Kiara came running down the driveway, looking alarmed. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, but the car isn’t.”
“Who cares about a car?” She looked into my eyes. “How are your neck and head?”
They hurt a bit. It wasn’t anything serious, though. I’d fought long enough to know it was like a hit to the face. “I don’t suppose there’s any way I can keep this from Savio?” We’d just made progress, I really didn’t want to ruin it.
Kiara smiled understandingly. “The moment you touched the gates, an alarm was raised that pops up on their phones. They’re already on the way. Nino called me.”
My stomach tightening, I checked my phone which was on silent mode. Two missed calls from Savio. Crap.
Ten minutes later, a car pulled up. Savio, Remo and Nino got out.
Savio came to the gate, inspecting his car with drawn brows before he looked at me. I waited for the inevitable outburst. Men and their cars were a relationship that I’d never understand.
“With the car in that position, we can’t open the gates,” Nino said coming up behind Savio. “I’ll have to disable the electricity so we don’t get zapped when we climb over.”
“I thought now that Adamo can’t steal our cars to crash them, my Bugatti was safe. But you, Kitty, keep me on my toes.” Savio reached for the fence and began to climb over before he landed with a low thud on the other side. Shaking his head, he touched my neck. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “I’m sorry. I wanted to pick up Carlotta and no one was home to drive me, so I thought…”
“You thought it was a good day to crash a three-hundred thousand-dollar car.”
My heart thudded. “That expensive?”
Savio chuckled. “Don’t worry. I wanted a new car anyway.”
“Didn’t you only buy the damn thing six months ago?” Remo asked as he inspected the fence.
“You’re not mad?” I asked.
“No. But we’ll have to do something about your driving skills. I think I need to teach you more than I thought.”
My cheeks heated.
Remo gave him a dark look. “Since we know where your priorities lie, it would be good if your next car was an automatic.”
It took sixty minutes to drag the car away from the gates and open them despite their compressed state. After that, Savio drove me to my mother in Nino’s Tesla, because that one already had child seats in the back.
“I baked cannoli for you,” I said, feeling guilty for my mess up.
“Trying to make up for what you’ve done? Which makes me think you might have planned the whole thing.”
“I didn’t!” I gasped. “And you’re really not angry?”
“Life’s too short to get pissed off about every little thing.”
Crashing his Bugatti was a small thing? I touched his wrist with the speared watch. When I brushed the scars there, he tensed but didn’t pull back. “Thanks. Do you think Remo shares your mantra?”
“Don’t worry about him. He doesn’t care about material things or money. He’ll have the thing repaired and won’t mention it again unless he wants to rile you up… so probably at dinner tonight.”
We grabbed flowers on the way, which was Savio’s idea, and made me really want to kiss him.
Mom looked pale, with a red nose and hollow cheeks. Dad’s death had left its marks, and Carlotta’s care took a lot of energy as well, but she shared my stubborn streak and rarely accepted help from us.
Her face lit up when Savio handed her the flowers and she gave me a pleased smile. “A gentleman after all.”
For some reason, the comment made me blush, which Mom chose to ignore and which Savio answered with a cocky half smile.
Carlotta sat on a blanket on the floor and played with a wooden train that had been Diego’s before it was mine. Her head shot up and a big grin split her face. Some color finally filled her cheeks, but she was still a small, thin child. Much smaller than other kids at eighteen months. She pushed herself up, rushing toward me. I picked her up and crushed her to my chest.
“She looks like a little version of you,” Savio said with a smile, which filled my belly with familiar butterflies.
“Say hi to Savio,” I told her.
“Hi Savio,” Carlotta piped, grinning sheepishly.
“Are you sure you’ll be fine taking care of her? She needs to take her medicine and if she turns blue, you need to take her to the ER right away and her scar…”
Savio touched my mother’s arm. “She’ll be taken care of. Nino will notice if something is wrong, and she’ll have my nephews and niece for company.”
Mom nodded slowly and finally led us to the door. After a kiss to her cheek, I followed Savio to his car with Carlotta in my arms.
Savio helped me put her in the seat then we headed back home.