CAROL MARINELLI - One Passionate Night's Miracle - One-Night Baby / The Surgeon's Miracle Baby / Outback Baby Miracle

‘Starving,’ she assured him with a smile.

‘Bene … bene!’ Rubbing his hands together in anticipation of another hungry customer, their host gazed around until he identified a group about to vacate their table. ‘Two minutes, and the table’s yours,’ he promised Santino with an open-armed flourish.

‘Is this all right for you?’

As Santino checked with her Kate thought both his eyes and his voice were daring her to say no. ‘This is perfect,’ she assured him. ‘And once again I apologise for putting you to so much trouble.’

‘Please …’

His manner both thrilled and frightened her. As he gave a shrug the inflection in his voice was pure charm, but his eyes were dangerous … there was far too much irony in them.

‘You’ll have to lose that jacket or melt,’ he observed as he shrugged his off. ‘Your choice.’

After a moment’s hesitation Kate removed her jacket, and then, because Santino was right about the heat, she opened a couple of buttons at the neck of her shirt too.

They were soon seated in the corner with a mound of fresh crusty bread between them and a bowl of fat green olives slicked with oil. Santino had rolled up his sleeves and the sight of his powerful forearms tanned and shaded with black hair just as Kate remembered them was a worrying distraction. She had to get started on her concerns for Caddy right away and find something safer to think about, she decided.

‘That all sounds perfectly reasonable,’ Santino agreed after they had discussed everything in detail and agreed safety measures be put in place to prevent anything from upsetting Caddy in the future.

But when the business discussion was over and Kate ran out of things to say she knew it was dangerous to attempt small talk. Who knew where it might lead?

‘We can move on to another place,’ he suggested after one protracted silence.

Where did he have in mind? There was an air of innocence about him that put Kate immediately on her guard and Santino’s eyes were asking questions she didn’t want to answer.

Her heart bounced against her chest wall as she considered the possibilities. She should have taken into account the fact that she would be pressed up hard against him in the tiny restaurant. She should have realised they would have to bring their faces very close together in order to hear each other above the noise. ‘I’m happy to stay,’ she said quickly, sitting back. ‘It was a brilliant suggestion. The food is delicious—’

Santino accepted what she said with a faintly ironic smile.

THEY sipped vintage cognac with their coffee, warming the honey-coloured liquid in giant-sized glasses they held cupped in their hands. The conversation was flowing more easily now, and Santino confined it strictly to business, for which Kate was relieved. She felt relaxed in his company, which was a first. Until her phone rang …

Glancing at the incoming number, Kate blenched. ‘Do you mind if I take this outside?’ She was already on her feet.

‘No …’ Santino’s eyes narrowed as she left the table.

After the heat of the café the cool night air was a sharp reminder to Kate of the world she had left behind. ‘Meredith?’ she said anxiously. ‘Is everything all right?’

Aunt Meredith was quick to reassure her that this was just a routine call. She sounded far more concerned about Kate.

‘I’m fine!’ Kate immediately regretted the force of her claim. She suspected Caddy must have said something to Meredith and Kate knew from experience that Aunt Meredith wasn’t easy to fool. ‘Everything’s going really well …’ But by the time the call was finished Kate knew she hadn’t convinced Meredith, who knew her better than her own mother had ever done.

‘Sorry about that,’ Kate said as she joined Santino at the table. She felt a flutter of concern when she noticed that her coffee-cup had been refilled. It appeared as if Santino was in no hurry to bring the evening to a close.

‘Not a problem for me … And not a problem for you, I hope?’ His gaze was keen as he searched her face.

‘No.’ Kate laughed it off, but inside she was aching with guilty secrets. There were too many of them locked inside her, of which her daughter was just one. And now here she was, sitting with Francesca’s father. It seemed incredible, and it frightened Kate to think that Santino didn’t even know of Francesca’s existence.

And nor could he until she was sure of him.

‘You seemed concerned when you identified the number,’ he probed casually.

He wasn’t going to let it go, Kate realised. ‘It was Aunt Meredith, Caddy’s mother, ringing to check that everything is all right. You can understand her concerns for Caddy…’

She could tell Santino wasn’t convinced by her glib excuses. She had set alarm bells ringing, which was the last thing she had wanted to do. ’So …?’ To avoid looking at him she began gathering her things together, hoping that Santino would take the hint and suggest the time had come for them to leave.

‘So …’ He mimicked her ironically, viewing her over the rim of his coffee-cup as if they were hours away from bringing the evening to a close. ‘Why don’t you tell me something about yourself, Kate?’

Kate was sure her heart stopped beating. ‘Like what?’

Such as why she was doing a good impression of a hedgehog curling into a defensive ball might be a start, Santino reflected. ‘How you first came to be interested in the film industry?’ He was prepared to take everything one step at a time if that was what it took. They had covered Kate’s concerns for Caddy and they had established that the connection between them was as strong as ever. Now it was time for the interview for the position he had in mind.

‘Working in the film industry wasn’t my idea to begin with,’ she admitted. ‘It was Meredith’s—’

‘Meredith’s? What did your parents think of that?’

He could see her thought processes clicking into the appropriate grooves. She was deciding whether or not to trust him with some small detail from her life … weighing up whether it would be worth it to distract him from some bigger issues, perhaps?

‘They were never part of the equation.’

‘I see …’ He didn’t, of course, but he didn’t want to knock her off track. She made it easy for him when she began speaking again without prompting.

‘I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do when I left school and Meredith had contacts in the film industry. She gave me the introduction I needed, and I thought, Why not? I wasn’t too keen at first, but I grew into it.’

As her face lit up he suggested, ‘And came to love it in the end?’

‘That’s right.’ She looked at him as if she hadn’t thought he would be interested in what she found good about her life, but his tactic had always been to find out what people wanted and then to give it to them. It was so simple he found it hard to understand why everyone hadn’t found the same route to success. ‘From what I’ve seen there’s no doubt you have a way with people …’ He dealt her the compliment that he knew would boost her confidence, bringing him another step closer to his goal.

‘Thank you.’

Her eyes softened to a misty grey as she looked at him and he could tell that his words were having the desired effect.

They were both trying to fathom out what each of them wanted from the other. But now something else had crept into her eyes … was it wariness, or something more? If he hadn’t known better he might have thought it a sign that he had hurt her in some way. But he had never left a string of broken hearts in his wake. He only ever dealt in adult relationships with women who knew their own mind, women just like Kate.