Page 65 of Twin Surprise for the Italian Doc

Her daughter, who still didn’t have a name.

Picking her up, she held her cradled againsther shoulder and tried to keep rocking the pushchair with her other hand.

Lucy? Katy? ...Bella?

She liked Bella a lot.

But Bella Bennett? No, it didn’t sound right.

Bella Martini sounded so much better.

And, just like that, her thoughts shot back to Matteo, along with a stabbing sensation in her chest that felt a lot like loss.

The baby was still crying, rubbing her face on her mother’sshoulder, that tiny open mouth communicating as clearly as any words.

Georgia sat on the couch and offered her breast to the hungry baby, still trying to keep the pushchair rocking, first with her foot on the axle and then with a free hand once her daughter was latched on.

For a few moments at least, a blessed silence fell.

‘He’s coming back,’ she whispered, her forefinger gently stroking thecheek of the baby she held. ‘Your daddy. He would never abandon you. He loves you.’

She might be saying it simply to reassure herself but Georgia believed her words. Because of that photo. Because Matteo had looked so happy holding the babies. He looked like the proudest father ever. He might not trust her and he might even want to fight for custody of his children but, right now, that didn’tscare Georgia the way she would have expected it to.

Because she had seen something else in that photo. That Matteo was experiencing that same kind of life-changing, all-encompassing love that she had been swamped with from the moment she had first held both of her babies.

Because she wanted him to be part of his children’s lives.

She wanted him to be part ofherlife, in whatever way theycould make it work.

How weird was that?

The complete opposite of what Kate had referred to as her ‘hare-brained’ scheme. The one where she gave up on men completely and was going to have a baby all by herself...

What would her mother have said about that?

Probably something like,‘Be careful what you wish for, love...’

Tears gathered so easily these days. Maybe it was just hormones. Or maybea dam had been breached that night she had told Matteo about the scar on her arm and she was going to have to release all the tears that had accumulated in the years of being banished.

If only she’d been brave enough to tell him the whole truth that night.

She was feeling a little bit sorry for herself at the moment, in all honesty.

Shehadgiven up on that scheme to find an unwitting spermdonor at the competition.

But look at her now...

Alone. Withtwobabies. She’d been so happy to find out that she was pregnant. So confident that she would be able to cope. Still so determined that she didn’t want their father having any influence on how she brought them up. Of being any kind of a threat.

But this was Matteo she was talking about.

And that was why everything had changed.

She loved him so much. And love like that had its roots very firmly buried in trust. Her heart knew that. It was just that her head had decided to override it for far too long.

Rocking wasn’t cutting it for her baby boy and within seconds whimpers from the pushchair became a heartbreaking wail.

She used her little finger to gently break the suction on her breast, feeling guilty as she did so.Her daughter’s eyes were drifting shut and maybe she would sleep for long enough for her brother to be fed. But Georgia could feel how damp her nappy was as she laid the baby into the nest of cushions on the couch beside her and her eyes were open again. She might have fallen asleep on the breast but her damp bottom was obviously bothering her now. Or maybe she hadn’t had enough milk yet?

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