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."
