Modern Romance March 2021 Book 5-8 by Carol Marinelli (desktop ebook reader txt) 📗

so much as glanced in a mirror since her confrontation with Nicki. It looked as if she’d rolled out of bed this morning and just pulled a dress on.

She had.

As if she hadn’t brushed her hair.

She hadn’t.

Her skin was all pale and blotchy, and her lips were swollen from crying so there was no point painting her usual red lipstick on. Still, she was grateful for the reprieve and the chance to freshen up somewhat, as Luna would no doubt have told him that yet another of his exes had shown up in a state of distress...

No, not she!

‘I have Ariana Romano in Reception, asking to see you.’

Gian was just packing up his laptop, about to head to Florence. He had no time for theatrics. And yet, with each day that passed, he found that he missed the colour she had brought to his world, the drama and emotion she always brought to his table, to his bed...

He wanted them.

It had been hell missing his friend’s wedding because, despite his supposed lack in the heart department, under any other circumstances he would have moved heaven and earth to have been there.

‘I can tell her that you are due to fly out—’

‘It’s fine,’ Gian cut in.

‘I should warn you then, Gian, she seems distressed...’

‘Was she short with you?’ Gian asked, almost hopefully, because if Ariana was throwing her weight around with his staff, he could at least be aggrieved, but Luna shook her head.

‘Of course not. Ariana is always polite with me.’ Luna suddenly laughed.

‘What’s so funny?’

‘Ariana always makes me smile,’ Luna said. ‘Anyway, I’m just letting you know that it looks as if she’s been crying.’

He nodded and nudged a leather-covered box of tissues to her side of the desk in preparation for her arrival. ‘Send her through.’

Gian was certain he knew what this would be about. It had been a few months since the funeral, and there had been the ball, and of course what had taken place in her kitchen. Whatever way he looked at it, Gian was sure he was about to be told he was to be a father.

Yes, there were always consequences, and not once, but on three separate occasions he had not taken the level of care he usually would, relying on her to take the Pill. It was his own fault entirely and he would handle this with grace, even if a pregnancy was everything he had always dreaded.

Gian did not know how he felt.

When she arrived in his office, she was most un-Ariana-like.

Her dress was crumpled, her espadrilles tied haphazardly, her hair, dared he say it, a day past needing a wash, and her make-up but a distant memory. And yet, to his eyes, this was the real Ariana, the one who shot straight to his heart. To see her so fragile and clearly distraught had him fighting not to go straight over and take her in his arms.

Instead, for now, he kept his arms to himself.

‘Ariana.’ He rose to greet her and they did the kiss-kiss routine she had referred to so painfully in their last conversation. He gestured for her to take a seat as they both tried to go back to a world where they hadn’t done more. ‘Can I offer you some refreshments?’

‘No, no...’ She shook her head. ‘Thank you, though.’

‘Some champagne?’ Gian suggested. ‘A bottle this time.’

But she did not smile at his little reference and instead shook her head. ‘No, thank you.’ She took a breath. It wasn’t just La Fiordelise and the oasis he made that calmed her; it was Gian himself.

Despite there being so much on her mind, there was a chance to pause, to just sit in the calming low light of his office and take a moment.

That was what he gave her.

Always.

This tiny chance to pause, and it was in that moment Ariana knew that she really did want things resolved between them. No matter her blushes, it was time to face things head on.

‘Before I say what I came to say—’ before he got angry about Nicki ‘—I just want to clear the air. I’m sorry for asking you to miss Dante’s wedding. It wasn’t fair of me to do that.’

‘There were extenuating circumstances and it was right that you did,’ Gian said. ‘I’m sure we’ll get to managing steely politeness at family gatherings soon.’

‘Yes!’ She shot out a laugh and tried to glimpse a time when she wouldn’t want him, but it was such an impossible thought that her smile slid away.

‘Dante understood,’ Gian said. ‘The wedding was at such short notice. He dropped by the other day, we had lunch, and he told me about the twins. So we’re all good...’ He was so certain that Ariana was here to tell him she was pregnant that he kindly gave her an opening. His eyes never left her face as he watched carefully for her reaction. ‘Twins must run in the family...’

‘Oh, please.’ Ariana gave a mirthless laugh. ‘Twins don’t run in my family, Gian. I assume my mother had more than one egg put back. Anything to keep up the charade!’

‘It wasn’t all a charade, Ariana.’

‘I know that now.’ She gave him a thin smile.

‘Are you talking?’

‘Of course we are,’ Ariana said. ‘I am hurt, yes, but I love her.’

Lucky Angela, Gian thought, to have her Ariana’s unconditional love.

A love he himself had discarded.

‘I have something for you,’ Ariana told him. ‘I’ve been sorting out some of my father’s things...’ She handed him a leather-bound book as she explained what she had done in recent days. ‘I’ve made one each for my brothers and one for my mother. The contents are different in each, of course...’ She was talking a little too fast, as she did when she was embarrassed, unsure if he would even want her gift.

‘An album?’

‘Yes, there were a lot of photos, and I thought you might like the ones you were in. But please don’t look at it now: that’s not what I’m