“That’s just your wishful thinking. Everyone wants me to be different, miraculously healed or whatever. Is it so hard for you to accept that I don’t want that?”
“Oh, I know that,” Nico murmured. “I understand your determination to live life in some kind of self-imposed purgatory, but Isabella’s woken you up from that. You have a chance to be happy. But not if you let her walk away.”
“I’m not ‘letting’ her do anything,” Gabe grunted. “She has work commitments in the States. She has to leave.”
“Sure, but what about after that? Does she fly back to Australia? You never see her again? Is that really what you want?”
“Why does this matter? Why does everyone need to interrogate me about this?”
“Because we love you,” Nico said simply, and tears sparkled on Isabella’s lashes. She was glad Gabe had this family – a family that wouldn’t let him keep his head in the sand and exist the way he had been indefinitely.
“And because I think you love her.”
“You’re wrong.” The denial was swift and certain, like the slicing of a blade through Isabella’s chest. She stayed where she was now out of morbid curiosity. “She means nothing to me.”
“Oh, really?”
“Isabella’s great. She’s been a welcome distraction at a time I find it difficult to function, but that’s all. A beautiful, pleasing distraction. If you’re looking for something more meaningful between us, it’s because of your hopes for me, not my reality.”
Her blood felt as though it was filled with ice.
“You’re so full of it,” Nico shook his head.
Isabella closed her eyes, sucking in a deep breath.
“No, you are, and everyone else who imagines there’s some great big romance at play. Isabella showed up on my doorstep in the middle of a blizzard. What was I meant to do? Throw her out? Believe me, I would have if I possibly could.”
“Okay, fine. So you had to offer her shelter, but you didn’t have to get involved with her. That was a choice you made.”
Isabella dug her fingernails into her palms.
“You might be married now, but surely you remember what it’s like to be single?” The pause made her heart heavy. She was aching all over. “Sex is sex, full stop. That doesn’t mean anything beyond physical chemistry.”
She felt like she’d been punched in the chest; it was almost impossible to draw breath. Shallow rasps, in and out, didn’t help.
“You brought her to Villa Fortune,” Nico pushed.
“She had nowhere else to go.” Gabe spun away from his brother, his face tilted towards Isabella. She stayed perfectly still, hidden behind the gauzy curtains. “It was Christmas eve. I wasn’t about to make her spend it alone.”
“Come on, man. That’s a cop out.”
“Fine, I wanted her to experience this,” Gabe gestured towards Villa Fortune and Isabella instinctively pushed back, hiding herself from sight. “She doesn’t have any family and she’s got this crazy idea about Christmas. I felt sorry for her, okay? It didn’t feel right to come here and send her packing to some hotel when I knew how much she’d like this experience.”
She could see Nico’s cogs turning as he worked to process that. “So what? You brought a woman to Villa Fortune for the first time because you felt sorry for her?”
Mortification curled her toes.
“Si. It means nothing. Niente.”
Her heart splintered. She pushed her feet to the ground, ready to move, to run away, but Nico’s next question held her still, captive to the conversation she shouldn’t have heard.
“So you don’t feel anything for her? Nothing at all?”
She studied Gabe’s face, looking for any hint of the emotions that ran through her, looking for any sign that he loved her as she did him. It was a fool’s hope though. His expression was implacable, and she’d heard enough to know the truth. “No. Honestly, I’ll be glad when she’s gone. I just want to get back to my real life, okay?”
Isabella was shaking like a leaf. She sat there for a long time, far longer than was wise. She was sure that the longer she stayed away, the more she’d be missed, and she was right. After almost an hour in the room, absorbing what Gabe had said and accepting the truth of his replies, the door creaked open and Lauren walked in. She liked the British nurse – Raf’s wife – a lot.
“There you are! I was wondering what you were up to.”
“I had to record a Christmas video,” she said, glad she sounded like she usually did, even when she was a long way from feeling it.
He didn’t love her.
He didn’t feel anything close to love for her. He pitied her. It was the most insulting thing he could have said, even if it was motivated by kindness. She didn’t want his pity, damn it.
Despair had her stomach twisting; she couldn’t stay here a moment longer.
It was like everyone else in her life. She wasn’t wanted. He didn’t want her. She’d fallen in love and he didn’t want her. Her pulse was throbbing, her limbs felt all tingly. Panic was like a rash on her skin.
A plan came to her blessedly fast – an escape route offering her a glimmer of hope. “I actually had an email from my agent – he’s asked me to take an early morning meeting in Florence tomorrow, before I fly out to America. I’m going to have to leave as soon as possible.”
“Oh,” Lauren’s face showed disappointment, and Isabella understood then: they were all hoping she was a permanent fixture, that this relationship meant something more to Gabe. Well, it did to Isabella, but one person’s love could not a relationship make.
“I don’t want to drag Gabe away from his Christmas with Yaya,” she said meaningfully, glad she had that emotional wrench to use in her favour. “What’s the best way to get to Florence from here?”
“Gabe will want to take you; it’s not far to fly. Come, let’s find him.”
“No.” It was a blurted denial. “I mean, I’ll find him to say goodbye, of
