As soon as she had what she needed she’d be on her way back to the city, where she’d try to figure out how to get over a broken heart. And how to be a single mother.
A ripple of apprehension shot through her, making her hands shake. This wasn’t how she’d imagined having a child. She’d imagined a loving partner, a family.
But she’d cope. She’d have to.
Maybe she’d even return to Australia, to be close to family when the baby came. She adored life in Italy, having made it her home after a year’s university student exchange and never leaving. But she’d need support.
Later on, when she didn’t feel so lacerated by Aurelio’s rejection, she’d tell him about the child. But not yet. Not when she was still absorbing the news herself.
She hadn’t planned on telling him early anyway. Naïvely, she’d even thought he might unwillingly press her into a duty marriage for the sake of their child. She’d seen enough unhappy marriages to know she wanted true love or nothing. She suspected the pressure to marry for the sake of an unborn child might be stronger in Italy than Australia.
How ridiculous that fear had been!
Given Aurelio’s attitude since she arrived, he’d probably accuse her of trying to trap him with her pregnancy! Amber huffed out an unamused laugh.
She’d wanted to see if it were possible to build a loving relationship, or failing that, a friendship that would help them parent together. Right now that seemed laughable. Aurelio made a point of never being around her.
But there was plenty of time, she assured herself. Surely, eventually, he’d come around, for their baby’s sake. Their child deserved love from both parents.
For now it was best if she concentrated on caring for herself and the baby. She couldn’t cope with the idea of sharing her news with a man who looked at her like she carried the plague.
Amber reached out, propping one hand on the end post of the row of vines. Suddenly she felt exhausted. Keeping up the pretence that all was well, when everything was such a mess, drained her. Maybe she should—
‘Amber?’
For a second, her head bowed and dark hair swinging forward, hiding her surroundings, Amber wondered if the deep, concerned voice was a figment of her imagination. Some silly wishful thinking. For the voice sounded like Aurelio. Not Aurelio the man of thunder and ice who’d tried to eject her from this peaceful valley, but Aurelio the tender lover, the one who’d walked straight through all her feeble defences and stolen her heart.
She gasped as pain shafted through her chest. She couldn’t take much more of his pointed aversion. Maybe she should leave today.
‘Amber!’ The voice was closer and definitely not just in her mind. She whipped her head up to see Aurelio before her, feet planted wide and hands shoved deep in his pockets. He looked…concerned.
Could it be? Yet even as she thought it his expression clouded to something unreadable. She sensed, even if she couldn’t see, the chasm between them.
‘Yes?’ Her voice was brittle but that was the least of her worries. Amber felt heartsore and tired, almost ready to admit defeat. Their standoff drained even her formidable energy. Or maybe that was the pregnancy.
‘Are you hurt? You look…’ He shrugged, lifting one hand from his pocket and spreading it wide.
Hurt? She ached from the effort of maintaining a façade of cool professionalism. The pain of rejection was like a knife wound clear through her middle. Then there was fear of the unknown, of everything she didn’t know about being a mother. Sometimes that weighed so heavily it was all she could do to stifle panic.
Amber let her hand drop from the post and straightened. ‘I was thinking.’ It wasn’t a lie, she assured herself.
‘Thinking?’ he said it slowly as if testing the word on his tongue.
‘Yes, I do that sometimes.’ The words had a waspish sting she didn’t try to soften.
His eyebrows rose but instead of taking umbrage at her sarcasm, his mouth curled up at one corner, revealing a long dimple in his cheek that tugged at something deep inside. Amber stifled a groan. Even now, close to hating him, she couldn’t blank out her attraction to him.
‘What were you thinking about?’ Did he move closer or was it just the effect of staring into those velvety dark eyes too long?
‘Oh, the usual.’
How to fall out of love.
How to keep the career she’d been building and raise a child at the same time.
How to cure a broken heart.
Amber gestured with the camera towards the grapevines in their neat rows. ‘I’m working on a few shots that will help me explain what I want to the photographer I’ve booked. But don’t worry,’ she tilted her chin higher, ‘I won’t be long. You’ll have your privacy soon enough.’