to her confidence. But he was right. She was exhausted, both physically and emotionally. Between jet lag and the long walk, she could use a place to sit down.
She hesitated for a moment, then he said, “I promise not to break her. I have two...nipoti. What’s your word for it? Nieces?”
Smiling, she held Anna out to him. She should have brought her baby sling, but she hadn’t been able to think straight since the plane had touched down. Nerves. Fear.
Hadn’t Luca told her he was in no hurry to have children? He had. More than once, in fact. She swallowed hard, even as this doctor’s hands cradled the baby like an old pro, speaking to her in Italian.
He glanced at Elyse, just a hint of speculation in his eyes. “Ready?”
Not at all, but she wasn’t going to make her confessions to anyone other than Luca himself. So she lied.
“I am. Lead the way.” In handing Anna over, the die had been cast and her decision made. She was going to walk into Luca’s office with her head held high and tell him that Anna was his daughter, and then hope that, in doing so, she’d made the right decision.
* * *
Luca stared at the EEG readings in front of him. Taken from a six-year-old boy, they showed the typical running waves of a Rolandic seizure. Benign. Filippo would more than likely outgrow them. Great news for his parents, who were worried out of their minds. It was always a relief to have a case where there was no threat to life. Just a temporary bump in the road.
Kind of like his time in the US had been. One big bump in the road, followed by a wave of smaller ones that still set him back on his ass at odd moments. But he thought it was getting better. His mind dwelt on her less. Or maybe it was just that he kept himself so busy that he didn’t have time to think about her.
Kind of like he was doing now?
“Porca miseria!”
A second or two after the words left his mouth, there was a knock on the door to his office. Great. He hadn’t mean to swear quite that loudly.
“Yes?”
Lorenzo appeared in the doorway, holding a baby.
Shock stilled his thoughts. “Everything okay?”
“Someone is here to see you.”
It was obviously not the baby, so he raised his brows in question.
“She said she worked with you in Atlanta.”
A section of his heart jolted before settling back into rhythm. He’d worked with a lot of people at Atlanta Central.
“Does this person have a name?”
“I’d probably better let her tell you herself.” Lorenzo switched to English.
This time the jolt was stronger. Lasted longer. Surely it wasn’t... But the look on his friend’s face told him all he needed to know.
He hadn’t dated since he’d returned to Italy and didn’t see himself doing so anytime in the near future. And those plans to revisit his decision to leave Atlanta permanently? Put off over and over until it was far too late to do anything about it.
He hadn’t been able to stomach going back to his hospital in Rome either. His parents and two sisters lived there, and he hadn’t felt like answering a million questions. Oh, there’d still been the worried texts and phone calls about why he’d suddenly returned to Italy, but since they hadn’t been able to see his face, he was pretty sure he’d put their fears to rest. As far as they knew, he’d simply decided to practice in his own country. A short tenable statement. One he’d stuck to no matter how hard it was to force those words past his lips.
He ignored the churning in his stomach. “Okay, where is she?”
Instead of answering, Lorenzo pushed the door farther open and came into the room, revealing the woman who’d driven him out of the States and back to Italy.
Hell!
Chaotic memories gathered around, all of them pointing at the figure in front of them. He swallowed hard in an effort to push them back.
“Elyse? What are you doing here?” There was a slight accusation in his tone that he couldn’t suppress. A defense mechanism, another way to hold back the wall of emotion.
Dio. He’d fallen for this woman, once upon a time, and then she’d gone and stabbed him in the back in the worst possible way. Better to let her know up front that he hadn’t forgotten.
But why was she in Italy?
When she didn’t answer, Lorenzo turned and handed her the baby. Shock flared up his spine. He looked from one to the other as a sudden horrible thought came to him. Did the two of them know each other? Was that why she’d made sure he was fired?
No. Of course not. Lorenzo had never been out of Italy as far as he knew. There was no way the two of them could have met.
“I’ll go so you can talk.” Lorenzo glanced at Elyse. “It was very nice meeting you.”
“Thank you. You as well.”
Then he backed out of the room and closed the door behind him with a quiet click.
Something in Luca’s brain had frozen in place, the gears all stuck for several long seconds. His ass was also still firmly in his chair, something his mother would have frowned about.
But the memories were still doing their work, each one stabbing his heart and sticking there, like darts on a dartboard.
She ventured closer to the desk. “Luca?”
Somehow he dislodged his tongue, making a careful sidestep around the biggest question in his head while he puzzled through it. “How’s your mother?”
He glanced at the baby. Elyse didn’t have any siblings, so that wasn’t a niece she was holding. Had she adopted a child after he’d left?
“She’s still hanging in there. The Parkinson’s progression has remained slower than average.”
They’d tried an experimental treatment a few years back that had helped tremendously, even if it hadn’t rolled back the clock.
“Good.” Of course she hadn’t traveled all this way just to report on her mother’s condition. That left one question: Why was Elyse Tenner standing in the middle of his office, holding a baby? He nodded toward the seat in front of the desk. “Would you like a coffee?”
She sank into one of the chairs with what looked like relief. “I would love one, thank you.”
“When did you arrive?” He got up and measured grounds into his coffee press and turned on the kettle to heat the water. The mindless task gave his fuzzy brain time to work through a few of the more obvious items: yes, she was really here, and he was pretty sure she wouldn’t be if he’d simply left his toothbrush at her place. So it had to be something important. Important enough to travel across the ocean to see him.
His
