Happy Mother's Day! - By Sharon Kendrick Page 0,113

not as if he’d be much use if the copilot falls out of the window or something.’

‘Well, actually,’ said the girl beside her, ‘he would. He’s licensed to fly this baby.’

‘Francesco has a pilot’s licence?’

She could see the girl thought it a bit odd that his wife wouldn’t have this piece of information, but she was too polite to say so.

‘He flies himself occasionally.’

Erin was spared the need to respond because they encountered some more turbulence. She never did ask Francesco if he had been in control while they endured the next ten minutes.

He finally joined her as they were circling the airport. He studied her face with concern.

‘You look shattered.’

‘You don’t.’ Obviously cheating death at twenty thousand feet was something that he found relaxing. ‘Guess which one of us is the normal one?’

He grinned and said she could nap on the drive out of the city.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

AND Erin did just that. She slept most of the way from the airport and woke as they turned onto the last mile of track that led to the home she had once shared with Francesco.

She felt her excitement mount as she picked out familiar landmarks.

‘You’ve resurfaced the road.’

He nodded. ‘I think you’ll find I have made quite a few changes.’

The location hadn’t changed—it was still simply stunning. It enjoyed total privacy, and mouth-watering far-reaching views over the hills and forests of the estate and beyond.

‘You’ve been doing some landscaping,’ she began, assuming the cleared section filled now with rows of olive tress were the changes he had referred to, when the house came into view and she knew she’d been wrong.

She caught her breath.

No matter what your taste architecturally, Erin doubted anyone arriving here would not gasp. ‘You’ve finished it!’

He pulled up on the cobbled area in front of the building and nodded. He held out his hands palm up for her inspection.

‘How do you think I got these?’ he asked, revealing a set of workmanlike calluses, which she duly admired.

Head tilted back to get the full effect of the structure as she got out of the car, she shook her head in silent wonder as she walked towards the building.

Placing her hand palm flat against the ancient stone wall, which looked solid enough to withstand just about anything you threw at it including the odd earthquake, she turned back to Francesco.

‘This is incredible—when did it happen?’ Without waiting for his response, she stepped back to admire once more the stunning building.

The two wings of the house were now connected. The glass corridor linking them looked exactly as Francesco had described. A glass gable end stood where there had once been rubble.

‘I don’t know what to say, Francesco. It’s magnificent. I’m breathless.’

‘So am I. You’re beautiful.’

Erin spun around, her eyes colliding with his. She shivered in response to the raw heat in his midnight eyes. ‘So you like what I have done?’

She nodded, feeling suddenly and inexplicably shy. ‘I love it. When did …?’

‘I was at something of a loose end when you left. I could not work.’

‘You couldn’t work?’

‘Perhaps I should have said didn’t want to work. A list of figures no longer provided me with the fulfilment it once had, Actually I was pretty much a wreck,’ he confessed wryly.

Looking at his lean and lithe body, it was hard to think of Francesco and wreck in the same sentence. The shock revelations continued to come thick and fast.

‘Once I sobered up …’ ‘You got drunk?’

‘It was the bender to end all benders. I discovered that I am not an interesting drunk so I sobered up.’ He paused and angled an enquiring look at her face. ‘I know you wanted honesty and openness, but is this too much information?’

Erin laughed. ‘Is that what this is about?’

The laughter died from his face.

‘This is about being someone you believe will love and care for you and our baby for the rest of your life. You shared your thoughts and feelings with me. I am simply returning the compliment.’

There were several thoughts and feelings that she had not been brave enough to share with him.

Erin knew the message in his dark eyes wasn’t really there. She knew her brain was playing cruel tricks, making her see what she wanted to.

But what if it was really there? Her heart began to beat faster.

‘Now where had I got to? Of course, I was filling in the gaps—it was at that point, I realised that the biggest favour I could do to the bank was to stay