“I don’t think that she meant to mislead—”
I cut Anni off. “She deliberately made it sound like you had experience in looking after children. For fuck’s sake, your fucking ma is a pathological liar,” I spat. One of my main reasons for remarrying had been to get a mother for my kids. Instead, I’d been landed with a girl who was barely out of her teenage years and clearly had no clue of how to deal with children. This whole marriage idea had been a disastrous idea to begin with and I couldn’t believe I’d gone along with it.
Failing to contain my rage, I strode out of the dining room without saying another word.
CHAPTER 15
ANNUNCIATA
I looked at Lorenzo’s retreating back as he strode out of the dining room.
I really didn’t think Ma had tried to trick him. I knew that sometimes she had a tendency to be a little loose with the truth, but thinking back to the conversation, I was positive that she had never said that I had experience looking after children. If she’d said that, I would definitely have corrected her.
I could hear Lorenzo talking to the children, telling them it was time for a bath and then bed.
Walking into the den where the children were playing, I spoke to Lorenzo. “Can I help?”
“Have you ever bathed a child and done their bedtime?”
“No…”
“Do you even know how to change a diaper?”
I knew Clemente was still in diapers and was willing to learn how to change one. “Well, no, but—”
“Then I don’t need your help. I have my hands full as it is, and I don’t have time to teach you how to look after my kids.”
Open-mouthed, I stared at him as he ushered the children upstairs.
I couldn’t learn if I didn’t see what needed to be done, so I followed them up the stairs. I was fearful of another brush-off from Lorenzo, but, at the same time, I was determined to start learning my new role.
I stood back but watched intently as Lorenzo saw to the children’s bath time. Clara and Clemente shared a bath, and once they were clean, Lorenzo got them dressed in their pajamas. Clara’s were pale pink and decorated with unicorns, while Clemente’s pj’s were Superman-themed, although both children took some convincing to get dressed.
Finally, having gotten them clean and dressed for bed, Lorenzo went to pick a story from their shared bookshelf.
“Panda book?” asked Clara hopefully.
He raised an eyebrow. “Again?”
She nodded solemnly.
“Of course, mia preziosa.”My precious.He gave a special smile to his little girl before he opened the book and started to read them a story about a panda who was celebrating her birthday by having a party with her friends.
Lorenzo was sitting on Clara’s bed, and both children were pressed up against him, leaning against his lap to look at the pictures in the storybook.
I sat in the rocking chair and gave a small smile as I listened to the sweet story and saw how engrossed both children were. Lorenzo surprised me with his patience. I would have taken him for the type to skip pages so that he could get to the end quicker, but instead he took his time to read the story properly and even did voices for all the characters.
When both children started to fall asleep, he got them into bed, carefully tucked the covers around their small bodies, and gave them a gentle kiss on their foreheads. Before leaving them to sleep, he took one final, contemplative look at them from the doorway and then quietly tiptoed out of the room.
Standing in the upstairs hallway, I waited until Lorenzo had closed their bedroom door before speaking to him. “Is there anything else that needs to be done for the children tonight?”
“No,” he said brusquely. “Do whatever you want or go to bed. I’ve got work to do.”
I watched him walk down the stairs and toward his study.
I know he was disappointed that I wasn’t more experienced with child-rearing, but it irritated me that he wasn’t really giving me a chance.
I sighed. Perhaps tomorrow would be better: it would be my first full day with Clara and Clemente, and I would use the time to get to know them better.