“He needs you, Mira. You are going to have to really help him learn to trust again. He wants to.”
“The things he says to me. He told me what I did was unforgivable,” she said. “It’s like he wants me and Eve because he feels entitled. I don’t want my daughter caught between us. I don’t want him to use her against me. I’m terrified of my decision to return with you. I’m not sure what to do.”
Dominic nodded as if he understood. Mira felt his kindness and concern was genuine. Unlike Lorenzo, Dominic seemed to be the only man on the plane with a heart. “I went through a lot too. Contrary to what Giovanni thinks Kei was not my lover. He spent only several weeks out of the year with Eve and me. I spent a lot of my pregnancy alone. That’s why I did those drawings, for my sanity. He doesn’t get a free pass on pain. We both have our fair share of it.”
Dominic smiled at her. “Tell him what your life was like without him. Can you try?”
Mira sighed.
“What is it?” Dominic asked.
“I can’t go back there.” Mira dropped her head back and squeezed her eyes shut. The idea of Melanzana sent her emotions into a dark spin. “I can’t. I can’t. Not yet. I don’t want to see where she died. It’s too fast, too much too soon. I thought I could but… I just can’t,” Mira said choking down her emotion and holding Eve tight to her chest.
“Gio loves you. His heart will surprise you. It’s in there. It beats only for you and Eve now. Trust him. He knows more about what you need than you think.”
Mira opened her eyes. When she looked to Dominic she found such kindness and understanding in his smiling face her anxiety melted. He winked. “Welcome home donna.”
“I’m not your donna,” Mira said.
Dominic chuckled. “Yes you are, and he’s been waiting a long time for you.”
Mira’s gaze returned to the aisle and the empty seat next to Giovanni.
“It’s up to you how this ends Mira,” Dominic said.
Her throat went dry. She moistened her lips and sucked down a deep breath of courage. She understood what Dominic meant. She unfastened her seatbelt and rose with the added weight of Eve in her arms. She walked back down the row of seats and the eyes of the men she passed all lifted and watched her. She stopped at the empty seat next to Giovanni. He glanced over at her then cut his gaze away. Mira sat silently next to him. Giovanni didn’t respond, but again his hand rested on her thigh for the remainder of the flight.
The plane landed. She and Giovanni, along with Eve, were the only ones to disembark. And though she remembered a little of Italy, the airport did not resemble the one she travelled through in Napoli. Giovanni reached for Eve who was asleep on Mira’s shoulder, and she passed her daughter to him. Their baby girl weighed a ton when she slept. The air outside of the jet was cold and unsympathetic. Mira worried that Eve wasn’t dressed warm enough. They did leave a colder climate but Sorrento and Napoli were usually warmer than central and northern Italy. She reached and straightened her daughter’s jacket as the toddler fit nicely in her father’s arms. Mira found herself smiling to see him holding her with so much love and pride. When he gestured with his hand for her to accept his she did willingly. A quick glance back over her shoulder toward the plane and she saw the little ladder being pulled up. Dominic stared at her from the window. He winked.
“Where are we?” she asked after being led to a waiting car.
“Firenze.” Giovanni answered. He adjusted Eve on his lap so he could hold her without disturbing her comfort. The chauffeured vehicle drove out of the private airport.
“I thought we were going to your home, in Sorrento?”