Luca couldn't remember the last time he had felt genuinely grateful to someone.
He was good at polite gratitude, but it had been a long time since he felt it as a deserved obligation.
After experiencing what Isabella had so carefully arranged, he realized he had no choice but to be.
She had gone out of her way to knit together a moment that touched not just him, but the family and the child he had longed to see, and that effort left him silently indebted.
"Thank you," Luca said to Isabella, their gazes locked and unguarded.
A second later, he set down his fork, asking, "I hope you had fun yourself doing all this?"
Isabella nodded quickly to his question as she took in a deep breath while dabbing the corner of one teary eye.
Forcing a bright smile, she answered, "Yes. I had a lot of fun. It didn't feel like a chore at all. Laura's family… they're honestly the nicest extended family I've met so far."
Luca fully agreed with that. Turning his head, he watched the Brahms carry on, discussing, playing, and laughing.
It was a view that depicted how family was everything in life, and this was why Martin's arrival was marvelous.
Similarly, loss was just as emotionally heavy as addition.
Luca knew the happiness he could see now was on the same level as the grief that followed Ansel's demise.
If Laura was laughing and smiling now, then she must've cried her eyes out then. If her uncle was cracking jokes now, then he must've been dead silent back then.
Luca imagined what the dynamic of the household could've been if Ansel was still here. Because now, it felt like he was never here.
His only sibling, his sister, had taken her daughter, Emma, with her, never to be heard from again since his burial.
Martin was technically the only token Ansel left behind. His wealth? It had gone to his next of kin, his sister. Unmarried, Laura wasn't even given the dignity of his last name.
So, apart from the world of Formula 1 that still remembered, Baby Martin was the only living testament that Ansel Hahn had ever been here at all.
It hurt Luca to think of this, so he turned his gaze back to Isabella, saying they'd be leaving in ten minutes.
Isabella complied with a small nod and answered that she'd get her things ready.
Before she could stand, Luca asked if she was sure she could make it to class tomorrow, and she smiled faintly, replying that she hoped to.
"Then we'll leave in ten," he repeated.
"We'll pass by your hotel so you can grab your things, then take them to my suite. That way you can leave directly from there in the morning on the Hawthorne 3, with Sara and the comms crew going to London. It'd be faster, and you'd have no hiccups."
Isabella paused at his precision, then nodded again. "That's perfect," she said.
But inside, she was blushing, though not because of how clean and convenient Luca's solution was.
Isabella knew exactly what sharing his suite tonight inevitably meant.
~~~~~~
As Isabella rose to fetch her handbag, Luca mentioned that he wanted a last private word with Laura, so he stood up too.
Laura was seated on the second bench with her aunts and her mother, their voices engaged in a conversation. But beneath that, they were actually spectating Luca and Isabella from afar.
So, when Luca rose from his seat, it was immediately noticed, and so was his approach.
Politely, Luca borrowed Laura from the women, leaving no room for objection. And Laura complied without hesitation, walking with him until they reached the barbecue grill at the far side of the yard, where they faced each other.
As Martin's mother, Luca had more personal things to discuss with Laura alone and no one else.
Firstly, he wanted to know her wellbeing and how she was coping since Ansel's passing and her deliverance, which must've inflicted a lot of physical strain.
Luca was sure that what Laura was showing in the front to the entire family was filtered from what she was truly feeling within.
He didn't intend to coerce her to tell him what he wanted, he just wanted her to understand that he recognized her strength throughout these periods.
Secondly, Luca wanted to reassure her that he hadn't forgotten Ansel, and that seeing Martin was meaningful because it kept a part of his best friend alive.
And also, he was here not to intrude but to support. Everything about his help would move at her pace, Luca declared.
When Isabella stepped back out of the house with her bag in hand, her gaze swept across the backyard, scanning for Luca.
She eventually spotted him at a quieter corner near the grill, standing opposite Laura, who had his full attention in a conversation.
A smile softened Isabella's face at the sight, relief warming her as she realized everything seemed to be going well.
She set her bag down gently and let her eyes linger on the scene, taking in the wonderful picture of Luca not as a driver in the racing world, but as a man finally being happy.
But the longer Isabella stared, the curve of her smile faltered, turning into an unsettled frown.
She wasn't a writer or a movie composer, but Isabella was old and smart enough to recognize that look shining in Laura's eyes as Luca spoke to her.
Laura looked like she was in heaven—dazzled, transfixed, almost mindless!
At intervals, she chuckled when Luca wasn't cracking any jokes, and her fingers were absently playing with her hair and the small pendant at her neck.
Just as quick as kerosene catching a spark, Isabella flared with fury and disbelief.
Why would Laura flirt with Luca?! she demanded, her heart racing.
Isabella wanted nothing more than to storm over, wedge herself between them, and rip apart whatever fragile thread of chemistry Laura was trying to spin.
However, if she did just that, she would look bitter, coming off as bitchy like last time. And Isabella had sworn not to behave like that again.
So all she could do was dig her nails into the wooden table while staring like a hawk as Laura burst into exaggerated laughter, using it as an excuse to brush against Luca.
Seated there, Isabella wondered if she had just made the biggest mistake of her life organizing this union.
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