‘What happened to your family?’
His hand stopped and dropped back to his side as he swung his gaze up to the ceiling.
For a while she didn’t think he was going to answer, his steady breathing the only sound in the spare masculine room.
She touched her hand to his head, stroking his hair with her fingers.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t mean to pry.’
He caught her hand in his, brought it to his mouth, and pressed her open palm against his lips with a half kiss, half sigh. ‘It’s okay. I don’t think about it too much.’
‘It must have been awful.’ She knew loss. The death of her brother and his family had been bad enough. She didn’t have to know the details to understand that losing his parents and possibly other members of his family too at such a young age must have been devastating.
‘They had a market garden near Adelaide, where they’d settled after coming out from Italy. It was only small to start, but they built it up and when they could they did picking work as well—apples or pears—before the tomato season really kicked in. I was the youngest so I stayed home but they took my two older brothers—Santo and Jo. Before the tomato crop ripened they could make more in one day picking than the market garden could make in a week. It was my job to look after the garden.’
‘How old were your brothers then?’
‘Thirteen and fourteen. Santo was the image of Dad; he was so proud of him.’
‘What happened?’
He made a sound, a sigh mixed with a note of despair, and she noticed his whole body tense. ‘The orchard they were working on was up in the hills. They hitched a ride in the back of a pick-up truck with a bunch of others from the city. The access road was narrow, a steep dirt track with no safety rail. A car came round a bend the other way. The truck swerved to miss it but too far, too close to the edge. Once the front wheel went over there was no hope…’
Her breath caught as she imagined the horror of the accident and its impact on a young child. ‘You lost everyone?’
‘There were fourteen packed into the back of the truck. Only two survived. They didn’t stand a chance when it rolled.’
He took a deep breath and raised a hand to rub his temple. ‘I didn’t know about it until the next day. It took the police that long to identify everyone.’
‘You spent the night alone?’
He shrugged against her belly. ‘You get used to it,’ he said, his voice flat.
‘That’s so unfair,’ she said. ‘Did you have other family who could take you in?’
‘No. Not in Australia and my two remaining grandparents in Italy were too frail and I didn’t want to go back. I’d grown up here. Even though my roots were Italian, I felt Australian, I belonged here. The market garden was sold—it barely covered the debts—and I ended up in foster care—’ He gave a brief laugh. ‘For a while, anyway. They didn’t want me and I didn’t need them. I worked as hard as I could at school and earned myself a scholarship and then escaped to Melbourne first chance I got.’
‘So this child will be your only family,’ she said, thinking aloud.
He lifted himself from the bed in one rapid movement and scooped up his clothes and she cursed herself for provoking his change in mood. This was a guy who had made it in the world without family. He certainly wasn’t going to be thrilled about having it thrust upon him.
‘I have to get back to work. What do you plan to do?’
She laughed, low and brittle. ‘I would have thought it’s a bit late for planning. I’m going to have a baby. How’s that for a plan?’
‘You’re keeping it then?’
Something congealed cold and hard in her heart.
He’d just made love to her.
She was carrying his child.
If she’d had any hopes that either one of those meant he’d consider her as something a trifle more special than plain old Philly-from-marketing, he’d just smashed those hopes to smithereens. ‘I’m disappointed you could even ask.’
‘Oh, don’t feel so aggrieved. How am I expected to know what you intend to do? It’s not like we really know each other.’
True, she thought, seeking the refuge of her own clothes. But that doesn’t stop you wanting to make love to me. That doesn’t stop me wanting you to.
And it certainly doesn’t stop me loving you.
‘So what do you expect from me?’
She looked up at him, her hazel eyes focused acutely on his, hoping they conveyed the sense of cold he’d just doused her with. Much as it would have been easier never to have let Damien know that he was the father, she’d done the right thing. He now knew about the baby. Her responsibility to him ended right there. If he wasn’t prepared to have anything to do with this child, then she’d be more than happy to assume sole responsibility. It would sure save any complications.