Page 62 of Royally Knocked Up
“Of course she knows. The whole resort is shut down for the next week,” Enzo said. “You and I — and Marco, of course — are going to have the place to ourselves. It’s going to be the best anniversary trip ever.”
“How many anniversary trips have you been on?”
“This will be my first,” Enzo grinned. Hailey knew that perfectly well, of course — it was her first-ever anniversary trip as well. But he was right that it was going to be epic. A whole week up at La Fantasia, enjoying the beauty of the resort where they’d firstfallen in love — and this time, there would be no need to hide their passion for one another. This time they would be able to fully enjoy it.
“Are your bags packed?” Hailey asked Enzo.
“You told me to pack last night,” he reminded her.
“I know what I said. I’m asking you if you did it.”
“Oh, please. Would I not do it?”
“You absolutely would, in hopes that I would handle it for you while you were at the interview. Which I did not do, by the way, so if you haven’t packed, we are just going to have to leave later than we wanted to.”
“I packed,” he told her with a smile. “And I packed some of Marco’s things too.”
“I did see that.” She had finished packing Marco’s bags earlier that day while he had bounced in his rocker, and she had been pleased to see that the job had already been started. “Thank you for that.”
“Of course.” He smiled. “Always glad to be part of things. You know, one thing I’ll say for my father is that he was very involved in raising us. We had staff who helped, and my mother did the lion’s share of the work, but my father was always present, and it didn’t come out of nowhere for me when he expressed concern over the way I was living as I grew older. I might not have agreed with his opinions, but I never really questioned his right to have them. I wouldn’t want Marco to feel that way toward us, either.”
“I don’t think we need to worry about that,” Hailey said with a smile. “I wouldn’t have settled for less than involved parenting, but you’ve never left anything to be desired.”
She moved into his embrace and kissed him.
He grinned down at her. “I hope I haven’t left anything to be desired on this front either,” he murmured, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.
“You haven’t disappointed,” she said softly, beaming up at him. “But that doesn’t mean there isn’t more to be desired. I think that, when it comes to you, Enzo, I will always desire more.”
He kissed her again, and for a moment, Hailey lost track of time altogether.
The trip to La Fantasia was without incident. Enzo had offered to have Romano drive them up to the resort, but Hailey had declined. “I love driving around Monteverde,” she’d said. “I still haven’t gotten used to the beauty of this place. The mountains, the seaside… Someday I’d like to plan a whole road trip around the country and see as much of it as we can. Maybe when Marco is a little bit older.”
Enzo smiled. “That sounds great to me.”
They handed off the car to the valet when they arrived and went inside. Isla was waiting to greet them. “The chef has prepared dinner for the two of you,” she said. “And we’ve got the childcare team in place for the baby. It’s so good to meet him!”
“We won’t leave him in your hands too often,” Hailey said. “We still want to spend as much time as possible with Marco, because he’s so new to us too. But I think we’ll take tonight to ourselves — right, Enzo?”
“Definitely,” Enzo agreed, giving her a roguish wink that left her in no doubt as to what he had in mind for her for the rest of the evening.
But first there was dinner to be had — steak with mushrooms and a creamy sauce, flash-fried spinach with cheese, asparagus, potatoes, and a lava cake for dessert. Determined to enjoy everything as much as possible, Hailey took her time eating, allowing herself plenty of space between bites. As a consequence, they’d been sitting at the table for about three hours by the time the last of the plates were cleared away.
Enzo let out a sigh. “I’m not sure I have the energy for much else tonight, after all that!”
“Bet you do,” Hailey teased him.
He grinned. “Want to take a walk?” he asked. “Let dinner settle a little bit, see the stars?”
“That sounds great,” she agreed.
They went out through the door that led from the lobby out to the grounds. Enzo wrapped an arm around her waist, and Hailey leaned into him. It was just chilly enough outside to make it more comfortable for them to stay close and absorb one another’s body heat, without being actually cold, and Hailey appreciated that fact. She breathed in the crisp night air and gazed up at the stars, so much brighter here than they were in Luria.
“Hailey?” Enzo said.
“Hmm?”
“There’s a reason I wanted to bring you out here.”
