32. ENZO
32
ENZO
She should be here any second now.
I’m dressed in my finest shirt, perfectly ironed, crisp, hair slicked back, buttoned up.
It’s the most effort I’ve made in my appearance in months . But this moment deserves it all, and more.
The flowers I’m holding crinkle in their paper sleeve, as I wait outside the airport arrival terminal.
There’s a sea of faces in front of me—blonde, tall, stout, muscular, thin, round, old, balding. My eyes scan each one, left disappointed every time it’s not her.
And then, there she is.
“ Quinn.”
She doesn’t notice me immediately, but I’m knocked out by her beauty at all once. She’s filled out in her curves, more than I remembered, and has a glow to her that I cannot keep my eyes off of.
She’s gorgeous.
Right then, I know I’m never letting her go again.
“Quinn.” I wave my hand in the air, and finally catch her attention.
Her cheeks flush as soon as she sees me, and she bites down on her lip.
I want to be the one biting on it instead.
“Enzo.” She’s a bit breathless when she reaches me, and her eyes widen as I hand her the flowers. “Oh. You didn’t have to do this.”
“I know, but I have to make up for a lot of things I never did before.”
She’s looking at me as though she doesn’t quite believe it’s actually me. To me honest, I’m having a hard time believing she’s finally here too.
“I thought…” She frowns. “I thought maybe Valentino or a driver would pick me up—”
I can’t help myself, so I take her in my arms, embracing her, and she nuzzles her face into my chest.
What I really want to do is reach down and kiss her. In front of the entire world. Claim her in a way I never did before. But I don’t want to startle her.
She deserves space, though I’m not sure how much longer I can stay away from her. I need to let her make up her mind whether she wants me again or not.
She tugs at the front of her shirt as we pull away, and I use the opportunity to plant a chaste kiss on her cheek before leading her to the car.
It’s not like I expected her to declare her love for me as soon as we saw each other, though I would certainly like that. But the silence that hangs in the air between us is new.
My fingers tap along the steering, and she barely looks my way even once.
What I would give to be inside that head right now. What are you thinking, Quinn?
Quinn is surprised when I pull into my driveway.
“That’s not the hotel.”
It’s the first thing she’s said to me in the last half an hour.
“Quite the observer.” I smile at her, and then get out of the car to take her luggage out of the trunk.
She follows me, looking confused.
I look at her. “You don’t look too happy.”
Her body language screams that she wants to run and hide.
I’m beginning to wonder why she even made the ten-hour trip to begin with.
“It’s not that.” She sighs, her gaze fixing on mine for a brief moment before looking at the floor, “I just thought we’d go to the hotel to drop the luggage first. I don’t want to inconvenience you too much.”
I shrug as I lead her inside the house. “It’s just me living here, so there is plenty of room. There is no need for you to go to a hotel. You’d be too far.”
She frowns.
I lead her down the hallway and open one of the doors. “This is your room. I hope this is okay?”
Though, I’d much rather prefer that you stay in mine.
Her being this close to me is making it difficult to control my thoughts.
My eyes trail down her body. Her clothes are loose, but somehow, she fills them out perfectly enough to get my imagination running.
I want to reach out and grab her hips and tell her just how much I missed her by taking her against the wall, but I control myself.
As hard as it is. In all the ways it can be.
She’s oblivious, though. There’s a certain kind of self-consciousness to her that is entirely new. This is not the Quinn I remembered.
“Should we…” I hesitate. “Would you like to rest first, or can we talk now?”
“Talk now is fine. I slept a bit on the plane.”
“Good.” The sooner we get the awkwardness out of the way, the sooner I can have her in my arms again and maybe even move her to my room, where she belongs.
I lead her to the living room, and she sits nearly two seats away from me.
My eyes wander over to her lips again. The air between us is thick.
“Quinn?”
She looks up.
“Why are we acting like we don’t know each other at all?”
She sighs, and I almost regret saying that as I catch the hurt in her eyes.
“I guess I just need some time to…” She pauses. “We have a lot to talk about, and I just don’t know where to start.”
So, she did want to talk to me, too.
That’s a start, and I can work with that.
I scoot over closer to her, but still maintain a distance so that I’m not completely intruding on her personal space. “Let me start off, then. I need to apologize to you.”
Her eyes fly to mine. “Apologize?”
“Looking back, I think I should have handled things much differently than I did.”
Her breathing is coming out rough now, and she is biting her damn lip again. I want to be the one biting it. But this conversation needs to happen first. It needs to be her choice..
“I think I failed. I might have given you the impression that you don’t matter to me, when that could not be further from the truth. You mean… a lot to me. And I’m sorry. I thought I was putting my children’s need above mine in some twisted act of righteousness, but that was wrong.”
“What made you realize this?” Her eyes are on mine, trying to see all the way to my soul, and I could lose myself in their depths.
“Time, mostly. I haven’t been able to get you out of my head at all.”
“I guess that makes two of us, then,” she mutters.
I’m not sure she meant for me to hear it, but a small ray of hope shines in my otherwise bleak mind. “Why are we doing this to ourselves, Quinn?”
Her little admission has given me the confidence to close the distance between our bodies a little bit more.
I put an arm around her. Her delicate little frame fits into me perfectly like she was made to be mine. And I want to do a victory dance when she relaxes into my touch.
“Enzo.” Her tone turns serious, “There’s a few things you need to know before we can move forward with this conversation.”
I tuck a strand of her hair behind her ears. “Of course. We can talk for as long as you want. I’m not going anywhere this time.”
She searches my expression. She must find what she’s looking for because she nods. “What did Valentino say to you when he informed you of my arrival?”
I rack my brain for a second. It’s like I’ve forgotten everything that has happened in my life, and she’s the only thing that matters. But then I remember. “That you had to something to tell us.”
“Yes, well, there’s two things I need to tell you.”
“Let’s have it, then.”
She doesn’t say anything.
I look up to find her with a worried expression. Immediately, I take her hands into mine.
“Quinn, I hate that you feel you have to think so much before telling me anything.” My voice is so soft that it might as well have been a whisper. “You’re safe with me. Anything that you—”
“Enzo, I’m pregnant.”
It takes me a second to register what she says.
And all of a sudden, it makes sense. Her yanking the fabric of her top over her belly, the baggy clothes, the awkwardness.
She’s studying my expression more intently than I’ve ever seen her, fumbling with her fingers.
“It’s okay. I don’t expect anything. I know it’s a shock to you, and neither of us planned this, and—”
My lips crash on hers.
When we pull apart, I look into her beautiful eyes. “Quinn, you’re mistaking my silence for something that it’s not. I’m…”
Truthfully, I have no idea how to even feel.
A father? Again? At this age?
The idea is as preposterous as it is unexpected.
But then, my mind pictures Quinn carrying my child—her belly ballooning up with a baby that we both made, together—and I’m suddenly hit with a joy I haven’t felt in years. And I can’t keep my smile from my face.
“Are you happy?”
I kiss her again. “You silly, beautiful, crazy woman. I’m happier than you can even imagine.”
Quinn and I fall into each other’s arms, and I hold her tightly against me.
“God, Quinn. You have no idea how much I missed you.” My tone darkens, and my hand wraps possessively over her belly.
“I thought about you every single day. I was terrified that you’d never accept the baby and—”
I put a finger to her lips. “I’d accept anything, if it’s with you. I’m not going to let my reservations hold me back anymore. I’m all in with you, Quinn. If you’ll have me.”
She throws herself into my arms again.
I can feel tears dropping on my shirt.
“Why are you crying, sweet girl?”
“Because you’re sweeter to me than I deserve.” She sniffs. “And the pregnancy hormones make me extra emotional. I cry over anything.”
I bring one of her hands to my mouth, and kiss one of her knuckles gently. “You know, the last time I had children, I was too busy in my life to actually enjoy the beauty of it. It was always go-go-go. Now, I’ll get a chance to experience it again, and savor it like the experience deserves.”
She cracks a small smile. “Are you really happy about this?”
“I am.”
The more I think about it, the more it seems like a blessing. I hold her around her waist and whisper in her ear.
“Besides, this means that we’ll be in each other’s lives now.”
She shivers slightly from the husk in my voice.
“ Forever , Quinn .”
I can see her cleavage from his angle, her perfect breasts seeming even bigger than I remembered them to be, just begging to be touched.
She breaks away from me.
“Wait…”
Her breath is coming out fast, and I know her thoughts haven’t been the most innocent either.
“Before anything happens, there’s something else I must tell you. We should get it out of the way now.”
A groan escapes my lips.
Talking has never been so unappealing as now. But I’m not one to deny her—whatever she wants, she gets.
“Fine. Let me hear it.”