Modern Romance October 2019 Books 1-4. Кейт Хьюит

reserving their spaces. It was wonderful to see the village come alive again.

      Yet there was no Aurora.

      And without her, without even the slightest chance of bumping into her, Silibri had felt more than ever like a ghost town.

      He wished his driver all the best for his vacation and then let himself into his immaculate house. He left his case in the hall and went straight upstairs.

      He stripped and showered. Got into bed. Though tired, he was restless. It was months since he and Aurora had last spoken, yet their last meeting still replayed in his head as if it were yesterday.

      Why the hell couldn’t he move on?

      Aurora had. As he had wanted her to do for so long.

      He needed distraction, so he climbed out of bed to select a book. He was more than aware that he had lost focus of late.

      And then he frowned when he saw a book he didn’t recognise on the shelf by his bed.

      He laughed as he flicked through it—but then the laugh caught in his throat, because he had never shared his laughter with her.

      Not really…

      He turned off the light and lay there, thinking of a home that was far away, and the home he now lay in, and the world he had made for himself in Rome.

      His driver had been right.

       Better a familiar face to greet you than a stranger.

      Aurora had always been the familiar face when he went to Silibri. Aurora had been the one he had tried to avoid yet nevertheless had found himself seeking out, and she had always made things better.

      But now when he went to Silibri it was as if she had been erased.

      Bruno hardly mentioned her, and her mother spoke only about Aurora’s fancy new career that rendered her too busy to come back just yet. ‘Maybe soon…’

      And then Nico’s eyes opened in the dark.

      Hadn’t he heard those same frustrating words growing up? Known the code of silence when Pino’s daughter had suddenly left school and gone to take care of her aunt in Palermo.

      She had returned a few months later, pale and gaunt and with the saddest eyes.

      But not Aurora, surely?

      Nico sat up.

      She would tell him if she was pregnant.

      Wouldn’t she?

      He went over and over that last conversation and within it he found not a clue.

      Over and over he replayed it.

      Not one clue.

      Until the very end.

      ‘The taxi will be here soon.’

      Bruno had a car. Why would he not take his daughter to the station on the day she left home?

      There was only one reason Nico could see.

      His heart was jumping in his chest and he wanted to reach for his phone and call her. But it was the middle of the night. And anyway, she might not answer. Or even if she did she might not reveal anything.

       Tomorrow.

      Tomorrow he would have Marianna find out just where Aurora had relocated to and then he would call her.

      He just had to get through this night.

      Rome was not so beautiful this early morning. It was still dark, and also it was freezing cold. She only had with her a few hastily grabbed necessities for Gabe.

      But she had her baby, Aurora told herself, and he was unharmed and safe and she cradled him close.

       What to do?

      She had always wondered why Nico had chosen to sleep in a park rather than in her family home, and now she knew—pride.

      But she had a son.

      Their son.

      And Gabe deserved better than to be outside on a freezing cold morning.

      She had never wanted to call Nico like this. She had wanted to be calm and together when she told him. But that choice had been taken from her now.

      What if his number had changed or he had blocked her? Or what if he had taken her advice and started turning off his phone at night?

      For once she was grateful that he had not.

      ‘Aurora?’

      Something inside her jolted. Her name must be on the phone he carried with him. He knew it was her.

      ‘Nico, I am sorry to call—’

      ‘Never be sorry for calling me.’

      He sounded so calm and so steady and so nice compared to the hell she had just left.

      ‘Where are you?’ he asked.

      ‘Sitting on a bench in the Prati district.’ She gave him the specifics.

      ‘I am ten minutes away,’ Nico said, for the streets would be empty.

      Make that eight minutes, because he dressed so hastily and continued speaking to her as he climbed in his car. ‘What’s happened?’

      ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’

      ‘Okay.’

      Sometimes she was grateful for the sparseness of his words, and grateful too that he did not fill every silence.

      Aurora took a deep breath. ‘Nico, there is something I have to tell you before you get here. It’s not just me. I have my baby with me…’

      ‘Okay.’

      No questions.

      Not even one.

      And then she saw an expensive black car slow down and come to a stop. She found she could not bear to see the disappointment in his face, so as he got out and came towards her she looked down at Gabe.

      ‘He’s here,’ she told her son.

      ‘Aurora.’

      She looked up, and standing there, in a heavy black coat and with snow in his hair, was Nico.

      And Rome, early in the morning, was suddenly beautiful again.

      ‘You haven’t shaved.’

      ‘Would you have preferred to sit a while longer on that freezing bench while I did?’

      ‘No,’ she admitted, and was surprised that he smiled.

      She opened her mouth to speak again, but did not know what to say.

      Nico spoke first. ‘Not here,’ he said. ‘Not now.’

      Instead, he took off his coat and wrapped it around both her and little Gabe and led them to the car.

      ‘My car is just here—let’s get you both inside.’

       Both.

      He said it so easily, but the word felt as if it pierced his brain, for there were two of them now.

      Nico didn’t quite know what he meant by that, but as he drove back to his home it played over and over…

       There were two of them now.

      The gates opened on their approach, as they had the first time she’d arrived. How had she ever thought his home intimidating? Aurora wondered as she stepped inside. It felt so delicious that she closed her eyes for a moment and breathed in the scent of Nico’s home.

      ‘What do you need for…?’ He hesitated.