St Piran's: Italian Surgeon, Forbidden Bride (12 page)

‘I’m sure you would. You have such a strong spirit, Faye. You’ve been a joy to care for and a real inspiration, too,’ Jess assured her.

‘I agree.’

Gio’s voice sent a prickle of awareness along Jess’s spine and she looked round, her gaze clashing with his as he strode through the door, his senior registrar, a couple of junior doctors and the ward’s charge nurse trailing in his wake. Jess was all too conscious of Gio close beside her chair, blocking her exit, his leg and hip pressing gently against her, as he greeted Faye warmly.

‘I’ll step out,’ Jess offered, making to rise.

‘Can Jess stay?’ Faye asked, looking unsettled.

Gio smiled at their patient. ‘Yes, of course.’

Jess subsided back onto the chair as his hand came to rest on her shoulder. Although his attention was focused on the medical team updating him on Faye’s condition, his hand lingered, and Jess felt the fire in her blood as his touch warmed her through the fabric of her shirt. His fingers gave a gentle squeeze before he released her and reached out for Faye’s notes.

They were halfway through September and while they’d been on their best behaviour since their bank-holiday outing in the boat, Jess was finding it difficult to ignore the electric buzz of attraction that intensified with every passing day. But she valued their friendship too much to risk losing her head and doing anything stupid.

They’d been out on the boat twice more and she loved it. Much to her amazement, Gio had also been teaching her how to drive it. The thrill had been so huge it had
even managed to take her mind off his body pressed close to hers—and the divine male scent of him—as he’d helped her work the controls.

The tragedy of his wife’s death still affected her and she remained shocked at the way she had acted on instinct in response to his grief. It had scared her. With Gio it was too easy to forget the hard lessons of the last four years.

Curious, Jess had steeled herself to ask Gio more about Sofia a couple of nights ago. Gio had brought out the album Sofia had made when she’d known she was dying, creating a story of their lives in words and pictures, and Jess had choked up all over again at the incredible bond they had shared and the cruel way they had been parted.

Sofia had been a surprise. Rather than being model thin and styled to perfection, she’d been small, curvy and very much the girl next door, possessing the kind of fresh-faced natural beauty that could never be faked and that shone through because of the person she was, in her laughing dark eyes, her smile and her obvious love for Gio. And his for her.

The photos of Gio and Sofia in their teens, so much together, so right for each other and so in love, had reminded Jess of Marcia and Colin—another young couple who had been ripped apart by terrible tragedy, and one she hadn’t been able to get out of her mind.

‘How are you feeling, Faye?’ Gio asked, sitting on the edge of the bed and taking her good hand in his.

‘I’m frustrated my body won’t do what I want it to. I can’t even tell you properly.’ Faye shook her head. ‘I can’t imagine life away from my home and without my
animals. I’m thankful for all you’ve done for me, but knowing things will never be the same is difficult.’

‘Of course. It’s hard enough to recover from surgery without having to come to terms with such unexpected changes. Things seem overwhelming, yes?’ he sympathised, stealing Jess’s heart as he took a pristine handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the elderly lady’s tears with gentle care.

‘Yes, exactly.’ Faye visibly relaxed, soothed by Gio’s attention. ‘I’m old and set in my ways.’

Gio gallantly protested, making her smile. ‘You’re doing well and we will all do everything we can to ensure you regain as much strength and capability as possible.’ The air locked in Jess’s lungs as his gaze flicked to her. ‘Jessica is here to help make the transition as trouble-free as possible.’

‘I’m so worried about my animals, but Jess is marvellous,’ Faye confided to Gio. ‘If other arrangements can’t be made to keep them together, she’s promised she’ll care for them herself.’

A blush warmed Jess’s cheeks as Gio looked at her, his expression unreadable.

Gio talked with Faye awhile longer before rising to his feet. His entourage exited ahead of him but he lingered, and Jess excused herself from Faye, worried about his reaction to the animal thing.

‘I was going to tell you, Gio. The workmen are making good progress on the cottage, and I’ll arrange to have the fences dealt with. If the animals have to be moved before I’m back home, I’ll ask Flora if she has room for them until I’m ready,’ she rushed to reassure him. ‘I don’t expect you to house them or anything. I—’

Her rushed words were silenced as Gio pressed a
finger to her lips. ‘Stop apologising.’ Blue eyes twinkled with amusement and something else she couldn’t discern but which made her warm and tingly and a little bit scared. ‘I would have been surprised had you
not
offered to step in.’

‘Oh…’

He glanced each way along the corridor, his tone conspiratorial as he leaned closer to her, making her quiver with awareness as his warm breath fanned her face. ‘Shall I tell you a secret?’

She nodded, unable to answer, hardly able to breathe, fighting every urge within her to touch him, hug him, kiss him.

‘I was going to make the same pledge to Faye myself.’

Jess blinked, his nearness robbing her of thought. ‘You were?’

‘I was.’

Jess felt mesmerised, her skin aflame as he ran one finger down her cheek. The suddenness of an alarm further along the corridor had her snapping back, conscious of where they were. Disconcerted by his touch, she stepped away. There was nothing she could do to escape the non-physical connection, the electrically charged one that bound her ever more tightly to him.

Gio’s hand slowly dropped to his side and she swallowed as she met his gaze. He smiled, the full-on smile that stole her breath. ‘I must go,’ he said, glancing at his watch. ‘We’ll drive out to Faye’s after work to talk with her neighbour and decide what is best to be done. OK?’

‘OK.’

Jess watched as he strode off to join his team. How
was she going to cope when she moved back to her own cottage with the kittens? Gio had become far too important in her life.

‘Stop the car!’

Gio reacted instantly to Jessica’s cry, startled when she opened the door and scrambled out before they’d come to a stop. Cursing in Italian, he parked safely at the side of the road and climbed out in time to see Jessica running along the pavement and disappearing from view around a corner. Concerned, Gio jogged after her. What was earth going on?

They were in the centre of St Piran, on the way home following their visit to Faye’s smallholding. Enquiries to several rescue centres had proved futile, which left them bemused and amused to find themselves foster-parents to a motley collection of animals. There were more than Gio had anticipated. He’d wanted animals, yes, but he hadn’t imagined taking on so many in one go! Jessica’s enthusiasm had swayed him, though.

Now, along with Dickens and Kipling, their menagerie included a donkey, two Gloucester Old Spot pigs, three sheep of mixed heritage and several assorted chickens. Faye’s neighbour would care for them in the short term until the fencing at Jessica’s cottage, and the necessary movement licences, were arranged. Gio didn’t want to think about Jessica moving out—he had ideas but it was too soon to discuss them?but whatever happened between Jessica and himself, he intended to share the cost and responsibility for the animals.

Rounding the corner, he saw Jessica walking back towards him, her shoulders slumped, her steps reluctant as she kept pausing and looking behind her.

‘What’s going on?’ he asked as he joined her.

She looked up, olive-green eyes despondent. ‘I saw Marcia.’ Again she scanned the crowds along one of St Piran’s main shopping streets.

‘The girl who gave you the false name after her boyfriend died?’ he asked, frowning at her nod of confirmation. ‘Are you still fretting about her?’

‘Yes.’

She tried to carry everyone’s problems on her own shoulders. ‘Jessica…’

‘I saw her, Gio. She looked so alone, so lost. The girl I met was prettily plump and well groomed,’ she told him, clearly upset. ‘She’s put on weight and hasn’t been taking care of herself. Her skin was grey and her hair lank and unstyled.’ Again she met his gaze, and his chest tightened at the expression in her eyes. ‘I can’t help but worry about her.’

‘You have a special empathy with people. But you can’t solve everyone’s problems,
fiamma,
he advised her, the endearment—meaning flame in Italian—slipping out without conscious thought.

‘I know that, but—’

As her defensive words snapped off, Gio cupped her face. ‘Marcia knows where you are. If she needs you, she’ll contact you in her own time. Everyone comes to terms with grief in their own way. Believe me, I know.’

Fresh tears stung Jessica’s eyes as Gio’s words hit home, pain for him mingling with her anxiety for Marcia. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘There’s nothing to apologise for.’ His smile was gentle, as was his touch.

Jess bit her lip, fighting the temptation, the
need,
to step closer, to press herself against him and be hugged… held in those strong arms. ‘I’m OK,’ she lied, stepping back and manufacturing a smile.

‘Jess!’ A female voice called her name and she looked round, smiling as she saw Kate Althorp approaching. ‘Hello, my love.’

‘Hi, Kate, how are you? And how is Jem?’ She had spent many an hour talking with the older woman, especially when her son had been badly hurt in a car accident earlier in the year.

Kate’s smile was free from the shadows Jess had seen there in the past. ‘Jem’s made a wonderful recovery. Thank you. And we’re all well.’

‘I’m so glad.’ She was painfully conscious of Gio beside her and, when Kate looked at him expectantly, Jess had to introduce them. ‘Kate, this is Gio Corezzi. He’s a neurosurgeon and joined St Piran’s in August,’ she explained, her gaze flicking to him and away again. ‘Gio, meet Kate Althorp. She’s a midwife at the surgery in Penhally.’

Jess watched as the two shook hands and exchanged pleasantries, noting how Kate glowed when faced with Gio’s natural charm and humour.

‘What Jess has modestly left out, Gio, is how wonderful she has been to me,’ Kate told him. ‘She not only helped me a year ago when I had a scary brush with breast cancer, but she was an absolute rock when my son, Jem, broke his pelvis five months ago.’

‘I didn’t really do anything,’ Jess murmured with embarrassment.

Kate waved her protest aside. ‘What nonsense! I couldn’t have got through it all without you, life was so
difficult,’ the older woman insisted, deepening Jess’s blush and her discomfort. Kate smiled up at Gio. ‘Jess is one in a million.’

‘Yes I know.’

Jess opened her mouth then closed it again, unsure what to say in response to Gio’s husky words.

Kate chuckled, a twinkle in her brown eyes. She glanced at her watch and sighed. ‘I’m afraid I have to run. There’s so little time before the wedding and I have a million things to do. You are coming, aren’t you, my love? I so want you to be there, it would mean so much to me. Bring Gio,’ she added with a wink.

As Kate hurried off, Jess turned to walk back towards the car, but Gio surprised her, catching her hand and leading her in the opposite direction. ‘This way.’

‘Where are we going?’ she asked, all too conscious of the way her fingers curled naturally with his.

‘You’re going to need a dress for the wedding and, as Kate said, there isn’t much time.’ He headed in the direction of one of St Piran’s classy boutiques. ‘We can take care of it while we are here.’

Jessica tried to dig her heels in. No way could she afford anything from that kind of shop. ‘I’m not sure if I’m going to go,’ she admitted, pulling on his hand.

‘Not go?’ He halted, an eyebrow raised in query as he looked at her. ‘Why ever not?’

She attempted a careless shrug. He’d known about the wedding—the invitation had been propped on the mantelpiece in his living room for some time—but now he’d met Kate, it was more difficult to explain. It was one thing interacting with Kate at the hospital and quite another to move things into a social context. Jess didn’t do
social. Telling Gio that she felt too shy and nervous to go to the wedding on her own sounded far too pathetic.

‘Kate wants you to be there,’ he pointed out.

‘Yes, but—’

‘But nothing.’ Gio forestalled further protests, the smile that curved his sexy mouth doing peculiar things to her insides.

‘Gio,’ she protested as he started them walking again.

‘I’m going to buy you a frock for the wedding, to which I shall be honoured to escort you,’ he informed her, shock rendering her temporarily compliant as he guided her along and halted outside the door of the boutique.

‘Gio, you can’t buy me a dress!’

‘Of course I can!’ He tweaked the tip of her nose between finger and thumb of his free hand.

Gazing at him in confusion, her skin tingling from his touch, she swallowed, all too conscious that this man was getting far too close. The walls she had constructed for her own protection felt increasingly vulnerable. And she was scared. Scared that if she continued to allow Gio to breach her defences and become more than a platonic friend, she would end up breaking her heart all over again.

And this time she might never recover.

I
T WAS
wonderful to see Kate so happy. Sitting with Polly d’Azzaro and a heavily pregnant Lucy Carter, in the garden of the beautiful granite-built barn a few miles outside Penhally that was now Kate’s home, Jess watched the older woman mingle with her guests. She had a broad smile on her face, her brown eyes were alight with joy, and Nick, her new husband, was never far from her side.

St Mark’s, Penhally’s small church, had been bursting at the seams as people had come from far and wide to attend Nick and Kate’s wedding. Nick’s grown-up children from his first marriage had been there to support their father and give their blessing to Kate. And Kate’s eleven-year-old son Jem, who had only recently discovered that Nick was his real father, had recovered well enough from his broken pelvis to proudly walk his mother down the aisle. A lump had formed in Jess’s throat as Jem had stood with his half-brothers and-sister, watching his mother marry his father, publicly acknowledging him and making them one big united family at last.