Chapter 29
Grace sat on the edge of the guest room bed, still wrapped in her towel. All she could see was Matteo punching Mason in the face. All she could think about was how it felt when he came to her rescue, the safety of his arms.
It wasn’t just that he wouldn’t hurt her. It wasn’t just that he’d saved the day.
She watched him from the corner of her eye as he wrung out a washcloth and brought it to her, lightly pressing it against her face. From the sting, she knew she must have an injury, but that was her first indication.
Get your hands off my wife.
It was those words, said in a heated moment of danger. Matteo hadn’t been pretending, or at the very least, she hadn’t wanted him to be.
She could see now, her feelings for him had been growing slowly over these last few weeks, with every shared confidence and kind gesture, with the way the baby looked at him and the way she was beginning to see him in her heart.
“Can I get you something to drink? Tea? Maybe some tequila?”
“No thanks.”
She thought of him asking to be her friend, and how she told him she needed a savior. In so many ways, that was what he had become. “Thank you for coming to my rescue,” she said.
“Anytime.”
She resisted the urge to talk about Mason, to tell Matteo that he hadn’t been like that before.
He wasn’t worth the time it would take to say the words.
She shook her head to clear it and stood up. Her breasts were full and beginning to ache. “Nico’s been sleeping for a long time. I fed him when we first got home, but that was hours ago.”
“I’m surprised the commotion didn’t wake him.”
“Thank God.” The last thing she needed was Mason finding out about her son. “I’m going to go check on him.”
Matteo eyed her with concern. “Do you want me to come with you?”
“Thanks, but I’m feeling better. I really appreciate what you did, Matteo.”
He nodded.
She walked down the hall to Nico’s room, opened the door quietly, and tiptoed into the darkness. She couldn’t control Matteo or her feelings for him. She certainly couldn’t control his feelings for her, or lack thereof.
This would make everything all right, the sight of her son and knowing he would soon be nestled in her arms. She’d missed him so much while she was gone and their brief reunion before his nap this morning hadn’t filled the void that had been left by his absence.
She peered over the edge of his crib rail with a smile on her face and froze.
The crib was empty.