And then there’d been the drama of trying to get Gran stable enough for the surgeon to consider that operating might be an option on an eighty-two-year-old woman. There’d been fluid resuscitation and ventilation assistance, blood tests and scans and ECGs. People rushing in and out with the kind of controlled chaos Charlotte was all too familiar with, but this was her gran being treated and she’d never felt less like a doctor.
Waiting like this in an area set aside for the families of patients undergoing surgery was a new experience too. It was nerve-racking and felt interminable. There were only one or two theatres being used for absolute emergencies today and just a skeleton staff on duty so it felt like she was completely alone and she’d been here for what felt like hours. Surely the surgery was over by now? Why hadn’t someone come to tell her what was going on?
Had they forgotten she was even here?
No…Charlotte could hear footsteps echoing in the wide, empty hallway outside. Coming closer. Someone was coming to see her and what they had to say could possibly be devastating news.
She couldn’t move. Could only stand there, with her fingers pressed against her mouth to stifle a cry. Afraid to breathe. Unable to blink even.
And then a tall figure filled the doorway. A powerful presence entered the small space of the waiting room and…
And Charlotte wasn’t alone any more.
‘Carlotta…cara…’ Nico gathered Charlotte into his arms and held her close. ‘Grazie a Dio ho trovato voi.’
He’d had to come even though he had no real news for her yet. Standing there, in the observation deck of the operating theatre, it had come back with a vengeance.
That empty feeling.
Had it really been the challenge of fighting for Jendi’s life that had made it go away? The focus on medicine that was the most important thing in his life? Or had it had been because Charlotte was so close to him again?
He had to find out. His shift in the emergency department was finished and there would be no professional distraction for him now. If he found Charlotte and that empty feeling disappeared then he would know the truth.
And it had. Dio mio, but it had evaporated like mist in hot Italian sunshine as soon as he’d gathered her in his arms and held her close to his heart.
The truth was irrefutable. It wasn’t work he needed like the oxygen in the air he breathed. It was this woman. Charlotte. Without her, he would have that horrible, empty feeling for the rest of his life.
‘Carlotta…’ The word was a breath that got lost in her hair.
‘I don’t understand,’ she said.
Neither did Nico. But it was wonderful. So joyous.
‘I can’t speak Italian, Nico…’ She was wriggling in his arms, pulling back so she could see his face. ‘What’s happening?’ Her breath was a fearful gulp. ‘Where’s Gran?’
How could he be so selfish? Nico stroked her hair and focused enough to change languages.
‘There’s a break in surgery. They’re doing a biopsy of the tumour. It will be a bigger operation if they decide to try and remove it all and it would be too much of a risk if it’s…’
She knew what he was saying. If the tumour was aggressively malignant, they would only attempt a palliative procedure to deal with the bowel obstruction.
But Charlotte’s eyes had widened. ‘The surgeon thinks there’s a chance it’s not malignant? That it’s…benign?’
Was it cruel to give her hope or a gift that he could share with her for at least a little while? The point was moot because she knew the answer. They wouldn’t be interrupting surgery for the length of time it took to use a technician on Christmas Day if it wasn’t a good possibility.
‘Are you going back? Can you find out?’
Nico shook his head. ‘They’ll come and tell us. I want to wait here with you. I…I have to.’
‘You have to?’ Charlotte’s tone was as odd as his had been. A note of wonder? ‘Why?’
‘Because…’ There was no point in being less than honest with her. There never had been and never would be. ‘Because being with you…it makes the empty feeling go away.’
‘Oh…’ Charlotte’s gaze was holding his and he could actually see it melting. Getting misty. ‘It does…It so does, doesn’t it?’
‘You feel it too?’ A surge of emotion was threatening to explode inside Nico’s chest. Gratitude? Relief? Hope? No. It was bigger than any of those. ‘I’ve never felt like this,’ he confessed. ‘I don’t know what this is…but it’s…it’s…’
‘I think it’s love,’ Charlotte whispered. ‘I’m in love with you and that’s why I have the empty feeling when you’re not here.’
‘I’m in love with you…’ Nico tested the words out loud. Strange and new but…yes…they felt right. He tried them in Italian to make sure. ‘Cara mia, innamorata di te.’
And that made them real but still unbelievable. ‘How?’ he whispered. ‘How did this happen? So fast?’
‘I don’t know…’ But Charlotte was smiling. Almost laughing, but there were tears in her eyes at the same time. ‘But it’s Christmas…and it’s the most wonderful gift I could ever have been given. I love you so much, Nico. I’ve never felt like this before. It feels like everything that’s ever happened to me, even all the bad things, were worth it because it led me here. To you.’
He had to kiss her then. Slowly. Tenderly. The bursting feeling inside him intensified and turned to molten joy. It was a long time before he could lift his head to look into Charlotte’s eyes again.
‘When I was in Venice,’ Nico told her with a smile, ‘a moment or two before I saw you at the accident scene I was having to push my way through the crowd and I heard this old woman and you know what she said?’
‘No.’ Charlotte was smiling up at him. A tear escaped and Nico let go of one of her hands so that he could brush it away for her. ‘What did she say?’
‘That it was almost Christmas. A good time for a miracle to happen. I think that’s what this is, Carlotta. A miracle.’
Charlotte sniffed and the sound was so unromantic that Nico could feel himself fall even deeper in love with her. Had he really thought he was incapable of doing this? He was good at it. With a bit of practice he would be the best.
When Charlotte scrubbed at her nose, he caught her hand. The one with the ring on it. He seemed to remember it had been quite a struggle to get it onto her finger but it came off quite easily.
Charlotte went very, very still.
‘You know what this is.’ Nico had to clear the sudden gruffness of his voice away. ‘Of all the people in the world, you are the only one who can know the symbolism of this ring. The…’ His voice cracked again. ‘The promise it carries.’
Her gaze clung to his. Her head dipped and rose again in a slow, solemn nod.
‘I didn’t give you a choice about wearing it before,’ Nico continued. ‘I’m giving you that choice now. Will you wear this ring, inamorata? Will you accept my promise?’
‘Oh…yes,