At The Boss’s Beck And Call

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

SATURDAY dawned fine and clear, with a snappy little breeze scurrying dead leaves along the Newtown pavements. Lara had left it until the morning of the day to tell Vivi they were meeting Alessandro, in case Vivi worried about it.

Lara was nervous enough for the both of them. Unsure she was up to the emotions of such a significant event, she could hardly settle to one thing.

Greta had gone on one of her weekend jaunts with her amateur orchestra, so Lara and Vivi had the entire house to themselves. Lara made the low-key announcement to Vivi during breakfast, not wanting to make it sound like the most momentous occasion of the past five years.

She wasn’t sure how well she succeeded. Vivi gazed back at her over her porridge, her dark eyes wide and curious, and perhaps a bit wary.

‘Is he your husband?’ she asked after a long suspenseful minute.

‘No, no,’ Lara said. ‘He’s-a friend. You’ll see. A very nice friend.’

Alessandro took a long early morning run around the foreshore in the bracing air, blind to the sights and scents of the harbour traffic, his breath coming in foggy puffs. White horses tossed on the waves, the wintry sun lending them a chill sparkle, though he barely noticed.

What did a man say to a small girl? He should have checked with Lara, had something suitable prepared.

He’d bought Vivi a heart-shaped pendant locket, with delicate filigree and a tiny inset ruby, on an incredibly fine gold chain. Too much? he wondered. Should he have checked with Lara about that?

Showering after the run, he took extra care shaving. He didn’t want to scare his daughter into thinking he was some big, rough, hairy creature. For a second he paused in scraping away foam to grin, reflecting that her mother didn’t seem to object to those aspects of him.

Dressed casually in blue jeans, a polo shirt and loafers, he embarked on his room-service breakfast, then pushed it aside. Coffee was enough.

The meeting was set for eleven to give Vivi just enough time to get used to the idea, but not too much.

He located the park ahead of the appointed time, drawing the car up under the boughs of a massive Moreton Bay fig. Conscious of his quickened pulse, he got out, then strolled in under the trees, choosing what looked like a promising walk to take him through to the duck pond. Other people were about, parents, children, but he hardly absorbed their presence. How absurd, that one small girl could make a man’s heart tremble.

At a bend in the path he stopped still, a sharp lurch in his chest.

Ahead in a wide clearing he saw Lara, standing at the edge of a pond with a little dark-haired girl, indicating something in the water. The child was gazing in, looking up to her mother to speak, then pointing into the water.

His daughter. His heart made a fierce escalation.

As though sensing his presence Lara glanced around and saw him. She bent to speak to the child, and he saw Vivi turn sharply his way and reach for her mother’s hand.

After a small hesitation they advanced, and he moved forward to meet them, a tumultuous recognition surging in him as the small solemn face grew closer and more distinct.

Her features were as delicate as her mother’s, though her colouring was his own. She was dressed in miniature jeans and a pink fleecy top with butterflies dancing across it.

Lara felt Vivi’s hand tighten in hers and forced her own legs to keep on walking, though every kind of flying insect was fluttering through her insides and her limbs were all at once composed of sponge rubber.

Alessandro walked up to them with his long easy stride, seemingly cool and assured, and stirringly handsome in blue jeans and a black leather jacket.

Lara exchanged greetings with him while Vivi stayed attached to her side. It was a surreal moment. She felt torn, the immediate, almost tangible current of desire and connection with her lover at war with her closeness to her child.

She saw Alessandro’s dark gaze sweep from her to Vivi, and with a surprised pang registered uncertainty in his smile. She pulled herself together to take charge.

‘Darling,’ she said, smiling down at Vivi, ‘this is Alessandro.’

Alessandro crouched down to speak to Vivi at her level, his dark eyes shining with a tenderness that brought a lump to Lara’s throat. ‘And what is your name?’

Vivi’s big, soft dark eyes gazed shyly at him in return, then she murmured, ‘Vivienne Alessandra Meadows.’

Alessandro’s lashes flickered, then for an instant his gaze met Lara’s, the shimmer in his eyes causing hers to moisten.

‘Ah,’ he said, smiling at Vivi, ‘now that-that is a very beautiful name.’ Though his deep gentle voice held steady, Lara could detect his emotion and it further destabilised her own rocky control.

‘See, I have brought something for you.’ He reached into his pocket and brought out a small pink velvet case.

Vivi looked at it with wondering eyes, then glanced up at Lara.

Lara smiled through her mist. ‘Go on. It’s for you. You can take it.’

The case was solemnly accepted, and, with some rather clumsy help from Lara, who had to blink rapidly so she could see well enough, opened to reveal the exquisite little treasure within. Vivi gazed speechlessly at it.

‘Thank you,’ Lara whispered to Vivi with a nudge. Vivi’s lips moved, but no sound came out.

‘Would you like to put it on?’ Lara persevered.

Vivi shook her head, but when Lara offered to carry the case for her the offer was firmly rejected. Alessandro rose to his feet.

There was a small silence. Alessandro turned away and put on his sunglasses.

Lara stepped in to ease the moment on. ‘It’s chilly, isn’t it? I’m glad there’s some sunshine, at least.’

Alessandro turned back to them with a smile, his deep voice a little rough around the edges. ‘Isn’t there always sunshine in Australia?’ He looked at Vivi. ‘It doesn’t ever rain here, does it, Vivi?’

Vivi preferred not to say. She clung tight to Lara’s hand, and stared very interestedly at a spot on the ground. Conversation came to a standstill.

‘Well,’ Lara said brightly, ‘I feel like a walk. Don’t you, Alessandro? Why don’t we go and see what the ducks are doing now? I’ve a strong suspicion there are eels lurking in that pond.’

‘Eels! Well, now, eels are exactly what I feel like seeing right now,’ Alessandro said, flashing her a grateful grin. ‘And after that, I would like to find out if there are any swings here in this park.’

That was too much for Vivi. ‘There are some swings,’ she ventured to murmur from the safety of Lara’s side. ‘And a slippery slide.’

By the time the ducks had been re-examined, and a suspect eel had been spotted and exclaimed over, and Vivi had taken a dozen slides with not one, but two parents eager to catch her and save her from falling in the inevitable puddle at the bottom-not that Alessandro’s offers were ever accepted-a thaw had set in.

Lara suggested that Alessandro should come home with them for lunch. Alessandro accepted at once, declaring he was so hungry he could eat an elephant, causing Vivi to exchange a shocked glance with her mother. But she skipped excitedly along with them on the way to the car, and when, at Lara’s instructions, they stopped at a deli in King Street to buy some delicacies, she was by turn horrified and fascinated at Alessandro’s choices.

‘I don’t eat anchovies,’ she told him with grave disapproval. ‘And I don’t eat artichokes.’

‘Do you eat olives?’ he said.

She shook her head.

‘Ah, but one day you will. You will see.’

‘No, I won’t.’

She was quite firm also on the possibility of ever being brought to eat prosciutto, pastrami, or sardines wrapped in bacon and served on mozzarella toast with basil.

Lunch was a great success, to Lara’s relief. Alessandro was as hungry as he’d promised, and by the time he’d shocked Vivi to the core by drizzling olive oil on his bread and cleaning up everything everyone else didn’t eat she relaxed enough to ask him if he would like to see Kylie Minogie.

‘Kylie Minogie?’ he echoed, looking mystified.

Lara lilted her eyebrows to signal the austere honour he was being granted, so he gravely assented to being very wishful of meeting that person. When Vivi skipped from her bedroom importantly bearing her beloved doll, Lara had to restrain a laugh at Alessandro’s faintly bemused expression.

But he made a swift recovery. ‘Oh, of course,’ he said smoothly. ‘Kylie Minogie. Well, well, Kylie. Aren’t you beautiful?’

Though Kylie had lost a great deal of her hair and was looking a bit the worse for wear, he allowed her to perch on his knee while the tea was being poured. Vivi stared with such fascination at Kylie’s exalted position, Lara suspected she might have been a little envious. She was rather envious herself.

After the lunch had been cleared, Vivi made several trips to retrieve treasures for Alessandro’s approval, including every photo taken of the Meadows family since she was born, until Lara was laughingly forced to call a halt.

‘Poor Alessandro looks tired,’ she told Vivi. ‘He needs a rest now.’

Alessandro’s eyes gleamed with amusement. ‘I am a little tired. Maybe I should lie down on your bed, Mummy. What do you think?’

‘Oh, we can do better than that for you,’ she said, smiling. ‘How about a walk?’

Alessandro’s brows went up and his devil’s smile flashed. ‘It would have to be a very good walk. Ah, I know. How about a drive and a walk?’

To Vivi’s great excitement, he drove them to Bondi, where he and Lara played chasing games with her until Lara collapsed on the sand, feigning exhaustion. Alessandro dropped down beside her, and they watched while Vivi investigated the treasures to be found at the water’s edge, swooping down on shells, squealing with delight every time an icy little wave rushed far enough up the beach to splash her bare feet.

‘Simple pleasures provide such endless delight,’ Alessandro observed, slipping his arm around Lara and kissing her ear. ‘So this is what it’s like being a parent.’

‘This is what it’s like,’ she acknowledged. ‘Full on, day and night. No looking away.’

For a long time he was silent, frowning a little, his chiselled profile brooding against the lengthening rays of the sun.

Lara’s fear, never far below the surface, stirred to gnaw at her precarious happiness.

What was he thinking? Was he feeling daunted? Looking forward with relief to that plane he’d be boarding at the end of the week?

‘That’s-a very lovely gift you gave her,’ she ventured after a while. Unable to help herself, she said softly, ‘Something for her to remember you by?’

He turned and his acute dark eyes shimmered into hers. ‘For her to remember this day by,’ he corrected gently.