After a long while, Leona's sobs finally quieted. Her eyes were completely red, swollen from crying, and her nose was flushed a deep pink.
She looked utterly pitiful.like a child who had been lost in the forest and finally found her way home.
But beneath that pitiful exterior, there was something else.
A glow in her eyes. A lightness in her expression. She looked like someone who had finally received something she had been needing for a very, very long time.
She then became aware of Luca looking down at her. He had been holding her the entire time—his arms wrapped around her, his chest her pillow, his heartbeat a steady rhythm beneath her ear.
She had cried into him, soaked his shirt, probably left a mess of tears and snot all over him.
She expected to feel embarrassed. Mortified, even. The Matriarch of the village, reduced to a sobbing mess in a man's arms?
But the embarrassment never came.
