So in a way, this meeting had always been on the cards, albeit to be scheduled at a time of her choosing and without so much...pulse-destroying drama.
Or being confronted with the evidence that made her mothering instincts screech with the possibility that the father of her child might want him for reasons other than to cement a love-at-first-sight bond that would last a lifetime.
She clicked back to the information page and was in the middle of Romeo’s worryingly brief biography when a knock announced Lacey’s entrance.
‘I need you, Maisie! A group of five just walked in. They don’t have a booking but I don’t think they’ll take no for an answer.’
Maisie suppressed a sigh and closed her laptop with a guilty sense of relief that she didn’t have to deal with Romeo’s last words just yet.
‘Okay, let’s go and see what we can do, shall we?’
She pinned a smile on her face that felt a mile from genuine and left her office. For the next three hours, she pushed the fast-approaching father-and-son meeting to the back of her mind and immersed herself in the smooth running of the lunchtime service.
* * *
The walk to Gianlucca’s nursery took less than ten minutes, but with her mind free of work issues, her heart began to race again at the impending meeting.
Every cell in her body urged her to snatch her son and take him far away.
But she’d never been the type to run, or bury her head in the sand.
She’d give Romeo the chance to spell out what he wished for, and if his parting remarks were anything to go by he would be demanding a presence in her son’s life. She would hear him out, but nothing would make her accommodate visitation with her son until she was absolutely sure he would be safe with Romeo.
Her heart lurched at the thought that she’d have to part from him for a few hours maybe once or twice a week. Maybe a full weekend when he grew older. Her breath shuddered out, and she shook her head. She was getting ahead of herself. For all she knew, Romeo would take one look at Lucca, satisfy himself that he was his and ring-fence himself with money-grubbing lawyers to prevent any imagined claims.
But then, if that was what he intended, would he have taken the time to seek them out?
Whatever happened, her priority would remain ensuring her son’s happiness. She stopped before the nursery door, unclenched her agitated fists and blinked eyes prickling with tears.
From the moment he’d been born, it’d been just the two of them. After the search for Romeo had proved futile, she’d settled into the idea that it would always be just the two of them.
The threat to that twosome made her insides quiver.
She brushed her tears away. By the time she was buzzed in, Maisie had composed herself.
‘Mummy!’ Gianlucca raced towards her, an effervescent bundle of energy that pulled a laugh from Maisie.
Enfolding him in her arms, she breathed his warm, toddler scent until he wriggled impatiently.
‘Are we going to the park to see the ducks?’ he asked eagerly, his striking hazel eyes—so like his father’s it was uncanny—widened expectantly.
‘Yes, I even brought some food for them,’ she replied and smiled wider when he whooped and dashed off towards the door.
She spotted the limo the moment they turned into the square. Black and ominous, it sat outside the north entrance in front of an equally ominous SUV, both engines idling. Beside the limo, two men dressed in black and wearing shades stood, their watchful stance evidence that they were bodyguards.
Maisie tried not to let her imagination careen out of control. Romeo Brunetti was a billionaire and she’d dealt with enough unscrupulous characters during her stint as a lawyer to know the rich were often targets for greedy, sometimes dangerous criminals.
All the same, she clutched Gianlucca’s hand tighter as they passed the car and entered the park. Gianlucca darted off for the duck pond, his favourite feature in the park, as soon as she handed him the bread she’d taken from the restaurant.
He was no more than a dozen paces away when a tingle danced on her nape. She glanced over her shoulder and watched Romeo enter the park, his gaze passing cursorily over her before it swung to Gianlucca.
Maisie’s heart lurched, then thundered at the emotions that washed over his face. Wonder. Shock. Anxiety. And a fierce possessiveness that sent a huge dart of alarm through her.
But the most important emotion—love—was missing.
It didn’t matter that it was perhaps irrational for her to demand it of him, but the absence of that powerful emotion terrified her.