Ким Лоренс – The Italian's Baby of Passion: The Italian's Secret Baby / One-Night Baby / The Italian's Secret Child (страница 20)

She blinked, an expression of confusion spreading across her face. How often had she wished that she could offer Sam a large, loving family? ‘Do your family know about Sam?’

‘My mother doesn’t need the results of a DNA test; she was totally confident from that first moment she saw him that Sam is my son. She’s completely over the moon about having a grandchild. I would imagine the champagne is even now on ice.’

‘And will she have told your father?’ Despite herself, Scarlet found herself interested by his colourful background.

Roman shook his head.

She got the impression he didn’t want to discuss his father. It was only a feeling, his cloaked expression was un-revealing, but it was enough to make her speculate.

‘But he’s not going to be happy about having a grandchild?’

‘My father is an inflexible and obstinate man. You understand him better if you accept one thing: he is blind to shades of grey. For Dad things are either right or wrong. You can safely assume that having a child outside marriage will fall into the wrong category.’

‘He would reject Sam?’ The thought that anyone could wish to punish a child for what they, in their narrow-minded way, perceived as the sins of the parents brought a ferocious, protective scowl to her face.

‘No, of course not.’ Impatiently he brushed aside her anxiety.

His response seemed spontaneous enough, but Scarlet remained unconvinced. Sam’s grandfather sounded pretty scary and not at all nice.

She shook her head slowly from side to side. ‘You mean not on the surface, that he’ll be acting one way and feeling another…?’ She shook her head with even more vigour as she thought about it. ‘There is no way I’m having Sam exposed to that sort of atmosphere.’

‘Dad isn’t intolerant.’

‘Isn’t that slightly contradictory? You’re the one who called him “inflexible” and “obstinate”.’

‘He’d probably say the same thing about me.’

His candour took her aback. ‘Well, he doesn’t sound like an ideal role model for a little boy to me.’

Roman adopted a mock bewildered expression. ‘How can you say that when you can see how well I’ve turned out?’

Scarlet frowned. She hated it when he made fun of himself that way; it made him almost likeable. She knew it was very important not to like him.

‘You don’t get on with your father?’

Would it do Sam any favours to be accepted into the bosom of this dysfunctional family? Or am I just grasping at straws? Looking for a reason, any reason, not to cooperate when deep down I know full well I have no right to deny Sam a father and an extended family.

‘That hardly makes me unique, but, yes, we disagree on most things. My father holds some firm views on everything including modern morals—mine mostly.’ He rotated his head as if to relieve the tension in his shoulders.

‘That’s silly; surely he knows most of the stuff in the papers is exaggerated to sell newspapers.’ Dear God, if you took every article about him seriously he could be in Paris and New York at the same time!

‘Scarlet Smith…are you defending me?’ He studied her for several seconds before adding, without the mockery that had laced his previous comment, ‘I’m touched.’

Their eyes collided and Scarlet blushed to the roots of her hair. ‘Everyone knows that you should take the celebrity stories with a pinch of salt,’ she retorted crossly.

Her face got even hotter and her scowl even fiercer as he continued to look at her, one dark brow raised.

‘My father believes there’s no smoke without fire,’ he commented after a painfully long pause—painful for Scarlet anyway.

‘People do and I suppose his generation—’

‘Sure, there is the generation gap, but it’s more than that,’ Roman interrupted. ‘Before he met my mother, Dad had planned to enter a seminary.’

Scarlet’s eyes widened. ‘Seminary? Isn’t that where you train to be a priest?’

‘It is,’ Roman confirmed.

‘Gracious!’ she exclaimed unthinkingly. ‘No wonder he doesn’t approve of you!’

‘You and he will get on famously,’ Roman predicted drily. ‘There’s also…’ Betraying an uncharacteristic indecisiveness, he stopped and raked a hand through his dark hair. ‘Well, you might as well hear the story from me as you’ll undoubtedly hear a version of it from my father when you meet him.’

Scarlet was so curious she let the assumption that she would one day meet O’Hagan senior pass without comment.

‘I was engaged to a girl—Sally.’

Her eyes widened. ‘You were engaged?’

‘Yes, about five years ago. Why so surprised, Scarlet? Most men of my age have had at least one serious long-term relationship.’

‘But I thought you were…’

‘A shallow, womanising pig?’ he suggested. He observed the surge of guilty colour in her cheeks with a cynical smile. ‘Relax, there’s no need to totally retrench, the two are not necessarily mutually incompatible.’

‘Did your father not approve of her?’

‘Far from it, he adored her. He still does. I’d known Sally since we were children—her parents are tenant farmers on the estate. We were always in and out of each other’s houses.’

‘The girl next door?’

He nodded. ‘There was nothing then, but we met up at college and were involved briefly, but it was nothing heavy. Then a few years later we met up at a party. A month later we were engaged. My family, especially my father, was over the moon,’ he recalled.

‘But you couldn’t go through with it.’

Roman’s dark, saturnine features clenched. His lip curled into a self-derisive smile as their eyes met.

‘No, actually she couldn’t go through with it. She ran off on the eve of the wedding with my best man.’

‘Gracious! That’s…that’s…’ She gave a helpless shrug. Very little he could have told her could have shocked her more. Any response seemed hopelessly inadequate. ‘I’m sorry. That must have been awful for you.’

‘I’ve had better days, but it happened a very long time ago.’

Despite his apparent indifference Scarlet couldn’t help but wonder if behind that casual attitude he was hiding his true feelings. Did he still love this woman who had dumped him so ignominiously? Had he gained his playboy reputation as a result of trying to forget his lost love?

‘I don’t understand. If she dumped you how come your father blames you?’

‘There was a note. She asked me not to tell her parents until she had a chance to talk to them. I’m assuming she never did. Nobody but Mother and I know she ran off with Jake.’

‘But—’

‘It didn’t last…she left for France and came back three weeks later alone. As far as my father is concerned I had the perfect woman and I drove her away. Maybe,’ he mused, ‘he was right. There’s a possibility that you’ll meet her in Ireland—she’s a teacher at the local primary school these days.’

‘When you meet up…’ she began, then the implication of his words hit home. ‘I won’t be going to Ireland.’

‘I’m sure Sam will be a lot more comfortable if you do.’

‘That’s moral blackmail!’ she accused angrily.

‘It’s also common sense,’ he pointed out. ‘Don’t worry, my parents will love Sam,’ he promised in a warmer voice. ‘There’s no sinister reason I haven’t spoken to my dad yet, I simply wanted to sort out things with you before I spoke to him.’

‘“Sort out?”’ she repeated, her mouth forming a twisted smile as she angrily studied his lean face. As if I can be filed away like a completed contract. ‘Are we sorted now?’ she asked bitingly.

‘I simply meant…’ Their eyes made contact, his lashes came down, but not before she had seen the seething frustration in those dark depths. ‘You are one prickly female, do you know that?’

‘I don’t like the idea of being sorted.’

‘It’s a figure of speech.’

‘Then maybe you should choose your words with more care.’

‘Dear God, I’m already walking on eggshells around you,’ he claimed. ‘The next logical step would be for us to communicate through a third party. Think about it,’ he suggested heavily. ‘All I knew for sure when I came here was Sam was my child, and you weren’t the mother. I needed some answers.’

‘What did you think I’d done, kidnapped him…?’ she suggested sarcastically.

‘I hadn’t ruled out anything. As I’ve already said, all I knew for sure was you weren’t the mother.’

‘How convenient I’m not beautiful and blonde,’ she jeered. ‘Or you might not have realised it was impossible for me to be Sam’s mum.’

A dark line of anger appeared along the crest of his cheekbones as their eyes made contact. His were darkly furious as they narrowed to angry glittering slits.