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Laurel laughed. ‘You don’t give up, do you?’
‘No. And now I’m moving straight on to Plan B.’
‘Cristiano and I are back together.’ Laurel shifted into a more comfortable position. ‘We don’t need Plan B.’
‘Ah—Plan B isn’t getting back together. Plan B is about having babies.’ Dani had her face turned towards the sun, otherwise she would have seen Laurel tense. ‘Don’t you think it would be fun to be pregnant at the same time? Our children could play together. Grow up together like I did with my cousins.’
She couldn’t accuse her friend of insensitivity, Laurel thought numbly, because she’d never told her the details of what had happened. But she had to. This was the time.
‘Dani—’
‘It’s no good. I can’t keep a secret.’ Dani sat up and pushed her hat away from her face. Her eyes shone. ‘I’m pregnant. I did the test last night. Raimondo wants me to wait a few weeks to tell everyone but you’re not everyone.’
Laurel was stunned. ‘You were pregnant when you got married?’
‘No, I was not!’ Dani’s voice was an outraged squeak. ‘And keep your voice down. Do you think I want my brothers to beat Raimondo to a pulp? This is a honeymoon baby.’ She looked content and pleased with herself.
‘But you’ve only been married for two weeks.’
‘Three.’ Dani laughed. ‘You obviously weren’t wasting time looking at your watch when you were in Taormina. I’ve been married for three whole weeks.’
Laurel stared at her. Three weeks?
But—dear God, Dani was right. It had been three weeks. Which meant that—
She felt the blood drain from her face and dimly saw Dani’s concerned frown.
‘Laurie? Are you OK?’
‘It’s the heat,’ Laurel muttered. ‘I might go and lie down for a while. I don’t feel well.’
‘What do you mean, you don’t feel well?’ Dani’s face lit up. ‘Maybe you’re pregnant too. Oh, my God, that would be awesome.’
‘No! I mean—that isn’t possible.’
‘Why not? You’ve been having sex non-stop for the past three weeks. Here—’ Dani dug around in her bag and pressed a slim packet into Laurel’s hand. ‘I bought two and I don’t need this one. You take it.’
It was a pregnancy test.
Laurel’s mouth was dry.
Why would a woman who couldn’t possibly get pregnant need to take a pregnancy test?
‘I don’t need this. I can’t be pregnant.’
‘That’s what I thought,’ Dani said happily. ‘Turned out I was wrong. Look, do you want to—’
‘I have to go and lie down.’ Her head spinning, Laurel walked away from her friend, bumped into a chair and stumbled down the steps to the beach.
She couldn’t be pregnant.
Ten minutes later she was sitting in the empty villa, staring at a positive pregnancy test and swallowing down the bitter taste of fear.
It was happening all over again, except this time she’d skipped the moments of anticipatory joy and jumped straight into deep, dark terror.
Hand shaking, she rummaged in her bag for her phone and punched in his number.
When it went straight to voicemail she felt a rush of panic because she’d so badly wanted him to answer. ‘Cristiano?’ She tried hard to keep her voice steady but somehow it came out as a desperate whisper. Oh, God, she was going to sound needy and pathetic. And then she remembered that his phone was off because he was finalising the Sardinian deal. How could she have forgotten that? He didn’t have time to nursemaid her. It wasn’t fair of her to put him in this position. The urge to beg him to come home was almost desperate but she tightened her grip on the phone and forced the words through the panic. ‘I just called to wish you luck in your meeting.’
Cristiano was about to go into the most important meeting of his life when his phone rang.
It was Santo, calling with a final set of figures for him.
Armed with everything he needed to close the deal, Cristiano ended the call and then noticed that he had a message waiting.
‘Cristiano?’ Carlo looked at him expectantly and Cristiano nodded, checking his voicemail as he walked through to the meeting room.
He stopped dead as he heard Laurel’s voice.
‘Cristiano? I just called to wish you luck in your meeting. ‘
She must have called in those same few minutes he’d been talking to Santo.
He frowned, oblivious to the men around the table, all waiting for him to start the meeting. Why would she be calling to wish him luck? He’d seen her that morning and she’d wished him luck in person.
