Bound By Their Christmas Baby

Gabe shut the fridge door and moved to the pantry. It was almost empty, save for a tin of spaghetti and a bag of pasta.

‘How quickly can you pack a suitcase?’

‘Huh?’ She watched as he stalked back into the small living room.

‘Your wardrobe looked small. I presume you don’t have much. Is there a bag somewhere?’

‘I... No.’ She’d sold her designer set of luggage as soon as she’d moved into the apartment.

‘Fine. I’ll have one sent over.’

‘Gabe, wait.’ She lifted a hand in a determined appeal for his silence. ‘I don’t need a suitcase. I’m not going anywhere.’

He ignored her, speaking as though she hadn’t. ‘It’s too late to depart now. You should go to bed. I’ll...take the chair. We can leave in the morning.’

‘And where exactly do you imagine we’re going?’

‘Italy.’ He reached for his phone and, before she could respond, he began speaking into it. She had not a hope of comprehending as he spoke in his native tongue, but she picked out a few words—bambino...andiamo...subito.

He disconnected the call before giving Abby the full force of his attention.

‘The plane will be ready in the morning. My car is downstairs. Tomorrow, Abigail, we will leave.’

She shook her head emphatically. ‘No!’

‘Yes.’

‘I’m not going to Italy. This is my home. His home. And you... I know you’re his father, but I didn’t tell you so you’d take us away! I just wanted you to know because he’s your child and at some stage he or you might want a relationship. I don’t believe in secrets like this, okay? I have no right to keep a father from his child. But that’s the end of it. I’ve done my part. I told you about Raf, and when he’s older I’ll tell him about you.’

His eyes narrowed and his chest lifted with the force of the deep breath he sucked in. ‘Get ready. This is non-negotiable.’

‘You’re right. It’s non-negotiable. We’re staying here.’

‘Make no mistake about it, Abigail, my son is coming to Italy. I am giving you a chance to come with him. The decision is yours.’

Panic flared in her gut but she hid it behind anger. ‘There’s no way you can do that.’

‘Do you want to test that theory?’

‘You seriously think I’m going to move to a foreign country with a man I hardly know?’

‘No. I think you’re going to move to a foreign country with the man you’re going to marry.’

Her eyes flew wide and for a moment she thought she must have misheard. ‘What did you just say?’

His jaw tightened. ‘You heard me.’

‘But that’s crazy.’

He jerked his head in silent agreement.

She blinked. ‘But why?’

Something like anguish shifted through his dark gaze, showing how clearly he wished this step weren’t necessary. ‘Because it’s the right thing to do.’

‘Right, how?’ she demanded, wondering if she’d slipped through the looking glass into a bizarre parallel universe.

‘Because of what I can offer him, and what I can offer you. The security, the comfort, the support.’ He took a step closer. ‘I’m offering you the world, Abigail. The world for you and our son.’

Her heart twisted painfully inside her chest. She was like an outsider looking in. In that moment, she realised that marrying Gabe Arantini would have, in another lifetime, constituted a fantasy. If things had been different between them, if they’d met under different circumstances and they’d been allowed to enjoy getting to know one another.

‘This is the twenty-first century. People don’t get married just because of a baby.’

His eyes narrowed and she had the strangest sense that he was holding back on saying what he really wanted to say. Through teeth that were bared like a wolf’s, he said, ‘My son is going to grow up with two parents.’

‘Who hate each other? Do you really think that’s best?’

‘No.’ His eyes glowed with silent warning. ‘But it’s the best decision you can make. I have a son, Abigail. A three-month-old boy I knew nothing about. If you think I am leaving this country without him, if you think I have any plans of walking out of his life, even temporarily, then you are deranged.’

She sucked in a breath but her lungs didn’t fill sufficiently. She dug her fingernails into her palms, taking strength from the gesture. ‘Then stay here,’ she said after a moment, the words sounding reasonable and calm despite the tremors taking over her central nervous system.

He looked around the room with scathing contempt.

‘Not here here,’ she amended. ‘In New York.’

His eyes locked onto hers. ‘I have no intention of raising my child anywhere other than Italy. We will go there tomorrow and as soon as possible we will marry. Raf will grow up believing that he is wanted.’

‘He is wanted by me!’ she shouted and then winced at the very real possibility that such loud arguing would wake their son.

‘And by me,’ he said warningly.

‘No. I think it’s time for you to leave, Gabe. We can discuss this in the morning when you’re thinking straight.’

‘Do you think you have any right to dictate to me after what you’ve done?’

‘What I’ve done?’ she demanded, taking a step closer, wishing she were taller so that she didn’t have to crane her neck to look up at him. ‘And just what am I supposed to have done?’

‘You set all this in motion when you came to my hotel last year. Even if there had been no baby, no Raf, you have still shown yourself capable of making very poor decisions.’

‘You got that right,’ Abby muttered. ‘Sleeping with you was the biggest mistake of my life.’

She swept her eyes shut, instantly wishing she could retract the words because of course she could never really regret anything that had resulted in Raf. Besides, even without Raf, she’d be hard-pressed to regret what she and Gabe had shared. Only that her father’s machinations had been the cause of it.

‘I feel exactly the same way.’ The coolly delivered response slammed right into her heart and suddenly all the emotions of the previous year filled her up, like water in a bathtub.

‘Oh, go to hell,’ she muttered, slumping back against the wall and dipping her head forward.

‘I think I’m already there.’