Page 47 of Twin Surprise for the Italian Doc

But she couldn’t bat this around with Kate. She was on her own.

And it wasn’t that hard to mentally tiptoe closer to what she was afraid to look at so closely.

All it took was to allow an image of Matteo Martini to fill her mind. Those dark eyesthat could see too much. That layer of genuine interest and concern in combination with a smile that was undeniably sinful.

He just oozed charm, didn’t he?

But he also made her feel safe.

I would never force myself on you like this. You know that, don’t you?

Of course he wouldn’t. He had a moral code that was so iron clad, he would never dream of lying. Or cheating on someone. He would simplywalk away from someone who didn’t share those values.

But he’d come back...

Because of her? Because the significance of what they’d found with each other was enough to be making him reconsider those iron-clad rules?

Because he really did want to be herfriend?

No. He wanted to be more than that. He’d offered to marry her, for heaven’s sake. To be a father to her child.

And now he was herebut he’d taken a huge step back. He was leaving it up to her to choose whether she closed the respectful gap he was keeping.

No wonder she was confused.

Matteo was nothing like any man she had ever known.

Certainlynothinglike her father...

And there it was. The real issue.

What if her father had used charm instead of violence? If he’d simply been there in her life and let her make a choiceof whether she wanted him closer or not? If a genuine concern for her welfare and happiness had been there in his eyes and he’d had a smile that suggested she was the only person in the world who mattered at that moment?

Life would have been very different, wouldn’t it?

She could have lived her early life without the fear of that pain—both emotional and physical.

She could have been like thekids she’d envied so much. The ones who’d had a daddy at home to tease them sometimes but protect them always.

Oh, boy...this was huge. Georgia tried to stop the thought that was coming at her as relentlessly as a tsunami but she couldn’t.

Did shereallywant her children to grow up without a father?

It was almost as if she had Kate sitting here with her. Understanding at least part of hernew dilemma. Asking her what she wanted to do about it.

Suggesting that the only the thing to do might be to tell Matteo the truth.

The shock of allowing that possibility any head room at all was enough to push Georgia to her feet.

She needed to get to work. To work so hard, in fact, that she could close the lid of this ‘too hard’ basket very firmly indeed.

* * *

‘Oh, my God...what is thatsmell?’

‘Lasagne. A secret recipe that’s been handed down in my family for generations.’

‘You cancook?’

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