She suppressed a smile, and resisted pointing out that he probably wasn’t supposed to accept food from strangers either. “I’m not a stranger. I’m friends with Nico.”
“I’ve never met a friend of Nico’s.”
Maddie’s heart twisted at this innocently offered information.
“He has me,” she said honestly, a smile dimpling her cheeks. “I was going to share whatever scones the pirates didn’t want with your uncle.” She leaned closer, a conspiratorial look on her face. “He’s never tried them either.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. But in England, where I’m from, we eat a lot of them.”
“My mum lived in England.”
Maddie nodded thoughtfully. “Is your mum here?”
A scowl touched his features. “Yes.”
“Were you running away from her?”
A petulant look made his lip jut out. “No.”
She hid another smile, shifting her gaze to the sparkling ocean. “She might be worried about you?”
“She’s only ever worried about the twins.”
“Ah.” Maddie nodded sagely. “Your brother and sister?”
He eyed her warily. “Brothers.”
“How old are they?”
“Babies.”
“Ah.” Another noise of comprehension and sympathy moved through her for this little boy and the obvious adjustment he’d made to his lifestyle.
“They’re stupid and noisy and they don’t play with me and mum wants me to nap when they nap but I’m not a baby, I’m a big boy and I don’t need a sleep in the middle of the day.”
His outburst was so sweet that she wanted to laugh. She didn’t, of course. She could see that to this little boy, his worries were very serious, and she didn’t want him to think she was making light of them.
“Well, little Master Montebello,” another look towards the house. “I hurt my ankle when I fell and I can’t move. Unless a pirate comes along, I’m going to need another grown up to help me.” Dante, beside her, moved closer to the basket, sniffing at the handle. She pulled a scone out and placed it on the grass beside her. He looked at her questioningly for a moment.
“Good boy. There you go.”
He guzzled it down gratefully.
“Do I have to go in now?”
The sun was delightfully warm on her shoulders. She looked out to sea and shook her head. “No. Not yet. We can have another scone first.”
They ate mostly in silence, except for a few little remarks from the boy from time to time. “I feel like I’m on top of the world.” Or, “I found this shell on the beach.”
Dante ate another scone and then began to bark, a deep rumbling sound before running quickly away from them then scampering back.
“Dante?” Nico’s voice was instantly familiar. She gazed down at her companion, who looked somewhat shame-faced. She tilted her gaze over her shoulder so saw the moment Nico registered that she was there, his brow arched in a silent question, the look on his face impossible to read. And then he smiled, a grin that spread slowly and warmed fast, so her heart was racing and her blood was gushing through her body.
“What are you up to?”
She didn’t – couldn’t – move. “We’re having a picnic,” she gestured towards the basket. “And waiting for pirates.”
His grin was just for her and it sent her central nervous system into a spin, making her tummy feel gooey and her skin lift with goose bumps, then he encompassed his nephew in his gaze, coming to crouch beside them.
“Did you see any?”
“Not yet, though my friend here was running from one when we bumped into each other.”
“Were you? And here I thought you were trying to escape your rest time?”
The little boy’s lip jutted out. “I don’t need a rest.”
“Your mother thinks you do.”
“She thinks I’m a baby.”
Nico’s eyes met Maddie’s over the child’s head, and they shared a small smile.
“My cousin’s here,” he addressed Maddie now. “And his wife, Elodie. Why don’t you come in? They’d love to meet you.”
Consternation flooded her system. Others were not a part of what they were, and she relished in that. She didn’t want more people to be drawn into this relationship. She particularly didn’t want to meet anyone else who might know Michael, who could potentially mention this to him. Part of the appeal was their privacy, their secrecy. She bit down on her lower lip, shaking her head. “That’s fine, I don’t want to intrude.”
“It’s no intrusion.”
“She hurt her ankle.”
Nico’s face swivelled to the little boy. “She is Maddie,” he corrected very gently, before turning his attention towards Maddie’s legs. “What happened?”
The little boy spoke again. “I bumped into her. She fell down.”
“Did she?” Concern shifted through Nico’s eyes as he moved towards Maddie. “Let’s have a look here.”
His fingertips guided the fabric of her maxi skirt up her leg, so he could inspect the damage. Maddie winced. Even from this vantage point, her ankle was badly swollen.
“I twisted it as I fell,” she said apologetically. “It’s just a sprain.”
“Perhaps.” He stood up, looking towards the house. “Are you able to carry Maddie’s basket inside, Jack?”
Jack nodded, concern obvious on his sweet little face. “Is she going to be okay?”
Maddie reached out, curving her fingers around Jack’s wrist reassuringly. “I’m going to be fine. I just need to rest it.”
“Go ahead and ask your father to call Alessia.”
“Who’s Alessia?” Jack and Maddie asked in unison.
There was a slight hesitation. “She’s…the local doctor.”
“No, Nico,” she rushed to contradict that. “I don’t need a doctor. Really, it’s nothing serious.”
“It may need to be set. You don’t know it’s not broken, do you?”
“Well, no, but I really don’t this it is. I’m sure it’s just that I twisted it.”
“Twisted ankles can still be broken. Come on.” He bent down, lifting her to his chest as though she were as light as half a feather. There was something about his protective instincts that spoke to her, and made her feel immeasurably safe and secure. He held her to his chest and her hands linked behind his throat, holding him there, her ear pressed to his heart, listening to it, her own slamming into the walls of her chest.
But at the door, she spoke quickly. “I really don’t want to interrupt you guys. I didn’t know you had company or I wouldn’t have come here. Could you possibly…drop me home?”
He stopped walking, fixing her with a look that was mocking at the same time it was somehow affectionate – affectionate in a way that caused a strong sense of longing to overtake her for a moment. But longing for what?
“You don’t want to meet my family?”
“Your family?” Alarm shunted along her spine. More people? “Who else is here?”
“Just my cousin and his wife and children.”
“Oh,” she nodded.
“And Jack you’ve already met.”
“I just don’t want to intrude,” she insisted.
“You’re not.”
She bit down on her lip, casting her eyes through the door. She could see only the beautiful piece of art that hung there, nothing else.
“If you really wish to go home, I’ll take you, but I’ll stay with you until the doctor’s been.”
“So either way I’ll be interrupting your afternoon?” She prompted with a shake of her head.
His grin was magnetic. “I like being interrupted by you.”
Something shifted inside of her, getting rid of her inhibitions, forcing her to be open to this. Paranoia about Michael had made her hesitant. She looked up at Nico now and felt…safe. And happy, despite the throbbing in her ankle.
“So?” He prompted, his eyes roaming her face inquisit
ively. “What’s it to be, cara.”
Cara. Dear. Sweet. Her chest flooded with emotions and a warning light flashed in her brain. She couldn’t let herself become used to this. But the part of her that was capable of analytical thought registered that he was waiting for her to speak, giving her all the power in this situation. He might have wanted to force her to come inside and rest on his sofa, but he’d laid out an alternative, and was leaving the choice to her.
It was an easy choice then.
“Inside.” Her eyes held his for a second too long, but she found it hard to look away.
His expression shifted, showing true pleasure for a moment. “My cousin is only here for lunch. They won’t stay long.”
“Don’t rush them out on my account.”
“I won’t.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead and she swept her eyes shut, trapping that moment far inside her memories.
“Nico?” A male voice, deep and rumbly, emerged from the house. A moment later, a figure arrived with it – unmistakably male, unmistakably Nico’s cousin. She looked from Nico to the other man, cataloguing all the ways in which they were similar. From their physicality – tall, broad, strong – to their symmetrical features, dark eyes rimmed with thick, black lashes, angular faces. There was no shortage of ‘handsome’ between the pair.
Fiero took one look at Maddie and stood back. “I called Dottore Verdi. She’s on her way.”
Maddie compressed his lips. “Really, that wasn’t necessary.”
Fiero’s smile was disarming. “My cousin is exercising an abundance of caution and given that my son is responsible for injuring you, I’m afraid you won’t hear any argument from me.”
“It wasn’t his fault,” she was quick to add.
“He says he ran into your legs and made you fall down?” Fiero lifted a brow enquiringly. Nico strode into the house – now so familiar to Maddie that she barely noticed the beautiful furnishings any longer.
“Well, perhaps he did,” she felt a smile tugging at her lips. “But I wasn’t looking where I was going, either. Really, it was a dip in the grass. My foot got caught.”
“So we’ll blame that mutt,” Fiero murmured, nodding towards Dante, who assumed a similarly shame-faced expression to Jack’s, a moment ago.
“Nonsense,” she shook her head. “Dante was very protective.”
A woman approached then, holding the hand of a rather serious little Jack. She had dark glossy hair, clear brown eyes and a look that was both warm and frazzled at the same time. “I’m sorry about Jack,” she said with obvious perturbation. “He was supposed to be asleep –,”
“But he wasn’t tired,” Maddie supplied with a conspiratorial wink and smile at Jack.
He returned it before remembering he was cross and smoothing his features back into a scowl.
“Apparently.” The other woman shook her head. “I’m Elodie.”
“Maddie,” she responded, then looked up at Nico. “You can put me down.”
In response, he moved across the lounge room and eased Maddie onto the sofa. She winced as fresh pain radiated along her leg. It was an involuntary, instant reaction, the work of a moment, but Nico stiffened in response.
“I’ll get you an ice pack. Stay here.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him she couldn’t exactly move anywhere, but he was gone again straight away.
“How old is Jack?” She asked Elodie, curiously.
“Four, going on fourteen.” She lifted him up, hugging him to her chest. “But he’s still my baby.”
“I’m not a baby.” Except the words were muffled, and Maddie noticed that he didn’t pull away from his mother’s embrace.
“Why don’t I take Jack to play football,” Fiero offered. “He clearly doesn’t want to sleep.”
Elodie pulled away to look at Jack. “Would you like that?”
“Yep.”
Maddie laughed.
“He loves football,” Fiero explained, proudly.
“Ah. And I’ll bet he’s good at it.”
“Very.”
Maddie’s smile lifted one side of her lips at the man’s obvious parental pride.
Fiero took the little boy from his mum, tousling his hair before placing him on the ground, walking him from the room with a doting look on his handsome features.
“So you’re a friend of Nico’s?” The brunette asked, smiling kindly and taking a seat across the room.
“I’m…” Woefully unprepared to answer questions about us, her brain supplied. “Yes.”
“Do you live here?” Elodie looked towards the view, a small sigh in her words.
“No,” Maddie rushed the word out. “I’m just here ‘til the end of the summer.” She felt Nico’s presence, just inside the door, and when she looked in that direction their eyes met and something sparked between them, something that pulled at Maddie’s stomach and scratched at her heart.
“How about you?” Maddie turned the question back on Elodie, more comfortable asking questions than answering them.
“We live in Rome.” There was happiness in that statement, a happiness that seemed to come right from the centre of the other woman’s being.
“But you’re from Australia?” Maddie prompted.
“Mmmm.” She grinned. “So I suppose I’m predisposed to adore the ocean.” She gestured towards the view. “We go to Villa Fortune most weeks, and I must admit, I find it hard to leave. Has Nico told you about it?”
Maddie frowned and Elodie apparently took that as confirmation that she hadn’t.
“It’s so beautiful. This big old Italian villa on the edge of the world. Views of the ocean in one direction, grape vines in another, the most stunning manicured gardens, as well as wild, sun-lit ones.”
“It sounds lovely,” Maddie said, silently thinking nowhere could be as beautiful as this place, here in Ondechiara where the ocean was like glass.
A moment later, a woman in a pair of skin-tight jeans and a flowing yellow top strolled into the room, a black leather bag on her shoulder, bright red lips smiling, eyes travelling around the space.
“Ciao,” she greeted the women, before moving towards Maddie. “I’m Dottore Verdi. You can call me Alessia.” She spoke English with an American accent, and she spoke it like a native, so despite her Italian name, Maddie wondered if she was actually from the States.
“Well, I hate to break it to you but I think you’ve wasted a visit up here. My ankle’s fine.”
“It’s never a wasted visit to see Nico,” she winked, and a firebug of jealousy burst through Maddie, filling her with such a rampant sense of possession that her breath was stolen for a moment. “And the view’s not too bad either, eh?” She gestured towards the sparkling ocean beyond them.
Maddie forced a smile, nodding her agreement.
Elodie moved to stand beside them.
“So what happened?”
“My son happened.” Elodie’s smile was rueful. “Hurricane Jack.”
“I fell,” Maddie grinned. “With a little help.”
Nico walked in then, his jeans low on his hips, his dark shirt doing little to disguise his rippling six pack of abs. Maddie’s mouth felt dry as she looked at him, though she was conscious of the doctor doing the same thing.
Another flare of jealousy, this one unmistakable.
“Ciao, Nico.” The blonde doctor moved to him, kissing him on one cheek, then the other, then the original cheek for good measure. It was a standard greeting in these parts but it did little to ease the green-eyed monster taking up space inside Maddie. In his hand, Nico held a tea towel which, she presumed, contained an ice-pack.
They spoke in rapid-fire Italian for a moment – too rapid-fire for Maddie to follow in her present state of mind – and then the doctor was crouching beside Maddie, a warm smile on her face. So the jealousy appeared to be one sided. Either she didn’t perceive Maddie as a threat or she didn’t realise that she and Nico were – what? Sleeping together? So what? By their own agreement,
the sex thing was casual and temporary. A permanent fixture in town such as Alessia would have no need to feel jealousy towards Maddie.
She was being ridiculous, and letting her over-active author’s imagination run wildly away from herself.
“Let’s have a look.” She lifted the ankle so Maddie winced. “Sorry. It will hurt a bit.” She moved the limb carefully, watchfully, back and forth, in small circles, and then nodded.
“Your patient is right.” She shot Nico a wink. “Just a sprain.”
“It’s so swollen,” he pointed out and Maddie’s heart throbbed, because his over the top concern was obvious and adorable. It had been a long time since anyone had taken that degree of care for her. Even her mother – who was a doctor – had failed to realise Maddie had broken her collarbone for four days as a child.
“That’s normal. It’s the body’s reaction, but it will heal.” She reached for the ice pack, placing it carefully over the ankle. “Ice will help.” She turned back to Maddie. “You need to rest it as much as possible. Keep it elevated, and wrapped.” Back to Nico: “You still have bandages?”
“Of course.”
“You want me to –,”
“I’ll do it.”
Anticipation sparked inside Maddie. She liked the idea of playing doctor and patient with Nico. Colour spread through her cheeks and when her eyes clashed with Nico’s a moment later, his smile showed he was thinking a similar thing. “Thanks for coming,” he put a hand on the small of Alessia’s back, guiding her from the sofa. “I’ll be right back,” he shot the last to Maddie.
At the door, Nico paused, looking at Alessia carefully. “How have you been?”
Her smile was beautiful, but Nico could detect the falsity to it. “Fine.”
“Have you spoken to Max lately?”
Her smile dropped. She turned away from him, looking towards the ocean. “No.”
Nico shook his head slowly, wishing he could do something to shake Max into sense, but knowing his cousin – Fiero’s brother – was every bit as stubborn as Nico was. “You could call him?”
Alessia swallowed. “It’s too late. I’ve moved on.” She lifted a hand, pushing the hair from her eyes, so it was impossible to miss the engagement ring on her hand. Something dropped through Nico like a stone.
Just This One Summer: A billionaire forbidden love romance... (The Montebellos Book 2) Page 11