‘It wasn’t just a one-night stand,’ Arlo said. ‘Well, it wasn’t to me. I thought everything was going well until she dumped me and then blocked me.’
‘Why, what did you do to her?’ Rocco said accusingly.
‘He was about to dump me so I got in there first,’ Valentina piped up.
Arlo looked shocked. ‘Why the hell did you think I was going to dump you?’
‘You messaged me and said we need to talk.’
Arlo shook his head in bewilderment. ‘And…’
‘Well,’ Valentina said, as if talking to a child, ‘obviously that meant you were going to dump me.’
‘But I wasn’t.’ Arlo looked to Rocco in wide-eyed wonder.
‘Well, it is kind of a universal dumping language,’ Rocco said, horribly aware of how many times he’d used that exact line.
Arlo looked wretched. ‘But I literally needed to talk to you. And why the hell didn’t you tell me you were pregnant?’ Arlo took a deep breath in as he rested both hands on the mattress.
Rocco felt sorry for the guy, he clearly hadn’t any idea and it was quite the bombshell to be landed with.
‘Jay worked it out,’ Valentina said. ‘I’d been trying to avoid him and then I made him promise he wouldn’t say anything.’
‘Luckily he ignored you,’ Arlo said.
‘If… If you weren’t dumping me, what did you want to talk to me about?’
Arlo looked at Rocco slightly hesitatingly.
Rocco put his hands up in the surrender pose. ‘Christ, mate, I think we’re past the point of no return in this scenario. Say what you like.’
Arlo looked back to Valentina. He cleared his throat and, with another awkward glance at Rocco said, ‘I was going to tell you that I hadn’t ever felt the way I felt about you before and I wanted to…’ another sideways glance at Rocco, ‘I was going to tell you I was in love with you and wanted us to be together.’
Valentina looked shocked. ‘But you hadn’t messaged me for weeks.’
‘I’d gone to see Jay and he was in a dreadful state. I was worried he’d do something stupid and I stayed up with him twenty-four seven for a week or so. I then managed to book Jay into a rehab retreat place abroad, which took days to organise and no phones were allowed when we got there. Then I ended up leaving my wallet and phone in a taxi going to the airport. It took what seemed like an eternity to get them back.’
