The Surgeon's Surprise Baby

“Yes, I stopped at the hotel first, before coming here.”

He poured the coffees and reached into the small fridge beside his desk, hiding his disappointment by concentrating on the mundane task before him. She’d always taken her coffee like he did, with a splash of milk. He added some to both, stirring a time or two before pushing one across toward her.

He studied her face. It was pale and drawn, her cheekbones a little more pronounced than they’d been a year earlier. “So what brings you to Italy?”

There was a marked hesitation before she answered. “You, actually. I need to tell you something.”

That jolt he’d experienced earlier turned into an earthquake, pushing all other thoughts from his head except for the one staring him in the face.

“You do?”

“Yes.” Elyse slowly turned the baby to face him. “This is Annalisa.” Her eyes closed, and her throat moved a time or two before she went on. “She’s your—she’s our daughter, Luca.”

* * *

A hundred emotions marched across that gorgeous face over the course of the next few seconds, ranging from confusion to shock before finally settling on anger. His hands came together, fingers twining tightly, the knuckles going white. “My what?”

The words were dangerously soft.

He’d heard what she’d said. He just didn’t believe it. And Elyse wondered for the thousandth time if it wouldn’t have been better just to leave well enough alone. To raise Anna on her own and let Luca stay in the dark about his part in her existence. But she owned it to Annalisa and, if she was honest, to Luca himself, to own up to the circumstances behind their daughter’s birth. If he rejected her claim outright, then at least she’d tried.

She probably should have tracked him down during her pregnancy, but it had been a difficult time. She’d been so caught up in grief over his leaving that she hadn’t realized she was pregnant until she’d missed her third period. A test had revealed the worst. And she knew exactly when it had happened. That day in her office. The day he’d left the States forever.

She had been going to call and tell him, but each time she’d picked up the phone, she’d gotten cold feet, afraid that hearing his voice would undo any tiny bits of healing that had taken place. She’d kept telling herself she’d do it tomorrow. Except a month of tomorrows had gone by, and then things had suddenly started to go wrong with her pregnancy. She’d been placed on bed rest. Her parents had come to the house to help her. Her mom had been a trouper, despite her own medical issues.

Elyse wasn’t even sure the baby would survive at that point, so she’d elected to keep the news to herself in case the worse happened.

And now she couldn’t...would never be able to...

Annalisa was the only chance she would ever have to do this right. She swallowed back her fear.

“It’s true, Luca. She’s yours. I thought you should know.” She settled the baby against her shoulder once again.

He swore. At least she thought it was a swear word, from his tone of voice.

God, she’d been right. He didn’t want Anna.

She’d been wrong to come. Wrong to tell him.

“You kept this from me? All this time? You come waltzing into my office with Lorenzo, who is holding a baby that I think is his niece?” He drew an audible breath. “Only he hands the baby to you. And now you tell me she’s mine?”

Her chin went up in confusion. “It isn’t like it was easy. You left, and you had no intention of coming back, isn’t that right?”

“Yes.”

“And didn’t you insist more than once that you didn’t want children?”

That had him sitting back in his chair, his eyes going to Anna. “I did, but that was—”

“I didn’t think you’d even want to know.”

“You didn’t think I’d... Mio Dio. Well, you were wrong. And my statement about kids, if I remember right, included the phrase ‘not right now.’ The word ‘never’ was not mentioned. Ever.”

How was she supposed to know that? There were men who would be just as happy to never father a child and who wouldn’t want to know even if they did.

But as she’d taken that choice away from him, he had every right to be angry with her.

“I’m sorry. Things were tenuous at the time.” She didn’t go into the particulars of the precarious pregnancy or the fact that she would never give birth to another child. Anna might be his concern, but the other stuff? Not so much, since they were no longer a couple.

And that fact hurt more than it should have, especially after all this time.

“Tenuous.” His brows drew together. “Tenuous? You let a colleague of mine hold my child before I get a chance to, and that’s all you can say?”

Yep, she was right. He was mad. Livid, even, and she couldn’t blame him. She held Anna close against the tirade.

He noticed it, and his eyes closed. “Dammit, I’m sorry.”

The sudden ache in her chest made her reach out and touch the edge of his desk with fingers that trembled.

“No, I’m sorry, Luca. It just never seemed like the right time and I couldn’t... I didn’t want to tell you over the phone.” She didn’t want to admit how afraid she’d been to hear his voice. And after Annalisa’s birth she’d had a recovery period that most new mothers didn’t have to worry about. It had delayed any travel plans she might have made. So here they were. In the present.

“When?”

She withdrew her hand. What was he asking? When Anna was born? When she was conceived? That was the kicker. They’d had sex in the aftermath of the announced downsizing, when there had been anger on both sides. Their coming together had been volatile and passionate. But the erotic coupling had solved nothing and only after her missed periods had she remembered that they hadn’t used protection.

In the end, the layoffs that she’d hoped would save their relationship—by removing the work dynamics that had bothered her so much—had done the opposite. She hadn’t wanted anyone to think she played favorites, and Luca had never asked for special treatment.

But memories of a former boyfriend’s behavior had loitered in the background, ready to pounce, warning her of what had happened in the past. Of what could happen again if she weren’t careful. Kyle had also been a colleague. He had asked—and expected—her to make allowances for things at work, most of them small and unimportant. But with each instance she’d gotten more and more uncomfortable with the relationship. Just as she’d been ready to break things off, he’d asked her to overlook a mistake he’d made with a patient. She hadn’t, and he’d been fired.

She told herself she’d never put herself in that position ever again. Except then Luca had come along and all those warnings had been in vain.

Remembering his question, she decided on the simplest answer possible. If he wanted to do the math, he could. “Anna is four months old.”

“Four months.” He placed his hands flat on the desk. “I want to spend time with her. Did you come by yourself?”

He didn’t ask if she was sure Anna was his. A lump formed in her throat.

“And I want you to spend time with her. That’s part of why I came. No, I didn’t come alone. Peggy came with me. You remember my aunt?” If her mom had been well enough, Elyse would have asked her to come, but since she couldn’t, this was the next best thing. She’d needed the moral support or she might have backed out entirely.

As many times as Luca had asked her out, she might have held firm to her resolve that there would be no more work relationships after Kyle. Until the day Luca had come out of one of the surgical suites after monitoring a patient’s brain waves, white-faced, a grim look of defeat on his face. It had done her in. She’d walked over to him, laid a hand on his arm and asked him out.

He’d said yes. The rest was history. A history peppered with moments of beauty and the sting of pain.

But the way he made love...

The realization that her eyes were tracking over his broad shoulders made her bite her lip and force herself to look away.

God! The attraction was still there—still very real. Even if the fairy tale had crashed to dust around her feet.

But from that rubble had come her baby girl. She would go through every bit of that pain all over again if she was the end result.

“After all this time, why come at all? You could have let things be. Never told me at all,” Luca pressed.

The very things she’d told herself as she’d booked her flight.

“It was the right thing to do.” Her hand went to Anna’s head, rocking her subconsciously, still shielding her.

He looked at the baby for a second and walked over to the window, staring out, hands thrust in his pockets, shoulders hunched. “La cosa giusta? The right thing would have been to tell me long before she was born.”

“Would it have changed things?”

He swung back around to face her. “I don’t know. I wasn’t given that choice, was I?”

“No.” Maybe she needed to tell him at least a little of the circumstances. “When I said things were tenuous, I meant it. The doctors weren’t sure Anna was going to make it for a while. And I didn’t see any reason to say anything if...”

All the color drained out of his face, and he walked back to the desk. “Dio. What happened? Is she okay?”

She rushed to put his mind at ease. “She’s fine. Now. I had placenta previa. It didn’t resolve and there were a couple of incidents of bleeding, heavy enough to cause worry.” And in the end it had been life-threatening to both of them when it had ruptured. “I wasn’t going to do anything that might put her at even more risk.”

“And telling me would have done that?” He dragged a hand through his hair.

“I was talking more about physical stress but, yes. Inside I think I was afraid of jinxing the pregnancy. As if telling you might cause everything to fall apart, and I’d lose her. I didn’t see any reason for us both to grieve if she didn’t survive.”

Not that she’d been sure he would. Because she’d convinced herself that he’d be horrified to have fathered a child in the first place.

“And after she was born? Why wait four months?”

She wasn’t quite ready to share more than she already had.

“Does it really matter? I’m here now.”

He crouched in front of her and touched the baby’s arm with his index finger. “I can hardly believe she’s mine.”

“She is.” She wasn’t sure if he was questioning Anna’s parentage, but either way she understood. Here came a woman who shows up over a year after they break up, claiming he’d fathered her child. “We can do a paternity test, if you want.”

“No, I know she’s mine.” He looked up into her face. “Can I see her?”

She realized Anna was sound asleep, but the baby was still facing away from him.

A tiny flutter of relief mixed with fear went through her midsection. While she hadn’t thought Luca would reject his own daughter outright once he knew she existed, she hadn’t been sure what his actual reaction would be.

She carefully turned the baby, cradling her in her arms so that he could see her tiny face. A muscle worked in his jaw and he stroked her hair. “How long are you here?”

“I have a little time left of my medical leave. I want you to get to know her. But...” she hesitated “...I want to have some ground rules in place. Come to an agreement first.”

His fingers stilled. “The only agreement we need is that we have a child.” There was a hard edge to his voice that told her he wasn’t going to let her call all the shots here. And she wasn’t trying to.

“I know that, Luca. I’m hoping we can—”

“A daughter. My daughter.” The anger had melted away and in his voice was a sense of awe. “Annalisa.”

A dangerous prickling behind her eyes made her sit up, teeth coming together in a way that forced it back.

“Yes.”

His head came up. “I have a few ground rules of my own. First we are going to figure out our schedules and come up with a plan.”

His fingers flipped pages on his phone for a moment, probably looking at his caseload. “I have some free time right now, in fact. So I can drive you back to your hotel, and then we’ll sit down and talk about any concerns you might have. But I want to make one thing perfectly clear. I will be a part of my daughter’s life. No matter how much you might dislike me personally.”

CHAPTER TWO

PEGGY SLIPPED OUT of the room as soon as the greetings were exchanged. She promised to be back in an hour.

A prearranged signal to keep Elyse from enduring his company?

His gut tightened in anger, even as his eyes soaked in the sight of his daughter. Now that the shock was wearing off, he could finally look beyond his own emotions and see Anna for who she was.

Unlike her mamma’s silky blond locks, which had always driven him to distraction, the baby’s hair was black and thick and stuck up around her head at odd angles that made him smile. A red satin bow gathered one of the bunches onto the very top of her head, where it did a tiny loop-the-loop. As dark as her hair was, her skin was Elyse’s through and through. It was as pale as the sand on the beaches of Sardinia. When she grew up, she’d probably blush just like her mamma too.

Cieli, he’d loved the way Elyse’s cheeks had bloomed to life when he’d whispered to her at night. Realizing his gaze had moved from the baby to the green eyes of the woman holding her, he gave a half smile when color swooped into her face. Right on cue. Some things never changed.

And neither did his reaction to them.

Elyse cleared her throat and looked away, jiggling the baby in her arms. “So her full name is Annalisa Marie.”

Maybe coming back to her hotel hadn’t been such a good idea after all. But he’d wanted this discussion to happen in a more private setting. He didn’t want Lorenzo or anyone walking in on them and asking questions before he had some answers.

“Marie. After your mother?”

Her attention turned back to him. “Yes.”

He liked the nod to a woman he had come to admire in the few times they’d met, but there was also the sense of lost time...lost opportunities. He hadn’t even been able to help choose his own child’s name. Hadn’t been there to see the first time she’d rolled over—if she had yet—and whatever other milestones four-month-olds normally achieved. “You gave her an Italian name.”

“It was only right. She’s half-Italian.” She smiled, although there was an uncertainty to it. Had she honestly thought he wouldn’t want his own child? Just because of some offhand comment he’d made? His reasons for saying it had had more to do with not scaring Elyse off—he hadn’t wanted her to think he was rushing her to deepen their relationship. He did want kids. Just hadn’t needed them right that second.

And now he had one. He was already in love, after only knowing her for an hour.

“Do you want to hold her?”

The question made him stop. Did he? His jaw tightened. Another thing he’d missed: holding her at birth.

He could worry about that later, though. Right now, he needed to concentrate on what was in front of him, not what was out of his control, as difficult as that might be.

And, yes, he wanted to hold her. He held out his arms and Elyse carefully placed their daughter in them. Looping an arm beneath her legs to support her, he held the baby against his chest, her baby scent tickling his nose. A sense of awe went through him.

He glanced at Elyse, who had taken a step back and stood watching them, arms wrapped tight around her midsection. There was a look on her face that he couldn’t decipher. Despite the bitterness and chaos of their breakup thirteen months ago, he and Elyse had at least done something right. They’d made this tiny creature. Murmuring to her in Italian, so her mamma wouldn’t understand, he turned and walked toward the hotel’s window and looked out over the city.

“You don’t know me yet, Annalisa, but I promise you will.” Was that even realistic? How long was Elyse planning to be in Italy? She’d said she had a little medical leave left but hadn’t specified how much.

When would she be back?

Bile washed up his throat when he thought of going months or a year between visits. But how could it be any different than that? Atlanta and Florence might as well be on separate planets.

He looked through the window at the city below. “This is part of your heritage, Anna. I want you to see Italy. To grow up speaking its language.” He was going to make that happen, somehow.

A sound behind him made him look back. Elyse had moved to the front door, as if ready to push him out of his daughter’s future before he’d even planted himself into her present. What he’d said was the truth, though. He was going to be a part of her life.

He could start by making sure they were all under the same roof for the duration of her stay. “You should come stay at the house, instead of at the hotel. I have some spare bedrooms. Your aunt will come as well, of course.”

“I don’t know.” She bit her lip. “It might be better if we stayed here at the hotel.”

“Why?”

He was already booked solid with appointments at the hospital for the next month. He couldn’t just blow them all off and take a vacation. Especially not a couple of the patients who were set to undergo treatment in the coming days.

He crossed the room. “You’ve had Annalisa to yourself for four months. I’d like you to be there when I get home. When I get up.”

Hell, was he talking about wanting Anna there? Or Elyse? He’d better make it clear. “I want as much time with her as possible. And there’s a kitchen and more room to spread out than you have here. It’ll make it easier on everyone.”

“I don’t...”

He shifted the baby into one arm, tilting Elyse’s face with the crook of his index finger. “Say yes. It would mean a lot to me.”

Something flickered through her green eyes before she said, “Are you sure? It’ll be for a whole month.”

A month. Said as if it were an eternity, when really it was only a millisecond. But at least now he knew how long he had with his baby. “A month is nothing.”

The weight of his daughter in his arms felt right. Good. He didn’t want to give that up. Not in a month. Not in a year. Not in a lifetime.

With her head still tilted, they stared at each other.

“Is it?” Her words came out breathy, lips still slightly parted.

Damn. His midsection tightened in warning. A warning he ignored, leaning closer even as she seemed to stretch up toward him.

Annalisa chose that moment to squirm, and fidget, giving a soft cry. The spell was broken, and he stepped back.

“Sorry,” she said. “She’s getting hungry.” The breathiness was gone, replaced by a wariness he didn’t like.

He handed the baby over, watching as Elyse went to the bed and sat, unbuttoning her blouse and helping the baby latch on.

The fact that she did it right in front of him made the tenseness in his chest release its hold.

He’d been her lover, for God’s sake. Why should he be surprised?

What did surprise him was that she’d come to Italy at all. Did she really care about him getting to know his daughter? Or was she simply assuaging any future guilt she might feel if Annalisa asked questions about who her father was?

Did it matter?

Yes, it did. Because her motivation behind this trip would set the tone for their future encounters. If she was just looking for the occasional photo op to show that she’d made the effort, she was going to be sorely disappointed. He wanted—no, he intended—to have an actual relationship with Anna. He would not be content with being the type of absentee father who did nothing more than send an occasional gift at birthdays or Christmas.

Adorable snuffling sounds came from the bed, where the baby still nursed. Suddenly he couldn’t bear to watch anymore, looking on from the outside.

“I’m going down to get a drink. Do you want anything?”

Elyse looked up, the slight smile that had been on her lips fading. “A water, if it’s not too much trouble?”

“No trouble at all.”

A few steps later, he was opening the door, tossing one last look over his shoulder as he exited. But not before his eyes met hers and he saw the one thing he’d never wanted to see in them: fear. What was she afraid of? That he might try to take Annalisa away from her? He would never do that. But he also wasn’t going to simply step back and pretend his child didn’t exist.

The elevator ride gave him the little bit of space and time he needed. It unclogged the lump in his throat and eased the ache in his chest. At least for the moment.

She’d agreed to come to the house. That was something. She hadn’t refused outright.

There was no sign of Peggy in the empty lobby where he asked for a coffee and Elyse’s water. It made sense. The Peggy he’d known in the States was kind and considerate. She might make it a point to stay away for more than an hour, if she thought they needed the time to work out stuff with the baby.

Luca had juggled some of his calendar, but he still had appointments this afternoon, so he wouldn’t be able to stay long as it was.

Dammit. He could just clear his calendar for the rest of the day—or a week, for that matter—but it wasn’t fair to the clinic’s patients. And even shuffling the cases to other neurophysiologists in the area would be a challenge. He was sure everyone else was just as slammed as he was. This was tourist season and a busy one for most of the doctors and clinicians in the city.

So what did he do?

All he could do. Make sure he used his time with Elyse and Annalisa wisely and hope that he could find a compromise that would suit all of them. She’d agreed to move into his house. They’d start with that.

* * *

Why had she agreed to stay at his home?

The expression on his face when he’d looked at her, that’s why. The raw emotions that had streamed through her. The way he’d gripped his daughter tightly as if afraid to let her go. None of that fit with the man who’d said with such confidence that he didn’t want children.

It was one of the million and one excuses she’d told herself every time she’d picked up the phone to call him and then set it back down again. She hadn’t been sure how Luca would react to the news that he’d fathered a daughter, which was why she’d finally decided to come to Italy and look him in the eye. If he’d shown any hint of horror or rejection at the news, Elyse would have been devastated. She would have turned back around and caught the first flight out of Italy to save her daughter the pain of having a father who didn’t want her.

But he hadn’t rejected her, had insisted he wanted to be a part of her life. The distance between Italy and her homeland was going to make that extremely hard.

If he were still in Atlanta, it would have been so much easier.

Would it have been?

It wasn’t like she’d could have hidden the weight gain from him. He’d have known. Plus the added stress of having him right there might have made an already difficult pregnancy worse.

And knowing Anna was going to be her only child?

None of this was easy, and having him stand there as she’d nursed had driven that point home. It was a relief to have him leave. It gave her enough time to finish up, since Annalisa was barely hanging on, her long dark lashes fluttering as she got sleepy.

Moving the baby to the crook of her arm, she quickly closed herself back up before lifting the baby to her chest and gently rubbing her back until she burped. And a good burp it was too. Elyse chuckled and got up to put the baby in the portable crib she’d brought on the flight with her.

Anna shifted in her sleep, raising small fists that slowly floated back down until they were at her sides.

Wow. She could stare at her daughter all day long. There were times she found herself forgetting what she was supposed to be doing because of it. Once she started back at the hospital, that would all change and life would become chaotic once again.