I reach up and stroke my finger along the strong line of his jaw. “I’m here.”
He cups my cheek and thumbs my chin, and I can’t take my eyes off his, suddenly so deep that I could fall right into them. His hand glides around the nape of my neck, threading into my kinks, and I let him pull me closer. His lips pause an inch from mine, and he gazes into my eyes with a question in his. The air between us crackles and I fight the draw, shuddering at his closeness—at the starved expression on his face. And, staring into those eyes, I lose the battle. I lean forward and brush my lips across his.
The white bellow of his breath pauses as he pulls me closer and presses his lips tighter to mine. When he finally backs away, he strokes his fingers down my cheek. “You’re as soft as I remember.”
In the pocket of my jacket, Dev starts singing about her sex drive. I ignore her and kiss Alessandro again, but a sudden knot in my chest makes me stop.
I shouldn’t want this. I’m totally playing with fire.
I can’t do this.
He blows out a breath and stands, holding out his hand, as if he heard my thoughts and agrees. “We should go back.”
I push off the bench without taking his hand and start back toward the youth center, trying to reconcile the desire I can’t deny anymore with my reality. I can’t want him.
Once we get there, Alessandro ducks into the locker room to change, and that’s when I remember my phone. I check it and find a missed call and two texts from Mallory. The first is from fifteen minutes ago.
Max is sick. Jeff went in the ambulance with him to the hospital. Call me!
And then three minutes later:
Wendy and Mike are away for X-mas. I need you to come stay the night with Henri.
“Oh, no!” I gasp, staring at her messages.
“What is it?”
I look up to see Alessandro stepping out of the locker room in jeans and a black button-down.
“I have to go to my sister’s. There’s an emergency.”
He shrugs his jacket on and loops his duffel bag over his shoulder. “Things here are under control. I’ll come with you.”
I don’t argue. I spin and head for the door and Alessandro follows.
ALESSANDRO EXCUSES HIMSELF and moves up the train car to make a call. It’s not until he’s gone from my side that it occurs to me bringing him was a really bad idea. Hopefully Mallory will be too wrapped up in worrying about Max to realize who he is. I call her while he’s gone. Her voice is thick when she answers and I can tell she’s been crying.
“What happened? Is Max okay?” I hear the panic in my voice and try to rein it in. Mallory’s already scared enough.
“Jeff just called from the hospital. It’s appendicitis. They’re taking him to surgery.”
“Oh God,” I murmur.
Alessandro slides into the seat next to me and reaches for my hand, and when I look up at him, his expression is all concern.
“Thanks for coming, Hilary. I can’t take Henri to the hospital, and Wendy and Mike are at Jeff’s parents’ in Kansas for Christmas.” Wendy is Jeff’s sister and Mallory’s regular fallback. They live closer than me and they have a son and a daughter just about the boys’ ages.
“We’re on the PATH. We’ll be there as soon as we can,” I say.
“Hurry.” She sniffles and disconnects.
The buses cooperate and we’re at her door forty-five minutes later. I haven’t even rung the bell when she rips the door open, already in her jacket. Her eyes are red and swollen, but she’s not crying at the moment.
I wrap her in a hug. “We’re here. Go.”
I pull back and see her eyes locked over my shoulder, on Alessandro.
He steps up next to me and holds out his hand. “I’m Alessandro.”
“Mallory,” she answers flatly without taking it.
The combination of panic and betrayal is clear in her eyes as they shift to me and narrow. I step through the door and concentrate on peeling off my jacket and hanging it on the coat tree so I don’t have to look at her and see it there.
Alessandro hesitates in the door as if deciding if he’s welcome here. He’s not, but I can’t really tell him that without saying why. Instead, I take his hand and pull him through, closing the door behind him.
“Auntie!” Henri croons as he appears from the hall to his room and runs up to hug my waist.
I ruffle his black hair. “Hey, buddy. How you holding out?”
He looks up at me with wide, scared eyes. “Max was screaming.”
I crouch next to him. “It’s going to be okay. He’s with the doctors and they’re going to fix him all up. Don’t worry, okay?”
He presses himself against me and I hug him tight. When he lets me go, I kiss his forehead and stand. “It will be fine,” I tell Mallory prodding her toward the garage door. “Everything will be fine. Call us when Max is out of surgery.”
Her eyes shift between me, Henri, and Alessandro, like she’s still not sure about leaving us.
I take her elbow and guide her to the garage door. “We’ll keep Henri busy. Don’t worry about us.”
With a last concerned glance at Henri, she disappears through the door.
I turn back to the boys and force myself to stop shaking. “Too bad no one around here has any Legos.”
The fear melts off Henri’s face and he grins and bolts for his room.
“Are you okay?” Alessandro says as I stand frozen.
I force myself to breathe. “Just worried.”
He comes to me and folds me into his arms. “He’s getting medical attention. He’ll be fine,” he says low in my ear. His warm breath in my hair makes me shudder and he holds me tighter.
At his touch, the tension runs out of my body and I sag into him. He holds me close and goose bumps prickle my scalp as he strokes my hair. But then I hear the rattling of Legos against a cardboard box. Alessandro releases me and I turn.
“Oh, dude!” I say as Henri hauls the box with his biggest, baddest Lord of the Rings Lego set into the family room.
“Legos,” Alessandro says with a smile at Henri. “I loved these as a kid.” He moves to where Henri is dumping the contents of the box into the middle of the floor and lowers himself onto the carpet. “I used to sit and build Legos for hours.”
“Who are you?” Henri asks, without looking up, as he sorts his Legos into color-coded stacks, and I feel a sharp twist in my stomach.
Alessandro reaches in and helps sort. “My name is Alessandro. I’m a friend of your aunt’s.”
Henri grins up at Alessandro, already comfortable with him, and I force myself to start breathing again. But as I walk over and lower myself onto the carpet next to them, I feel a wet lump form in my throat and tears press at the backs of my eyes.
Because Henri looks just like his father.
Chapter Twenty-Two
MALLORY CALLS FROM the hospital as Alessandro is making macaroni and cheese (Henri’s vote) from scratch for dinner. “Max is out of surgery,” she says. “They say everything went fine and we can go up to recovery with him in a few minutes.”
“Thank God,” I breathe.
“How’s Henri?”
I hear the real question in her voice, but choose to ignore it. “Fine. We’ve built Middle Earth in your family room,” I say as Henri snaps together the last few pieces of his Lego Rivendell. “Do you want to talk to him?”
“Put him on.”
I hand the phone off and move to the kitchen. “Max is out of surgery. They say everything’s good,” I tell Alessandro.
He turns from the stove and looks at me. “I’m glad.”