Wish Upon a Star (13 page)

They discharged Luke with a sharp lecture about the danger of swallowing things that weren’t meant for him and Christy gave the mother a leaflet on preventing accidents in the home.

‘Wow!’ Billy’s eyes were filled with admiration as he looked at her. ‘I was just about to try and take blood from
that child and I wasn’t looking forward to it. What made you suspect that he hadn’t swallowed them? It would never even have occurred to me.’

‘Mother’s instinct,’ Christy said dryly, as she briskly tidied up the room ready for the next patient. ‘Children often do unexpected things and his mother made that comment about hiding things.’ She turned to Alessandro as Billy left the room. ‘Do you remember Ben going through a phase of hiding everything?’

‘Only too well.’ Alessandro reached for the jacket that he’d abandoned. ‘I seem to remember that he took my bleeper for twenty-four hours once.’

Christy grinned. ‘I found it at the bottom of the laundry basket underneath a week’s worth of dirty washing.’

Alessandro gave a nod and his eyes were warm. ‘You did well,’ he said softly. ‘Extremely well. Were it not for you, that child would now be undergoing some very unpleasant tests.’

‘Well, they certainly would have put him off swallowing tablets that didn’t belong to him.’

‘You’re an excellent A and E nurse,’ Alessandro said quietly. ‘I’d forgotten just how good and for that I apologise. It is where you are at your best and you should certainly not be wasting your talents anywhere else. You should come back.’

She stared at him for a long moment, her breath trapped in her lungs. What exactly was he saying? Come back to A and E or come back to him?

Their eyes locked and Christy felt warmth spread inside her. It was still there, she told herself. That special bond that had always existed between them. It hadn’t died.

‘Alessandro?’ Katya’s slender frame appeared round the door. Her hair was fastened on top of her head but several strands fell softly over her eyes, giving her a sleepy, sexy appearance.

‘I’m going home now, but I’ll see you at the Snow Ball tomorrow night. You owe me a dance.’

Christy felt the special warmth inside her evaporate, to be replaced by a block of ice.

Was that why he wanted to go to the Christmas party? Because Katya was going?

Telling herself that she was being paranoid, Christy turned her attention back to the state of the room, trying not to listen to Alessandro’s response.

It didn’t matter what he thought of Katya, she reminded herself, because she was going to buy a killer dress and remind him exactly what it was that he was missing.

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘I
T’S
freezing today,’ Christy turned round and looked at the children who were safely strapped into the back of the car as Alessandro drove the short distance to the forest. ‘Did you two remember gloves and hats?’

‘Stop fussing, Mum.’ Katy yawned and Ben carried on playing with his space shuttle, lifting it into the air and making it swoop downwards.

‘Yeeow-w-w…’ he whined, flying it dangerously close to his sister’s head.

Anticipating fireworks, Christy pointed out of the window. ‘Oh, look, we’re here.’

They climbed out of the car and the children hurried off to take a closer look at the trees.

‘I like this one,’ Ben yelled, and Katy rolled her eyes in derision.

‘It’s completely lopsided. This one is a much better shape.’

Ben frowned. ‘Isn’t.’

Alessandro strolled across to them and selected an entirely different tree. ‘This one,’ he said in his usual decisive fashion, and Christy smothered a smile.

Even with Christmas trees, he had to be the one in charge, but the children didn’t seem to mind and jumped up and down with excitement as Alessandro paid and loaded it into the car.

Back home, Christy put mince pies in the oven to heat and dug out the boxes of decorations they’d used for years.

The children had put Christmas songs on the CD player and were dancing round the room, giggling and playing together.

Like any normal family, Christy thought as she handed another wooden reindeer to Ben to hang on the lower branches. Except they weren’t a normal family. Did Alessandro love her? Did he want to fix their marriage or was this show of togetherness purely for the children? She didn’t know and she was afraid to ask in case she heard something she didn’t want to hear.

‘Please, lift me so that I can do the fairy,’ Katy demanded, and Christy gave a wan smile.

Like daughter, like father. Katy knew exactly what she wanted and was prepared to fight to get it.

She thought of the dress safely hidden at the back of her wardrobe.

It had cost a fortune, but if it helped remind Alessandro that she was more than the mother of his two children then it would have been worth the investment.

Alessandro scooped Katy up easily and held her while she carefully placed the sparkling fairy on top of the tree. Then he lowered her and dropped a kiss on her forehead.

He’d save their marriage for the sake of the children, Christy thought numbly, because he was an excellent father and adored them. But she wanted so much more than that. She wanted a return to the greedy, hungry passion that they’d always shared. Their relationship had been so unbelievably
intense and special that it was hard to imagine settling for less.

Did he still love her?

Because she didn’t want her children growing up witnessing a dead relationship.

She couldn’t do it, she decided. She’d make one last attempt to fight for him and if it didn’t work, they’d have to part.

She slipped away while Alessandro was reading to Ben, anxious to give herself plenty of time to get ready.

Remembering Katya’s flawless appearance, she took extra time over her make-up and hair and finally slid into the dress.

Glancing in the mirror, she gave a soft, womanly smile. It was fabulous.

The dress was silver and the luxurious, unusual fabric shimmered and slid over her smooth curves.

‘Not bad for someone of your age,’ Katy murmured, walking into the room, sucking a lolly which she’d stolen from the Christmas tree. ‘You need some diamonds to go with it. Something round your neck.’

Christy blinked. ‘I haven’t got anything suitable.’

Alessandro never bought her jewellery. It wasn’t his style. She glanced down at the simple gold band on the ring finger of her left hand. They’d got married in such a hurry that they’d never even bothered with an engagement ring.

‘Wait there.’ Katy sprinted out of the room and came back carrying a silver necklace. ‘Try that.’

‘Where did you get it?’

Katy grinned and jumped onto the middle of the bed where she proceeded to sit, cross-legged. ‘The front of a
magazine, but don’t worry about that. Fake is cool. Go for it, Mum.’

Laughing, Christy fastened the necklace around her throat and stood back to judge the effect. It was perfect. With a conspiratorial smile at her daughter, she slipped her feet into the extravagant strappy shoes she’d purchased and picked up her bag.

‘Well? What’s the verdict?’

‘You look like something from the Christmas tree,’ Ben breathed from the doorway. ‘Like a real live princess.’

‘Which has to be better than a dead princess,’ Katy said dryly, rolling her eyes and sliding off the bed. ‘Come on. We’d better make sure Dad isn’t planning on wearing that ribbed jumper he’s been in all day.’

‘I’m not wearing a jumper.’ His voice deep and disturbingly masculine, Alessandro appeared in the doorway, dressed in a black dinner jacket that emphasised the width of his powerful shoulders.

He looked startlingly handsome and Christy caught her breath.

After all these years, she thought to herself, he still made her stare.

And he was staring, too.

His gaze slid from her eyes to her mouth, then lingered on the swell of her breasts revealed by the cut of the fabric and then finally rested on the hemline, which stopped a long way short of her knees.

‘You’re not going out like that.’

Poised for a compliment, Christy felt her happiness shatter. ‘Sorry?’

‘It isn’t the sort of dress you should be wearing. It’s revealing and it’s—’ Alessandro broke off, the expression in
his eyes dark and dangerous as he struggled to find the right words. ‘It’s just not suitable.’

Christy felt her own temper rise.

The dress was perfect and she
knew
she looked fabulous. All day she’d been cocooned in the delicious anticipation of the moment when he saw her in the dress. And he’d spoiled it.

‘Why isn’t it suitable?’

Alessandro prowled around the room, his expression dark and ominous. ‘You are a wife and a mother, and that dress makes you look like…’ He inhaled sharply and stabbed long fingers through his hair, ‘it makes you look like…’

‘A woman?’ Christy slotted in helpfully. ‘You didn’t think I could still work in A and E, but I’ve proved you wrong. You didn’t think I could still be a useful member of the mountain rescue team, but I proved you wrong there, too. To you, I’ve ceased to be an individual. To you, I’m just a wife and a mother.’ Her voice cracked as she said the words. ‘But I’ve got news for you. Yes, I’m a wife and a mother, but I’m also a woman, Alessandro Garcia, and it’s time you remembered that fact and stopped behaving like a caveman.’

Having delivered that speech, she walked from the room with as much dignity as she could muster, given the ridiculous height of the heels she’d chosen.

Alessandro stood in the centre of the room, his powerful shoulders rigid with tension as he struggled to control his simmering temper.

‘Well…’ His daughter’s voice came from directly behind him. ‘I’d say that you
really
messed that one up!’

Disturbed from his contemplation of that exact same fact, Alessandro rounded on his daughter with a growl. ‘I did not ask for your opinion.’

‘Maybe not, but I’m in this family, too!’ Katy put her hands on her hips, her temper flaring as quickly as his. ‘I don’t see why I should have to sit around and watch the two of you ruin everything. Mum bought a new dress and she looks nice—for an older person,’ she added quickly as an afterthought, and Alessandro frowned.

‘Your mother is only thirty-two.’

‘Is she
that
old?’ Katy shuddered and pulled a face. ‘Hard to imagine.’

At any other time Alessandro would have laughed but he was too busy contemplating the facts to respond to the horror in his daughter’s expression.

Thirty-two. Many women weren’t even married at that age, he mused. Christy was still young. He’d met her young and made her pregnant almost immediately.

And his daughter was right. She had looked nice in the dress. More than nice. Gorgeous. Sexy. Stunning.

Closing his eyes to clear the image of long slender legs and tempting feminine curves, he realised that Christy had been spot on in her accusation. He was behaving like a caveman. The truth was that he didn’t want any other man admiring what was his. Especially at the moment, when their relationship was so precarious.

She’d given no indication as to what was going to happen when Christmas was over. Hadn’t mentioned whether she was staying or going, and he was afraid to ask in case his question provoked her into leaving.

He felt as though he was totally out of step with her thinking.

She confided in Jake, it seemed, but not him.

He inhaled sharply. Jake. He knew only too well that Jake had been crazy about Christy for a short time. Given the complexity and number of Jake’s subsequent relationships,
he’d assumed that the connection had long since died. Now he was starting to wonder…

But no matter what, she was right about his behaviour, he reflected with grim self-awareness. He’d behaved that way from the first moment he’d met her. She’d been twenty and a virgin, and he’d fallen for her so hard that, given the choice, he would have locked her inside a room and never let her out.

She’d been with him for almost all of her adult life.

Could he blame her if she now wanted to dress up and party?

He ran a hand over the back of his neck and cursed fluently in Spanish.

Katy cleared her throat. ‘Thanks to those boring Spanish lessons I endure every Saturday morning, I understood that,’ she said calmly, and Alessandro threw her a quelling look.

‘I don’t need your comments at this time,’ he said in Spanish, and she gave a smile and responded in the same language.

‘Oh, I rather think you do.’

So much for expecting Alessandro to sweep her into his arms, Christy thought miserably as she reached for her coat. He hadn’t seen her as an attractive woman. Just as his wife, inappropriately dressed.

Part of her wanted to strip off the dress and have an early night in the spare room, regardless of the broken bed, but part of her was still determined to show him what he was missing, so she picked up the phone and called a taxi. Alessandro strode into the hall moments later. ‘Christy—’ ‘We need to leave,’ she said coldly, not giving him the chance to say what she would undoubtedly consider to be the wrong thing. ‘I ordered a taxi so that we can both have a drink. It should be here any minute.’

Alessandro inhaled sharply.
‘Por Dios
, we need to talk.’

‘About what?’ She swept towards the door, her head held high, her hair streaming down her back like flames. ‘The fact that you don’t see me as anything other than the mother of your children? You’ve made that perfectly clear, Alessandro. I don’t need you to labour the point.’

She yanked open the front door, relieved to see the taxi arrive.

They made the journey to the manor house that was the venue for the Snow Ball in tense, brooding silence, and Christy turned her head to stare out of the window, afraid to look at him.

Afraid that she’d break down.

Merry Christmas, Christy
, she thought bitterly as the taxi swept up the wide, snowy drive that led to the stately home. Christmas trees festooned with tiny lights adorned the entrance but she decided that it was impossible to be enchanted when your marriage was on the rocks.