One of them clapped her hands in delighted approval, opened her arms wide and swooped on him, hugging him to her very ample bosom and kissing him effusively on both cheeks.
‘My wife, Maria,’ Angelo said proudly, adding, ‘Merlina’s mother,’ for good measure.
‘You are so welcome!’ Maria cried. ‘So very welcome! I despaired of Merlina ever marrying anyone and you…’
‘Oh, Mamma,’ Merlina groaned.
Maria ignored her, patting his cheeks. ‘Such a handsome man…’
‘You have a beautiful daughter,’ Jake found wits enough to say.
She released him to clap her hands again. ‘This is so exciting!’
Then recollecting herself she turned to the other women, literally presenting him for more hugs and kisses as he was introduced to Merlina’s aunts, sisters and sisters-in-law. Being welcomed into the bosom of this family took on a very physical meaning. He’d got into the way of it by the last introduction and quite happily succumbed to be being squashed into soft female flesh. It felt surprisingly good, a far cry from the air-kisses of the social set in Sydney.
Gina, the new mother, took him over to a bassinet to show off her baby son. ‘He’s asleep now but I’ll let you hold him later when he wakes up,’ she offered as though he would naturally want to.
Jake wasn’t at all sure about that. It was the smallest human being he had ever seen, but its tiny face was sort of endearing, framed as it was by a mass of spiky black hair. ‘I can see he’s going to have lots of personality,’ was the best comment he could come up with.
It seemed to please Gina and the other women laughed their approval. He glanced at Merlina and caught a drowning look of despair in her eyes. It hit him instantly that she didn’t believe his marriage proposal would survive having her family’s expectations pressed upon him. She was twisting his ring around her finger in agitation, as though already thinking of taking it off.
He reacted without a second thought, moving quickly to hug her to his side, stopping the fretting movement by taking her left hand and holding it out for the women to see the ruby and diamond ring. ‘Merlina is not used to wearing this yet. I want you to tell her how great it looks on her finger so she won’t feel nervous about it,’ he said, spreading an appealing smile to all of them.
‘Oh, Merlina! It is beautiful!’ her mother cried, rushing forward for a closer examination.
Angelo laughed and said, ‘Leave Merlina to the women, Jake. It is time we men fired up the barbecue to cook the children’s dinner.’
‘Yes, yes, the meat is on the tray ready for you, Angelo,’ Maria tossed at him. ‘Off you both go.’
No choice, Jake realised.
He had to do what was expected of him.
While he hadn’t thought through all that a marriage with Merlina Rossi would encompass, he knew one thing for certain.
He didn’t want to let her out of his life.
Not at this point.
Possibly not ever.
She was beginning to represent all the good things he’d missed out on.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
MERLINA watched Jake accompany her father out of the kitchen, stunned that he had just reinforced their engagement by focussing her family’s attention on the ring, which was being volubly admired even as she struggled to understand his action.
Why had he done it?
She knew Danny and Joe had rubbed him up the wrong way with their comments on his business, belittling it, then carrying on about their own. She’d sensed his irritation, his mental withdrawal, though he’d been polite enough to cover it up, smoothly inquiring about the wine-making process, pretending to be impressed by their export figures.
Being swamped by the children hadn’t seemed to bother him. The idea of the soccer game tradition had definitely twigged amusement, but she’d almost died on the spot when her father had charged in about having bambinos. While there could be no escaping the subject—she did want to be a mother—to have it shoved point-blank in Jake’s face…she’d imagined the idea of marriage with her moving straight into a death spiral.
Then his shoulders had stiffened as her mother enveloped him in one of her compelling hugs, invading his personal space like a runaway train. Just prior to that he’d been looking around the women in the kitchen, probably comparing them negatively to the sleek sophisticated women he was used to. She could almost hear the questions in his mind—
Would Merlina blow out to super size in a few years’ time?
Is this what happened when Italian women had children?
Of course, everyone had to get in on the hug/kiss act and Jake had managed to take the poker out of his spine. For a man who’d always preferred skinny women, he had stuck in there accepting the embraces of the plumper variety with a fair show of appreciating their generous welcome, for which Merlina was extremely grateful. Indeed, he hadn’t put a foot wrong, despite being plunged into alien territory.
But what he thought was something else entirely and Merlina acutely felt the strain of wondering what was going on in his mind. And heart. Especially when Gina had put him in the position of having to admire her new son. Coming on top of the bambino comment from her father, Jake’s head must have been spinning with the obligations and responsibilities attached to marrying into the Rossi family.
It was probably the first time in his life he’d wanted to escape from a roomful of women, though being with the men en masse would undoubtedly present other awkward moments. Had he ever been expected to help cook a barbecue in his entire playboy life? To Merlina’s mind it was a case of jumping out of the frying pan, straight into the fire.
And it wasn’t so good for her in the frying pan area, either, having to smile happily while showing off the ruby and diamond ring and field a plethora of questions about Jake and their engagement. She couldn’t feel comfortable about it. Everything had happened too fast, and she suspected Jake had leapt onto this marriage merry-go-round without seeing it as a serious step to take.
In the midst of this emotional turmoil, Sylvana suggested she help her arrange the platters of antipasta, obviously wanting to have her own personal curiosity satisfied. The laser treatment on her eyes had been successful. She wasn’t wearing glasses any more. Which made the inquisitive interest beamed at Merlina far too bright for comfort.
‘Now I know why you cut your hair and wore such revealing clothes,’ she archly remarked.
‘That went with the job, Sylvana.’
Which reminded her that looking for a new job had gone right out of her head and some decisions about her future had to be made very soon.