by Tina Beckett
Elyse wasn’t so sure about that.
She slung her arm around her aunt’s shoulder and squeezed. “I wish I had your certainty, but I do understand.” Of course Peggy wouldn’t want to be in the room if she and Luca ended up having a huge argument about arrangements. They did need to hammer this out. Without an audience. Even though she hated the thought of being in the house alone with him.
Because of him? Or because she didn’t trust herself?
She didn’t dare answer that question.
“Thanks for coming with me to Italy. Are you sure you don’t want company on your sightseeing tour?”
“I’m positive. I hear there’s a romantic gondola tour down the Arno River. Maybe I’ll meet a hunky Italian and get lucky.”
“Aunt Peggy!”
“Don’t you ‘Aunt Peggy’ me. You’re no stranger to the birds and bees or you wouldn’t have that sweet little thing in the other room.”
She couldn’t argue with that.
“You don’t even speak Italian.”
“Some things you don’t need words for. Don’t worry. I’ll check on you every night until I’m back home in the States.”
Elyse smiled. Her aunt was only ten years older than she was, so she was more like a sister than a parental figure. Peggy’s husband had been much older than his bride and had died almost five years ago, leaving Peggy a fortune. But it hadn’t changed her in the least. She was still the same fun-loving person she’d always been. She’d even insisted on paying for the trip to Italy.
“Make sure you do. Do I need to set a curfew?”
Her aunt laughed. “I’d only break it.” She kissed her niece on the cheek. “It’s not every day I get to see Italy.”
Emilia peered around the corner and motioned to them. Judging from the luscious smell coming from the kitchen, breakfast must be ready.
She guessed Anna would be coming with her to the hospital this morning. She smiled. Well, Luca might as well have his first official reality check about having a baby. He was going to find out it wasn’t always convenient.
But Elyse wouldn’t change it for the world.
Going into the kitchen, she found two plates already set with eggs, ham, thick slices of what looked like homemade toasted bread, and small pots of jam. “This looks delicious. Thank you so much, but aren’t you going to eat?”
“Eat...no...” The woman frowned. “Ate six o’clock.”
She must have eaten with Luca, then. Glancing at Peg, she said, “Were you here when Luca was eating?”
Peggy sat and dug into her eggs with gusto. “I came after he was done. Emilia offered to make me something then, but I wanted to wait for you.”
“I’m sorry. You should have knocked on the door.”
“I knew Annalisa would wake you soon enough. I wanted you to get as much sleep as you could.”
“Well, I slept great, thank you.”
“I’ll pack while you’re at the hospital so leave the baby with me.”
So much for Luca getting his first taste of real fatherhood. “I can take her with me.”
“You’ll have her to yourself soon enough. I need a few more snuggles before I go, since it looks like I won’t be seeing her for a month. That’s going to be hard on everyone back home. Especially your mom.”
“I know, but it’ll fly by.”
And if she decided to stay longer than a month?
There was no easy answer. Luca was Anna’s father. Nothing was going to change that. And she realized she wouldn’t want to, even if she could.
* * *
Luca saw her coming down the hall, those hips swinging to an internal tune that he used to know so well. He’d half wondered if she would skip out on him once she found out that Peggy was going back to the hotel.
Her aunt had told him this morning that she wanted to give them time and space to talk things through. He’d tried to insist that she wouldn’t be in the way, but she’d turned out to be almost as stubborn as her niece was.
It must run in the family.
Well, it ran in his family too, so he couldn’t fault her there.
And he needed to be realistic in his expectations. Elyse had made concessions in coming here, so he needed to make some too. He was going to turn some of his patients over to another neurologist, so he could spend time with his daughter. They could sightsee, or picnic...or whatever the hell Elyse wanted to do. He wasn’t courting her, he insisted to himself. He was courting his daughter, hoping to make up for lost time.
At least he hoped that was all it was. Because every time he saw the woman...
He forced that thought back as she reached where he was standing. “Thanks for coming. I have the patient workup waiting in my office. Lorenzo will meet us there in about fifteen minutes to go over everything. Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow.”
“I was surprised that you had your own office.”
“Yes, didn’t you in Atlanta?”
She smiled. “Touché. Yes, I did. Sorry.”
“It’s fine. Anyway, I thought we could discuss the procedure and then see the patient herself. She’s American and will probably be happy to see someone from her homeland besides her husband.”
“I’m good with that.” She sighed. “This is one of those times that I wished I’d paid more attention in Spanish class.”
“Spanish?”
“It might help me at least a little bit. I mean, I know I won’t need it with this patient, but what if you want me to weigh in on others?”
“Spanish is closer to Portuguese than Italian, although there are some similarities.” He smiled. “I can teach you some. I’d really like Annalisa to learn Italian.”
Elyse frowned, and he cocked his head. “Is that a problem?”
“No... I just...” The tip of her tongue scrubbed at her upper lip for a second before retreating, but not before the act made something in his gut tighten. He remembered that gesture and a thousand other ones. They were all there in his memory as fresh as the day he’d put them there.
Dio. Would they ever fade?
He hoped not.
Licking her lips normally meant she was going to say something she thought he wouldn’t want to hear.
“What is it?”
“My administrator really wants me back at the end of my leave, so I only have this month. Unless I quit my job.”
He wanted his parents and sister to meet the baby, but they lived in Rome, almost three hundred kilometers from Florence. They could make the trip there and back by train in a day, but he’d hoped to be able to spend a week or so in Rome to make proper introductions. They still could. It would just have to be carefully arranged.
He needed to call his parents first and let them know they had their first granddaughter. They would be thrilled, even though his folks were a bit old-fashioned about some things.
“We’ll figure something out.”
“I hope so.”
“Is Peggy at the house with Anna?”
“Yes. Did she tell you, she’s going back to the hotel and will be returning to Atlanta as planned?”
“Yes. She told me she was going to talk to you about it.”
“She did. I’m not sure how I feel about it, but she doesn’t want to be in the way. I guess in case we have bitter arguments about Annalisa.”
“And will we?”
She looked at him as if needing to consider something. “I really don’t want to fight over her. We’re both adults, Luca. I’m assuming we both have our daughter’s best interests at heart.”
Said as if she wasn’t sure that he did. That stung. Made him wonder if she’d ever completely trusted him. With anything. Including her heart.
The end of their relationship said she probably hadn’t.
“You assumed correctly. Don’t ever doubt it.” His answer
was sharper than he’d intended it to be and made him realize they were still standing in the middle of the hallway. “Why don’t we talk more about Anna after our meeting with Lorenzo?”
“Yes, of course.” She looked relieved.
“Elevator or stairs?”
“Stairs, if we can. Especially after that huge breakfast Emilia insisted on fixing us.”
He smiled. Emilia had worked for his parents for years, helping them throw elaborate parties, so she did tend to go overboard where guests were concerned. Not that he entertained much outside work. He’d never actually brought a woman to the apartment. Hopefully Emilia wouldn’t get any funny ideas. “She thinks everything can be solved by a good meal.”
If only it were that simple.
They took the stairs to the third floor, where all of the offices were. Coming out into the main foyer, where leather chairs sat in a large circle on the marble floor, he headed to the far corner, where his office was.
“Why are there so many pictures on the walls? I noticed them downstairs in the entryway as well.”
As he saw them every day, they had become so much background noise, but looking at the long line of images he could see how it might look to an outsider. The hospital in Atlanta had been sterile and efficient. But Florence was a city with a rich cultural history as far as art went. “Hospitals have started putting up pictures of nature as a way of enhancing the healing process.”
Arched brows went up and she scanned the wall, the bottom half of which was painted blue, whereas a buttery cream covered the upper half. A handrail had been placed along the break in colors, the artwork providing another visual delineation between the two. “Interesting. Do all hospitals in Italy do this?”
“Probably not all of them. It’s a relatively new concept. The Clinica Neurologica di Firenze adopted it about five years ago.”
“Firenze?”
It was easy to forget, even with all the tourists, that the name of the hospital meant nothing to a non-Italian speaker. “Sorry, it’s the way we say Florence.”
He smiled, remembering the way she would puzzle through an Italian phrase, trying to make sense of it, when they had been together. She’d loved him speaking Italian while they made love, the little sounds she’d made sending him spinning into space more than once. Long before he’d been ready.
He swallowed. Not something he wanted to remember.
Unlocking his office, he motioned her inside. “What time do you need to get back to relieve Peggy?”
“I think I have a few hours. I’m still nursing, but more in the morning and at night, since I was getting ready to go back to work. I’ve been supplementing with bottles for the last couple of weeks.”
“Okay, sounds good.”
There was a knock on the door and Lorenzo opened the door a crack and said, “C’è stato um cambiamento di piani.”
Luca motioned him inside, answering him in English. “A change of plans? What kind of change?” He inserted, “Sorry. Lorenzo, you remember Elyse?”
“Yes. Of course.” He took her hand and smiled at her. “But you must call me Enzo.”
Her cheeks flushed a deep red. “Okay.”
What the hell? Luca’s eyes narrowed, centering squarely on his friend. “You mentioned that something had changed.”
“Yes, Mary Landers has had two seizures in the last two hours. I’ve moved surgery up from tomorrow to today. In two hours, to be exact. I have to prepare in a few minutes, but I would like to run by you the method I’m planning on using, Elyse, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course not. Can we go over the chart together?”
Luca pulled the chart he had and handed it to Lorenzo. Soon the pair were going over things, heads bent close as they studied and discussed the findings. He didn’t like the way they looked together, her blond locks contrasting with Lorenzo’s close-cut black hair. Elyse spoke in quick, concise statements, explaining her case and how it was similar to and different from the one at hand. “My patient didn’t have back-to-back seizures like this one, but they’re similar. And going in with a ventriculoscopy followed by microsurgery is the same method I would choose if she were my patient.”
Lorenzo looked at her and said, “Perfect. Grazie. Will you be observing?”
“If possible.”
“Yes. There’s a microphone in the observation room. If something strikes you during the surgery, feel free to mention it. Also, it might help the patient if you went in and spoke with her beforehand.”
“I will. Thanks.”
He took her hand again and gave it a squeeze. “See you soon.”
Luca frowned. What was with his friend? And since when did he ask anyone to call him Enzo?
But before he could even formulate a response, Lorenzo was out the door.
“Are you sure you have time to observe? It will probably last several hours.”
“Peggy has enough supplies for quite a while. I’ll give her a quick call though and check.” She glanced at him. “Are you scrubbing in as well?”
“They have another neurophysiologist who will be monitoring the patient’s readings, but I’ll be available to interpret a scan if they need it during the ventriculoscopy.”
He remembered the first time he’d heard mention of a burr hole and realized that drilling through the skull was a practice that hadn’t entirely faded out with time. It still had its place, and this was one of them.
“I wish embolization techniques worked for these types of malformations, but they don’t.”
He’d always liked talking about work with her. She was intelligent and thoughtful. Not hurried, not intimidated, even though neurology was still a male-dominated field. She wasn’t in it to show anyone up. But she wasn’t afraid to push back over a diagnosis either, which he’d witnessed firsthand. The death of a patient had changed things between them. She’d stopped discussing cases with him, had become distant and moody. It had continued until the layoff occurred.
He’d never been able to figure out exactly what had happened between them.
“No, it would be wonderful if it was a relatively easy fix, but with the type of procedure Lorenzo is going to do, he’ll have to enlarge the burr hole to double its size and go in manually.”
“Hopefully the seizures are caused by the cavernoma and not something else,” she said.
“Testing has pretty much ruled out anything else.” He paused. “Are you ready to go see her?”
“Yes. And thank you for asking me to come.”
“You’re welcome.”
He put the computer to sleep and they both stood, trying to exit the same side of the desk. They bumped shoulders and she gave a husky laugh as they tried to maneuver and ended up doing a little dance that still put them in each other’s path.
“Well, this isn’t working.” He tried to wait for her to move away first, but she didn’t. When he looked at her, her glance was on his face. There was an intensity there that made his head swim.
Suddenly he was on a different plane—transported back through time and space.
Her teeth went to her bottom lip and clamped down, eyes shifting to his chest.
A blaze of heat went through him. Was she checking him out? His brain thought she was and that was enough for certain parts of his body to stir.
“Elyse?”
She didn’t answer, but her brows went up, so he knew she’d heard him. She looked like she was waiting for him to do something. He had no idea what, because the only thing he could think of doing right now was kissing her.
Unless...that’s exactly what she was waiting for.
That was enough for him.
His hands went to her shoulders and he stood there for several long seconds.
Then he kissed her.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE SECOND HIS lips touched hers, her eyes slam
med shut, and she was trapped in a warm sea of familiarity. One she’d blocked from her thoughts until this very moment. His mouth was firm, just like it had been, his taste exactly the same: dark roasted coffee and everything that went along with being Luca.
“Dio.” He came up long enough to mutter that single oath before kissing her again.
The word made her whole body liquefy. She could remember long strings of Italian that would help drive her to the very brink of ecstasy and then hold her there until he was ready to send her over the edge. And then he would start all over. A slow, wonderful torture that she never wanted to end.
Her arms went around his neck, and she pressed herself against him, needing to get closer even as he edged her back until her bottom was against the back of the chair. She struggled to balance herself on it, even as she wanted to turn and lean over it, inviting an exploration of a different type.
Lord, she was in trouble. Big trouble, but she didn’t want to stop. Didn’t want to do anything that would change the course of where this might be headed.
She’d missed him so very much.
His hand went to her breast, palm pressing against her tight nipple with a caress that sent a shock wave through her. And something else.
A warning tingle. Oh, no!
It was the signal that her body had felt the stimulation and completely mistaken the reason for it.
Her hands went to his shoulders and pushed, terrified she would end up with two wet circles on the front of her blue blouse.
As soon as his mouth came off hers, and he took a step back, she crossed her arms over her chest and applied pressure, hoping it didn’t look as obvious as it felt. It worked. The tide began to recede.
In the meantime, Luca dragged a hand through his hair that she could swear shook a little. “Dio, Elyse. Sorry. I didn’t call you to my office for that.” His accent was suddenly thicker than normal.
She knew he hadn’t. If he’d been interested in sex, there was always the house.
