She held onto Carlo tight, wishing her sister was awake as well but rejoicing no less in her heart for Fantino's start to recovery. "Can we take Jo-Jo to see him?"
"I do not know." Carlo stepped back, his usual urbane manner completely eclipsed by his relief at the news about Fantino. "I should have asked. Why did I not ask?" He rambled on in Sicilian.
"Do you want me to call your parents?" she asked.
If the hospital had called him, Carlo was the contact on file.
"Sì. Sì.We must call them."
"Okay, here's what's going to happen. You contact your executive team and deal with how this is going to impact your schedule. I'll call your mother. She'll tell your father."
"I have already cancelled my calls for today. We have our own appointment to attend."
"You are coming to the OB with me?" She'd just assumed she'd be going alone while he did business in the back of the limo like he'd done on some occasions when they were dating.
"Of course, I am going with you, unless you do not want me there? It is your choice, after all."
He kept saying that. It was her choice. And it was true. She appreciated that he recognized that. "Then if it is my choice, I would like you there."
She'd spent four months pregnant and not even realized. She wasn't feeling great about that and why his presence made her feel better she didn’t choose to dwell on.
"Bene. You call my mother. She will cry all over you. I will call my father."
"As if he is not going to cry all over you," Annette teased.
Neither of them said anything about Carlo's own tears of relief and joy.
Annette's phone call with Valentina had gone much as Carlo thought it would. Valentina had interspersed her joy at her son's waking with tears and promises to Annette that Joyce would wake eventually too.
"These Sicilian tycoons, they are too cynical to believe like us, but we will hold faith for your sister."
Annette was so touched, she could barely get out a heartfelt, "Thank you."
"Famigghia esti famigghia," she said prosaically. "We are family,sì?"
Yes, they were family. And soon that tie would be made even stronger by a child. Carlo and Annette's child.
She and Carlo hung up with their calls about the same time.
"Your mother is overcome with joy," she said to him.
"My father also." He looked entirely too smug, so she should have guessed what was coming next. "He is also delighted to have another grandchild on the way."
"You told them?" she asked, her voice risen in shock. "Surely now is not the time for that news."
"It is the best time. It gives my father a reminder that life wins." He reached out and laid his hand over her belly. "Our baby ismyreminder that life wins. Sometimes, life wins."
Not always. Not even Annette believed that, but yes sometimes life did win.
It certainly felt like it when they entered Fantino's hospital room later to find him already talking to his parents, who were staying at a hotel only minutes from the medical complex.
His smile when he saw his brother was beautiful to see, but then that same smile was turned to her. "Annette, our savior."
"How can you say that?" She shook her head, tears clogging her throat and washing into her eyes. She spun on her heel and rushed from the room.
She collapsed against the wall outside, unable to control the tears.
A hand landed on her shoulder, but it was not Carlo's as she'd expected. It was Valentina's. "There, child, let it out. You were not to blame for this accident. Whatever your parents said in their grief, they do not believe it either."