in the small amount of time…I hope you do not mind…’ A quick look at Alex, who shook her head and gave in to the warm feeling inside her of being accepted. More than accepted…apparently welcomed with open arms. Her mind drifted sleepily back to what the older woman had earlier said but she was literally too tired to analyse anything.
‘Of course, he will be in the blue room next to you…’
‘You’re practically asleep on your feet,’ Gabriel said, amused. He looked hesitantly down at his son, unsure whether the affection displayed earlier had been an anomaly, but, risking it, he stooped down to lift Luke up and was rewarded with a shy smile which was fairly thrilling. He grinned back and ventured a more robust sign of affection, throwing him up in the air and catching him as if he were as light as a feather. Alex watched, feeling vaguely left out when Luke gave a shriek of laughter and begged for a repeat performance. He had no experience of men. Alex had had no boyfriends since she and Gabriel had parted ways. There had been opportunities and she knew that some of them had ticked all the right boxes, but she had never felt inclined to take any of them up. Her life had been too busy, she reasoned to herself, with Luke and with just making ends meet and carving out an independent life for herself, for her to make space for the arduous business of getting to know a guy. Sometimes, underneath that robust reasoning, she’d thought that no man had ever come along who could hold a candle to the Lucio she had known then. But she didn’t like thinking like that and it scared her to imagine that he was now back in her life, harnessed to her against his will, a nightmare living reminder of her foolish teenage dreams.
The little game with Luke ended as Gabriel gently set him down. For a few seconds Alex knew that she had been entirely forgotten in the aftermath of his boisterous few minutes of fun with his father. From the sidelines, Maria and Antonio were looking on with every semblance of enjoying the sight of Gabriel playing with his son and, when Maria caught her eye, the older woman’s beam became even broader so that Alex couldn’t resist smiling back, even though it was a little disconcerting to witness this much delayed bonding finally beginning to take place.
‘And now up to bed, both of you!’ Maria urged them up the magnificent staircase that forked in opposite directions at the top to accommodate the various wings of the grand house.
‘I’m sure Gabriel would like to stay and catch up with you.’ Alex shot him a telling glance which she hoped he would correctly interpret as tell your parents the full story of our situation.
‘Time enough tomorrow,’ Maria said comfortably. ‘And this little man will be following very soon.’
‘Since I’ve been good—’ Luke directed this question to his new found grandparents, taking full advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity but making sure that he wasn’t actually looking at Alex when he did it ‘—am I allowed some ice cream?’ He flashed them a winning smile. ‘Or even some chocolate?’ And then, finally realising that permission might be required from a higher source, he shot his mother a pleading look and she sighed resignedly.
‘You’re a horror,’ she told him grinning. ‘But first, come and have a look at your room and I’ll be checking to make sure you’re in it in an hour.’
Thoughts of a lovely warm bath gave her a renewed sense of energy as they all trooped up the stairs and turned left at the top. For the first time since she had arrived, she really paid attention to her surroundings. There was nothing restrained about the opulence of the massive house. Lush carpet was soft underfoot and numerous traditional paintings adorned the walls, conferring the impression that this was a house that had seen many generations of the same family. It was odd to think that Gabriel had lived here as a boy. Was that why it had been so tempting to string her along under a phoney name when the chance had presented itself? Had the novelty of being anonymous been as powerful for him because of his fabulous background as the lure of celebrity might have been for someone who had come from nothing?
If only he had had a crystal ball and