“I’m sure Lisa will go with me.” She nodded confidently, and his eyes shone with relief.
“That’s a great idea,” he enthused. “I’ll be at your next appointment. I’ll only be gone for a week or so. I’ll be back before you know it.”
“I’ll be fine,” she dismissed airily, digging into her scrambled eggs like someone who didn’t have a care in the world. There was an awkward silence while he watched her eat, but Theresa very determinedly kept her head down while she scooped the eggs into her mouth with as much gusto as she could manage without choking.
“I don’t want you to be alone while I’m gone.” He breached the uncomfortable silence, and Theresa frowned at his words, looking up at him with her laden fork lifted halfway to her mouth.
“I won’t be alone. Rick and Lisa are always around and the staff is ever-present.” As if to prove her words, Phumsile entered the room carrying a plateful of pancakes, which she deposited in front of Theresa with a challenging look.
“Eat it all,” the woman commanded.
“It’s quite a lot of food, Phumsile.” Theresa stared at the pile of pancakes in dismay, but Phumsile crossed her arms over her ample chest and glared at Theresa, looking for all the world like she was prepared to stand right there to ensure that Theresa ate every morsel. Phumsile made no secret of the fact that she thought Theresa was way too skinny for a pregnant woman and had taken it upon herself to ensure that Theresa ate healthily. Theresa secretly suspected the older woman of being in cahoots with Sandro—a suspicion that was now backed up by the approving little nod he gave Phumsile before he avoided Theresa’s eyes.
“It’s not all for you,” Phumsile pointed out. “It’s also for your baby. You don’t eat enough. Stop wasting my food and eat everything on this plate.” On that note of insubordination, she swept back out of the room.
“You’d better finish every scrap, cara. You don’t want to get on Phumsile’s bad side,” he said with a little grin, putting their former discussion on hold for the moment.
“You’re all ganging up on me,” Theresa accused him, and he shook his head.
“We’re taking care of you, we’re concerned about you, and that’s why I want you to stay with your cousin while I’m gone.”
“No.” She went back to her eggs but also helped herself to a pancake, really not wanting to incur Phumsile’s wrath. The silence seethed from the other end of the table.
“I insist.”
“No.” She didn’t even bother meeting his eyes this time.
“Theresa, you’re being very difficult.” He kept his voice level and patient.
“And you’re being unreasonable,” she snapped, glaring at him. “Rick and Lisa have a new baby. I will visit them regularly, and I have no doubt they will come around here, but for me to stay there? That’s just ridiculous. I won’t intrude and I don’t need a minder; I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
“What if something goes wrong? What if you need help in the middle of the night and no one’s around?”
“Why don’t you just stay home if you’re so concerned?” she retorted furiously and immediately wished the words back when his scrutiny turned speculative.
“Would you like me to stay home?” he asked quietly.
“It makes no difference what I want,” was her mutinous response.
“Of course it does,” he placated gently. “I’d stay if you wanted me to.”
“What about your important business?” she asked sarcastically.
“You’re more important,” he said softly.
“You mean the baby I’m carrying is more important?” she corrected, and his jaw clenched.
“No, that’s not what I meant,” he maintained patiently, and she blinked before shaking her head.
“You’re trying to confuse me,” she complained, frowning at him, and he grinned.
“Not at all, sweetheart,” he murmured. “I’m just trying to be honest with you.”
“Well, stop it, I don’t believe anything you say anymore,” she hissed, and pushed herself away from the table. He sighed before getting up as well.
“You didn’t answer my question,” he had the nerve to prompt, and her glare deepened until she looked like a bad-tempered child.
“No, I want you to go off and take care of whatever business you have in Italy. I would hate to keep you from something important, only to have it thrown back in my face at a later date.” His jaw clenched at her vitriolic words, but he didn’t respond. She got up abruptly, sick of the conversation and the company.
“Excuse me, I have to get ready for my appointment,” she snapped, turning to leave the room.
“I still want you to stay with your cousin while I’m gone,” he insisted, directing his words to her narrow back as she retreated from the room.
“And I still say no to that,” she threw over her shoulder.
“This subject is far from closed, Theresa.” He raised his voice slightly as she moved farther away from him, but she waved dismissively as she turned a corner that she knew would take her out of his sight. Once she got to her bedroom, she sank down onto the bed and inhaled shakily, feeling drained.
Lisa was unable to join her for the amniocentesis; Rhys had a medical checkup and naturally that took priority. So Theresa found herself waiting alone, a nervous wreck even though she knew that the odds of anything going wrong were slim. She fidgeted, flipped through magazines, and chatted with other women in various stages of pregnancy, but through it all she just wished that Sandro was there with her. The other women were all accompanied by their partners or friends, and Theresa had never felt so achingly alone before. She was so deeply buried in her thoughts that she didn’t even notice the person sitting down next to her until her husband’s deep voice rumbled in her ear.
“Why is your cell phone off? I’ve been trying to reach you all morning.”
She jumped in fright before blinking up at him stupidly, not quite sure how he came to be there. He grinned down into her confused face and Theresa found herself responding helplessly to the open warmth of that smile, rewarding him with a blinding one of her own.
“What are you doing here?” she asked breathlessly, and he shrugged.
“When I couldn’t reach you, I tried Lisa, and when she told me that she was at the clinic with Rhys, I knew that you were probably here all alone and thought you might need some moral support,” he explained.
“B-but what about your work?”
“It’ll keep.”
“You didn’t have to come, I was okay on my own,” she felt obligated to protest.
“Theresa, you visibly paled every time the mention of this appointment came up. It’s obvious that you find the thought of this procedure daunting. I couldn’t let you face it on your own.” So much for thinking that she had kept her fear and reservations well hidden from him. He seemed able to read her like an open book.
“I’m not really scared,” she said with more bravado than conviction, and he determinedly bit back the smile that was curling up the sides of his mouth.
“You might not be but I am terrified, cara.” He shuddered slightly. “Needles, big needles especially, are not my thing.” She could tell by the way he whitened that he was sincere. She stared into his eyes for the longest time, getting lost in the melting chocolate depths before shaking herself slightly.
“Thank you for coming, Sandro,” she whispered. “I was a bit intimidated at the thought of this procedure.” The confession cost a lot but she was rewarded by the warm, intimate smile he directed at her.
“It’ll be fine,” he assured quietly, unexpectedly linking his fingers with hers. “You’ll see.” Even though there was no logical reason for it, her reservations melted like ice under the hot sun and she smiled gratefully.
In the end, Theresa sailed through the procedure. After some initial discomfort she was fine, but it was Sandro who had difficulty with the process. Apparently he hadn’t been lying when he had said that he didn’t like big needles. When he saw the needle, he swayed enough for an alarmed nurse to hurriedly bring a stool over for him to sit on. He thanked her but manfully chose to stand instead. That macho display of coolness lasted only long enough for them to insert the needle into her abdomen, at which point he paled dramatically and practically collapsed onto the provided stool. From that point onward he kept his eyes determinedly away from the needle and on Theresa’s amused face.
“Once, when I was ten,” she started talking to distract him, “I fell out of a tree.” That certainly caught his attention.
“What were you doing in a tree?” He sounded skeptical. “You don’t strike me as the tomboy type.”
“I wasn’t but there was this poor little kitten stuck up there and I was a complete sucker for animals.” She shrugged and winced slightly when the needle pinched more. His hand tightened around hers, while the doctor cheerfully informed them that it was “nearly over.”
“So what happened?” he asked softly.