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“I’d like to see my son.”
Brianna took a steadying breath and waited a beat for the pounding in her chest to slow. Then she made her way toward the stairs.
* * *
Marco watched her walk away and cursed himself. After six months without laying eyes on her, the second he’d seen her again he’d felt like a damn hormonal teenager. The same way he had close to three years ago. And just like back then, it had only taken one look at her. Her emerald-green eyes still blazed, just as he remembered. And her lips. Heavens, those lips reminded him of sin. Her nightwear left little to the imagination. But he already knew every inch of her. She was exquisite, she was stunning. And for a while, she had been his.
But never completely.
What was it about this woman that made him lose such control? The last thing he’d had on his mind when he’d walked in here was to travel down memory lane and reminisce about the first time he’d laid eyes on her.
He rubbed his brow. He couldn’t let his attraction to her complicate matters on this trip. The attraction was merely physical. Same as always. He needed more from her than she was willing to give. He’d never begged a woman for anything.
He certainly wasn’t going to start with his soon-to-be ex-wife. And certainly not to delay the inevitable.
He had only two reasons to be here: to tell Brianna she could have the divorce she so wanted and, most importantly, to work out final custody of Enzo. His son was all that mattered now. He’d never really expected Brianna to stay around. Women came and women went. But familia... He would fight to keep his blood.
He looked around the house he knew she rented. The kitchen was tidy, with a small round table in the center. Through an arched doorway he could see a living room with a center sitting area. A bay window overlooked the street. The house was small, modest.
There was nothing overtly wrong with the place, but it certainly didn’t compare to the expansive mansion Brianna had lived in as his wife.
She preferred it here.
Not that he was surprised. His arrival in her life three years ago had served to totally derail it. At that time she had just landed a new job, was working hard to make a name for herself in the New York culinary world. Then he’d come along and disrupted it all. Before they knew it and to their combined utter shock, they found themselves unwed and expecting. He’d asked her to marry him and join him in Italy. For a while it seemed as if the union might work. But it quickly became obvious they were headed down a rocky road.
For one, Brianna had a difficult pregnancy. Passion, the one thing that bound them, had to be put on hold. And the expansion of Dirici Foods had hit snag after snag, taking him away from home consistently.
Still, Marco had hoped she would fall in love with her new home. That she would try to acclimate and settle into the new life she found herself in, regardless of how unexpectedly it had come about. But that had not happened. He never should have expected it. Foolish, really.
Something tightened in his gut. The time had simply come to cut his losses.
He had to finalize things with her in New York quickly, and then he had to get out of her life as best he could.
* * *
The hard children’s book hurtling toward Brianna missed her head by mere inches. She rose from her ducked position as the book bounced against the wall with a thud and landed on the floor.
“Now! Now! Now!”
“Enzo, we don’t throw things at Mama,” Brianna scolded. A teddy bear hit her on the chest.
“Do you want me to start taking your favorite toys out of your crib?”
“Out! Now!”
Brianna picked up the screaming child and held him close, hoping to calm him down. Enzo smelled of baby shampoo and the delicate scent of talc.
Even during moments like this, Brianna couldn’t believe the sheer wave of emotion that holding her child brought forth. She’d never expected to have a child at this stage of her life. But she was grateful beyond words to have him. Especially considering the terrifying touch-and-go moments that plagued her pregnancy. She’d prayed daily that her precious little boy would be born full term and healthy, so thankful finally when he had.
“Keech!” Enzo shouted in her ear.
“We’ll go down to the kitchen in a moment,” Brianna said. “But first I need to tell you something.” She set him down.
Enzo ran toward the stairs, not listening at all. She followed close behind. He hadn’t quite mastered going down the steps yet but that never slowed him down.
“Enzo, wait.”
He was already pulling open the unlocked safety gate at the top of the stairs when Brianna caught up to him.
“Keech! Keech!”
“All right, all right.” Brianna took his hand and slowly, carefully walked him down the stairs. “We’re going down there now. There’s someone here to see you.”
As soon as they reached the first-floor landing, he ran to the kitchen.
“Joos!”
When he spotted Marco, Enzo came to a sudden halt. Brianna noticed the thinly veiled derision in Marco’s expression as he lifted Enzo into his arms.
The baby monitor. Marco had overheard her and Enzo’s little exchange.
“Hi!” Enzo said loudly, grabbing Marco’s collar. “Joos!”
“Hey, little man,” Marco said, rubbing his cheek against Enzo’s. “Did you miss Papa?”
Her chest tightened at the scene and at Marco’s words. She had no reason to feel guilty. She couldn’t have stayed any longer in a marriage that wasn’t working, one that had simply originated out of necessity because of pregnancy. Sure, it had been painful to take Enzo away from Italy and his papa. Not to mention the doting great-grandmother who adored him. But Brianna was slowly becoming a mere shell of herself there. That was no way to raise a child. Especially considering she was doing most of it on her own with Marco gone long hours for days on end.
“He likes to sit by the window and drink it while I get his breakfast ready,” she said, handing Enzo a full sippy cup.
Marco sighed and put his son down. Enzo immediately scuttled to the love seat in front of the bay window.
“Do you suppose he remembers me?” Marco asked.
“I’m sure he does.”
Marco looked skeptical. His eyes bored into hers. “I’m glad one of us is sure.”
The implication was clear. There was no doubt in her mind who Marco would blame if Enzo in fact didn’t remember him.
CHAPTER TWO (#u51e96b0f-8810-5a29-893b-a39b18e44998)
BRIANNA CHOSE TO try to ignore the tension in the air. Pushing her way around Marco to grab the bread off the counter, she dropped two slices into the toaster and stared at it, as if toasting bread took the utmost concentration. All the while she could feel Marco’s gaze on her back.
“I have to get to the restaurant today,” she said. “You’ll have to find a way to keep yourself busy.”
She moved to the refrigerator for the butter. Marco stood directly in front of it. He, of course, refused to budge. She brushed past him, the slight physical contact just enough to inflame her nerves.
“I’ll stay right here with my son,” Marco said.
Opening the door as wide as she could with him standing there, Brianna reached for the butter drawer. “I’m afraid not.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Enzo’s nanny will be here any minute. She usually has the whole day planned for him.”
He shrugged. “You can give her the day off.”
Brianna slowly shut the refrigerator door. “It’s too late to do that. She’s probably on the train right now.”
“So tell her when she gets here. I don’t see a problem.”
“I’m not going to tell her she’s wasted a trip. Or that she’ll have to miss a day of compensation.”
Marco looked up to the ceiling and sighed. His expression made him look every bit the part of a man holding on to the last of his patience. “I’ll compensate her for the commute and give her two days’ pay for her trouble. A week’s pay.”
That was so typical of Marco. “You think you can solve anything with money.”
“I’ve found very few issues money couldn’t solve,” he replied, his voice hard.
“Well, this is my home and I won’t allow it,” she declared just as the doorbell rang.
At the sound, Enzo jumped up and yelled “Ding-dong!”
Brianna barely caught him before he tumbled off the cushion onto the floor. He wailed in protest. The doorbell rang again. And again.
“I’m coming. I’m coming.” Brianna set Enzo down gently on his feet. Marco gave her another amused smirk.
She scowled back and opened the door. “Mrs. Schelling. You’re here.”
Her nanny trotted inside and let out a loud “humph” before turning to her. “I only came for one thing, and then I’ll be going.” The grim set of the woman’s lips sent alarms ringing in Brianna’s head.
Not now, not today. She forced a smile, almost certain she knew what was about to happen. “Oh. All right. Why don’t we go talk in the kitchen?”
“There’s nothing to talk about. I’ve come to quit.”
Brianna’s heart dived. Somehow she kept her smile in place. Putting her arm around the other woman’s plump shoulders, she tried to move her toward the kitchen. Away from Marco.
“Don’t even joke like that, Mrs. Schelling.”
Mrs. Schelling didn’t move. “This is no joke, Miss Brianna. I refuse to tolerate any more from that young man.” Squinting, she pointed to Enzo. Enzo in turn stopped sucking on his cup long enough to give Mrs. Schelling a wide grin.
“I don’t understand.” Brianna dropped her arm.
Mrs. Schelling held out her palm. “I quit and I’d like my remaining payment.”
“But why?”
“I can no longer take care of your son. Life is too short. And I’m afraid I’ve already lived the bulk of mine at my age.”
Brianna didn’t dare look at Marco. She had no doubt what he had to be thinking. In his eyes, she had failed him as his wife and now she was clearly failing as a single mother.
This was the last impression she would have hoped to give upon seeing him again. Rather than proving her independence and abilities, she was instead coming off as flighty and in disarray, unable to get her act straight.
All she’d ever wanted was a stable home, some roots. With the arrival of her son, that had seemed like a real possibility. But now it was all going to rot somehow. She may have ended up with a family but it had come about in a random and haphazard manner. Now even that was falling apart.
“I’ve been thinking about this all night. Agonizing over the decision,” Mrs. Schelling was saying. Listening to her was like trying to focus as the walls crumbled around her. Brianna had tried so hard to lay the groundwork perfectly for her return to the United States. All to watch it implode now. And just her luck, Marco was here to witness the latest catastrophe.
The older woman paused to take a deep breath. “Your son is simply too much for me to handle. I dare say he’s too much for anyone to handle.”
Now that was a bit much. Brianna looked directly into the older woman’s eyes. “He’s barely two. He just doesn’t know any better.”
Mrs. Schelling took a tiny step back. Maybe it was the edge that had crept into her voice. It was a small source of satisfaction.
“Nevertheless, I don’t have to put up with his behavior. Not for any amount of money.”
Brianna tried to steady herself and her emotions. It didn’t help that Enzo was running in circles and shaking his spill-proof cup so furiously that he was managing to spill it anyway.
“Tell you what,” Brianna began in a much softer tone. “Why don’t you let me get dressed and we can discuss all this over a cup of coffee.” She indicated Marco with a nod of her head. “He was just leaving.”
Mrs. Schelling turned to look at him. Acknowledging Marco for the first time since she’d arrived, she studied him thoroughly. Apparently, she didn’t like what she saw. Then she turned her eyes to Brianna’s short T-shirt.
“I didn’t realize you were entertaining a gentleman,” she said with disdain.
Brianna’s breath caught. That was probably the worst thing to say in front of her husband. She didn’t have a chance to reply. Enzo, who must have sensed the tension between his mama and the nanny, whom he never really took a liking to, walked over and threw his relatively full cup straight at Mrs. Schelling’s shin.
“Ow! Do you see?” she cried. “There are plenty of nice, manageable children out there who need looking after. I don’t have to put up with—” She gave Enzo a look that could only be described as disgusted. “With this—”
“I am sorry for any trouble my son may have caused,” Marco interrupted. His words were cordial enough, but they held a distinct undertone.
“Your son?”
Marco gave her a stiff nod. “Correct. And it just so happens, we no longer need your services. I am here to make alternate arrangements for Enzo.”
Marco reached into his back pocket and pulled out a leather wallet. Removing several crisp bills, he extended them to the older woman. Brianna simply stood and stared. She would be hard pressed to match it.
Mrs. Schelling let out another “humph” as her pudgy hand closed around the bills. “I dare say I deserve it for all I’ve had to put up with.” She gave Enzo a withering look.
Brianna sighed at the other woman’s sourness. “I’m sorry our arrangement didn’t work out, Mrs. Schelling. I know Enzo can be a handful, but he’s just so young. There’s a lot he needs to learn.”
Mrs. Schelling pulled her coat tighter as she mumbled something incoherent under her breath. Then she stalked out.
Brianna shut the door and stared at it. What now? Behind her, Marco’s sigh was clearly audible.
Brianna turned to him. “Don’t you dare say a word. I don’t want to hear anything from you right now.”
He gave her a look a teacher might give a child who was having a tantrum.
“Listen,” she continued. “I have made no secret of the fact that Enzo has been having some behavior problems since we moved.”
