Baby Steps

by Lily Zante

  “I’ll see to her.”

  “Mom’s got her.” She folded her arms, and in a lowered voice. “Why are you so late?”

  “I’m sorry. I was caught up in paperwork which needed to be done in order to get the second inspection—”

  She waved her hand not needing his drawn out explanation right now. “Leo and Andrea are here but we’re still waiting for Gina.”

  “She canceled at the last minute and sends her apologies,” said Nico, speaking in a hushed tone as he started to go upstairs. “She said something about her mother not being well.”

  “That’s a shame.”

  “Aren’t you getting ready?” Nico asked.

  “I am ready,” she said in a flat voice and suddenly feeling like a sack of potatoes. “Try to hurry up.”

  “I’ll be down in five.” He made an apologetic face and rushed upstairs. She returned to the living room with a fake smile plastered on her face. “Nico’s here. He won’t be long,” she said, trying to sound light and unaffected but at that moment, the baby started to cry again. Ava closed her eyes and winced. “Trust her to be fussy today,” she said, hovering by the door and as she listened out for her daughter’s shrieks.

  “Go and see to her,” Andrea urged. “Don’t worry about us.” But as she was about to, the Elisabetta’s cries silenced. “Nico’s probably got her,” she replied. “She’s the first thing he wants to see as soon as he gets in.”

  Sure enough the silence continued. As much as she had been looking forward to having her friends over for dinner, the novelty was beginning to wear thin. They hadn’t even had appetizers yet and already her nerves were frayed.

  Chapter 10

  That look on her face said it all. Nico raced upstairs and wondered why he’d suggested this dinner in the first place. He could have done without the extra headache tonight especially after the shitty day he’d had; it had been another day full of paperwork and meetings.

  The good news however was that work on the Cazale Ravenna was now complete. The staff quarters had been rewired as expected and all that remained was for the safety inspectors to make their final visit. As yet there was no date for this but Bruno appeared confident that it would soon be forthcoming.

  Nico walked into the nursery to find Elsa fussing over the baby. “It’s that time of the day again,” she said, hugging the baby to her chest. Nico looked at his daughter’s tightly clenched little fists, and her tiny red face with tears streaming down her cheeks and was helpless to do anything. It killed him, especially because he could see she was in such great pain. “Let me have her,” he said, and held out his arms to take her from Elsa. He hugged the baby to his chest and kissed her head softly and for a few moments, she quieted down. He pressed his lips to her hair, and inhaled her clean cotton and baby scent. “Papa missed you, bambina,” he murmured softly.

  It didn’t matter what type of bad day he had at work, coming home to Elisabetta made everything worthwhile. It was her future he was securing and he was hoping to hand down a legacy greater than the one Edmondo had left him.

  Carefully supporting her head and neck, he cuddled her in his arms so that she was snug against his chest and sat down slowly in the glider. Placing his feet on the ottoman, he breathed out slowly, reflecting on how much this little one depended on him. It was a feeling that frightened him and yet gave him the courage to move forward with his dreams.

  “You have the magic touch,” said Elsa.

  “She loves her Papa, too,” he said.

  “Of course she does,” agreed Elsa. “You look as if you’ve had a hard day, Nico.”

  Yes,” he replied, slowly, not wanting to talk about it.

  “You mustn’t overwork yourself.” Elsa cautioned. “Are you really ready to go back full-time?”

  “I don’t have a choice.”

  “You always have a choice.”

  He didn’t agree. “Some things can’t wait,” he replied, pinching the bony surface above the corners of his eyes. When he pressed down, he could feel a dull pain along his eye socket; as if tension had curled and woven its way around his body and had taken up home right there, in that one space.

  He heard her sigh and was glad when she didn’t push that line of questioning. “Your guests arrived a short while ago and Ava’s been waiting for you to get home.” If that wasn’t a hint to get himself downstairs, he didn’t know what was and yet he didn’t want to get up, nor give Elisabetta up or move from this place of comfort. “I hate to do this to you, Nico, but Ava hasn’t had an easy day either and you need to go down and take care of your guests.”

  Her words did the trick. With a measured push he slowly raised himself to standing and begrudgingly handed his daughter back to his mother-in-law. At once Elisabetta began to cry, something which made him feel a little happy—not the sound of her tears, but the idea that his daughter didn’t want to leave his arms. Often, it seemed to be the case that Elisabetta only found solace when she was with her mother.

  “There, there,” crooned Elsa, bouncing around the room with her granddaughter and in time Elisabetta stopped crying. Nico stood by the door watching, not wanting to leave the nursery.

  “Nico?”

  “I’m going.”

  He walked into the living room not more than fifteen minutes later and greeted his guests while avoiding meeting Ava’s gaze. “I’m sorry I was so late,” he said, picking up the bottle of wine and refilling Leo and Andrea’s wine glasses. He saw that Ava still had an almost full glass of lemonade. Filling his own glass up, he then took a seat next to Ava and explained the reason for his late arrival.

  “I got caught up talking to Bruno.”

  “Is the rewiring complete?” Leo asked.

  “All done. Cheers,” he said, proposing a toast. “To good friends, and a good year for us all.” They clinked glasses and muttered the same.

  “It’s all done?” Andrea asked, sitting back and crossing her long legs.

  “It’s all done.” Nico wondered why Ava hadn’t dressed up. He’d been hoping this would have been an evening for her to unwind and make an effort but perhaps as usual he’d overlooked things. He had completely forgotten that Elisabetta could be difficult to manage in the evenings.

  “So you’ll be opening on time?” Ava asked.

  He winced. “I hope so. We’ve got to go through the safety inspection again, and this time we should pass it with flying colors.”

  “I’m sure you can’t wait,” Leo commented. “The delay must be costing a fair amount as well as messing with your advertising campaign.”

  “It is.” But Nico wasn’t in the mood to contemplate the negatives again. He’d spent the whole day crunching the figures again and it looked bad.

  “At least you’re back to your usual self,” Andrea commented.

  “I ought to be,” agreed Nico, making a concentrated effort to laugh. “I’ve had two months of rest.”

  “Rest?” Leo questioned. “Is it possible with a baby at home?”

  “But what perfect timing,” Andrea said, “to be at home with Ava and the baby over the Christmas break.” Nico turned to his wife and nodded, wondering if she would see it that same way. “It’s been a good time to be off,” he agreed. “It would have been even better if I had chosen to take that much time off voluntarily and not forced to because of my injuries.”

  For a moment they all fell silent.

  “Did you ever hear from that politician?” Leo asked. Nico shook his head. He hadn’t heard anything from Vieri or Silvia. He hadn’t expected to either. He shrugged. “That man is the last person I want to see. He’s done enough damage and it’s in his own interest to stay away from me.”

  Ava squeezed his thigh. “It will be alright,” she told him, bringing a smile to his lips. She obviously wasn’t that mad at him.

  “And what about the two of you?” Nico asked. “How are things at the warehouse?”

  Andrea spoke up. “Booming on account of your wife.”

  “W
ould that be due to the cribs?” Nico asked.

  “It certainly is. The d’Este cribs are a hit in the US.” She turned to Ava. “I spoke to Dino and I’m meeting him next Thursday.”

  “You are?” Leo asked, as if this was news to him. “But we’ve got a meeting with the insurance people on that day.”

  “You don’t need me there. You can take of it,” Andrea replied. Ava and Nico looked at one another, sensing a point of disagreement between the two of them.

  “Dino has some new products which I wanted to look at,” continued Andrea.

  “Excuse me,” said Ava, getting up. “I need to check if the appetizers are ready.” But as she walked towards the door Elisabetta’s cries started up again.

  “I’ll go,” said Nico, getting up.

  “No, I’ll go,” said Ava, “I have to see how Helena’s getting on with the entrée. The appetizers should be ready.”

  “I can go, Ava,” he said, because he could see how tired she was.

  “I’ve got this,” she replied, with an edge to her voice that had slowly crept in. Nico smiled at his guests when she left the room.

  The rest of the evening progressed with some awkwardness. It wasn’t the type of relaxed affair that Nico had anticipated, but it could have been worse under the circumstances.

  Ava was in and out of the room, and even though he offered to take over, she declined, mainly because the baby acted up more than ever as the evening wore on. They were halfway through their main course when Elisabetta’s cries rang out again. Andrea looked up at them as Ava left the room.

  “Sorry,” said Nico, apologizing for what must have been the fifth or sixth time. “Some evenings can turn out like this.”

  “Is she like this every evening?” Andrea asked, her face a picture of disbelief.

  “We have a few good days, or rather, Ava does.” Now he felt guilty that she had to take so much on. “We have good days when she doesn’t seem to suffer from bouts of colic at all.”

  They ate in silence and this time, Ava was gone a long time. He was half tempted to go upstairs and check on her but knew that it would only make her more angry and to neglect their guests this way wouldn’t do. He could already tell from their faces that they seemed uncomfortable.

  Ava didn’t come down after that and Leo and Andrea left soon after dinner, not even waiting to have dessert. From the looks on their faces, they seemed pretty relieved to leave.

  By the time Nico went upstairs, the baby was sleeping peacefully in the crib and Ava was in the master bathroom. He’d already gotten changed and slunk in between the sheets by the time she came out. “That didn’t go too well, did it?” he asked.

  Ava shrugged.

  “I shouldn’t have organized dinner just yet. I’m sorry.”

  “Why did you?”

  “Because I thought it might be good to have friends over. You said you were cooped up in the house and that you needed to get out and about. I was trying to do something nice for you.”

  “It’s too soon to be having company over and Elisabetta’s colic isn’t helping.” She climbed into bed alongside him.

  “I was only trying to help.” He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek and when she didn’t say anything, or rebuff his advances, he kissed her on the mouth; a chaste, barely-there kiss. He waited for her to say something but she didn’t. “Why didn’t you wear a dress?” He’d seen it laid out on the bed.

  “I hadn’t shaved my legs.” She paused, before adding. “Why? Did I look frumpy next to Andrea?” He examined her face when she asked this, unsure what it was she was getting at. She couldn’t still be hung up over that fact that he and Andrea had dated before. Could she?

  “You never look frumpy to me,” he said and attempted another kiss but she turned to her side and reached for her eReader.

  “Are you going to read now?”

  “Yes.”

  His hand trailed along her thigh.

  “Don’t,” she said, opening her eReader.

  “Don’t?”

  “Not tonight, please, Nico. I’m tired.”

  Tired and yet she still had time to read. He turned his back on her and closed his eyes.

  Chapter 11

  She lay in bed staring at the ceiling, then turned to her side to watch Nico sleeping peacefully. She was tempted to reach out and touch his lips, but feared waking him up. He roused easily these days, and having Elisabetta’s crib next to their bed didn’t help. But still, she liked this quiet time in the morning to contemplate.

  The duvet reached up to Nico’s shoulders and she bit her lip, her fingers fluttering as they traced gently across his chest. If he awoke now, he’d stare at her with his first-thing-in-the-morning look, an invitation for something more, and she would allow herself to melt, and to give in. Or would she?

  Or Elisabetta would wake up and that would be the end of that.

  She moved her hand away. It would be far better to get out of bed and check for any further updates from Kim. There had been nothing more since Friday night, and nothing yesterday. Weekends were slow and Kim and Rona weren’t going to spend their time working. Running her store never felt like work to Ava; she never kept track of the hours she spent on her business but she understood that it wasn’t the same for her employees.

  She lay on her back and stared at the ceiling, thinking. If she got her work out of the way in the morning, maybe they could take Elisabetta out and go for a long walk in the afternoon.

  “Hey.” Nico’s hand skirted across her waist just as his voice shook her thoughts. She turned to see him propped up on his elbow, gazing at her with that mischievous smile that hinted at other things.

  “Good morning,”

  “It could be,” he replied, moving his hand slowly across her stomach and keeping it there. If she wasn’t careful, that smile of his would ensnare her and her plans to check her emails would disappear. His fingers slipped beneath her nightshirt and when he caressed her soft fleshy stomach, she sucked in her stomach. He moved his hand further down, until his fingers skated over her panties and he gently stroked along her thighs. His feather-light touches slowly awakening every cell in her body. Warmth spread along her stomach and breasts and he rolled on top of her, supporting his weight with his elbows. He was hard again, hard below, and hard here, where she splayed her hand across his chest, feeling his heart beat. She felt like liquid jelly lying beneath him. “Don’t kiss me,” she shrieked, as he dipped his head down, as if he were about to do that very thing.

  “Okay,” he said, slowly. “I could go and brush my teeth, but I don’t want to take a risk and wake her up.” They glanced over at their daughter lying fast asleep in the crib. “And staying here feels kind of good.” He tugged at her panties, trying to roll them down with one hand and she giggled, a little louder than she had intended. They hushed and froze, staring at the crib with bated breath, waiting to see if Elisabetta would rouse. After a few silent seconds, Nico’s gaze returned to Ava’s face. She smiled and snuggled down further into the mattress, touching his chest, feeling his coarse hair between her fingers. He reached down lower feeling, stroking, probing and she mewled in response, parting her legs wider because it felt soooo good, when he touched her there.

  “Let me kiss you,” he begged.

  “No!” She squirmed, suppressing a giggle as she turned her head to the side. She squeezed his buttocks, wishing he would hurry up and take her. The time for slow foreplay was gone. Urgency called.

  “Then I want to…” he dipped his head, and laid it against her breasts. She felt completely unsexy, wearing her maternity bra with those pads she’d inserted. “Don’t take it off,” she warned.

  His puppy dog eyes drooped with disappointment, but not for long as he started to leave a trail of kisses along her jaw, all the way to below her ear. His lips were soft and tender and they tickled. She giggled, kicking the crib by accident.

  Elisabetta stirred.

  They froze and stopped breathing and the red-hot hea
t that had been curling around in her body, screeched to a halt. Elisabetta shifted again, her lips wavered, even though her eyes were closed. And then she started to bawl. Loudly.

  Ava closed her eyes in disbelief. Lust wilted away and frustration took its place. “Now look what you’ve done,” she whispered, annoyed. Why hadn’t he just hurried up and thrust into her?

  “You kicked it,” replied Nico, sounding just as deflated.

  “You made me!”

  They both lay on their backs for a few seconds, contemplating the lost opportunity until Nico reached across the crib and turned on the musical mobile which hung above Elisabetta’s head. The baby suddenly quieted, absorbed by the brightly colored animals slowly spinning around in mid-air. “We could still…” he said, snuggling up to her again.

  “Not with her looking!” She was shocked by his suggestion. His raging hard-on had clearly turned him insane.

  “She’s looking at the mobile,” Nico insisted. “She won’t know what we’re doing.” Speechless, Ava stared at her husband in disbelief. “Come on,” he begged, his fingers poised on the round curve of her hip. “You know you want to.”

  “We can’t have sex with our daughter lying next to us.” Irritated, frustrated and unsatisfied beyond belief, she climbed out of bed, dumbfounded by her husband’s suggestion.

  “What are you doing?” asked Nico, sitting up in bed, scowling. Bare-chested and ready for her, he wore nothing more than an invitation to make her come. She knew it would be a sin to walk away and the heat between her legs confused her further. Until Elisabetta gurgled again. With her mind now made up, Ava rolled her panties back on and lifted the baby, placing her on the bed between them. They fawned over her and in response, Elisabetta waved her arms up and down excitedly.

  “We could move the crib into the nursery,” he suggested. “She’d only be a stone’s throw away and we can have the door open. At least it would give us some privacy.”

  “Not until she’s a year old. We agreed,” Ava reminded him and she got up and started to walk away.