Silence for a beat. Then, “I thought you might have flown back to England.”
Maggie frowned. Strangely, that hadn’t even occurred to her. “No, Dante. I came to the closest place that would get May out of harm’s way.”
His breath was a loud exhalation on the end of the phone. “And are you coming back?”
She bit down on her lower lip. It was a strange desire, the need to hurt the people you loved most. “Aren’t I legally obliged to?”
More silence. “Fine. Good. Telephone me when you arrive.”
Maggie disconnected the call, seething with rage. Dante had proposed to her, but it was pretty damned obvious he still had feelings for his ex-wife. His now sister-in-law. How could Maggie even think of getting involved in such an incestuous circle? At least she hadn’t accepted his proposal. It was one tiny thing she could be grateful for in the rest of the whole big fat mess.
Her phone began to ring again and she looked down. “Rosie!” She swiped it to answer, a huge smile on her face. “Oh, you couldn’t possibly know how happy I am to hear from you!”
Rosie’s happy laugh was like a balm to her soul. “I’m glad. Because I miss you! I don’t think we’ve gone this long without seeing each other since high school.”
Maggie rolled her eyes. “Rosie, you travel with Luca all the time.”
“I know, that’s different.”
“How?”
She could hear her friend’s pout. “Then I’m distracted. Now, I’m at home and bored because you are not here.”
Maggie’s laugh was genuine. “I’m sorry to have made you bored.”
“You should be. I’ve even taken up cooking, well, boiling eggs at least, because our fridge is so bare without you here to keep us supplied with delicious things.”
“The travesty,” she joked back.
“So how’s it going with Mr Mysterious?” Rosie cut to the chase, as best friends everywhere had licence to do.
Maggie thought long and hard about how to phrase her reply. She had never kept a secret from Rosie, and she didn’t intend to start now. “It’s complicated,” she began with sigh.
She could practically hear Rosie nod. “When is love not?”
“It’s not love,” Maggie was quick to demur. “At least, not for him.”
“But for you?”
“Yeah. For me, it’s probably love. Yes. I love him.” She closed her eyes. Saying it out loud was freeing somehow. “I don’t know why. Big jackass that he is.”
“You can’t always explain it.” She searched for the right thing to say. “But he’s not interested?”
“Oh, he’s interested. He’s even proposed,” Maggie replied with a tilt of her lips.
“That’s fantastic news!”
“No, no. Don’t pop the champagne yet, whatever you do. I didn’t accept, of course.”
“But why not? You just said you love him?”
“I do!” She lifted her feet up onto the edge of the balcony, where they could catch some of the weak morning sunshine. “But he’s only proposing because he wants an easy way to keep May in his life. Can you think of anything worse than being married to a guy who you would give your life for, who doesn’t really care about you?”
“Luca said he seemed pretty hung up on you, that night in your flat.”
“Mmmm,” she shook her head. “He’s… possessive of me. That’s not the same thing.”
Rosie wasn’t buying it, but she knew enough of Maggie’s stubborn streak not to argue. “Well, it sounds like you need your best friend.”
Maggie almost dropped the phone, she was so excited. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah, sure. Luca has some business in Barcelona. I thought I could come visit you and he’ll join us later on in the night.”
“Oh, Rosie.” She closed her eyes, her dark lashes fanning against her cheeks. “Thank you.”
“See you tomorrow – is that too short notice?”
“No! It’s just soon enough, I can’t wait to see you.” She disconnected the phone with a renewed sense of energy. Seeing Rosie, and even Luca, would surely make everything better. In fact, it gave her a sense of purpose. She could make their favourite meals, and get herself organised for some time with her best friends. Best of all, she might even be able to put Dante out of her mind for a day or two.
“Okay, May. Time to go home and face the music.”
Dante was waiting at the villa when they returned. His face ashen, grey patches beneath his eyes, and he was still the most beautiful specimen of manhood Maggie had ever seen. He moved forward as she entered, to take her handbag from her shoulder.
“I’ve been worried about you,” he said angrily, looping her bag over the top of a chair.
“You told me to go,” she said with an assumed air of haughtiness.
“To protect May, and yourself, from Veronika’s foul temper. Not because I wanted you to leave.” He ran a hand over his eyes. “I thought you’d left the country.”
“Like I said, we have a contract.”
He took May from her arms and pressed a kiss against her head. “I know. But it would have been understandable if you’d not been thinking clearly.”
She sniffed. “Did Veronika stay long?”
“No.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “She left shortly after you did.”
“I see.”
She didn’t, and he didn’t know where to begin. “Maggie, let me explain.”
She spun around, her temper on a short fuse. “Don’t.” She shook her head, but her eyes were wide, her cheeks flushed. “I don’t want to hear it.”
“Please,” he said beseechingly. “It is not what you think.”
“What I think?” She hissed, “Is that you comforted her instead of May. That you held her to you and consoled her when she was shouting at our baby and attempting to assault me.”
A muscle moved in his jaw. “But not for the reasons you think.”
Maggie didn’t know if she’d ever find a way out of her feelings. She leaned back against the wall. “I’m tired.”
He looked at her hard for a minute. “Okay. We will speak later. I just needed to know you were safe.”
She nodded brusquely. He put May down on the floor, tousling her curls as he did so. “Oh, Dante,” she spoke as he was at the front door.
“Si?” Weary. As though she was a problem he couldn’t hope to solve.
“Luca and Rosie are coming to visit. Tomorrow. I just thought you should know.”
He frowned. “Your friends?”
“Yes.” She straightened her back. “He has business in Barcelona, and Rosie and Marianna would like to visit with us while he’s engaged. I presume it will be okay for them to stay here at the Villa?”
His expression was confused. “Of course. Why would you even ask?”
“It’s your house,” she pointed out with a shrug.
It brought him back inside the villa. Quietly, he latched the door in place. “What do you need, Maggie? I want you to stay here. I want you to think of this as your home. How many ways can I say that?”
A thousand thoughts popped into her mind, none of them easy to express. She shrugged non-comitally. “Thank you.”
He swore softly. “Damn it, Maggie. This won’t do. We can’t live like this.”
“I know.” Tormented. Heart broken.
He pressed his lips to her forehead. “Rest now. We will speak later.”
Later though, everything just got much, much worse.
When Maggie awoke from a catnap on the sofa, she immediately went to check on May. After the previous night, her maternal instincts had been pushed into high gear. The little child was fast asleep in the crib, her thumb halfway in her mouth, her little legs thrown wide, as she made a sweet little snoring sound.
When the doorbell rang only moments later, Maggie was sure it would be Dante.
She was wrong.
“Veronika.” She stepped backwards in surprise. “What are you doing here.”
/>
“I came to apologise.” It sounded like an accusation. The sniff that followed was thick with hatred.
“Oh.”
“Enrique is worried Dante will never speak to us again.”
“I see.”
Maggie didn’t. She didn’t see, and she had no idea what to say to the woman who had been married to the man she loved. Who had stormed into her accommodation the night before with some kind of crazed intention that Maggie could simply wonder about.
“We are leaving. You do not need to worry.”
Maggie couldn’t speak. She only nodded.
“Before I go, I need to speak to you.”
“Why?” She was weary. Exhausted and spent. It was too complicated.
Unexpectedly, Veronika gripped Maggie’s shoulders. “You cannot marry him,” she said earnestly.
Surprise hit her in the solar plexus. “What do you mean?” She managed to respond swiftly.
“He told me everything last night. You are too innocent to really understand, Maggie. But you need to know who Dante really is.” She shook her head. “He is only proposing because he needs a mother for his child. And a woman he can control. I was not prepared to be either of those things. He cheated on me endlessly, just to hurt me. He still loves me, Maggie. Marrying you and waving you under my nose would be his way of paying me back. He is a bastard, and he will not care that you will be hurt in the process.”
Maggie shook her head, her brain about to explode with the information. “He’s not like that.”
“He loves me. He always will. Can you really be happy, marrying a man who will never return your feelings?”
Maggie gasped, for her own thoughts had run along this line so completely. “I’m not marrying him.”
Veronika laughed harshly. “Oh, you will. He’s not an easy man to say no to.”
Maggie stiffened. “And I’m not someone who is easily bullied,” she promised with a firm set of her chin. “By him or you. I intend to make my own choice.”
“That is fine,” Veronika responded, her mouth quirking into a harsh smile. “But you should make it with all the facts. Dante begged me to not to leave him. After you’d slept with him. He had sex with you, and conceived that,” she pointed towards May’s closed bedroom door, “and then he came to my bed and made love to me and asked me to take him back. This is the man you are thinking of marrying. And I pity you for it.”
Maggie’s gut twisted in pain but she didn’t visibly react. “You do not need to pity me, Veronika. I will only ever make decisions that I feel are right, for me and my daughter. Regardless of what happened between you and Dante two years ago, my future is my own to decide.”
Veronika eyed her thoughtfully. “Then you are more foolish than I had thought.”
“Good bye, Veronika,” Maggie said with a shake of her head. She closed the door and slid the bolt lock into place for good measure.
When the doorbell rang an hour later, as she was feeding May her lunch, she froze. What now? All she needed was a moment’s peace. Was that so much to ask?
It was Dante, a hopeful smile of reconciliation on his face. But Maggie was not in the mood.
“What do you want?”
He put a hand out to touch her shoulder but she flinched away. “I want to be left alone,” she stone-walled, her eyes not meeting his.
“What’s happened?”
She bit down on her lip. “I don’t want to talk about it. It’s not a good time.”
He sighed exasperatedly. “It is never a good time with you, and I am fed up with waiting.”
Her temper sparked. “Welcome to the world of parenting, where your own needs always come second to someone else’s.”
He bit back on his own temperamental retort. “We have babysitters on hand. Why will you not let my mother, or Anita, come and sit with her so we can sort this mess out.”
She lifted her chin. “You are not my priority. May is.”
“Why can you not be a priority? Why can you not realise that May’s interests are best served by meeting your own needs?”
“Because I’ve been doing that,” she responded sharply. “For the last few days, all I’ve been thinking about is you, and how I feel about you, and what I want from you, and what you must think of me. And it led me to leave May in a dangerous situation.” She shrugged. “I guess you could say I’ve learned my lesson.”
He exhaled slowly. “Can I come in and see May?”
“On one condition.”
He raised his brows in silent query.
“Don’t talk to me about any of this. I don’t want to hear a word about marriage or sex or Veronika.” She shuddered. “I’m sick of it all.”
Dante compressed his lips, but he could see for himself that her temper was red hot. “Fine.”
He spent the afternoon with May, playing with her, reading to her, and adoring her. And Maggie spent the afternoon ignoring him completely.
He left with a growing sense of frustration and desperation. For a man renowned for his ability to take charge of a situation, he was failing miserably at getting the one thing he suddenly wanted in life. And it was all he could think about.
11
“Tell me again when you’re coming home?” Rosie enthused, as she lifted a mouthful of the aubergine curry to her lips and tasted it gratefully.
Luca laughed, “Cara, we both know Maggie would come home tomorrow if she could.”
Maggie smiled disingenuously. “If only to make sure you were both eating properly.”
“Hey, I’ll have you know I’m getting very good at reheating Waitrose ready meals.”
Maggie’s jaw dropped. “Tell me it isn’t so. Luca, you’re Italian. Can’t you teach her to make a good pasta at least?”
His smile was indulgent. “I wouldn’t change a thing about my wife, and you know it, Maggie.”
Rosie’s cheeks flushed a becoming pink. “Anyway, I’ve missed you and your cooking.”
Maggie laughed. “It’s been days, Rosie, not weeks.”
She shrugged. “I know.”
Luca opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by the peel of the doorbell. Both Luca and Rosie looked at one other with the frantic fear that only parents of light sleepers understand. Maggie didn’t dare linger. She had to get to the door before the bell went again, lest little Marianna release a cry of her own.
Dante stood on the other side, dressed in a suit without a tie, undone a button at the collar to reveal the strong column of his tanned neck. In his hands, he held a bottle of wine.
“What are you doing here?” She demanded, her face flushed. “I told you I had friends visiting.”
He nodded and moved past her easily, deeper into the villa. “Yes, you did.” He looked toward the table resolutely. “I came to ask their help.”
“Their help?”
Luca and Rosie were both watching with bemused expressions. They held hands beneath the table.
“Yes.”
“Their help in what?” Maggie prompted. Her fingers were shaking and she held them behind her back to disguise the fact.
He approached the table with a determined set to his shoulders. Maggie followed on autopilot, driven by curiosity and a kind of morbid fascination. “I’m Dante Velasco,” he greeted the couple. He extended a hand to Luca first, and then to Rosie. “And I need your advice.”
Luca nodded encouragingly. “Please, do sit down and tell me how we can help.”
Dante immediately liked the man. He’d heard that he was a ruthless bastard, but the fact that Maggie spoke so highly of him indicated otherwise. Not to mention the fact he was willing to help.
“You see,” he said, sitting down and determinedly not looking at the beautiful auburn haired woman who’d given him a baby. “I’ve asked Maggie to marry me, but she’s being incredibly difficult about the whole thing.”
“Dante!” Maggie exclaimed in surprise. “That is… none of their business. It’s private!”
“Nonsense,�
�� he said with a nonchalant shrug. “You have told me Rosie is like a sister to you.”
“Go on,” Rosie, traitorous Rosie, leaned forward, her enormous green eyes round in her pretty face, the hint of a smile on her curved lips.
“She insists it will not work. But she is wrong. I know it would be a success.”
Maggie gripped the back of a chair for support. “Dante…” her voice was tremulous. “Don’t.”
Luca shook his head sympathetically. “For smart women, they are not sensible when it comes to marriage.” Rosie playfully slapped his arm. “I recommend persistence.”
Dante slid a look at Maggie, his eyes burning with passion. “I think she is worth the wait,” he agreed with a nod.
“And in the mean time, I know she’s made enough dinner for four. Actually, for an army of fourteen hundred, knowing Mags. You’ll join us won’t you?” Rosie enthused, reaching over and putting her hand on Dante’s. “We’ve only just started.”
He grinned because he knew Maggie was silently fuming. “I’d be delighted.”
Maggie shook her head. “I’m sure you’ve got something else to do.”
“Relax, mi dolor. It is a meal. If I’m going to be your husband, I should get to know your closest friends, don’t you think?”
“You are not going to be my husband.” She responded through gritted teeth.
His laugh followed her to the kitchen, where she retrieved a spare plate and moved back to the table. She put it down in a none too gentle manner, so that it clattered on the timber table top.
How had Maggie known that Dante and Luca would get on like two tall, dark, handsome houses on fire?
The night passed with a shockingly convivial exchange of conversation. Maggie even found herself relaxing for a few moments and laughing at something someone had said. The fact that Rosie and Luca were so interested in Dante and his family wine business somehow made her feel like her own fascination with him was warranted. Worthy. Not so crazy.
But then she thought of all the emotional water under the bridge and felt herself get mired back into indecision. How could either of them get past what had happened? What they’d done to each other?
“Coffee? Tea?” She asked, as she stood to clear the table.