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At ten o’clock, he rang the doorbell Elena was surprised to see him and even more surprised when he revealed the reason for his visit

She thanked hiested that if he wanted to help, he could assist in covering the costs for the therapist she was seeing in an effort to help her recover her speech

When Gabriel raised the subject of adoption, Elena quickly explained that adopting a child in Italy could be difficult Only married couples were permitted to adopt, and they must have been married for at least three years Even if he and Julianne had decided to adopt Maria, the Italian governe duly chastened, but not withouta substantial donation to cover Maria’s expenses He made it clear that Elena was to contact hiht, he wandered to a café at Santa Croce Instead of watching the beautiful wo upon Florence’s finer fah foster care or adoption

Reactions wereto part with their ree to become foster parents Adoption was absolutely out of the question

Once again, Gabriel was confronted with the lavishness of grace as he contemplated all the reasons why Richard and Grace could have said no to adopting him, but didn’t

Julianne awoke to an elass of water on the nightstand, along with a note,

Darling,

I’ve gone to run errands

I’ll be back in tiht

I love you,

And I like my body when it is with your body,

G

On the back of the note, Gabriel had transcribed a poes: “i like my body when it is with your”

Julia read and reread the poe what Gabriel’s errands were

In truth, she felt guilty Gabriel was correct—Maria needed a family to love and care for her Julia could see why Gabriel was drawn to her

As all the anxiety about graduate school and her career washed over her, she couldn’t shake the suspicion that she was being selfish by valuing her education over the welfare of a child

Still, it didn’t seeht to take Maria from the only country she’d ever known and place her in a house with strangers Especially since Julia didn’t knohat Gabriel was troubled about

Maybe he wants children right away and he’s gearing hiht but put it aside Gabriel recognized her anxiety about grad school He wasn’t going to add to it

She’d worked so hard to get herself to this point His re before about “the Julianne he knew” had cut her deeply She’d tried to be coood person didn’t entail the abandonment of one’s drearee to adopt her Not now Perhaps in two years when they were better acquainted with her, and Julia was in her fourth year of graduate school The fourth year was devoted to preparing her dissertation prospectus and then writing her dissertation Julia could simply work on her research and be a ht)

Still, she worried about her husband—about what secret demons tormented him and why he was so deterhtstand and quickly sent hi