‘Things are relatively quiet at the moment, but at harvest time it becomes crazy here. In September, we eat, breathe and sleep grapes.’ She glanced up at him. ‘You should try and make it back then to experience it. It’s frenetic but fun.’
‘I’ll see what I can do.’ But he already knew he’d be tied up working the Conti contract. He glanced beyond her and nodded. ‘Nico.’
She turned to find Nico with their new neighbour Louisa standing behind her. She straightened, hoping Nico didn’t think she was skiving off. ‘I was just showing Ryan around. Hello, Louisa.’
The other woman smiled and it somehow helped to ease the tension between the two men. ‘I understand congratulations are in order,’ the other woman said. ‘News of your pregnancy has spread like wildfire through the village.’
She could barely contain her grin. A baby! ‘Thank you.’ Beside her, Ryan shifted and she came back to herself. ‘Louisa, this is Ryan White. He’s staying with me for a bit. Ryan, this is Louisa Harrison. She recently inherited the vineyard and glorious palazzo next door. Speaking of which, how are the renovations coming along?’
Louisa lifted a shoulder. ‘No sooner did the architect arrive than it seemed the renovations to the chapel started. There are workers swarming all over the palazzo! The schedule is to have it completed by the end of July. But...it’s such a big job.’
Marianna nodded. The palazzo was glorious and the family chapel absolutely exquisite, but it’d been neglected for a long time. It’d be wonderful to see it restored to its former glory.
‘The architect is based in Rome and has a very good reputation,’ Louisa continued. ‘He used to holiday here as a child apparently. It seemed sensible to choose a firm that had connections to the area.’
‘What’s his name?’ Marianna asked.
‘Logan Cascini.’
‘I remember him! He and Angelo were a similar age, I think. I’m sure they hung out together.’
Nico nodded. ‘They did.’
‘It’ll be lovely to see him again. Is he married?’ Was there a new woman in town who needed befriending? ‘Any bambinos?’ She bit back a smile. It wasn’t as if she had babies on the brain or anything.
Louisa shook her head.
Beside her, Ryan shifted again and she glanced up at him, puzzled at the sudden tension that coursed through him. He glared at Nico. ‘While you’re here, perhaps you can talk some sense into your sister and tell her heavy lifting is off the agenda until after the baby is born.’
Oh, brilliant. She and Nico had already had words on this head.
Nico stiffened. ‘Marianna?’
‘I caught her lifting a barrel.’
She sent Ryan an exasperated glare. The big fat tale teller! ‘It was an empty barrel.’
Nico let forth with a torrent of Italian curses that made her wince. Finally he stabbed a finger at her. ‘Why can you not get this through your thick skull?’
She started to shrivel inside.
‘No more lifting. One more time, Mari, and I’m firing you!’
Her jaw dropped. ‘You can’t!’ This was her job, her work, her home!
‘I can and I will!’
He would too. She battled the lump in her throat.
‘No more lifting! You hear me?’
All she could manage was a nod. Screw-up. Useless. Failure. The accusations went around and around in her head. So much for proving her worth.
‘Why have you not been keeping a better eye on her?’ Nico shot at Ryan.
‘Me? You’re her employer!’
She closed her eyes. She opened them again when Louisa touched her arm. ‘How have you been feeling? Have you had much morning sickness?’
She could’ve hugged her for changing the subject and bringing Ryan and Nico’s finger-pointing to a halt. ‘A little. And the morning part of that is a lie. It can happen at any time of the day.’ She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth. ‘I probably shouldn’t have announced my pregnancy until after my scan.’ What if something went wrong? Everybody would know and—
‘But you were excited.’
Louisa smiled her understanding, and it helped Marianna to straighten and push her shoulders back. This incident might’ve been a backward step as far as Nico’s view of her went, but she was going to be a mother, and she was determined to be a good one.
‘Speaking of which,’ Nico said, ‘I believe you said your scan is tomorrow, yes?’
Ryan stiffened and then swung to her. ‘Tomorrow?’
Nico’s eyes narrowed and she could see his view of her maturity take another nosedive. Damn it!
She waved an airy hand in the air. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten? You did say you’d take me.’
To Ryan’s credit, he adjusted swiftly and smoothly. ‘Of course. Just as we planned.’
Damn it again! She hadn’t wanted him to take her. What use would she have for a man who had no interest in hearing his baby’s heartbeat?
CHAPTER SEVEN
MARIANNA THREW HERSELF down on a bench in the garden, slapping a palm to her forehead. ‘Well done, you...doofus!’ she muttered. To think she’d been making progress where Angelo and Nico were concerned, to think—
She leaned to the side until her head rested on the arm of the bench and did what she could to halt the flood of recriminations pounding through her. She tried the breathing technique that Ryan had taught her, but in this instance it didn’t work. All it did was bring to mind the light in his eyes when he’d returned to the cottage to paint her walls. It’d told her that the subject of her scan—of her not telling him the actual date of said scan—would be the topic of conversation the moment she returned.
Yay. More talking. Which, of course, was why she was hiding out in the garden like a coward.
Very adult of you, Marianna.
Heat pricked the backs of her eyes and a lump swelled in her throat. What if they were right? What if she were making a hash of everything? She pressed a hand to her stomach. What if she made a mess of her baby’s life?
‘It’s all a mess!’
For a moment she thought Nico’s voice sounded in her own mind. When Louisa answered with, ‘What do you mean?’ Marianna realised that her brother and their neighbour passed close by on the other side of the hedge. The hedge’s shade and its new spring growth shielded her from view. She shrank back against the bench, not wanting Nico to see her so upset.
‘I don’t trust this latest man of Marianna’s.’
Marianna wanted to cover her ears. Ryan wasn’t hers.
‘Can I give you a word of advice, Nico?’
Her brother must’ve nodded because Louisa continued. ‘You don’t have to like Ryan, but if Marianna has decided that he’s to be a part of her baby’s life, then you’re going to have to accept that. He’s going to be a part of your niece or nephew’s life for evermore—in effect, a part of your extended family. You don’t have to like him, but if Marianna has asked that you respect her decision, then you’re going to have to find a way to get along with him...for both Marianna and the baby’s sake.’
‘But—’
‘No buts, Nico. You know, if you eased up on him for a bit, you might even find yourself liking Ryan.’
Her brother snorted. ‘You think?’
‘You never know.’
Marianna remained where she was, barely moving, until the voices drifted out of earshot. She hadn’t meant to overhear. She hadn’t meant to throw everyone into chaos with her baby news either. She forced herself off the bench and set off for the cottage.
The smell of paint hit her the moment she entered. She paused on the threshold, but her stomach remained calm and quiet and with a relieved breath she continued down the hallway to the living area.
She pulled to an immediate halt with a delighted, ‘Oh!’ Clutching her hands beneath her chin, she gazed around in wonder at the transformation a coat of deliciously tranquil ‘sea foam’-coloured paint had created. Ryan must’ve worked his socks off!
&nbs
p; She completed a slow circle. ‘Oh, Ryan, it’s perfect. Thank you.’ She ached to lie on the sofa and revel in the calm, draw it into her soul.
‘You weren’t going to tell me that your appointment is tomorrow, were you?’
She bit back a sigh. The calm was only an illusion. In the same way her and Ryan’s friendship was an illusion. She turned towards the dining table where he sat. He rose and she wished herself back outside in her shady glen. ‘Tea?’ She stumbled into the kitchen and filled the kettle.
‘Marianna?’
She didn’t like the growl in his voice or the latent possessiveness rippling beneath it. ‘No.’ She turned and faced him, hands on her hips. ‘You have that correct. I wasn’t going to tell you about tomorrow’s appointment.’
‘Why not?’
She pulled two cups towards her and tossed teabags into them. ‘Because you have no interest in being there.’ Just as he’d had no interest in attending the information session.
‘I said I would drive you.’
‘And I told you I don’t need a taxi service!’
His head reared back as if she’d slapped him. ‘But...we’re a team.’
Were they? Wasn’t that just a polite fiction? ‘If you don’t want to be present at the scan, Ryan, then you’re more use to me here fixing up the cottage.’
She spoke as baldly and bluntly as she could to remind herself that what they had here was a deal, an arrangement, and not a relationship.
He dragged a hand across his jaw, his eyes troubled. ‘Then why the pretence in front of Nico?’
She pulled in a breath, held it to the count of three and let it out again. ‘Because I don’t want him to think badly of you...and I don’t want him to think badly of me.’
‘Why would he think badly of you? He worships the ground you walk on.’
She snorted and he frowned. She swung away to pour boiling water into their mugs. ‘I’m his pesky little sister who’s always getting into scrapes.’
‘He adores you, Mari. He’d die for you.’
‘I know.’ He spoke nothing less than the truth.
‘So would Angelo.’
That was the truth too. But sometimes she felt the weight of their love would suffocate her.
She started. ‘Oh! I made you a chamomile tea. Should I—?’
‘You should’ve asked me to make the tea! You’ve been on your feet all day.’
She nodded at the walls. ‘And you haven’t?’ Not only was he painting her house, he was working on some new company report or other, taking endless calls on his mobile phone and making video calls on his laptop. If anyone were the slacker around here it’d be her.
He came around and took the mug from her. ‘This will be fine, thank you.’ When he gestured for her to take a seat on the sofa, she submitted. If they had to talk, then they might as well be comfortable while they did so.
‘Look, I know you love your brothers.’ He sat in the armchair opposite. ‘I know you would die for them too.’
She would. In a heartbeat. She blinked, frowned. Did her love ever suffocate them?
‘I understand it’s important to you that I get along with them.’
He took a sip of his tea and grimaced.
She couldn’t help grimacing too. In sympathy. ‘You don’t have to drink that, you know? Chamomile is an acquired taste.’
‘You went to the trouble of making it, therefore I mean to drink it.’
What an enigma this man was proving to be. She slumped back. ‘Getting on with my brothers isn’t entirely in your control, Ryan. It’s up to them too.’
His eyes had turned a stormy green that she was starting to recognise as a mixture of confusion and frustration. ‘The fact you lied to Nico—’
‘Lied is a bit harsh!’
‘Well, let him believe I was included in tomorrow’s appointment, then.’
Not that it’d worked. Nico had seen through her deception.
‘Leads me to believe,’ Ryan continued, ‘that being present at this scan is something a good father would do.’
She leapt to her feet, setting her mug to the coffee table before she could spill it. ‘Oh! You think?’ How could this man be so clueless?
No, no, he couldn’t be this clueless. It was just that whole stupid lone-wolf thing he had going and—
‘Oh!’ She stopped dead before racing across to the kitchen again. ‘You made the kitchen curtains.’ She ran her hands down the material. How had she not noticed them earlier? ‘They’re...exactly what I wanted.’ They would look wonderful against the vibrant yellow of the walls once Ryan had painted in here—a nook of colour amidst the calm.
His voice came from behind her. ‘You like them?’
She loved them. A lump blocked her throat and all she could do was nod. They were perfect. She glanced around the cottage at the new paint on the living and dining room walls, the kitchen primed and ready for its first coat of paint tomorrow, and at those darn curtains. Ryan was doing everything she asked of him without a murmur of complaint. He was doing everything he could to help her create the perfect home for their baby.
She moved across to the dining table and picked up the doll lying there—a doll sporting a perfect diaper and a ridiculous smile. She clutched the doll to her chest and swung to face him. ‘Ryan, how can you not want to see the first pictures of our baby? How can you not want to hear its heartbeat?’
He dragged a hand across his jaw, not meeting her gaze. ‘I have work to do.’
She dropped the doll back to the table. ‘Work that’s more important than your own child?’
Tension shot through him. With an oath, he started to pace. ‘The truth?’ he shot at her.
‘The truth,’ she demanded.
‘Fine, then!’ He swung back. ‘Attending the ultrasound with you seems...’
‘Seems what?’ she pushed.
He skewered her to the spot with the ruthless light in his eyes. ‘Too intimate.’
She rocked back on her heels, his words shocking her. ‘It’s not as intimate as the deed that’s led us to this point in time.’
‘True.’ He nodded, his gaze not softening. ‘But making love with you—our holiday fling...absolutely nothing out of character for me there.’
Except it’d lasted for a whole week rather than a single night. She left that observation unsaid.
‘Attending an ultrasound with a woman...now that’s utterly out of character. Can’t see what use I’m going to be to you in that scenario, Marianna.’
Her chest cramped up so tight it became an effort to even breathe. Finally she managed a curt nod. ‘If you want to become a halfway decent father, Ryan, you’re going to have to get over this kind of squeamishness.’
His eyes bugged. ‘Squeamishness?’
‘Squeamishness about doing family things, feeling able to step up to the plate for another person, being relied upon.’
He swung away. ‘I’m supposed to be in Rome tomorrow afternoon.’
‘And just for the record, this isn’t about you stepping up to the plate for me. It’s not about you—’ how had he put it? ‘—being of any use to me. This isn’t about you and me.’ There was no him and her. ‘This is about you and the baby.’
His mouth thinned. ‘This is all because I missed that damn info session, isn’t it?’
“It’s becoming obvious that your work is more important to you than our baby.”
“Correction. That particular meeting was more important than attending an info session I can catch again at another time.”
“And in the years to come a different important meeting will have you missing your child’s second birthday, others will have you missing the school concert, a soccer grand final. You’ll cancel promised outings and holidays because something important has come up at work. I want more than that for my child, Ryan. And you should too.”
They stared at each other, both breathing hard. She swallowed and shrugged. ‘The ultrasound is early—nine-thirty a.m.’ He could
attend the scan and still make an afternoon appointment in Rome. ‘I’m driving myself. If you wish to attend, a flyer for the clinic with its address is on the fridge. I don’t want to discuss this any more. I’m tired and I don’t feel like fighting.’ With that she walked back over to the sofa and picked up her chamomile tea.
He was quiet for a moment. ‘I didn’t mean to upset you.’
She waved that away.
He strode back and threw himself down into his chair. He leaned towards her suddenly, frowning. ‘Are you worried about tomorrow’s scan?’
She stared down into her tea. ‘Of course not,’ she lied.
But... What if she’d somehow hurt their baby? Her fingers tightened about her mug. For the best part of two months she hadn’t even realised she was pregnant. She’d been drinking wine and coffee—not copious amounts, but still... She should’ve been taking special vitamins. If she’d planned this baby, she wouldn’t have these worries. She’d have done everything right from the start.
She swallowed. She might be an irresponsible fool and if the scan showed a problem tomorrow she’d have nobody to blame but herself. And now she wouldn’t even have the comfort of Ryan’s hand to cling to.
* * *
Marianna readied herself for the sensation of cold gel on her tummy when the technician’s assistant tapped on the door and then popped her head around the curtain that screened Marianna. ‘Sorry to disturb, but there’s a Mr White out here who claims he’s the baby’s father.’
Marianna couldn’t help it, her heart leapt.
‘Shall I send him in?’
Marianna nodded. ‘Yes, please.’
A moment later Ryan hovered awkwardly on the other side of the curtain, his face appearing in the gap. ‘Sorry, I’m late.’
Marianna ached to hold her hand out to him, but she resisted the urge. She had no intention of making this all seem too intimate. ‘I wasn’t sure you’d make it.’ She gestured to the equipment. ‘Come on over and watch the show.’
He moved to stand beside her, but he didn’t take her hand.
Marianna tried to ignore his warmth and scent, focusing on the monitor as the radiologist moved the sensor across her stomach and pointed out the baby’s arms and legs, feet and fingers. She pronounced the baby to be in the best of health and Marianna let out the breath she’d been holding, her eyes still glued to the screen. Thank you!
Reunited by a Baby Secret (The Vineyards of Calanetti, Book 3) Page 10
