‘I honestly don’t think Maria would mind. She’s rather taken with Brady. They all are.’
‘You’re very lucky, Flávia. You have an incredible family, and you’re so close.’
‘Yes.’ She swallowed abruptly. ‘Well, we’ve had to be.’
‘Because of your mother,’ he said softly.
And she hated that he could read her thoughts.
Hated, she repeated firmly. Not loved the fact that he seemed to understand her so well.
But that didn’t mean she needed to bore Jake with the details of her own childhood sadness. Her mother walking out wasn’t exactly in the realms of what had happened to Brady’s mum, but it had affected her all the same. It had moulded the person she was—as Enrico had pointed out, very categorically.
‘Never mind.’ She shut down the discussion quickly, her own fault for such a thoughtless comment in the first place, of course.
Still, she shook off the melancholy that seemed to be hovering; she was where she needed to be now, so she was more than happy with the way her life had turned out.
At least, she had been, until Jake had slammed into it and apparently knocked it off its comfortable little axis. And try as she might, she couldn’t seem to restore order.
‘So what about you? Are you looking forward to leaving? Getting back to your own hospital and your work?’
He took a fraction longer than necessary responding.
‘I will enjoy getting back to my own hospital. Maybe implanting some of the lessons learned here.’
It wasn’t exactly the answer she’d been hoping for. She plastered the brightest smile on her face and forced out a hollow la
ugh.
‘Lovely. That’s fabulous.’
‘It is?’ he asked softly, not joining in with her brittle laughter.
Yet she couldn’t bring herself to stop.
‘Well, of course. Isn’t it?’
And when he looked at her like he was in that instant, his blue eyes almost silver, it was enough to make her stomach twist itself up into the most perfect Siberian hitch knot.
‘I don’t know,’ he answered softly. ‘Can we talk?’
‘Talk?’ she echoed weakly.
A hundred questions tumbled through her head. A thousand. But all Flávia could do was nod jerkily, before a commotion by the door caught her attention and a few words made their way to her ears.
Government inspection?
‘We have to go now,’ Cesar confirmed. ‘Flávia, are you coming?’
‘Coming,’ she responded instantly, steadfastly ignoring the regret that washed over her.
This was her job. It had to come first.
She shot an apologetic glance to Jake, who wore a disconcertingly neutral expression. If he was disappointed not to have had that conversation, then he wasn’t showing it. Then she followed Cesar out the door.
And if an odd sense of foreboding followed her, then she refused to let it affect her.
* * *