Page 10 of Reclaimed Dreams
“Bullshit! You’ll do it now.”
“But—”
“I told her I’d have an answer for her tonight, and we don’t disappoint our customers.”
“You can be a real asshole, you know that?” Dom growled as he walked around his desk and flopped into his chair.
“So you’ve been telling me since you were five and learned your first swear word. Write the invoice,” Tony said on his way to the door.
“Fuck,” Dom muttered under his breath, shuffling papers on his desk, trying to find a blank invoice sheet. “This is a load of crap.”
Whirling, Tony shouted. “You know what’s a load of crap? Getting down to five hundred dollars in the bank after payroll because I can’t send out invoices to get paid if they’re IN YOUR FUCKING HEAD! Pull it out of your ass, Dom, and look around. This is a business, and you’re driving us into the ground.”
“What?” Jo asked from over Tony’s shoulder as she hitched Frankie up on her hip.
Shit. He’d tried to protect her from their struggles, both financial and emotional. Hell, the first few years of a business were always rocky, right? And he and Tony were brothers. It was natural that they’d fight a bit. Jo had enough on her hands taking care of the house and the babies. She didn’t need one more burden. He could handle this.
“Nothing, babe. It’s nothing.”
“You’re right about that.” Tony stormed out past her, and Dom took out his frustrations on the papers on his desk.
He swiped everything off his desk with a roar. “Shit!”
As papers fluttered to the floor, Enzo peeked around Jo’s leg. Wanting to play, he grabbed some papers from the floor and tossed them into the air, gleefully yelling, “Shit!”
Dom dropped his head into his hands.
“Gabe, come here.” Jo handed her youngest to her oldest, who propped the toddler on his hip like a pro. “Take Frankie and Enzo to the samples room and build a fort.”
With squeals of joy and laughter, they took off for their favorite place to play.
“Spill it, Domenico. What was Tony talking about?” Jo crossed her arms and leaned on the doorjamb.
“It’s nothing.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “He’s just pissed I didn’t have some paperwork he wanted.”
Jo walked farther into the room, placed her hand firmly on the now-clear desk in front of him, and waited silently for him to make eye contact. He hadn’t thought he was a coward, but the challenge of facing his wife just now was proving him one. She might have left the classroom, but her teacher look still worked just fine.
“Dom, do not treat me like I’m an idiot. I heard what Tony said about only five hundred dollars in the account. What is going on?” When he didn’t answer quickly enough, she slapped her hand on his desk and he jumped. “Start talking.”
“Business is good.” Dom shrugged. “We’ve been cruising along, juggling so many projects, that we got a little behind on the billing. It’ll all be fine.”
“We?”
“I…I got behind on putting together invoices, but seriously, there wouldn’t be anything to invoice if I hadn’t—”
Jo held up a hand to stop him. “And being fine depends on you doing paperwork?” Her voice fairly dripped with sarcasm.
“You don’t have to say it like that.” Dom’s confidence was taking a beating left, right, and center today. He was a damn good builder, a good father and husband. Why couldn’t that be enough?
Jo checked her watch. “How long do you need to put together the thing for Tony?”
“Half an hour?”
“Okay, I’m going to go pick up Fi from ballet, and when I get back we’re going to talk.”
Dom hated the promise of a lecture in her voice. He hated feeling stupid in front of his wife. He would have argued with her, but she was already gone, rounding up their crew and hustling them back into their minivan while listening to excited descriptions of their fort and drying temper tears over being torn away from it.
Dom sighed, but he got busy.
