A Moment on the Lips(25)
‘I’m doing a good job with the gelateria, Nonna. I’m not going to let Nonno down.’
‘I know, tesoro. And it’s good to have you home.’
Carenza spent the rest of the week working hard on the SWOT analysis Dante had asked for—and trying to be pleasant to Emilio Mancuso, though he didn’t make it easy for her. And, even though she kept trying to remind herself of how much her grandparents valued him and how good he’d been to them, she still couldn’t warm to the man. What it was about him, she didn’t know, but there was definitely something. Or maybe she was just taking it out on him because her grandparents had leaned on him five years ago instead of on her, and she resented that.
She sighed. Why did it all have to be so complicated?
At half-past seven precisely on the Saturday, she knocked on the door of Dante’s office.
‘Coffee?’ he asked.
She needed more than coffee. Right now, she thought, she could do with her body weight in chocolate. Probably intravenously. But coffee would have to do. ‘Thank you.’
‘So how’s the SWOT analysis?’ he asked.
‘Getting there.’ Though she’d found it hard to concentrate. Mancuso’s revelation had shocked her and, although her grandmother had reassured her that Nonno was absolutely fine now, Carenza couldn’t get it out of her head. ‘Did you know my grandfather had heart problems, five years ago?’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘No.’
‘I would’ve come home, if I’d known.’
He frowned. ‘Of course you would. That’s obvious.’
She stared at his desk. ‘My grandparents didn’t even tell me he was ill.’
‘They probably had their reasons.’
‘Nonna told me. Because I was in London, I was happy, and they didn’t want to disrupt my life.’ She looked up at him. ‘You’re right about me. I am a princess. A spoiled, selfish bitch.’
‘You’re a princess and, yes, you’ve been spoiled,’ he said softly, ‘but you’re not selfish. Well, not very,’ he amended, ‘considering your background. You’re definitely not a bitch. And you forgot to add the good points.’
‘Which are?’
‘Fishing now, Princess?’
She lifted her chin. ‘No.’
‘No?’
She sighed. ‘All right. It’s been a horrible week, right now I don’t like myself very much, and it’d be nice to have just a little bit of encouragement. People need carrots as well as sticks, you know, and a bit of praise can do wonders for someone’s morale.’
‘I’m glad you’ve worked that out.’ He sat on the edge of the desk, his dark eyes glinting. ‘OK. Your good points. You realised that you couldn’t handle the business on your own and you had the sense to find yourself a mentor instead of wading in and getting into even more of a mess. You’re not afraid of hard work. You’re quick—I don’t have to repeat myself—and you have real potential as a businesswoman because you can think outside the box. And you’re starting to think about the people who work for you as people.’ There was a teasing quirk to the corner of his mouth. ‘And you wear very, very sexy shoes.’
She glowered at him. ‘Which undercuts everything else you just said. Everything comes back to the way I look, the way I dress, and I hate that.’
He stroked her cheek. ‘Don’t be hard on yourself, Caz. That’s my job.’
She gave him a wry smile. ‘Yeah. You’ll always tell me like it is. Sorry. I know you were just teasing me and trying to cheer me up. I’m being a cow.’
‘You’re really out of sorts, tonight.’ ‘And I didn’t want to be, because Saturdays are the best day of the week.’
Because that was when she saw him? Although she didn’t say it, it was written all over her face. And he needed to be fair to her. He couldn’t let her rely on him, not emotionally. He didn’t do emotional stuff. ‘This isn’t a relationship, Princess,’ he warned softly.
‘I know. It’s about business.’
She sounded so disgruntled that he couldn’t help smiling. ‘Are you saying Saturdays aren’t enough for you?’
‘No, I have to resort to—’ She clapped a hand over her mouth, flushing. ‘Forget it.’
When she’d just been on the verge of confessing something interesting? Right now, she had his full attention. ‘Tell me what you were going to say, Princess.’