18. Kayla
Kayla was falling hard. She’d tried to deny it, tried to focus on other things, but when all there was to do at the moment was rest, she hadn’t been able to distract herself from the fact that her feelings for Elio had moved hard and fast in record time.
He’d been great, he really had. He was getting so excited for the baby, latching onto the idea of being a father. The way his face had looked when he found out they were having a daughter… That was what made Kayla realize how deep she was falling. And that absolutely terrified her. She needed to be practical about this. Yes, she was falling hard, but he was a reserved man, focused on his business. He hadn’t even thought about being a father until now. Kayla was petrified that if any hint of how she was feeling got out, he would run for the hills and she would lose what was the beginning of an amazing relationship between father and daughter. And she just wasn’t willing to sacrifice that.
“Are you okay?”
She looked up, and Elio was there, coming to check on her. Practical. She needed to be practical. And she needed to be quick.
“I just…” She began chipping at her own fingernails in a nervous habit that had developed over the course of the pregnancy. Elio noticed too and reached out a hand, placing it over hers to stop her. Kayla hated how good that felt. Here she was trying to put a little space between them, a future safeguard against more heartache that seemed impossible to deal with on top of everything else. Elio putting his hand on hers to stop her nervous tic made her want to crumble and throw caution to the wind. Well, throwing caution to the wind had gotten her into this situation in the first place, hadn’t it? She took a deep breath.
“It’s all just… a lot,” she said, carefully monitoring Elio’s face for a reaction. But once again he was reserved behind his own carefully crafted walls. “I just need a little space right now. Please.”
“Of course,” Elio said without hesitation. He let her hand go and took a step back, like a physical demonstration of the space she was asking for. “I’ll leave you be.”
And as simple as that, he was gone, leaving Kayla alone in the guest suite just like she said she’d wanted. Because this was the right thing to do. Right?