Page 170 of Diego

“It is how this one worked.”

I shake my head, but I cannot stop the smile pulling at my mouth. “You are impossible.”

“And yet your instincts were excellent.”

I soften despite myself. “Thank you.”

He presses a kiss to my forehead. “Of course.”

Then he helps me the rest of the way to the shower.

Chapter Twenty Nine

Diego

After Blair showers, I help her into a pair of soft pants and one of her own oversized shirts, both pulled from the clothes I had brought over from her apartment while she was still in the hospital. She gives me a suspicious look when she realizes just how much of her wardrobe has somehow migrated into my house, but she is too tired to argue about it for long.

I get her settled beneath the sheets that were changed while she was showering, make sure she has water within reach, and barely have time to ask whether she needs anything else before her eyes close.

She falls asleep within minutes.

I stand beside the bed a while longer, watching her breathe and feeling some of the tension that has been lodged beneath my ribs since Julia called me finally loosen. Blair looks better after the shower, less like a patient and more like herself, but the exhaustion is impossible to miss.

Dr. Mehta warned us that fear alone could leave her wrung out after what happened, never mind the bleeding, the hospital stay, and the weeks she had already spent pushing herself too hard. I pull the blanket a little higher over her, dim the windows again, and leave the bedroom as quietly as I can.

My own shower is considerably faster. I scrub away the hospital smell, shave, and change into fresh trousers and a shirt, feeling almost human. I have also been wearing the same clothes for far too long, and I am beginning to understand Blair's desperation to get out of everything that reminded her of the hospital.

Once I am dressed, I check on her again before heading downstairs with the vague idea that I might get an hour of work done while she sleeps. That plan dies the moment I reach the lower floor.

Every member of my family appears to have occupied my house.

They have at least shown enough restraint to keep the noise down, which might be the greatest indication yet that the events of the past couple of days scared the hell out of all of them as well.

Mario and Victoria are sitting together with Leonardo on the floor in front of them, Ricardo has Cecilia on his lap while Julia sits beside him, and Dante is nearby talking quietly with Matteo and Tomasso.

Lorenzo is settled with Donna, who looks even more pregnant than she did the last time I saw her, while Edoardo, Alessio, and Mocha have claimed the area closest to the windows.

I stop at the bottom of the stairs and take in the entire invasion.

“Well,” I say quietly, “please, everyone, make yourselves at home.”

Mario looks around as though only just noticing where he is. “We did.”

“I can see that.”

Tomasso leans back and gestures broadly around the room. “You bought a house right on the lake with enough space for the family. What did you think was going to happen?”

“I thought I might get at least forty-eight hours before you all discovered the address.”

“You underestimate Donna,” Matteo says.

Donna lifts one hand from where it rests against her stomach. “I probably knew the address before Diego did.”

Despite myself, I almost smile. There is something comforting about seeing all of them here, even if I had not invited a single one. They all came to the hospital at some point, but I kept them out of Blair's room.

She had been frightened, exhausted, crying without warning, and trying to recover from thinking she had miscarried. Introducing her to members of my family while she was in a hospital bed barely holding herself together would have been cruel.

Victoria watches me closely. “How is she?”