Book Read Free

A Family Made in Rome

Page 17

by Annie O'Neil


  Yes.

  Could she imagine Leon popping their little girl on his shoulders when her pudgy toddler legs were tired?

  She threw him a secret sidelong glance, taking in his solid shoulders, his strong arms, and the way he walked so that none of the countless tourists bumped into her as they wove their way through the busy streets.

  Yes. She could, actually.

  She looked down at his left hand. Bare. Occasionally brushing hers. Making trills of response run through her body whether she wanted them or not.

  Yes, she realised with a jolt. Finally, at long last, she could picture a wedding ring on his hand.

  Which, of course, set off a ream of entirely different questions.

  Should she keep her house?

  Would it be lonely here?

  She’d miss her housemate and her colleagues, of course, but her life pretty much revolved around her patients and that would be no different here. And Byron had his pilot, so...

  Leon stopped at a street stall and bought two arancini. After they’d eaten, they continued to walk in a new but comfortable silence as they gathered their thoughts. She felt as if she needed to reach a decision before they got to his flat, because whatever it was she decided would be final.

  The choice, she realised, was a simple one.

  Did she want to risk giving her heart to Leon, knowing the baby that linked them for ever could grow up in the kind of happy family she’d never had? Or did she want to raise their child the way Leon’s mother had? Alone. Too protective. So frightened of being hurt that her world would close in around her and, more to the point, around her daughter, excluding any possibility of love.

  The answer was glaringly obvious.

  Just then they turned a corner, and there was the Trevi Fountain, crowded as ever with families and couples throwing in coins, making wish after wish.

  Leon gave her hand a squeeze and asked, ‘Did you know it’s still fed by aqueduct? For almost two thousand years Romans have gathered water from here.’

  Lizzy shook her head in disbelief.

  ‘Astonishing, isn’t it?’ Leon continued. ‘To think something so beautiful—a frivolity at first glance—has endured as much history as it has. You know...’ He held her away from him for a moment and looked at the fountain and then at her. ‘I think the water’s the same colour as your eyes.’

  Lizzy shot him a look. Was he talking in metaphors? Saying she was a frivolity?

  ‘War, famine, droughts, revolution—’ Leon’s list was long. ‘It had to be shut down recently to be restored. It felt—’ He laughed to himself. ‘I know it sounds ridiculous, because it’s so touristy, but it felt like the city wasn’t completely alive without it. You know...?’

  She nodded, still not entirely sure she was meant to be taking all this at face value. She pulled the analogy back to herself. The two years she’d spent with Leon had been the most vital, thrilling, dynamic years of her life. Since they’d been apart she’d never really ever felt the same. Like Rome with its fountain, she had felt as if something was missing. And that something was Leon.

  Her heart doubled its cadence. This was her chance. An open door. A step away from her dark, unhappy past to make a fresh start.

  Leon was studying the fountain with such intensity she was pretty sure he was mulling over the same questions. Hoping against hope that he was making the right call by asking her to share his life with him.

  ‘Do you know the secret to the coins?’ Leon asked, digging in his pocket and showing her a few.

  Again, she shook her head.

  ‘You can throw in one, two or three.’

  ‘And that has different meanings?’

  He nodded. ‘One coin means you wish to return to Rome.’

  ‘And two?’

  His eyes flickered with heat. ‘Two coins means you wish to fall in love with an attractive Italian.’

  ‘And I suppose that means you?’

  He gave one of those careless shrugs of his, but now she saw all the things she hadn’t before. Things she’d been too busy protecting her own heart to notice. She saw his vulnerability. His strength of character. His moral compass. And, most of all, she saw that he truly did love her. That he wanted this to work. For them to be a family.

  ‘Are there any more options?’ she asked, her voice barely audible above the noise of tourists laughing, telling one another their wishes and leaving it up to the fountain to decide whether or not they came true.

  ‘Yes.’ He took a step closer to her and held up a third coin. ‘Three coins means you’re wishing to come to Rome, find love and marry a handsome Italian.’

  The space between them diminished. Lizzy’s heart pounded against her ribcage. ‘And are there statistics on any of these wishes being granted?’

  He shook his head. ‘Only for the lucky ones.’

  ‘Do you think we’re lucky?’ she asked, her heart brimming with a level of hope she had never once let herself feel.

  ‘Si, amore,’ he said, ducking his head to hers, his lips brushing against her lips as he said, ‘I think we’re very lucky.’

  And with that they turned their backs to the fountain, as tradition dictated, and she plucked three coins from his hand and threw them into the fountain.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  ‘YOU LOOK BEAUTIFUL.’

  Lizzy beamed at her reflection in the mirror, then back at Byron, who had ‘hitched a ride’ on his boyfriend’s plane. ‘D’you think?’

  He rolled his eyes. ‘Of course I think! You’re going to have to trust your man of honour.’

  ‘Trust you to what, exactly?’ she giggled.

  ‘Trust me to not let you loose on the streets of Rome looking like a ragamuffin!’

  They laughed, and sighed, and caught one another’s eyes in the full-length mirror Leon had bought expressly for this day. He had wanted her to have everything she wanted exactly where she wanted it, for this, their wedding day, and much to her surprise she had realised she wanted to get ready here, in the rooftop flat that had undergone quite a transformation over the past few weeks.

  The waiting-room-style seats had been replaced by big sofas, good for a snooze or curling up and reading a book—also good for spills. The balcony had been baby-proofed. The second guest room had been turned into a nursery, its walls painted a soft natural green that made it feel as though you were walking into an enchanted sun-dappled woodland where the sole purpose was to protect and nurture the little girl growing inside her.

  ‘I look fat!’ She laughed.

  ‘You look stunning,’ Byron countered. ‘You’ve got that pregnancy glow down pat.’

  She gazed at herself. Her body was still vaguely unfamiliar to her, but she had to admit the lace and ultra-soft linen maxi-dress with a deep V cut down the back made her feel as beautiful as Leon did when he held her in his arms each night.

  Her eyes dropped to her stomach, then to her engagement ring. The princess cut aquamarine jewel stood proud on the band of diamonds, looking as if it had been on her finger for ever. Today it would be united with a wedding band. A ring that would symbolise her lifelong commitment to Leon and their child.

  Her hands swept over the taut, increasingly large ball that was their baby girl. Genevieve, they’d decided in the end. For her mother.

  ‘I wish—’ An unexpected rush of emotion balled in her chest as her heart lurched up into her throat.

  ‘I know, honey,’ Byron soothed. ‘I wish your mum could see you, too.’

  ‘Do you think I’m a bad person for not inviting my father?’

  Byron shook his head. ‘You said you and Leon had talked about it loads. Weddings are different things for different couples. Yours is about joy—not obligation. Yours is about choice.’

  She nodded, blinking back tears, desperately trying not to mess up her carefully applied ma
ke-up. ‘You’re right. A real father doesn’t do his utmost to make his child feel horrible about herself.’ She drew in a shaky breath and managed to find a smile that made it all the way to her eyes. ‘Today is about celebrating everything that’s good about me and Leon and this little tyke.’ She rubbed her hands on her belly, feeling the soft lace of her gown shift as she did. ‘Oh! She just kicked.’

  Byron’s face lit up as she took his hand and pressed it to her stomach. ‘Oh, wow. I’m definitely going to have to get to Rome more often. I don’t want to miss this little one’s life as she grows up.’

  She gave him a grateful smile. ‘Thanks for coming. And you know we’ll come to Sydney every now and again?’

  Byron laughed. ‘I know you, missy. You’ll come when there are some good surgeries on the board. And I’m guessing they’re going to have to be pretty spectacular to get you away from that gorgeous fiancé of yours.’

  Lizzy grinned. ‘He is pretty cute, isn’t he?’

  ‘Cute?’ Byron screeched. ‘The man’s a bloody catwalk model! And a world-class surgeon.’ He gave her a hug. ‘Well done, you. You deserve every gorgeous molecule of him.’

  Lizzy’s phone buzzed. ‘Do you mind...?’ she said.

  Byron grabbed the phone from the bed and handed it to her. Lizzy frowned.

  ‘Something wrong?’ he asked.

  ‘No, it’s—it’s the hospital number. I thought it might be Leon.’

  ‘You said he was at the hospital, right?’

  ‘Yes. He was going to pop in on the Bianchis before we went to the church.’

  Five minutes later Lizzy was out of her dress and on the street, flagging down a taxi. ‘Per favore, St Nicolino’s,’ she said as Byron climbed in beside her. ‘Pronto.’

  Byron elbowed her in the side. ‘Check you out, Little Miss Italy.’

  She grinned. ‘That’s Little Miss Almost Mrs Italy to you.’ Her smile dropped from her face. ‘Oh, gosh...’

  ‘What?’

  ‘This means I won’t be getting married.’

  ‘Seriously? You think it’ll take that long?’

  She gave him a solid stare and tried to shrug it off. ‘Gabrielle has just had an eclampsic convulsion.’

  Byron pulled a face. He knew what that meant. The involuntary contraction of muscles meant the babies needed to be delivered now.

  ‘Gabrielle’s health is on the line every bit as much as the health of the conjoined twins,’ Lizzy said, even though she knew they both knew the score.

  ‘Have they given her magnesium sulphate?’

  Lizzy nodded, rerouting her mental energies into the operating theatre and away from the church.

  Eclampsia was rare, but there was a small risk of permanent disability or brain damage from the convulsions and, if not treated immediately, it could mean both the mother’s and the babies’ lives were at severe risk.

  ‘Can you ring the church, Byron? Let them know?’

  ‘You’ve still got an hour. You might be able to make it.’

  Lizzy gave him a look.

  Byron promised to ring the church as soon as they got to the hospital.

  * * *

  In the end, they were both partly right.

  The intensity of the scenario at the hospital demanded that Lizzy and Leon work in perfect synchronicity.

  Gabrielle had had her seizure during Leon’s morning visit. It happened sometimes, the total absence of signs that eclampsia was looming.

  The babies were at thirty-one weeks. They’d been hoping for at least a couple more, but now Gabrielle’s health was at risk as well there was no choice but to deliver the babies today.

  Matteo was gowned up and holding his wife’s hand as Leon prepared to make the first crucial incision, and he apologised once again for the timing. ‘We are so sorry to have interrupted your wedding.’

  Lizzy shook her head, gloved hands held up, ready for whatever she might be needed to do. ‘Honestly, this is more important. Besides,’ she added, trying to add a bit of brightness to the tense atmosphere, ‘bringing your girls into the world today is like an early wedding present.’

  Leon agreed. ‘It’s these two little girls who helped bring us back together again, so it makes sense that they should want to be part of our big day.’

  Lizzy looked across the surgical table, her eyes cinching with her future husband’s, and smiled. She hadn’t thought of it that way. How huge a role Hope and Grace had played in their lives. Without them—She shook her head and any other thoughts away. Here and now was where she both wanted and needed to be.

  Up in the gallery Byron gave her a thumbs-up. Down here on the surgical floor both Giovanni and Autumn were gowned up and standing ready to help if anything went wrong. But, because Leon was doing what he did best, the C-section went like clockwork, and before any of them could fully grasp what had happened Matteo was holding his little girls in his arms, then handing them to his wife. Both of them were disbelieving that these tiny, practically perfect babies that they had seen so many times on imaging screens were finally out here in the real world.

  ‘Looks like you’ve got about four kilos of baby,’ Leon said, once each of the parents had had a chance to kiss and hold their children.

  As they’d been born prematurely, they still had a long road ahead—and, of course, there was the complicated separation surgery Giovanni and Autumn would helm once the little ones had developed more.

  There wasn’t any need to put in a new stent straight away, Lizzy was relieved to see, but the girls would need to be under close scrutiny in the NICU as their lungs developed, their bodies gained a bit more weight and they were better able to regulate their own temperatures.

  Mercifully, Gabrielle seemed to be all right, but she, too, would be under Leon’s close care. The list of post-operative problems after eclampsia wasn’t pretty. But Gabrielle had a core of strength. One that would only grow stronger now that she’d kissed and held the babies she’d been carrying all these months.

  ‘Will we be able to hold them again soon?’ Gabrielle asked, her mother’s instincts already at full throttle.

  ‘Of course,’ Leon assured her. ‘You’ll be able to be with them every day, but for now let us look after you.’

  ‘Are you going to be with them too?’ she asked.

  Lizzy nodded, her smile deepening as she felt Leon’s hand slip round her waist as he joined her by the bedside.

  ‘And Drs Lombardi and Fraser. In fact, Autumn and Giovanni are getting the twins settled into their incubator now.’

  ‘So they’re not alone?’ Matteo asked.

  ‘Absolutely not. They’ll never be alone,’ said Leon. ‘Right now, your job is to rest, Gabrielle. If you or the babies need us, we’re only a phone call away.’

  Lizzy shot him a look. ‘Why? Where are we going?’

  He gave her a cheeky grin. ‘You’ll see.’

  * * *

  The moment Lizzy entered the church, Leon knew he was in the right place, at the right time, doing exactly the right thing.

  The flowers they’d organised had been left in place along with another wedding party’s flowers, so now, a few hours later than planned, as Lizzy walked towards him, it was as if she were Eve, walking through a Roman Garden of Eden.

  He knew it was ridiculous, but he felt like the very first man ever to have got married. To have loved this deeply. To have been filled to the brim with the knowledge that his life was going to be so much richer for having his wife in it.

  Would it all be smooth sailing from here on out? Probably not. They each bore the bumps and nicks and scars of lives that could have been kinder to them, but they’d both come out stronger in the end. Stronger and more resilient, now they knew they had someone they could turn to.

  When she reached the altar in front of their friends, a smattering of hospital staff and, of c
ourse, Lizzy’s best friend from home, Byron, who was at her side, Leon took her hands in his. They stood there beaming at one another as the celebrant said whatever it was he said—they weren’t really paying attention, just staring into one another’s eyes, seeing nothing but possibility, nothing but light, nothing but joy.

  They both had to be prompted to repeat their vows, and when, at long last, they were given licence to mark the beginning of their married life with a kiss, they did so with relish.

  ‘I love you, Dottore Signora Cassanetti,’ said Leon, and nuzzled into her neck, dropping a kiss in that perfect nook between her chin and her ear.

  ‘I love you too,’ she said, happily walking back down the aisle to the applause of their colleagues and friends.

  ‘Fancy a honeymoon in Rome?’ Leon asked with a cheeky grin.

  ‘I fancy a lifelong honeymoon in Rome,’ Lizzy answered, then grinned and gave his hand a tug. ‘But first...do you want to go to the NICU?’

  Leon nodded. He had married the perfect woman for him. And today had been the very best day to begin their lives together as husband and wife. He couldn’t wait for the rest of their marriage to reveal itself, tantalising morsel by morsel. Just like the perfect Italian meal...

  * * *

  Look out for the next story in the Double Miracle at Nicollino’s Hospital duet

  Reawakened by the Italian Surgeon

  by Scarlet Wilson

  And if you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Annie O’Neil

  Christmas Under the Northern Lights

  The Vet’s Secret Son

  Risking Her Heart on the Single Dad

  All available now!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Reawakened by the Italian Surgeon by Scarlet Wilson.

  WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS BOOK FROM

  Life and love in the world of modern medicine.

  Escape to the world where life and love play out against a high-pressured medical backdrop.

 

‹ Prev