by Nina Milne
For his sister.
Jeez, Emily. Stop thinking about the man. She didn’t even understand why her deluded mind was making excuses for him.
Emily picked up her cup of tea and forced her attention to the photos. She focused on the simple picture of a Jalpuran woman teaching her child how to cook, and she felt a small curl of pride. The photograph conveyed so much—the love between mother and child, the simplicity of the earthenware pot, the youth of the child, the bright colour of the lentils being measured into the pan, the light and heat reflected off the stainless-steel plates.
A photo she would never have had the courage to take if it weren’t for Luca.
Her eyes scanned the remaining photos and her gut told her she’d done something good, captured an essence of Jalpura and the richness of its life, culture and people. But then doubt surfaced—how could she trust her gut when she’d been so wrong about Luca? His voice rang in her head. ‘Believe in yourself.’ Wasn’t that what they had both told each other?
The ring of her doorbell interrupted her thoughts. Who could that be? Stupid hope touched her that it would be Luca. Ridiculous. Luca would be on Jalpura now, talking to the Princess, tracking Jodi down.
Rising, she went to the door and pulled it open. ‘Ava?’
‘Hello, lovely. Are you OK? I came as soon as Luca told me.’
Emily froze. ‘Luca told you what?’ she said cautiously.
‘He turned up at my office, said he’d messed up, he thought you may need a friend. That he needed to make it right. Then he left.’
‘Left?’
‘Yes.’ Ava entered and enveloped her friend in a hug. ‘Tell me what happened.’
Emily tried to think, hugged her friend back and then stepped back. What was going on? Why had Luca gone to Ava?
Ava studied her best friend’s expression. ‘OMG. Have you fallen for Luca? And vice versa?’
‘No. Of course not.’
Had she? No, she’d fallen for an illusion, a fake. A man who’d only employed her for her name, had conned her. A man who had listened to her, encouraged her, held her whilst she cried and made love to her. Love...that was what it had felt like; their time together had felt full of love and caring and light and laughter. She loved him; it was so obvious, so clear...so disastrous. What was she going to do? Could something that had felt so real really have been nothing more than a con?
Ava stepped forward. ‘Hey, it’s going to be all right.’
Was it? And what had Luca meant about putting things right?
* * *
Luca rang the bell of the enormous whitewashed house, congratulated himself that he had managed to gain entry to the house of Rajiv Khatri. It had taken a certain level of determination to get through to the man himself but eventually he had succeeded, and once Rajiv believed he genuinely wanted to talk about Emily he had agreed to a meeting.
The door swung open to reveal a stately butler who studied Luca’s credentials and then led the way through a spacious hallway to an enormous lounge, filled with sofas and family paraphernalia. The room was a mix of style and comfort.
Minutes later a tall slender Indian man walked in, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, with a cautious smile on his face. ‘Good morning.’
‘Good morning.’
‘Would you like refreshments? Tea? Coffee.’
Luca declined and the Bollywood actor gestured for him to be seated and followed suit. ‘So you wish to speak with me about Emily?’
‘Yes.’ Somewhat belatedly Luca realised he should maybe have prepared better for this, had been so focused on getting in front of Rajiv he hadn’t planned what to say. ‘When is the last time you saw her?’
The actor frowned. ‘I am afraid I don’t see what business it is of yours.’
Luca forced his body to relax; he was here to act as an intermediary, not an accuser. Part of him knew that he was maybe overstepping, but he knew Emily would never take either parent to task and someone had to.
‘You’re right and I apologise.’ Luca inhaled deeply. ‘I am here because recently I...got to know your daughter and I know it saddens her that...you aren’t close. That because you have a second family who you live with, you never needed to get close to her.’
‘That isn’t tr—’
‘Yes, it is.’ A quiet voice intervened and, turning, Luca saw that a petite Indian woman had entered the room, dressed in a light blue patterned salwar kameez. ‘Hello, Mr Petrovelli. I am Neela Khatri, mother to the second family.’
Rajiv rose when he saw his wife, but his expression was still one of anger. ‘I have always treated Emily like family. She was only a baby when her mother and I split but I made sure I had proper visitation rights and when I moved back here... I...’
‘Stop, Rajiv.’ Neela spoke quietly as she moved over to her husband and took his hand in hers. ‘Let us listen to what he has to say.’ She gestured to Luca, who tried to gather his words together, as sudden panic assailed him. Perhaps he was making this worse, and Rajiv Khatri would withdraw all support.
‘Please do not be angry with Emily. She has no idea I am here, so if I am speaking out of turn please blame me. Emily has not uttered a word of anger or blame. She is just sad. Sad that she can’t be part of your extended family, doesn’t have a close bond with any of you.’
Rajiv’s expression changed, the frown indicative of a man who was listening, but it was Neela who spoke.
‘I am sorry,’ she said simply. ‘Some of the blame is mine. To begin with I saw Emily as a threat, a reminder of Marigold, and I believed that you still loved her, had married me on the rebound.’
Now Rajiv took his wife’s other hand in his and they exchanged a smile. ‘And now?’ he asked.
‘Now I know you love me.’ The look the couple exchanged was so full of love and understanding that Luca blinked, wondered if Emily’s belief that this marriage was based on affection alone could be wrong. Neela smiled at her husband. ‘But the pattern had been set and we were so caught up in our family that Emily must have felt excluded.’
Neela turned back to Luca. ‘Please continue.’
‘I think Emily would like to feel she is important to you, that she comes first, that she isn’t on the sidelines of your lives. She has had a hard time lately and she could do with some support.’
Rajiv nodded his head. ‘Thank you for this intervention. I will speak with Emily.’ He shook his head. ‘No, I will do better than that. I will go and see my daughter and try to make things right.’
Luca smiled, tried to imagine Emily’s face when she saw her father, hoped with all his heart that they would work out a way to forge a new relationship. Hoped that when he met with Marigold, Emily’s mother would react positively as well.
‘Thank you,’ he said.
Neela shook her head. ‘It is we who thank you. For doing this for Emily.’
A week later
Emily tried to salvage as much of her courage as she could, even as nerves coiled inside her like a mass of writhing snakes. As her high heels clicked across the London street her heart pounded her ribs so hard she feared it would burst through.
Her mind still spun over the events of the past days. A few days after Ava’s visit her doorbell had rung again and this time as she’d opened the door she’d nearly fainted. Had found it difficult to believe the evidence of her eyes, as she took in the identity of her visitors. Her parents, both of them together on the doorstep. The next hours had been both emotional and rewarding and had left her filled with hope that perhaps she and her parents could forge new bonds.
When they had left Emily had emailed Luca to thank him and he’d replied. The words were embossed on her mind.
Dear Emily,
I am glad that it worked out. I was wondering if you would be able to meet with me, though I will fully understand if that is not something you want to do. I would
like to talk.
If you feel you can do this perhaps we could meet for a cocktail in London at your convenience?
Best wishes,
Luca
So here she was.
She slowed down as she reached her destination, knew that she would regret it to her dying day if she turned tail and ran now. A deep breath, and she pushed the door open, blinked as she entered the dimly lit interior and realised the place was empty.
No, not empty. As she approached the bar she saw Luca and her head whirled. She halted in her tracks, soaked in his sheer masculine beauty, every familiar angle and plane, the dark hair a little overlong now, his stance alert and almost primal as his eyes scanned the door.
‘Luca.’
‘Emily.’
Unbidden happiness fizzed inside her and she wanted to hurl herself into his arms, wanted to hold and be held, inhale his scent... Instead she stepped forward, approached the bar, half relieved, half disappointed at the barrier between them.
‘I wasn’t sure if you’d come.’ His voice was low, deep and so wonderfully familiar.
‘Neither was I. But...’ she looked round ‘...where is everyone?’
Now he smiled and she was transported back to Jalpura, to Turin, to all the times his face had lit up her world. ‘I’ve bought the bar.’
‘You’ve bought it?’
‘Yup. I am going to open a cocktail bar in London. Palazzo di Cioccolato is branching out. I listened to what you said, and I’ve done some serious thinking. I do want to launch in London and I will, but not yet. Perhaps when it is possible to come to a decision about Dolci, perhaps then. But in the meantime I realised I was so focused on rivalling Dolci that maybe I missed out on doing the other things I wanted to do. I like mixing cocktails, I enjoyed working at Silvio’s. So here we are. Welcome to Teepee.’
Emily thought and smiled as she got it. ‘Teepee—or TP as in Therese Petrovelli.’
‘Yup. My mum loves the idea.’
‘So do I.’ Happiness for him swept through her, that he’d started to move on from revenge, from the emotional turmoil caused by James’s actions in life and death. Yet the happiness was tinged with sadness, because she’d hoped Luca had wanted to see her for something different.
He cleared his throat. ‘I hoped you would stay and have the very first cocktail served here.’
‘I’d like that. I wanted to talk to you as well.’ She sat down at the bar. ‘I want to thank you. For going to my parents. I’m not sure exactly what you said but it’s made a world of difference; opened up a whole new facet to my relationship with both of them.’
‘I’m glad. Truly glad.’
‘I think things will be different from now on. They actually turned up together, said it was their way of showing me that they truly wanted to try and change things up. I’m going to spend some time in Mumbai with my dad on our own and then stay with the family. My mum said she knows she can’t change the past but she hopes she and I can spend a lot more time together and she offered to not go to Derek’s—her current husband’s—film premiere so she could be with me instead. I told her there was no need, but I appreciated the offer. Anyway, she took me on a girls’ day out—hence the new look.’ She glanced down at her outfit, aware she was talking too much but she couldn’t stop. ‘We had a lot of fun...massages, spa, shopping and lunch. So it’s a start. Thank you.’
Because right now, whatever happened with her parents, she knew that Luca had gone the extra mile to do something for her. And that sent an appreciative glow through her veins.
‘There is no need to thank me. I wanted to do that. For you.’
The expression on his face was so genuine, so warm, that something melted inside her, urged her to throw caution to the wind and vault over the bar into his arms. No way. That would embarrass them both and there had been enough mortification to last her a lifetime. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. ‘I was wondering—have you managed to track Jodi down? Did you meet with the Princess?’
‘No on both counts.’
Surprise widened her eyes. ‘Oh... I assumed...’
‘Once I got your email I realised exactly what I needed to do and I did it. I went to see Ava and then I flew to Mumbai to talk to your father, then I went to see your mother and here we are.’
‘But...’
Luca shook his head. ‘I will, of course, try to speak with the Princess and continue my search for Jodi. But in the end Jodi is an adult and she knows she can turn to me or our mum any time she needs to. I knew you were hurting and I wanted to—’
‘Put me first.’ The realisation cascaded over her skin and her heart sang.
‘Yes. Because that’s what you deserve, Emily. To be put first. And you didn’t deserve what I did. I should have been upfront.’
Now she reached out, a small tentative touch of his arm, revelled in the familiar hardness of muscle under her fingers. ‘It’s OK. I understand why you did it. You love your sister and you couldn’t take the risk that I wouldn’t help.’
‘That is the reason but that doesn’t make it right. Not when it hurt you, not when it made you doubt that everything else between us was real. Because it was real, Emily. All of it. I meant every word. I believe in your talent, I believe in you. I hold your grief about your baby in my own heart. Because I love you.’
There was a silence and her heart fluttered in her chest. ‘You love me?’ The words seemed impossible, words she knew he’d vowed to never say again. Yet she knew them to be true, knew this man would never say those words unless he meant them with all his heart. Because he knew the power of love, the immensity of the gift and the responsibility that went with it. For Luca love meant a promise to never leave, never abandon the other.
‘Yes, I do. I love you, with all my heart and soul. I know you may not love me back, but I want you to know how I feel. I love you. I love your courage and your strength in the face of the grief and pain you have faced. I love your sense of humour, your grace, the way you smile. I love how you feel in my arms when I wake up. I love how caring you are and how you see the world. Whether it is from behind a lens or not. I love you.’
Words welled up inside her, but she knew the most important ones. ‘I love you too, Luca. With all my heart.’
She watched as he absorbed the words and then he vaulted across the bar and pulled her close, twirled her round and then gently placed her down, still safely encircled in his arms. ‘Are you sure? After what I did?’
‘I understand what you did. Yes, it was wrong, but you also did so much that was right—you started my healing process, you made me believe in myself, listened to me, held me and you made me happy.’
His silver-grey eyes lit up. ‘I appreciate that—that you have found it in you to absolve me. Because I know what I did was indefensible; I regret it with all my heart. The idea that I hurt you, hurt the woman I love. It will not happen again. I promise you I will never lie to you again, not by omission or fact. If there is something difficult to face up to...’
‘Then we will do it together.’
‘Yes.’
‘I did not know it was possible to be this happy.’ He tipped her chin up with his finger. ‘To know I will see your face every day when I wake up and last thing before I go to sleep.’
She looked up at him, gave a small mischievous smile. ‘But surely you would prefer a different arrangement? One where we only see each other every blue moon.’
‘No. I would emphatically not prefer that.’ He tugged her closer. ‘The idea makes my blood run cold.’ Now his face became serious. ‘You changed me, Emily. When my father died I felt such an influx of emotions, and I didn’t know what to do with them. I wanted to bury them; you helped me to face them. I felt as though I had failed because I hadn’t got my revenge. You showed me it was OK to feel and how to channel that emotion, to genuinely believe it wasn’t my
fault he left. You showed me that talking about how you feel is a good thing. That feeling is a good thing. You taught me that spending time with someone, getting closer, is a risk worth taking, is fun and rewarding. Today you have shown me it is possible for me to make a mistake, do wrong and still be loved. My actions did not drive you away for ever.’
‘No. Because you also did so many caring things: you helped me grieve my baby, you convinced me that Howard was wrong about my talent, you showed me how to stand up to his voice in my head, you helped me move forward when I never thought I could. When we left London for Turin I panicked because I thought I couldn’t leave my home, my grief—it felt like a betrayal of my baby. With you I learnt to laugh again, to dance, to work. To grow. You made me believe in myself, made me want to pursue my own dreams’
His arms tightened around her. ‘I want to have children with you, when you’re ready. I know it will take time. And we will never forget your first baby. I will cherish his memory with you. As I will always cherish you.’
Her heart seemed to wrench with happiness. ‘And our children will be the luckiest in the world to have a dad like you. I know you will always be there for them, for every milestone.’
‘We will be there for them and I think we will be the happiest family in the world. I love you, Emily.’
‘I love you too, Luca.’ She knew she would never get tired of saying the words of love.
‘I think now is the perfect moment for that cocktail I promised you.’ Taking her hand, he pulled her round to the opposite side of the bar. ‘These are the ingredients. Tequila for strength, pineapple juice for sweetness, rum to add a little spice, and chilli for a bit of heat and some shavings of chocolate for extra sweetness.’
She watched as he expertly set to work, absorbed every deft movement as he mixed and shook the ingredients, allowed her gaze to linger on every inch of his glorious body, full of joy that this beautiful, generous, caring man was hers for life.