“Daddy, you look gooey,” Ricky said, his head turned from side to side like he was watching tennis. “Mr. Nello too.”
Chase tickled him, and Antonello pulled his gaze away. He needed to be careful. If a six-year-old could sense how he was feeling and the way he looked at Chase, then others could as well.
Ricky yawned, and Chase reminded him to eat more and talk a little less. “You need to finish before it melts, and then we should go home. It’s been a busy week for all of us. We have some movies, and a little quiet time will be good.”
“But I want to see Santo and Gerardo.” Ricky smacked his lips after the last of his gelato.
“I’ll let Isabella know, and we can arrange for you to play with the boys again,” Antonello said.
“But for now, we need to go home. We’ve had a big day. There will be plenty of time for you to play with the boys, and we’re going to be here in Florence long enough for you to see everything.” Chase grinned. “You know, we’re going to be here long enough that we could take a weekend trip to Rome.”
Antonello smiled. “It’s only two hours by train, and my family has a small villa in the city. If you want, we could go in a few weeks. The initial testing should be complete, and we’ll bebetween tasks until the limited production run. Everything is on track.” He smiled brightly.
“What about your parents? Will they use the house in Rome?”
“No. The only one who has recently is my cousin.” Antonello looked upward and groaned. “He and his wife like to go there for weekends.”
“And they won’t be there?”
Antonello smirked. “I know how to make sure they aren’t. Leave that to me. I’ll get the tickets, and we’ll go to Rome in a little under three weeks.” Time couldn’t go by fast enough for him.
Chapter 11
“THERE HASbeen a supply problem, but Glorioso resolved it this morning,” Chase told Dewey, adding the resolution before the guy could blow up again. He was getting tired of this, and the tension with his boss had him jumping every time the phone rang. The past three weeks had been nothing but stress, with the summer’s humid heat translating into the project.
“You didn’t tell me about this,” Dewey challenged.
“Yes, I did. I had it on my weekly update for the past two weeks as a possible threat to the timeline. That threat has been removed. A supply has been found, and what we needed will be here in plenty of time. Testing and verification on this end are nearly complete, and I got a signoff from our team yesterday.” Everything was truly going well. The only real trouble was Dewey’s management by chaos. “The next run of product using the exact method for production will be made on time. That way product assembly and testing can begin.” Chase checked the clock and groaned. He needed to get out of the office soon.
Dewey went quiet, and Chase wondered what he was thinking. “All right. It looks like everything is set. Make sure it stays that way.” What a jerk. Even when things were going right, he found a way to look on the dark side.
“That’s my job,” Chase said, trying to keep the snark out of his voice. “It’s getting late here.”
“Yes. It probably is. Have a good weekend, and I’ll talk to you Monday.”
Chase cleared his throat. “I’m off on Monday.”
Dewey made some sort of sound and then said goodbye and hung up.
Chase shook his head as he stared into the phone before shoving it into his pocket. He had already packed his things, so he hurried out of the office. Antonello’s office was empty and had been for most of the past two weeks. He had business in Milan, so they hadn’t seen each other in a while. It was strange how quickly Antonello had slipped back into his life… and how much he missed him. Chase wondered if Elaine would be angry with him. She had been so hurt when Antonello left after college. More than once, he wondered if he was doing the right thing.
His phone rang as he left the building and strode through the streets toward the center. “Hey, Mom.” He hoisted his bag to his shoulder as he spoke.
“Don’t ‘Hey, Mom’ me,” she snapped.
Chase groaned. “What is it?” He kept moving because he needed to get Ricky so they could make their train in little more than an hour.
“I Facetimed with my grandson, and he told me that you are dating someone. A Mr. Nello.” Her voice had that same tone she used when he was inso muchtrouble. “Chase Wilson Anderson, what do you think you’re doing?”
“Excuse me?” he snapped back, pausing at a street corner at the edge of the pedestrian zone.
“It’s bad enough that you have to work with this man, but he hurt your twin sister… and you.” She sniffed and then blew her nose.
Chase groaned. “I work with him, and Antonello isn’t the same person he was then. Neither am I, for that matter.” There had been so much water under the bridge since then. But he would be lying if he said that he hadn’t wondered if Antonello was going to hurt him again.
“What does that have to do with the price of peas?” Mom really had herself under a head of steam.
“Mom. Elaine was my twin and my best friend. You know that. She was a kind person who threw herself into life—all of it. And yeah, Antonello hurt both of us, and I don’t know how Elaine would react to seeing Antonello again, but I do know that she had a huge heart and that maybe she’d forgive him. I see some of the same person I knew in college… while at the same time, someone with a sense of duty and what’s right that wasn’t there back then.” It was so hard to explain it to her. “He’s been good to us, and Ricky really likes him. And you know that he’s a better judge of character than either of us.”
