Page 64 of Twin Surprise for the Italian Doc
CHAPTER TWELVE
‘YOU’REGOINGHOME?Already?’ Kate sounded shocked on the other end of the line.
‘The twins are doing really well. Everybody’s happy that they’re ready to go home. Sean’s coming later this afternoon to collect us all.’
‘But the house won’t be ready.’
‘It is. I ducked home for a while yesterday and took all the stuff out of the garage. And I’ve got the car seats and lots ofclothes here. We’re all set.’
‘Where’s Matteo?’ Luke was on speakerphone with Kate. ‘He’ll be able to help.’
‘In Italy.’ Georgia had to squeeze her eyes tightly shut. Her hormones were all over the place now and it seemed that she was going to make up for all those years of never crying. ‘His mother’s in hospital, apparently. He sent a text message from the airport. A very brief one. I don’tknow what’s wrong with his mother or anything.’
Luke was laughing. ‘Yeah...he’s always treated text messaging like a pager from work. Succinct information with no frills and nothing personal.’
‘Yep.’ The message was burned into Georgia’s brain by now.
Heading to Italy. Mother in hospital. Back when I can. Need to talk.
‘He’s good with Skype, though. You could try that.’
No, she couldn’t.She couldn’t force a conversation on Matteo when he needed time to think.
When he couldn’t think straight when he was near her.
That was one of the two things she was hanging onto at the moment—that he still had to have some fairly powerful feelings for her if it messed with his head that much. And that meant that there was still hope...
‘Send more photos of those adorable babies,’ Kate putin. ‘And have you come up with some names yet?’
‘Yes, I will,’ Georgia promised. ‘And, no, I can’t think of names. My brain is mush.’
She had come up with a hundred names but couldn’t make a decision. Because it wasn’t just hers to make? And she couldn’t send them the photo that had come with Matteo’s text, of him with his babies. Not until they knew the truth and when they found that out wasn’tup to her. It had to be Matteo’s choice. Maybe if it had just been Kate she was talking to, she would have confessed everything but it seemed like Kate wasn’t just Kate any more. She was part of Luke and Kate—an inseparable team. And Luke’s first loyalties after Kate had to lie with his best friend.
The sooner Matteo told them the better, as far as Georgia was concerned.
She was over keepingsecrets.
She didn’t want to be the person that Matteo had been describing the other night. Dishonest. Untrustworthy...
Oh, man...another bout of tears was imminent.
‘I’d better let you go,’ she said quickly. ‘It must be the middle of the night for you guys.’
‘It is but it doesn’t matter. Call anytime...andgoodluck.’
‘I’ll be fine.’
‘Of course you will. Oh, but I do wish I was there tohelp...’
* * *
Less than two days later and Georgia was also wishing that Kate was there to help.
The home help for several hours a day that was part of her ongoing maternity care had left and she was, once again, alone in her house with the babies. There were still a dozen things she needed to do, like fold the overflowing basket of washing in the corner of the sitting room, put away the restof the online grocery order that had been delivered moments after her home help had gone and check her neglected email and phone messages.
Georgia stood in the middle of the sitting room, pushing the twin pushchair both babies were lying in back and forth as she sang a lullaby. The singing was on autopilot because her brain was busy trying to prioritise her list. As soon as she could be surethey were really asleep she could do the first thing on that list, but after last night she knew she might have a lot less time than she needed so she had to make sure she tackled the most important task first. Maybe it was finding some food. She wasstarving...
And then one of the babies started crying.
