Surgeon's Second Chance in Florence by Kate Hardy

Author:Kate Hardy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-03-04T14:32:46+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘GOOD TO SEE YOU, Dad.’ Angelo hugged his father.

‘And you.’ Ruggiero returned the hug. ‘Now, this time, I have my son visiting, not a doctor, right?’

‘Right,’ Angelo confirmed.

‘Good. I thought we’d have lunch in the garden,’ Ruggiero said. ‘I bought cheese and tomatoes at the market yesterday, and I made bread this morning. The way your nonna taught me.’

‘Sounds great,’ Angelo said. ‘I brought cantucci. Though they’re not home-made.’

‘I’m not judging. You don’t have time to bake,’ Ruggiero said. His eyes narrowed slightly. ‘Though you look different.’

‘Different how?’

‘I don’t know. More relaxed, perhaps. Work’s going well?

‘Yes.’ And talking about work was a good way of introducing the subject of Sam, Angelo thought. ‘You know I told you my boss is setting up a foetal medicine unit?’

‘Yes—and it sounds fascinating. It’s amazing to think you can do surgery in the womb,’ Ruggiero said.

‘We have a professor from Paris and a specialist from London,’ Angelo said. ‘I have a mum on my list with triplets—a singleton, plus twins with twin-to-twin syndrome. The London specialist did laser ablation on the placenta, and I got to laser a couple of the blood vessels.’

‘When I was your age, I would never have believed it possible that one day we could do in utero surgery,’ Ruggiero marvelled.

‘It felt like waving a magic wand,’ Angelo said. ‘We’ve given those babies a real chance. And it’s more effective than simply draining the amniotic fluid from the recipient twin, because we’ve corrected the problems that caused the fluid imbalance in the first place.’ He paused. ‘But it’s more than that. It turned out I already knew the specialist from London.’

‘Someone you used to work with?’

‘A bit more than that.’ He smiled. ‘It’s Samantha.’

‘What, your Samantha?’ Ruggiero asked. At Angelo’s nod, he winced. ‘That must be a bit awkward.’

‘Surprisingly not, once we’d got over the shock of seeing each other again. We’re both older and wiser,’ Angelo said. He’d never actually told his father why he’d split up with Sam, not wanting his dad to feel he was to blame for the break-up; instead, Angelo had fudged the issue, saying instead that he and Sam had grown apart.

‘So you’re managing to work together without a problem?’

Angelo nodded. ‘Actually, it turns out that she’s still single, too.’ He paused. ‘We’ve talked about how things were in London, and while she’s in Florence we’re...well, seeing how things go.’ He took his phone from his pocket. ‘I promised you a selfie of me with my date. Here you go.’

Ruggiero studied the photograph. ‘There’s something about her smile that reminds me of your mum.’ He looked at Angelo. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t meet her when you were in London. At the time, I didn’t want to travel—I couldn’t face having to use uncomfortable seating that would make my back worse. And I didn’t want you to come to Rome, either, in case you guessed that things weren’t really all right with me.’

‘I assumed you were secretly dating someone and didn’t want me to know, in case I thought it was too soon,’ Angelo said.

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