‘I am suggesting you stay and become Mila’s new mother. Stay, bella, and marry me.’

Luca knew from the look on Gracie’s face that she hadn’t seen his suggestion coming any more than he had. But now that he had said it aloud, it felt…right.

Her throat worked. “Luca, you don’t mean that.”

He took her by the hands. “If I didn’t mean it I would not have said it. It is a sensible idea. We get along. We both love Mila. I think it is actually an excellent solution.”

Her cheeks warmed so fast and so pink he knew that he had shocked her. He reveled in what that choice would mean in terms of companionship, in terms of Mila’s happiness, in terms of having her all to himself, of being able to count on waking up to her warmth and beauty for the rest of his life….

It took a few moments before he noticed her vehemently shaking her head….

ALLY BLAKE

worked in retail, danced on television and acted in friends’ short films until the writing bug could no longer be ignored. And as her mother had read romance novels ever since Ally was a baby, the aspiration to write romance novels had been almost bred into her. Ally married her gorgeous husband, Mark, in Las Vegas (no Elvis in sight, thank you very much), and they live in beautiful Melbourne, Australia. Her husband cooks, he cleans and he’s the love of her life. How’s that for a hero?

A Mother for His Daughter
Ally Blake

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Gianni and Christine, for doing such an extraordinary job in parenting my very own Italian hero.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER ONE

GRACIE LANE was in Rome looking for a man. And not just any man. Her father.

Peering into the mystical waters of the Trevi Fountain, she blinked dry, tired eyes. She had half-heartedly thrown one coin already. According to local myth, she would now one day return to the eternal city.

A second coin now warmed her palm. The second coin was the important coin. The second coin was the wish coin. Searching for her father on her own had produced no results and the Australian Embassy had not come back with anything helpful, so a wish seemed to be her only remaining hope.

‘I wish to find Antonio Graziano,’ Gracie said aloud, hoping with all of her might that somehow this enchanted old fountain would be able to help. She turned, tossed the coin over her left shoulder, and listened for the soft, fateful splash.

But the statue of Neptune looked down on her, benign as he ever was, and unless he had come to life a quarter century before and had a fling with her then nineteen-year-old mother, her last-ditch desperate wish had not produced instant results.

Gracie managed a flickering smile at the thought, even though it meant there was nowhere else to turn. She was down to her last several euros in the bank, she was paid up in her hostel for only one more night, and her wallet held little more than the return train ticket from Termini Station to Leonardo da Vinci Airport. She had very little choice other than to make a phone call to the airline in order to use her open-ended ticket to book a flight home the next day.

She slumped down onto the low concrete wall with her back to the fountain. She was so exhausted her limbs ached, her heart ached, even her hair ached.

But it was not enough to make her cry. The ability had abandoned her. And right when she needed it most. Since that dreaded phone call from her stepfather, she had not cried once. She hadn’t had the chance. She had had to be brave for those around her. For her distraught stepfather, for her much younger half-sister and half-brother. For her best friends.

But in Rome she was alone. She didn’t have to be brave for anyone but herself, and still she could not enjoy the release that came with a good cry. She covered her face with her hands and willed it to happen.

Success eluded her.

Then she felt a tiny hand clasp her denim-clad knee. Suspecting one of the many beggars prowling the area for spare change and open handbags, Gracie jumped out of her skin. When her backside landed back upon the concrete wall, she found herself face to face not with a beggar but with a little girl in designer clothes.

Gracie rubbed a hand over her aching face and sat up straight. It was like looking at a picture of herself at that age; creamy fair skin, glossy dark curls, serious dark blue eyes, except Gracie had tell-tale Australian freckles across her nose and cheeks. Freckles she had proudly cultivated as a child as they were the one feature that linked her to her lanky blonde, suntanned school friends.

‘Hello, sweetie,’ she said once she located her voice.

After a brief moment in which the little girl assimilated the English word, she said, ‘Hello,’ also in English but with a thick Italian accent. ‘My name is Mila.’

‘Pleased to meet you, Mila. I’m Gracie.’

Mila was not smiling, or frowning, just watching Gracie with her head tipped to one side. ‘Are you OK?’

Gracie cracked an unexpected grin. But there was nothing to be gained from confiding in the little girl. ‘Sure, I’m OK. Thank you for asking.’

Gracie looked around for the child’s guardian. There were people everywhere, tourists throwing coins, local men selling bottle openers emblazoned with the pope’s face, pairs of nuns sifting through the bottle openers, young men ‘giving away’ one-euro roses.

‘Where’s your mother?’ Gracie asked, taking the little girl by the hand.

‘In heaven,’ the girl said, her face earnest and calm.

Gracie’s gaze snapped back to her cohort. It seemed they had more in common than their looks. ‘Well, then, your father? Your…papa? Is he here?’

Mila nodded.

‘Can you point him out to me?’ Gracie asked.

The little girl did not need to. At that moment, Gracie caught sight of a tall male figure moving frantically through the crowd, leaping to see over heads and not caring if he was shoving at people as he went.

Gracie’s stomach gave an unexpected little flip. She could tell he was a stunner even with the look of controlled terror on his face. He was immaculately dressed in a black suit and long coat that swished out behind him like a cape as he dodged through the crowd. He had dark hair slightly longer than was fashionable back home, but it looked just right on the tall, dark and handsome types who could be found on many a street corner in Rome. His eyes flashed so bright she could not make out their colour.

With a brisk shake of her head, Gracie refused to be drawn into the unintentional allurement of the little girl’s father. It was the Italian thing, that was all.

Her lifelong captivation with all things Italian had been cemented after she first saw The Godfather trilogy. She had watched the films enough times over the years to develop an effusive crush on the charismatic Al Pacino and to be able to repeat entire scenes of dialogue when the opportunity arose. The fact that it had riled her mother to distraction only made the Italian thing more enticing.

‘Mi scusi!’ Gracie waved one arm madly as she held on tight to her young friend with the other.

‘Papa!’ Mila called out, imitating Gracie’s waving hand.

The sweet, high voice of his daughter was enough to have the man stop, his feet shoulder-width apart, his ears straining to pick up on the familiar sound.

‘Call out again,’ Gracie said, grabbing Mila about the waist and hitching her up onto her hip.

‘Papa. Vieni qui!’

The man turned, as though he had extra-sensory radar attuned to that particular voice. He spotted his daughter, his expression went from terror to relief, and he rushed over towards them, in one smooth movement sweeping Mila from Gracie’s hip and into his arms, twirling her about, chattering away a million miles a minute in lilting Italian as he went. It was obvious to Gracie’s ears that he was chastising her, but it must have been in the most adorable manner, as the little girl would not stop giggling.

Up close and personal, the guy was definite crush material with a good several inches’ height advantage over Mr Pacino, and bone structure that would give Michelangelo’s David a run for his money.

Once he put Mila down, she started babbling away in Italian and pointing in Gracie’s direction. The man bent over, listening intently, before flicking his dark gaze in Gracie’s direction.

Melted dark chocolate, she thought as she had her first proper view of the colour of those flashing eyes.

Keeping hold of his daughter’s hand, he stood up straight, his tall frame dwarfing her five feet five and a half inches. Now his focus had shifted, Gracie had it one hundred per cent. He looked at her so completely she felt as though he was committing her face to memory. It was riveting. Her stomach flipped a little higher.

Then his mouth flickered with the beginnings of a smile. And, despite the remarkable appeal of his puppy-dog eyes, if she was describing him to the Saturday Night Cocktails gang back home, his smooth, chiselled, perfectly shaped mouth would have been given a litany all on its own.

‘Ciao,’ he said. His voice was deep and sensuous to Gracie’s ears. ‘Grazie per—’

Gracie held up her hands and he stopped mid-sentence. She dragged her gaze from that slightly smiling mouth and back to his kind and captivating eyes.

‘Whoa. Hang on there, partner. Non comprende. Ah, Australian,’ she said, pointing to herself. ‘I don’t parle much Italiano…’ Her words petered out. She found herself shaking her head and flapping her hands and feeling like a madwoman, yet the little girl’s father was watching her with an ever-increasing smile lighting his face. His lovely face.

She shook the obscuring thoughts from her head, telling herself that her reaction was a mix of the Italian thing and the relief at having someone looking at her as if she was a real person for the first time in weeks, not just a nuisance with no language skills or a tourist to be taken advantage of.

‘Luca Siracusa,’ he said, holding out his spare hand.

‘Gracie Lane,’ she returned, shaking said hand.

He bowed lightly and let her go, but his smiling eyes remained on her. Her hand fluttered to her throat, which was suddenly feeling warm. Mila took a hold of her other hand and swung between the two adults, skipping and dancing and singing some unknown tune to herself.

‘You are an Australian, Ms Lane?’ Luca asked in perfect English. His accent was lilting and obviously came from American schooling.

‘Yep.’

‘I’m afraid I mistook you for a Roman. You do not have the same wide-eyed grin of the tourists around here.’

Gracie tried to smile, but her heart was breaking all over again. Of course she looked Italian! That was the problem!

‘Well, I am,’ she said, still getting used to admitting as much aloud. ‘Half, actually.’

‘But you don’t speak the language?’ he asked.

The answer to that was complicated. Too complicated. She waved a dismissive hand and said, ‘Only enough to catch a train and buy a piece of pizza.’

That earned her a grin from the guy and any judge would have given her stomach’s resultant triple back-flip a perfect ten.

‘I was saying how grateful I am that you brought me back my Mila. She is a handful enough within our grounds. I don’t know what I was thinking, bringing her here.’

Gracie followed the direction of Luca’s sweeping palm and remembered for the first time since he had happened upon her, all stunningly gorgeous, that she was standing before the just as humbling beauty of the Trevi Fountain.

‘You were thinking that you would put a little magic in her day, I expect,’ Gracie said. Even in her down-hearted state, its ancient splendour had not gone unnoticed.

Luca’s gaze softened, and she felt her cheeks warm nonsensically under his appraisal. ‘Hmm,’ he said. ‘You are right, of course. I do feel Mila should know as much about her homeland as soon as she can. Once she hits her teens I am sure she will turn her back on her culture as so many do these days.’

‘She’ll watch American TV and wear British clothes,’ Gracie agreed. ‘I promise that is not just an Italian teen thing. We in Australia call it the cultural cringe.’

‘Yes,’ he said, with a widening smile that displayed a hint of perfect white teeth within his divine mouth. ‘That describes it well.’

‘Though what you could possibly cringe from in this country I have no idea,’ Gracie said. ‘It is the most beautiful place I have ever been.’

‘You will not hear me disagreeing. Have you seen much of Italy?’

Gracie shook her head. ‘Only Rome.’

She was in Rome with a purpose and sightseeing was the last thing on her mind. Even so, the heavy beauty of the city had worked its magic on her. She knew that at least a small part of her disappointment stemmed from having to leave the city before she had taken the chance to really explore its surrounds.

‘Only Rome?’ He did not hide his shock, gasping with the dramatic passion Italians lived every second of the day. ‘But then you have only seen the tip of the iceberg. There is so much diverse beauty in our country. You must promise me that you will see some of the countryside.’

It sounded tempting, to be sure. But Gracie had run out of money. And time. And she had more important things on her wish list than to find the perfect villa, vineyard and trattoria.

‘I’ll try,’ she said, covering up her vague promise with an affable smile.

‘You are humouring me, I think,’ he said.

Gracie was surprised that their language barrier had done nothing to disguise her idle promise. She laughed aloud, for what must have been the first time since arriving on Italian soil, and it felt good. ‘I wish I wasn’t but I’m afraid I am.’

‘Don’t think that just because English is my second language I do not understand its nuances.’

Gracie’s laughter eased back to a comfortable grin. ‘OK. Duly noted.’

He narrowed his eyes. ‘You humour me again, do you not?’

Gracie threw out her spare arm. ‘Fine. You win. I have no plans to see anything more of your country, as I have no time left in my busy schedule of trapping the locals with my wily English.’

Luca’s next smile was warm and enveloping and Gracie felt the odd desire to wrap her arms about herself.

The conversation seemed to have come to a natural end. Gracie felt the moment arrive where she could slip away gracefully. Yet she could not make herself say polite goodbyes. Her tongue would not form the words. She just stood her ground, her gaze lingering on this stranger’s lovely, lovely face.

He seemed as disinclined to leave as she was. Then she understood why. He said, ‘I am sorry to have to ask, but I simply must. Mila says you were upset when she found you.’

Gracie blinked in mortification. While she was mentally cataloguing the guy’s gorgeous bits, she must have looked a mess with dark rings of exhaustion under her eyes, in her borrowed jacket, dirty shoes and scruffy hair.

‘I am all right now,’ she said, taking a step back and running her spare hand through her thick curls, hoping to at least make a move towards looking less like a crazy woman.

‘But you weren’t before. May I ask what is troubling you? I would like to help. Somehow to repay you for helping Mila.’

‘No. Thank you. Please, take advantage of this beautiful day and show Mila a good time.’

Gracie blinked as a sudden light mist of spring rain swirled about them. So much for it being a beautiful last day in Rome. Nevertheless…

‘The last thing you want her to remember of this day is marking time whilst her dad listened to the ramblings of some self-indulgent stranger.’

Luca looked to his daughter, who was still holding on to each of them, tugging as she chased a pigeon that had strayed too close. But as soon as she reached the limit of their arm reach, she bounded back.

Gracie watched as a slow, wondrous smile grew upon his face. He was in awe of every movement and decision his daughter made. Something deep and lingering twisted painfully inside her.

‘She is everything to me,’ he said, almost beneath his breath.

It tugged at Gracie’s heart. They were both just too perfect. A perfect man and his perfect daughter. And it only managed to hit home what she had missing from her own life, and what she had failed to uncover on her expedition to Rome.

‘It was Mila who helped me already. Truly. I should go,’ Gracie said, purposely, steadfastly breaking the warm, mesmerising spell that this man and his daughter were unwittingly weaving around her.

Luca looked her way, his devoted smile enduring. And Gracie felt the backs of her eyes pricking uncomfortably with the cruel echo of tears that she knew would never fall.

Gracie blinked to break the tormenting eye contact and crouched down to Mila’s eye level. ‘Mila, it was lovely to meet you. I think you are very lucky that your papa has chosen to show you his favourite places in the city.’

Mila looked up at Luca, her intelligent eyes squinting through the now heavier mist of rain into the bright sunlight. ‘Papa loves me very much,’ she said as though that explained everything.

Gracie grinned. ‘Of course he does. You are a seriously lovable little girl.’

She gave Mila a neat tickle in the ribs, sending her squirming in delight, then stood, extracting herself from the young girl’s affectionate grip. ‘It was lovely to meet you too, Luca.’ She held out her hand.

Luca clasped his spare hand around hers. It was warm and comforting.

‘Lovely,’ he agreed. And he kept a hold of her hand.

Gracie’s eyes flickered up to meet his. There was more than thanks going on behind those eyes. There was unanticipated interest. So, he had felt it too. Pity, since their timing could not have been worse.

Gracie cleared her throat in an effort to dislocate their budding awareness. ‘I’ve kept you from your outing long enough,’ she said. Needing a touchstone to ground her, Gracie pulled her hand away and reached into her jacket pocket for the key to her hostel room.

She found the key, but her wallet, which should have been in the same pocket, was gone. Her eyes wildly scanned the crowds for a furtive figure huddled against the stonework, going through her wallet. But no. The thief was long gone.

It was the last straw. She began to laugh. Loud, uproarious, exhausted laughter turned heads her way. It racked her so hard she had to clutch her stomach to settle the straining muscles within.

Luca watched her in obvious confusion. But it took several moments for Gracie to be able to gather her breath. ‘My wallet has been stolen,’ she explained.

Luca took her by the arm and did the same wild search for the culprit she had done. ‘Please, my family owns a restaurant near by; let me take you to a telephone so you can cancel your credit cards immediately.’

‘No,’ she said back to him, clasping her hand over his to draw his attention. ‘It’s OK. All the poor guy would have found is a train ticket, less than one euro in coins, a photo of my friend’s scruffy Maltese terrier, Minky, a couple of cappuccino receipts and a video rental card. My fortune is stowed back at my hostel.’ Her remaining fortune consisting of some laundry that was overdue for a wash.

‘Your passport?’

Gracie slapped her thigh. ‘Tucked away in a hidden pouch with my airline ticket. Thanks to my clever friend Cara from back home, who expected nothing less from me than having my wallet stolen.’

Gracie’s body shook with the last of her dog-tired laughter. Luca took her hand; his palm felt so warm and strong and steady it made her feel suddenly weak in comparison. If she didn’t eat, and soon, she would likely not make it back to the hostel.

‘I was serious about the restaurant near by,’ Luca said, as though reading her mind. ‘I was about to take Mila for some lunch. I would be honoured if you would join us as our guest.’

Gracie’s mouth dropped open. She was ready to say no; she knew she should say no. She had to get back to the hostel to phone the airline, to call Cara for a lift from the airport when she got back to Melbourne and to scrounge up money from her fellow backpackers for a replacement train ticket. But she was starving. She hadn’t had anything more substantial than a cappuccino all day.

‘Come with us. Please,’ Luca insisted, his voice warm and encouraging, his smile even more so. ‘Let me buy you lunch.’ He shrugged his coat higher on his shoulders. ‘And soon. I fear I am beginning to get rather wet.’

He was right. The rain was coming down harder.

‘OK,’ she said, looking to the heavens. ‘I guess someone else made the decision for me. Thank you.’

Luca nodded, his dark eyes still upon her, and only then did he let go of her arm, his hand slipping away, leaving a tantalising trail of warmth where his sure fingers had been. Mila brought Gracie back to the present by chattering away to her father in staccato Italian.

‘Yes,’ he answered in English for Gracie’s benefit. ‘I am hungry too, as is Gracie. So we are going for lunch together.’

‘Yippee!’ the little girl squealed, pirouetting like a ballerina on the end of her father’s hand before pulling him away from the fountain and towards lunch.

As they wound their way through the ever-evolving crowd, Gracie caught Neptune’s eye and thought for one curious moment that he had a smile on his face that had not been there before.

Gracie shook the rain from her navy hooded jacket and Luca from his immaculate black coat as they ran the last few steps into the loud and busy trattoria. Several customers drank their espressos standing at the serving counter, thus saving themselves the exaggerated price of a drink-in coffee, but Luca showed Gracie to a booth deep inside the cosy restaurant.

Pictures of an Italian movie star Gracie could not put a name to lined the walls, and a television tucked high in the corner played the Italian version of an American reality TV show. It only reminded her how disjointed she felt so far from home; everything was at once familiar but just out of reach.

‘Your family owns this place?’ Gracie asked as Luca helped her remove her utilitarian jacket then hung it over a hook on the wall.

‘My late wife’s uncle, actually.’

Gracie remembered Mila saying her mother was in heaven and it felt cosmically unfair that the perfect man had lost his perfect wife.

She didn’t quite know what to say. She knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of constant sympathy and thus had no intention of bestowing the same. It was half the reason she had come to Italy, to distance herself from the burden relentless pity had brought into her life.

Before Gracie gave in to the overwhelming urge to regurgitate the fairly useless ‘there, there’, a large man in a tomato-splattered apron hastened to their table carrying a bottle of Chianti and two wine glasses. He placed them on the table before gathering Luca in a bear hug and bubbling away in effusive Italian. Gracie had the feeling they had not seen each other in some time; Luca’s cheeks even reddened under the obvious chastisement from the older man.

When he had finished berating Luca, he descended upon Mila, lifting her from the ground and hugging the life out of her. She finally wriggled free of his grasp and tumbled over Luca’s knees until she was safely ensconced between her father and the wall.

‘Gracie,’ Luca said, ‘this is Giovanni. Mila’s great-uncle. Giovanni, this is Gracie. She is from Australia, though she is half-Italian.’ He offered her a wink with his last comment and she could not help but smile.

The elder man blew Gracie an air-kiss and gabbled in Italian. She picked out enough words she recognised to know she was being favourably compared with Venus, the Roman goddess of love.

She tried to hide her snort of laughter behind a measured sip of the undemanding red wine, but Luca was too quick for her.

‘You understood that, I see. It seems your Italian is selective.’

‘Hmm,’ Gracie said as Giovanni left with their orders. ‘I did the Spanish Steps in my first week here, and I tell you, there I heard some things. The boys who trawl that place could make a packet writing Valentine’s Day cards. But, as compliments went, Giovanni’s was lovely.’

‘And yet not far off the mark,’ Luca insisted.

Gracie felt the same unusual warmth envelop her again.

‘Please,’ Gracie scoffed. She leant her chin on her palm. ‘You know what I think it is? Italian men are born with a flattering gene that missed Australian men altogether. Think Romeo. Think Rudy Valentino. Since landing in Rome, I have been approached and asked on a date at least once a day. It’s ridiculous. In my tatty old jacket and beanie hat, I am surprised they could even tell I was female!’

Luca’s eminently male mouth kicked up at one corner. ‘Ah, but that is the thing about we Italians—we have always been able to appreciate a work of art.’

Gracie knew from the twinkle in Luca’s eyes that he was baiting her, but her blush insisted on sticking around. ‘Please, stop it!’ she insisted. Then said, ‘But who am I kidding? I don’t think you could stop it if you tried. You are flirting machines.’

‘You are very pretty,’ Mila said to Gracie from out of the blue.

Luca laughed aloud, the sound deep and resonant and utterly infectious. ‘See!’ he said. ‘It’s an empirical reality.’

‘It’s a sickness,’ Gracie insisted.

Mila crawled over Luca’s lap, rounded the table and plopped herself onto Gracie’s lap, making sure the attention of the group was focused back where it belonged. Gracie was thankful; the constant compliments made the snug room feel airless.

Mila’s chubby fingers ran down the contours of Gracie’s face, the soft pads leaving a tickling trail across her forehead, her nose, her lips and her chin.

‘You look like me,’ Mila said.

‘Do you think so?’ Gracie asked, grinning over the young one’s head at her father. ‘But I have freckles on my nose and you do not.’

‘That is true,’ Mila said, her face serious as she studied the tiny dots scattered over Gracie’s nose. ‘I think that means I am prettier than you.’

Luca reached out to scold Mila, but Gracie shushed him with a blink and a small shake of her head. ‘You know what? I think you might be right.’

‘Will I look like Gracie when I am as big as her?’ Mila asked, bending over backwards to look at Luca. ‘Will I too have…freckles? Or will I look like my mother?’

Luca’s smile faltered, but only for a second, then it was back in place, extra-bright. He held out his arms and Mila readily scampered back into them, settling on his lap quite happily. ‘You will look just like your mother, I think.’

Mila looked Gracie over once more then nodded, seeming to find that answer satisfactory. ‘OK.’

‘She speaks English so well,’ Gracie said, aiming to swing the conversation to a less loaded subject.

‘We spent several months in England a couple of years ago and she learned to speak both languages at the same time. She spoke a strange hybrid language of her own for some time but it soon sorted itself out. In recent months I fear she has begun to lose the skill, since we have not encouraged it nearly enough at home.’

Luca seemed a million miles away as he ran a hand over his daughter’s curls. ‘So why have you come to our fair city?’ he asked, changing the subject again.

Gracie waited for the usual intense regret to stab through her at the question. But instead she felt a calmness come over her at the thought of confiding in him. Maybe because of the empty glass of wine on the table before her. Maybe because of the remembrance of the impossible smile on Neptune’s stone face. Or maybe because of the infinite kindness residing in Luca’s deep, dark eyes.

Whatever it was that gave her the courage, she sucked up her apprehension and said, ‘I have come to Rome to find my father.’

CHAPTER TWO

‘YOUR father is missing?’ Luca asked, leaning forward, his voice full of concern.

‘Not exactly,’ Gracie said. ‘I just decided it was time that he was found. He is the Italian part of my half-Italian heritage.’

‘And I take it you have not seen him in a long time.’

‘Actually never.’

‘No!’ he cried with that so very Italian fervour that always caught at her. ‘A daughter who has never known her father is a sad thing indeed.’

Something akin to wrenching pain slid across the man’s expressive eyes, a pain so sharp, so concerned, Gracie felt her own chest constrict in empathy.

Italians and their families were a total astonishment to her. Enzo, the thirty-year-old single guy who ran the hostel she was staying in, still lived with his parents. And his brother, who was long since married, lived in the house next door. Back home, in Melbourne, she went months without catching up with her closest family members but these people couldn’t bear to move further than next door. It was so far out of the realm of her experience that she found it hard to grasp. But she was in Italy to try. She had worn herself ragged, grasping with everything she had to discover that which these people took for granted.

‘Please, is there any way I can help?’ Luca asked.

Gracie was ready to say no. She had been independent for so long, and she had never been one to ask for help. But everything had felt hopeless only minutes before. Maybe, if there was a time to ask for help, this was it.

‘I am sure you are a busy man,’ she said, fumbling her way towards a decision.

He shrugged slightly. ‘At times. But today is Saturday and Mila and I have no set plans. Do we, Mila?’

Mila shook her head, her curls bouncing back and forth.

‘Tell me about it,’ he insisted gently.

Gracie baulked, the words help me just too unfamiliar to utter. But then she remembered the desperation behind her wish at the fountain, the last-ditch hope she had poured into that coin. What if Luca was the answer to her wish? What if he could lead her to her father? What if he was her last chance to find what she was searching for?

Either way, she had come too far, had burned too many bridges and had exhausted too much of her own spirit not to go the distance. Her mouth twitched with the need to at least try.

Gracie glanced at Mila, who was bouncing up and down in her seat, kicking rhythmically at the table leg.

Luca followed her gaze. ‘Mila, why don’t you go and see if Zio Giovanni needs a hand?’

Mila’s mouth turned down. ‘But I don’t want to.’

‘He might even have some tiramisu for you to nibble on, if you’re lucky.’

Mila’s eyes grew wide, then without another word she scrambled over her father and raced into the kitchen.

‘That’s bribery, Dad,’ Gracie said with a smile.

‘Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do,’ Luca said in an impeccable New York mob accent. If possible, his eyes warmed even more when he smiled.

But there was no use encouraging him. Attraction was a nebulous thing. It was nothing to pin your hopes and dreams on. It came from nowhere and just as easily slid back there. She knew better than most, as she was the result of such an attraction.

‘Tell me about your father,’ Luca said, splintering the loaded silence.

‘All I really have is a name. I know he was about twenty years old and on holiday from law school when he met my mother in Rome twenty-five years ago.’

‘Well, there you go. If he is a lawyer, he will be registered.’

‘For whatever reason I have not been able to find him that way. Perhaps I have the spelling wrong, or he didn’t graduate. With the language barrier it makes it that much more difficult.’

‘And your mother cannot give you any more details?’ he asked, his voice soft and sensitive.

Gracie flinched as old screaming fights at her mother’s house came swimming back. Gracie demanding information and her mother calling her ungrateful and insensitive. Funny; she almost longed for those fights now.

‘My mother died several months ago,’ Gracie said, playing with the corner of her napkin and rolling her shoulders, holding at bay the incapacitating chill that shot through her every time she remembered. ‘But the truth is I never would have come looking for him while she was alive. His very existence was always a sore point for her.’

‘I see,’ Luca said, the words so loaded she thought he saw a great deal more than she had told him. ‘It seems that you are at a crossroads. Ensuring assistance from a local may make all the difference in your quest. So do tell me, what is your father’s name?’

The name reverberated around in her head several times before it tripped onto her tongue. She looked down at the table, where her hands rested, pale and cold, upon the chequered tablecloth. ‘His name is Antonio Graziano.’

While Gracie looked back up at Luca, her eyes beseeched him, glittering with desperate hope that perhaps he was the answer to her prayers. Something in her engaging face, in her tense body, made Luca truly wish that the name would mean something to him. But unfortunately it did not.

‘A good, strong name,’ he said, knowing his kind words did nothing to heal her disappointment. The anticipation leaked from her body as she shrank back into her chair.

Well, know the man or not, he still owed her. This woman had delivered his Mila back to him in one piece and he had to repay her with more than a hot lunch.

‘Like it or not, I am going to help you, Gracie Lane,’ he said. The smile that spread across her lovely face was so bright that it dazzled him. He felt it deep down in places that had not made themselves felt in a good long while. It surprised him. She surprised him.

She’d had her wallet stolen and she had laughed! Sarina would have ranted and raved and shouted the piazza down. Mila would have emulated. Bedlam would have ensued, and, as always, he would have had to save the day.

Yet this curiosity before him had laughed. Her day had not needed to be saved. She just went on regardless. And he had been utterly surprised.

Luca had had enough surprises in his life that he thought he had become immune to their effect, but apparently he had not. And he quite liked the fact that he was not so impervious after all.

He further surprised himself by pronouncing, ‘I…we are heading back home to my villa this afternoon. Why don’t you come with us? I have facilities there to help you in your search.’

‘No. Thank you but no.’ Gracie shook her head, her dark curls swishing about her ears. Then she shrugged. ‘Today is to be my last day in Rome.’

Luca finally understood the full measure of her hopelessness. He knew what hopelessness felt like. For the sake of his family he had beaten it down. But this girl had nobody near and dear to her to help her do that.

‘I assume you have an Italian passport, since your father was born here?’ His words came as a question.

‘I do.’

‘Then you can stay in Italy as long as it takes for you to find your father.’

She blinked at him several times. ‘Officially, yes. Practically, not a chance. This is it for me. No more time. No more money. No more chances.’

‘And if you had the means to stay?’

‘Then I would stick around for as long as it took to track him down.’ Her voice was measured, her gaze cautious and her top teeth bit down on her lower lip.

It was enough to distract from his burgeoning idea. ‘As I said earlier,’ he continued, dragging his eyes back to her guarded gaze, ‘Mila’s language skills have been neglected for far too long. I believe she could benefit from having a live-in English tutor and I would like you to take the position.’

Her mouth popped open and she remained speechless. Before she had the chance to say no, he spelt it out for her. ‘You can school Mila in English and in return I will help you find your father.’

There, he thought, that’s an offer she can’t refuse.

‘What are you?’ she asked. ‘My knight in shining armour?’

Luca remembered another time he had been called the same. Once, a few years before, by his younger brother. But where Gracie was looking at him with something akin to awe, his brother’s tone had been bitter and accusing. Luca blanked out the image, much preferring to focus on the much more agreeable image before him now.

‘Not at all,’ he insisted. ‘It seems a reasonable bargain to me.’

‘But I am not teacher material, Luca,’ she said with a hand on her heart. ‘I am a casino croupier by trade. I could teach Mila odds. I could teach her how to flip a coin. Heck, I could even teach her to count cards if that tickled your fancy. I have no experience teaching English as a second language.’

Luca was having none of it. She was a stubborn one so he had to try another tack. ‘The truth is, Mila has taken to you,’ he said.

Gracie flapped a hand in front of her face. ‘That’s nothing. Kids always gravitate to me. I’m the one who ends up keeping the kids entertained at weddings. Must be the fact that I know many naughty songs.’

Luca could not help but smile. ‘Nevertheless, Mila hasn’t taken to any strangers in a long while, especially those who threaten to steal my time. It is time for her to let someone new into her social circle, especially since she will be starting school next year. This arrangement would be good for all concerned. It’s not personal, Gracie. It’s strictly business.’

Gracie watched him with her head cocked on the side, her bright blue eyes clear and her expression open, and then she burst into laughter.

‘What’s so funny?’ Luca asked.

‘Do you mean to sound like a character from The Godfather, or is “it’s business, not personal” just another essentially Italian thing?’

Luca had no idea what she was talking about. ‘I’ve never seen the film, sorry.’

‘You’re kidding me?’

He shook his head and wondered if he had somehow blown it. But her smile only grew. Whatever he had accidentally said, it had worked.

‘OK. I’ll do it. Your Mila will be speaking like a little Aussie before you know it.’

He released a breath he hadn’t realised he was holding. ‘Wonderful,’ he said, surprised anew at how very much he had hoped she would agree. ‘I know I should have asked before even making the offer, but I’m sure you understand I will need some sort of résumé and references.’

Gracie dived into her backpack and after some squirrelling about pulled out a slightly crumpled two-page résumé. She handed it over with a shrug. ‘I had it with me today just in case. If I decided to slog it out for another couple of weeks, I would have had to get a job in a pub, or something…’

‘Well, Ms Lane,’ Luca said after making sure there were a couple of phone numbers he could call, ‘it seems that the possible pub has lost out to “or something”.’

‘Papa!’ Mila squealed as she bundled back to the table.

Luca grabbed her up as she raced towards them, plonking her onto his lap. He knew he was using her as some sort of shield, a promise to the woman before him that Mila was the only thing between them, though he had a mounting feeling that wasn’t entirely true. If he could reunite father and daughter, there was an undeniable symmetry in the idea that he could not ignore.

‘Papa, I ate tiramisu and cassata,’ his little girl gushed.

‘You never did!’ he exclaimed, his smile for his daughter easy and true. He gave her a big kiss on the cheek, knowing she would giggle and squeal and love every second of it. ‘No, I was mistaken. You taste extra, extra sweet. You must have eaten all those desserts.’

Mila licked her lips, checking how sweet she really was.

‘And I have some other good news. Gracie is coming home with us today. Wouldn’t you love to introduce her to your gran-nonna?’

He watched his daughter carefully for her reaction. Mila looked at him for a few moments as she weighed up the information and he prepared himself for the crying fit that would surely come. She surprised him mightily when she bounced up and down and clapped with all her might.

‘Yay! She can meet Pino,’ Mila said.

‘Your great-grandmother’s name is Pino?’ Gracie asked, with a twinkle in her eye.

‘No!’ Mila said with one hand splayed across her mouth in shock. ‘My great-grandmother’s name is Gran-nonna. Pino is my horse.’

‘Ooh. I see. Well, then, I look forward to meeting both your great-grandmother and your horse. Equally.’

Giovanni arrived back at the table with a tray of fresh pasta and she was surprised at how hungry she was. Famished. But she had been living on pizza and cappuccinos for weeks.

By the time she had finished her generous portion, Luca was barely halfway through his.

‘You like pasta, I see,’ he said, watching her over his fork.

‘You can tell?’

‘Aren’t there any Italian restaurants in Australia?’

‘Tons. Especially in Melbourne. Many even make great pasta but you have to search to find one that makes the pasta fresh and cooks it al dente. The food here is unbelievable!’ she finished, hoping that would go some way to make up for her ravenous behaviour.

‘Good unbelievable, by the looks of your plate. It is so clean you could serve food from it.’

Feeling sassy, Gracie poked out her tongue.

Mila gasped in shock. ‘Papa! Did you see what she did?’

Gracie covered her wayward mouth with her napkin.

‘I did see,’ Luca said, watching Gracie from the corner of his eye.

Great, she thought. Excellent start. Now he’s going to know I wasn’t kidding when I said I had no idea how to teach a kid anything except how to mess about.

Though she had tried to talk Luca out of the arrangement, it genuinely appealed. The chance to stay in Italy alone would have made her day. The chance to do so in a proper house, with proper food, with a bathroom not shared by twenty others and with twenty-four-hour access to a telephone, was beyond her wildest dreams. She just hoped she hadn’t blown it with her big mouth and her bad manners.

‘What should we do to punish her?’ Luca asked Mila, and Gracie held her breath.

‘No dessert for Gracie,’ Mila suggested without delay.

‘Sounds fair to me,’ Luca said, and Gracie felt great relief, until Giovanni came out with three plates of dessert and her mouth watered in appreciation of the mounds of multicoloured gelato.

‘How about I only have one flavour?’ Gracie suggested. ‘Then you could eat the rest of mine.’

Mila’s mouth twisted sideways as she considered the fact that she could come out even further ahead in this new scenario. ‘I think that’s fair,’ she said, nodding sagely. ‘As long as you only eat the lemon flavour.’

‘Done.’

Mila looked to her father for backing and Gracie did the same. She expected to find him watching Mila with that same rapt amazement that came over him whenever she spoke, but even though he still held his little girl on his lap, his gaze was all on Gracie.

When the guy chose to bestow his attention upon her, he didn’t disappoint. Even with a youngster squirming on his lap, he had the ability to make Gracie feel as though she was the only one who held his immediate interest.

Under Luca’s encouraging gaze she felt vulnerable, quiet, soft. He had met her at her very worst—her eyes darkened by tired smudges, her hair a mess of ungroomed curls, her spirits downtrodden—and yet he made her feel safe and protected and liked despite it all. So liked she had even eaten a whole bowl of pasta in front of him in two minutes flat!

As though he knew where her thoughts travelled, his perfect sculptured mouth kicked up at the corners and his dark eyes glimmered against his smooth olive skin. Her heart gave a little lurch sideways and she smiled back before delving into her lemon gelato.

Only once Mila had finished both desserts did Luca call for his driver. Gracie felt profoundly sad that their delightful meal was over so soon.

‘I asked him to meet us at your hostel. I thought we could walk off our lunch first.’

And then Gracie remembered that this meal was just the beginning. She was staying in Italy and could keep looking for her father. The thought took hold. Warming her. Infusing her with hope. Because in finding her father, she had placed a massive amount of hope in finding herself. Only now she had some willing help. She shoved her hands in her pockets to stop herself from reaching out and giving Luca a great big hug.

They said their goodbyes to the effusive Giovanni, and each of the grown-ups took one of Mila’s hands. Their pace was slow as they ambled through the winding back streets of Rome. Mila sang and giggled and pointed at interesting things with an outstretched foot, as she was unwilling to let go of either hand.

All evidence of the spring shower had evaporated and the sun seemed to shine more brightly than it had during the rest of her stay. The tourists milling about did not get in her way as she walked by, they seemed excited, enthralled, bewitched.

As Gracie’s gaze swept to her right, she took the opportunity to have a good look at the man at her side, the stranger in whom she had placed the remnants of her hope. He could be a psycho killer luring her off to his secluded villa. To torture her before his daughter, his grandmother and horse named Pino? She didn’t think so.

‘What are you smiling at?’ Luca asked.

Gracie looked away, disgusted with herself for having been caught staring. ‘Nothing I would dare repeat for fear of being thought a numbskull,’ she said.

‘Che cosa è un…numbskull?’ Mila asked.

‘Someone who smiles for no good reason at all,’ Gracie said.

Once they reached the hostel, Luca and Mila waited outside while Gracie said her goodbyes to Enzo and packed her minimal belongings. Once downstairs she was surprised to see a beautiful black car awaiting her, what with the multitude of tiny dented cars and daredevil motor scooters that trawled the streets of Rome with frightening pace and oblivious to road rules.

The window rolled down and Mila popped out her head. ‘Venuto, Gracie! It’s time to go home!’

Home, Gracie thought, taking one last look around the warm stuccoed buildings and cobbled stone streets that championed the history and beauty of Rome, her home for the past few weeks, and she realised that she did not really know what the word home meant any more.

Before leaving Melbourne, she had quit her job and sublet her apartment. She was a woman without a home. A woman without a country. A woman without full-blood kin. A woman with her future laid out before her like the paved road below the car, and with her past twinkling back at her like a star just beyond reach of her fingertips. And all she could do to join the two was to take this sudden divergence in her journey.

She took in a deep breath and hopped in the car. They took off, Luca, Mila and she in the back, a driver hidden behind a dark petition. Gracie watched city roads turn into country roads as Rome gave way to the green, undulating Tuscan landscape, with its scattered farmhouses and hilltop villages, and for the first time in a long time she felt as if it could all really happen to her. All she could do was go with the flow and wait and see.

CHAPTER THREE

IT WAS early evening when they reached Luca’s Tuscan villa, and it was like something out of a postcard. A long driveway lined with tall, tapered cedars wound up a gently surging hillside covered on the front side by a small private vineyard. At the top of the hill, a sprawling two-storeyed stuccoed farmhouse with an orange tiled roof and an adjacent matching cottage glowed a deep yellow as it soaked in the warmth and light of the setting sun.

‘You like?’ Luca asked.

‘How could I not?’ Gracie said on a sigh.

‘It’s isolated,’ he said, and Gracie thought she heard a tinge of…something in his voice.

She pulled her head in from the window and faced him but his gaze remained on the house. ‘Rubbish,’ she scoffed, and he spun to face her, just as she had intended. ‘You know nothing about being isolated. To get here from Melbourne I had to take two separate planes, and was in the air for a total of twenty-four hours. A two-hour drive from Rome is nothing, buddy.’

She had desired to see him relax and she succeeded, though she could have done without the tummy turn that came from one dose of those crinkling eyes.

‘I see your point,’ he said.

‘Besides, the world gets smaller every day. What with the internet and cable TV, nowhere is really isolated any more.’

His dark eyes looked through her, trying to determine if she was teasing him. ‘So they tell me,’ he finally said, a cheek crease adding impact to the yummy eye crinkles.

Flushed and flustered by her responses to the man’s charming smiles, Gracie stuck her head back out the window, drinking in the cool fresh air. The villa looked quaint, and particular to the region. She would not have been surprised if Luca informed her they still sent post via messengers on horseback.

‘You may have access to all means of communication I have at my disposal while you are here, Gracie. Mi casa, su casa,’ he assured her, and she found it disconcerting but at the same time kind of fabulous that he seemed able to read her thoughts.

Once in front of the house, the tyres crunched to a halt on the gravel. They were met by a number of household staff and a huge black dog tumbled from the large front door and down the ten steps to the driveway.

The humans babbled in Italian over the top of one another, and the big black dog bundled straight up to Luca, throwing itself at him until his paws rested on his chest. Luca ruffled him about the ears yet didn’t break conversational stride with his staff for a moment.

Gracie half expected Mila to be bundled up in the arms of a nanny but none came. She remained resolutely attached to her father’s side, rubbing the dog’s tummy.

Finally, Gracie’s host turned to her. He made quite a picture with his pretty daughter standing silently at one side and his large black dog sitting on the other.

‘My staff have been apprised as to your role here. I will let you acquaint yourself with them as you go. And this,’ Luca ruffled the massive dog’s ear, ‘is Caesar.’

Caesar greeted Gracie with a loud woof that she felt from head to toe. She waved back, happy to keep her distance, her only real experience with dogs being her friend Kelly’s cuddle-sized Maltese terrier.

‘What is he?’ she asked.

‘He’s a Newfoundland.’

‘Are you sure? I could have sworn he was a bear.’

Mila giggled. ‘There are no bears in Tuscany. There are wild boars. But no bears.’

‘Great,’ Gracie said, suddenly wishing herself back in Australia, where one could find the deadliest snakes and spiders in the world but where the chances of meeting a wild boar in your back yard were slim to none.

‘And where is Gran-nonna?’ Gracie asked, her voice thin.

Luca cut a glance to the cottage, which stood several metres to the right of the house. ‘She lives next door. I am sure you will meet her soon.’ He held out an arm. ‘For now, please, follow Cat; she will show you to your room.’

Gracie nodded. Amongst the gaggle of staff, a young woman bowed her head and Gracie figured she was Cat.

‘Venuto,’ the girl said. ‘Come.’

Gracie’s backpack was already being moved off in another direction by one of the men so she had little choice but to venuto as ordered.

Inside the house was even more beautiful than on the outside. It was elegant yet comfortable, though it did not show any of the usual evidence that a four-year-old was in residence. Gracie remembered when her half-brother and half-sister were young; their house had been strewn with toy trucks and dolls, with board-game tokens taking up pride of place on side-tables alongside the more adult bric-à-brac. Luca’s grounds, with their sprawling vineyard, had promised a working home, but the inside looked more like something out of Architectural Digest.

Gracie followed Cat up a large staircase to her room, which turned out to be a small suite with a queen-sized canopy bed, a sitting room by curtained French windows and an en suite. The room smelt like freshly laundered sheets and was twice the size of her room in her hostel, which had slept eight snoring backpackers who were mostly into double-figure days of wearing the same unwashed clothes.

She whistled a steady stream of air. ‘Jeepers creepers.’

Cat looked to her in confusion but Gracie just smiled and gave her two-thumbs-up, the international sign that all was good. Cat looked relieved and sent Gracie her own tentative two-thumbs-up to show she understood, and then she left, closing the door behind her.

Gracie sat on her bed and waited, having no idea what was expected of her. Five minutes of waiting was all she could take. There was no telephone in her room, and, itching to hear from the Australian Embassy, she went in search of one, or a messenger on horseback; whatever was available.

Besides, it was Saturday night. Kelly and Cara would be on the next plane over if she didn’t contact them soon. But for the first time in…forever, she didn’t feel like confiding in them. In saying aloud, to them, to those who cared for her, that she still hadn’t found her dad.

At least with Luca it was new and fresh, not feeling as if she had to explain herself all over again to the same people. People who loved her, people who would have come over to help her if she had let them, but people who had their lives so together it hurt Gracie to think about them. And it hurt that it hurt her to think about them.

She would call the embassy then go to bed. It was already Sunday morning in Australia, so she had technically missed Saturday Night Cocktails anyway. The girls could wait until the next day, or maybe the next week, when hopefully she would have something of consequence to say.

Once downstairs, Gracie heard Luca’s voice. He was having a one-sided conversation behind a half-closed door. She sidled up to the door and listened. It hardly helped she only recognised one word in ten, and none of those words were ‘Antonio’ or ‘Graziano’. Nevertheless, she could not help peeking around the corner.

Luca was seated behind a grand wooden desk, which accommodated a computer, a fax machine and a photocopier.

Gracie realised she had no idea what the guy did for a crust, but by the look of his home, and the state-of-the-art office set-up, whatever it was he earned a pretty penny. No wonder he could afford to hire help on a whim. But she wasn’t really hired, was she? They were doing each other a favour.

A sweet gurgle caught her attention. Mila was sitting on a rug on the floor with a doll and a toy palomino horse having a conversation in her lap. The great Caesar lay behind her, and she leaned against his immense bulk.

Gracie could tell Luca was not happy with whoever was on the other end of the phone but he was keeping his voice down for his daughter’s sake. His daughter, who it seemed went nowhere but at her father’s side.

A warm glow threatened to overcome her. They looked like something out of an advertisement. Father, daughter, warmth, wealth. The perfect family, except for one thing—the missing mother.

Gracie wondered what she had been like, the woman who had managed to land such an exquisite man and produce such a gorgeous little girl. She must have been something else. She must have been sorely missed. And she would be darned difficult to replace.

‘Buonjourno,’ a gravelly voice called from behind Gracie.

‘Jeepers creepers!’ Gracie shouted, spinning so fast she slammed against the outer wall with a thud.

A tall woman dressed in head-to-toe black, with silver hair dragged back into a low bun, looked down her glorious Roman nose. This had to be Luca’s grandmother, Mila’s great-grandmother. She had the same elegant height, the same aristocratic cheekbones and the same intelligent brown eyes as her grandson.

‘So you are the new English tutor,’ the woman said in proud, thickly accented English, obviously awaiting a more dignified response to her arrival than jeepers creepers.

‘That’s me,’ Gracie returned brightly. ‘And you just have to be…Mila’s gran-nonna.’ She had had to pause so as not to name the woman Pino, after Mila’s horse.

Gracie waited for the utterly sensible questions that would surely come next:

Who were her family? That she barely knew.

Where had she worked previously? Croupier in the high-rollers room of Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia.

Main duties? Fending off wandering hands and marriage proposals from oil barons and visiting billionaires.

Gracie knew that her answers would not have made her past a first interview for such a position in any good home. But Gran-nonna said not another word, so Gracie nodded and filled the silence ably.

‘English tutor extraordinaire,’ she gabbled. ‘Here for Mila. To teach her to talk like a right little Aussie.’

The longer she went the less she could stop the verbal incontinence. It was as though she was determined to frighten the stern look from the older lady’s face. But she was shocked to her little cotton socks when it worked.

A cheeky glimmer lit the old lady’s dark brown eyes. ‘Good,’ Gran-nonna said. ‘Our little Mila needs someone with your…skills around here. As does Luca.’ Before Gracie could work her way through that cryptic statement Gran-nonna went on, ‘You see, our Luca was once a lion.’

Gracie gave her a tight smile, having no idea what one could say to such a statement. ‘A lion, you say?’

Gran-nonna sent her a sideways smile as though she knew she was being humoured. These Siracusas were too smart for their own good.

‘He was the king of the business world,’ the elder lady went on regardless. ‘A workaholic, determined to keep the villa flourishing and his mortgage business booming. He thrived on success. Even starting up offices in London. Only when Sarina died did he take a step back. That day he removed himself from the seat of power in his company and devoted all of his time to Mila.’

Gracie was completely enthralled by the older lady’s unsolicited spray of information. She listened for and heard the continued clacking of computer keys. ‘You mean he hasn’t worked in a year?’

The old woman shook her head. ‘He works, but he has not once been into the office. They send reports, which he dutifully reads and sends back with comments, but only late into the night once Mila is asleep. During her waking hours, he is at her beck and call.’

Picturing Mila cooing away on the rug, Gracie believed it. ‘Luca brought me here to give Mila my waking hours instead. Is that what you mean by him needing my skills?’

Gran-nonna said nothing and Gracie was pretty sure the older lady was turning her in knots entirely on purpose. ‘He seems to be doing OK working from home,’ Gracie said, probing.

Gran-nonna shrugged. ‘He fits in as well in the country as he does in the city. His youthful dream was to set up a lost-dogs home on the property until his grades meant that he was sentenced to a working life in town.’ Gran-nonna zeroed in on Gracie with such intensity she lost her breath. ‘He often brought strays home as a child too.’

Gracie felt her cheeks bake under Gran-nonna’s stare, which had all of the concentration of Luca’s but not much of the warmth.

Gracie knew that the cover story of her being nothing more than a tutor had not washed with this smart lady. She sent the woman an understanding smile, giving the old lady as good as she got. ‘I guess I am no surprise, then?’

After a few moments of silent contemplation Gran-nonna said, ‘Oh, I don’t know about that, dear. I’m quite hoping that you will be the first of many new surprises. This family is in danger of complacence, and needs a shake-up every few years, and the time for one is long overdue.’

And with that, she walked away. A smile, a nod, a cryptic response or two and off she went, leaving Gracie feeling completely outwitted.

Gracie tripped when the door opened against her shoulder. She moved out of the way to find Luca looking at her in puzzlement.

‘Did I just hear Nonna?’ he asked, taking a hold of her shoulder as he looked around her.

‘That you did,’ Gracie said. She was pretty sure that the word that flew from his mouth was not one he would want her teaching Mila, and she quite enjoyed the fact that he wasn’t such a perfect gentleman after all.

‘Don’t sweat it, Luca. I think she kinda liked me.’

Luca let her go just as naturally as he had taken a hold. He blinked, his gaze zeroing in on her fully. ‘And what makes you think so?’

‘Women have instincts about these things. We can tell if someone likes us or not pretty much instantly.’

Luca shifted until he was leaning against the doorway, his hands disappeared into his trouser pockets and he crossed his ankles. He relaxed and gave her every lick of his attention. ‘Can you now?’

Gracie wrung her hands together and rocked back and forth on her toes. ‘Mmm. Yep. Uh-huh.’

Silence fell between them. The steady tick-tock of a grandfather clock in the hallway was their only companion.

After several moments, Luca ran a hand over his face, his fingers massaging around his eyes, as though trying to rub some life into his tired skin. ‘Well, I am glad. And is everything OK? Are your accommodations suitable?’

‘They’re lovely. Thank you. I am apparently in the “Blue Room”. Pretty swish. In my apartment back home there’s the small room or the even smaller room. I had never thought to differentiate by colour. Maybe that would have made all the difference. Perhaps I could have charged more for flatmates if I had.’

The silence returned, though it felt altered. It felt cosier.

‘Would you like dinner?’ Luca asked, his voice likewise softer and more intimate. ‘Cat could prepare you a dish.’

Gracie held a hand to her tummy. ‘Still full. But thanks. Anyway, it’s a big day tomorrow, my first day of school and all. I think I am going to spend an hour in the shower, washing away the lingering scent of hostel bedding, and rediscovering skin beneath all this grime.’

Luca smiled indulgently and Gracie had to measure her breathing.

‘I noticed Mila was with you,’ she said, not yet ready to leave, even with her very own shower beckoning her. ‘Would you prefer if I took her to bed so you can get some work done?’ She took a step inside the doorway to find Mila asleep on the couch, thumb in her mouth. Caesar was snoring on the rug. ‘Or I could take Caesar for a walk.’

Luca followed her gaze and she glanced up to find a smile lifting his tempting lips. ‘That won’t be necessary. He has the run of the place and exercises himself into a deep sleep every day.’

Thank goodness! Gracie thought, and she could feel Luca’s knowing laughter though no sound had been made. She flicked a glance his way before focusing on his less vexing daughter. ‘Do you want me to take her to bed?’

Luca shook his head. ‘No, thanks. It is one of my greatest pleasures, seeing her sleep peacefully.’

By the strength of his statement, Gracie had the feeling peaceful sleep was not something he experienced for himself. No wonder, if he was looking after his daughter all day, running a business by night, as well as looking after the welfare of household staff and an ageing grandmother. Now she had been thrown into the mix she would do all she could to ease his burden. Because the more time he had for himself, the more time he had to help her find her father.

They looked to one another again and their eyes locked. Even in the low lighting, she could feel the zing of awareness, but she was not sure if she was doing the sending or receiving. Either way it was time for bed. Alone!

Gracie backed out into the relative safety of the hallway. ‘Great. Groovy. Cool bananas. I’ll leave you to it. Sleep tight and I’ll see the two of you tomorrow.’

‘Buona notte, Gracie,’ Luca said, still leaning at his post in the doorway. ‘Sleep well.’

Gracie cocked both hands like a pair of pistols then turned and walked away, feeling his dark, knowing eyes burning a pair of holes into her back all the way.

Only once she had reached her room did she remember she had gone in search of a phone and instead had found herself with more than a bit of a crush on her housemate.

Sunday morning Gracie awoke to a view of sunshine streaming through a set of French windows. She stretched her sleepy limbs, the feel of expensive cotton sheets slithering along her arms too good to pass up. Then she sat up with a start.

‘Where am I?’ she asked the blue wallpaper. When it didn’t answer back, she closed her eyes and squeezed her brain until it all tumbled into place. Luca. Mila. English tutor. Last chance to find her dad.

‘Alrighty, then.’

Gracie slipped out of the massive canopy bed, feeling just a tad out of her element in her favourite brown T-shirt with Chocoholics Anonymous emblazoned across the front, oddly matching leopard-print underpants and utterly mismatched pink bed socks which had seen better days. She padded over to the window, her eyes slits as she squinted against the disgustingly bright sunshine.

Yawning, she yanked open the French windows and padded outside onto a large concrete balcony. Something a heck of a lot more descriptive than jeepers creepers shot from her mouth at the view before her.

At the rear of the villa, a large rectangular lawn led to a set of slim stone steps. From there a sand pathway on the left meandered to wooden stables big enough to house several horses. A dressage ring took pride of place in the far centre. And on the right a jade-green creek split acres of natural woodland that crawled up a massive hill, dwarfing the smaller hill on which the house resided.

Gracie leant her elbows against the cool concrete columned wall, closed her eyes and let her face be warmed by the weak spring sunshine that had managed to peek out between the slow-travelling clouds. ‘Bello,’ she whispered on a contented sigh.

Only moments later she was roused from her reverie by the scuffle of claws on concrete to her right. She spun about, shocked to find Luca striding towards her with Caesar at his heels. It seemed her balcony was not as private as she had assumed. In fact it ran, unobstructed, the entire length of the upper floor.

‘Isn’t it beautiful?’ Luca asked, seeming not to notice her insufficient attire. He, of course, looked faultless, decked out as he was in black trousers and a black cashmere sweater, the arms pushed up to his elbows.

Gracie grabbed the front of her baggy T-shirt and dragged it as low as could be to cover the tops of her bare legs, but, as she was trying to keep Caesar from snuffling at her feet at the same time, it was fairly difficult.

Once he was within a couple of metres, Luca stopped and leant against the balustrade and looked out over his land, giving Gracie some respite from her struggle to cover herself.

‘There is a lot of land for this big lug at least,’ he said, looking down at Caesar so Gracie had to do her contortionist act again. ‘Is he bothering you?’

‘No. Not really. But he is about twenty times the size of the only dog I have ever been this intimately acquainted with.’ Gracie had Caesar by the snout as she tried to disentangle his teeth from the bottom of her T-shirt, where a small chocolate stain had garnered his rapt attention.

Thankfully, after one brisk whistle from his master, Caesar dutifully upped and seated himself at Luca’s right and Luca once more looked out upon his land rather than towards her bare, goose-pimply legs.

‘My grandfather bought this land as a wedding gift for Gran-nonna. He was that certain he was not worthy of her he openly tried to buy her love. He initially received a slap for his efforts, but she did not reject the offer, deciding in the end, quite sensibly, to accept both him and his land. He built the house and the cottage in which Gran-nonna lives today and we restored this monstrosity to its current state several years ago when my business took off.’

Luca turned and shot Gracie a lopsided smile. She did not think for a second that he seriously considered his large home to be a ‘monstrosity’. He loved the place. Like him, it was big, strong and beautiful, and brought alive by his family.

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