A Place in the Sun(23)

Gianluca assessed me as I spoke, suspicious of my intentions.

“What would you get out of it?”

I smiled. “Well, for starters, I’d get the satisfaction of seeing the place up and running again. Second, I could finance the renovation in exchange for a small stake.” He opened his mouth to protest, but I continued on. “So there’s no risk for either of you. When it’s ready to open, you’d have an employee with a vested interest in its success!”

He reached for his glass of wine and downed the rest of it.

Massimo laughed. “How long have you been thinking of this?”

“Oh, not long. An hour, maybe two.”

Gianluca laughed then, this rich, deep chuckle that swelled a sense of pride inside me. I liked the sound; I wanted him to laugh more, even if it was at my expense.

“You’ve dreamt this up over the course of an hour or two?” he demanded. “And you expect me to hand over the keys to my family’s business?”

I rolled my eyes. “That seems a bit dramatic. As of right now, I’d say you’re doing more harm to the family business by letting it completely go to waste. All I’m asking is for you to let me into an empty building, as a partner, to see what we can make of it.”

“The answer is no. Drop it.”

Massimo held up his hands. “Now, now. Let’s pour some more wine and talk this over.”

Gianluca stood from the table so fast he nearly toppled it over. “This is insane. We don’t even know this…this girl!”

Those words. That was the moment I knew I wouldn’t back down. That exact moment when he pointed to me over the table and couldn’t even remember my name. That’s when I knew I wouldn’t give up until he gave me what I wanted.

“Katerina, thanks for dinner,” he said, already en route to the door. “Gigi—”

“MY NAME ISN’T GIGI, YOU INSUFFERABLE GIT.”

My shouting stopped him dead in his tracks. He turned over his shoulder, narrowed his dark eyes on me, and for the first time, it felt like he really saw me.

“It’s Georgie,” I said, more calm now that I’d gulped in a few breaths of air. “My name is Georgie.”

He narrowed his eyes on me for only a moment and then pulled open the front door with enough force to rattle its hinges. He disappeared into the night, the door slammed closed behind him, and the three of us sat in silence for a few seconds, trying to make sense of what had just transpired.

I cringed, thinking of how much Katerina and Massimo must hate me now that I’d antagonized Gianluca like that. I started to think up some way to apologize for my outburst, but then Massimo started clapping and laughing. It was a small, quiet chuckle at first, but then it grew and picked up steam. Katerina joined in, and then I was helpless to the sound of it.

“You called him a git,” Massimo laughed, wiping tears from his eyes.

“Right, well, the man deserved it.”

He held up his hands. “I won’t argue that. It’s high time someone knocked some sense into the bloke. I’ve tried to do it for the last five years and I’ve never been able to get a rise like that out of him.”

I moaned. “Lovely.”

Katerina leaned over to rub my shoulder. “No, no. Don’t let it get to you.” She waved her hand over the table, where most of our food had gone untouched. “We’ve prepared all this food and we aren’t going to let it go to waste. Massimo, you can tuck into Gianluca’s portion if you’d like, and Georgie, eat up. That sauce takes hours to make and it’s Massimo’s favorite. I absolutely refuse to let this night be ruined by that arsehole.”

“Aw, c’mon Katerina. You know he means well. Honestly, I’m happy to see any kind of emotion out of him! Anything is better than that mopey stare of his.”

She waved her hand, not wanting to hear it. For the next few minutes, we ate in silence, too scared to speak and upset her more. Her sauce was delicious, full of butter and garlic. It complimented the chicken perfectly and I’d nearly cleaned my plate before she spoke up again.

“For the record, I think making over the bed and breakfast is a brilliant idea.”





WHEN ALLIE AND I moved to Vernazza in the last year of her life, I tried to convince her to help me fix up the bed and breakfast. Nonna would have rolled in her grave if she’d known how far we’d let the building fall into decay. She’d put so much pride and joy into the business when she was alive, but with Massimo running the farm and restaurant and me living in England with Allie, there was no one to help with upkeep. We’d closed it, locked the shutters, and mostly forgotten about it until Allie and I moved back.

I’d taken her down to the building the first week we’d moved to Vernazza. I’d covered her eyes up and told her to not to peek.

“What’s going on? Where are you taking me?” she laughed, giddy with excitement.

I liked the sound. It’d been months since I’d heard happiness in her voice.

I positioned her in front of the building and pulled my hands away from her eyes with a dramatic flourish.

She blinked her eyes open and inspected the wooden sign hanging halfway off the front of the building.

“Bed and breakfast?” she read, confused.

I grinned. “It belonged to my grandmother. She left it to me and Massimo and I want us to fix it up.”