‘Parents are not accepting dowries these days, Raffaele, and I’m pretty sure it used to be the other way around.’
‘Dowries?’ His frown deepened, before vanishing completely. Leaving his face a smooth mix of understanding and relief. ‘How much would they like?’
She shook her head. ‘No, that’s not what I meant.’
‘Then whatdidyou mean?’
Flora shifted in her seat. Twisted her bottom and joined her knees until she faced him fully. ‘No payment is required. No membership fees. We are having a baby together, so our families will...’ she held her hands out in front of her and pulled them far apart ‘...merge.’ She clapped her hands together.
The frown returned, and her urge was to stand up and place her thumb at the base of those lines. Swipe upwards and smooth them free. But she didn’t. She sat and waited for him to join the dots. For him to understand what she meant.
They were all family now, whether or not he understood it.
‘You will takemyname,’ he intoned.
‘They’ll still be my family. And my mother’s birthday is in two weeks.’
‘We will be in Sicily,’ he interjected.
‘Sicily?’ she asked. ‘I thought you lived here? On the boat?’
‘We can’t raise our baby on a super-yacht.’
‘You want to raise the baby in Italy?’
‘Sicily,’ he corrected. ‘I want to raiseourbaby in Sicily.’
‘Where you grew up?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why? I thought you said it was out of the way? Won’t we need a hospital?’
‘The village is not what it once was.’
‘Because you changed it?’
He nodded. ‘We will have no trouble with transportation. Nor with access to a hospital. Most things will come to us. And they are already being organised.’
‘Like what?’
‘A doctor.’
‘Adoctor?’
‘To make sure your pregnancy is going as expected.’
‘Why wouldn’t it?’
‘You can ask the doctor. It is just a formality. Something to tick off the list.’
‘You have a list?’
‘Several.’
‘Can I see them?’
‘They are in my head.’
