‘You’ll be able to watch the container ships come in to your heart’s content,’ he said, bending down to release Minky from her cage. She rubbed against his legs before running off to explore.
‘What are you doing?’ Bella gaped at him. ‘Do you know how long it took me to—?’
She broke off. He straightened. ‘I’m letting her out to stretch her legs and to explore her new home. She must be tired of being cooped up.’ There was not a chance Bella would leave without Minky.
He grabbed two of her suitcases. ‘You’d think the moving guys would’ve had the decency to put your bags in your room.’ He strove for a light tone. ‘Though they probably couldn’t believe that all these bags belonged to just one person.’
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ She seized the bags and pulled them from his grasp.
He’d hoped she’d have the sense to play along with his charade. ‘Helping you get settled.’
‘But I—’
‘And then I wanted to apologise to you.’
She tossed her head. ‘For ruining my entire life?’
He had to smile at her exaggeration. ‘For handling that budget issue so badly. I was unduly hard on you and that wasn’t fair. I’m sorry.’
She eyed him for a moment. ‘Does that mean you’re going to increase my budget?’
‘No, I’m not.’
‘Pah!’ She threw a hand in the air. ‘Forget it, Dominic. I’m leaving.’
‘No, you’re not.’
She thrust her chin out. ‘Do you mean to stop me?’
‘Yes. Physically, if necessary.’ He kept his tone even. He prayed she wouldn’t test him on this. ‘You gave your father your word that you would see this project through. I mean to see that you do.’
‘When you tie my hands?’ She flung both arms out and started to pace. ‘How is it possible?’ She rounded on him. ‘You make it impossible!’
‘All this simply because I rein in a few extravagances?’
‘Rein in?’ Her jaw dropped. ‘You wreck my entire vision. You tell me that I’m not good enough for the job! You tell me I waste my time. At least I put all of me into a project—all my heart and soul. You don’t even have a heart! But you’re right, I have been wasting my time. You think Luigi is the right person for the job, then go ahead and give it to him!’
She seized two suitcases, but before she could walk off with them he seized her wrists. She immediately dropped them. Beneath his hands her skin was warm and her pulse pounded. He let go of her again quick smart. ‘That was a stupid thing for me to say. I didn’t mean it. I lost my temper. I’ve been off-kilter even since I stepped foot inside that men’s shelter. It’s the only excuse I can offer, and I am sincerely sorry.’
Her mouth dropped open. The need to kiss her grew so great he had to clench his hands to stop from reaching for her. ‘I blame myself for the mistakes you made with that stupid budget.’
She blinked. She folded her arms. ‘Stupid?’ Her voice wobbled.
‘And I blame myself for losing my cool like I did and for not explaining things properly to you, but let’s get one thing clear, I am not going to blame myself for your lack of perseverance now, for your lack of a backbone.’
‘My...?’
‘It’s about time you grew up. If you make a promise to someone, you don’t turn your back on it and them and run away the moment things get tough. You’ve let your father down in the past, but you promised him those days were over. Well, prove it!’
She’d gone white.
‘Yes, you’re passionate. But you take things to heart too easily. You fly off the handle too quickly. You have a brain in that beautiful head of yours. Use it!’
He didn’t know what he’d just said, but Bella turned paler than white. He pulled in a breath and eyed her for a moment. She didn’t move. She didn’t even blink. ‘I, uh... Bella, I think you should sit down.’
He tried to take her arm, alarm surging through him, but she pulled out of his grip. With eyes that looked huge and bruised in such a colourless face, she edged away from him. She hardly seemed even to breathe. What the hell had he said?
‘Bella, breathe!’ he ordered, suddenly afraid that she’d pass out. When he made a move towards her, she turned and fled down the hallway. He followed but he wasn’t quick enough. The bathroom door was slammed into place and the lock rammed home.
He stared. What the hell had he said?
He pressed an ear to the door but not a single sound emerged.
* * *
Bella curled into a ball on the bathroom floor, pressed her cheek to the cold of the tiles and did what she could to push the panic out of her lungs so she could breathe again. She squeezed her eyes tight and started to shake.
Dominic had so deftly stripped her of all her defences...
She pressed a fist to her mouth. When he’d said that she had a brain in her head, she hadn’t known what else to do except retreat. She’d needed to hide from eyes that saw too much. She’d needed to hide from the hard anger in them, from the disappointment, and from the iceman coldness that would eventually chill them.
He was waiting for her outside the door; she knew he was. Him and all her fears.
You have a brain in your head.
Yes, she did, but it wasn’t worth a tuppence. And when he found that out... When Papa found that out...
Her throat closed over. She clenched her eyes so tight stars burst behind them.
‘Bella?’ The door rattled.
Her throat was so thick she could barely swallow, let alone speak.
It’s about time you grew up...
‘Bella! So help me, I’ll break this door down!’
He would, too. She opened her eyes. It was time to stop hiding. She paused and then hauled herself into a sitting position. It took all her effort but eventually she managed to swallow the lump in her throat. ‘I’ll be out in a moment.’
‘You mean that?’
She wanted to answer with a scornful, ‘of course’. Or a, ‘guess you’ll find out’. But she didn’t have the energy for either. Or the heart. ‘Yes.’ That was all she could manage.
She heard him move away from the door. She pushed to her feet and stared at her reflection in the mirror. Ugh; vampires and zombies had nothing on her. She splashed water onto her face and tried to pinch some colour into her cheeks, wondering how her face could be so colourless when it burned so hot. Or how it was possible for the rest of her to go so cold.
She rinsed all her make-up off and that made her feel even barer, but it couldn’t be helped. No make-up was preferable to smudged make-up.
She stared at the door. She closed her eyes and pulled three deep breaths into her body. Only then did she open the door and walk back out into the living room. All her suitcases had been taken back to her room.
It’s about time you grew up.
Dominic was right. It was time to face this like an adult. Who knew? He might even help her find a way to break this gently to Papa, to help her reconcile her father to his daughter’s serious shortcomings.
Dominic’s narrow-eyed gaze travelled over every inch of her. He finally gave a curt nod. ‘You look better.’
‘I’m sorry. I felt unwell for a moment. The bathroom seemed the best place to be.’
He gestured. ‘I made coffee.’
Instant; she didn’t have the energy to argue, or even to grimace. She took a cup and then a seat on the enormous L-shaped sofa. Dominic sat, too. He left two full seat-cushions between them as if afraid of crowding her. She noted, though, that he’d positioned himself between her and the door.
Minky jumped up beside her, meowed and then settled herself on the back of the sofa at Bella’s neck, as if she sensed Bella needed comfort. Absurdly, it made her want to cry.
She dragged in a shaky breath, glanced at Dominic and then glanced away again. She didn’t want to see his eyes turn hard and cynical as she said what she had to say.
She sipped her coffee, grimaced and set it
down. ‘Let’s not drag this out longer than necessary, Dominic. The truth of the matter is you were right from the start—I’m actually not up to doing this job. I have no business qualifications, no real experience.’ She swallowed. ‘I’m not even a properly qualified chef.’
He stared at her for a moment and then he shrugged. ‘The way you cook, Bella, speaks for itself.’
That, at least, was nice of him to say, but she shook her head. ‘If I stay I will wreck Marco’s restaurant. That...’ She gulped and tried to force steel into her voice. ‘That would be a hundred times worse than disappointing him by walking away now.’
Minky rubbed her head against Bella’s nape. Bella had to swallow hard.
Dominic stared at her for a moment and then he leant towards her. ‘You really believe this?’
It’s about time you grew up.
‘I know it. Mentally—intellectually—I’m not up to scratch. I’m not clever or smart.’ She sagged back against the sofa. ‘In fact, I’m stupid. I can’t even do long division!’
She tried not to flinch at the way his jaw dropped, at the shock in his eyes. ‘What the hell—? What’s long division got to do with anything?’
‘It’s just one example of my lack of intelligence.’ She lifted her chin. Her head had never felt heavier. ‘It’s time to stop lying to you. It’s time to stop lying to Marco. And it’s time I stopped lying to myself. I’m sure there are worse things in the world than not being very bright. I might not be smart, but I’m kind to animals and I can cook a truly divine chocolate mud cake. I have a lot of friends and I love my family. I have to stop wishing for more.’
Frown lines furrowed Dominic’s brow. ‘Let’s get one thing straight right now—you don’t need to know how to do long division.’
‘But I do need to know how to do up a spreadsheet and a profit-and-loss statement and basic accounting and...and a budget! Most of the time all that stuff is double Dutch to me.’
‘You did just fine on the budget.’
‘You slammed it! You said it was a fantasy.’
‘The fantasy was the amount of money you were asking for. The document itself was perfectly acceptable—correctly laid out and costed accurately.’ He sat back. ‘I don’t doubt for a moment that the restaurant you could create with that much money would be spectacular, but Marco has been very specific about the amount of money he is prepared to pour into the Newcastle Maldini. If I don’t stick to that, he told me I’d be out on my ear.’
‘He did not!’
‘He did.’ One corner of his mouth hooked up. ‘But he didn’t mean it. Doesn’t change the fact that I want to do a good job for him.’
It hadn’t occurred to her that Dominic might be under as much pressure as she was. She resisted the allure of his smile, though.
She shook her head. ‘I must’ve got lucky with that budget then, Dominic. You won’t know this because Marco hushed it up, but I flunked my final exams at school. After Mama died... Well, I didn’t study, and I didn’t pay attention in class.’ She hadn’t done much of anything for eighteen months. ‘That’s not meant to excuse my lack of application at the time, it’s just what happened. When I got it together again, I just seemed to be playing endless catch-up.’
The sudden warmth in his eyes threatened to wrap around her if she let it, to cocoon her. She refused to let it. It was a lie. ‘Papa pulled strings to get me into university but—’ she shrugged ‘—I couldn’t keep up there either.’
‘Why didn’t Marco help you? Get you tutors?’
‘Oh, I never told him! I was too ashamed.’ He had been so disappointed in her school marks. She hadn’t been able to face that again. ‘And he’d already done so much.’
‘So you left uni and bounced from one job to another.’
She stared at her hands. ‘Nothing worked out. Either I couldn’t do the work or it was so absolutely basic, I grew so bored I thought I would die.’ And that disappointment she’d been trying save her father from, it had happened again anyway. ‘Eventually I fled to Italy to help my aunt and uncle in their restaurant.’ When they’d offered her the job she’d jumped at it. Not least because she’d thought removing herself from Marco’s presence would save him from any further embarrassment.
‘But you said you loved working in the restaurant, that it was great.’
‘It was.’ Just for a moment she allowed herself a smile. ‘I learned so much and discovered a passion and talent for cooking that I never knew I had. It was a revelation.’ Her relief, her gratitude at finding her place in the world, had been immense.
Her smile dissolved. ‘But it made me cocky and arrogant, foolhardy.’
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
‘I should’ve been content with being a cook, but no. Just because I could run my uncle’s restaurant, I thought that meant I could create the perfect restaurant for Papa’s hotel. I’d been looking for a reason to come home—I missed Papa—and the Newcastle Maldini provided the perfect excuse. I thought I could show him that I was all grown up and that I could be useful to him in the business, an asset.’
But she’d been wrong.
‘The hotel is so much bigger. There’s so much more to understand and keep on top of.’ There were so many more ways to fail. ‘It’s not just the restaurant, but room service and function rooms. And there are so many spreadsheets!’
‘All that long division?’ Dominic murmured.
She swallowed and nodded. She’d known he’d understand.
‘Bella, I can teach you long division.’
She glanced up.
‘I can teach you everything you need to know about spreadsheets, basic accounting and budgets.’
He could? Hope she hadn’t even known she’d nurtured lifted through her. She tried to stamp it out. It was pointless hope. Dominic would try to teach her but her defective brain would refuse to grasp all it needed to.
‘You may not be able to see it, but you are most definitely an asset to the hotel.’
‘That’s not true. What I have done, Luigi could’ve done quicker and with less fuss.’
‘Luigi would still be buying sub-standard stock from his brother-in-law. Luigi would not have come up with the cooking-club idea or the social outings for the staff that you have. Luigi would not have made me see how important the personality of the hotel is to its success.
‘Bella, you aren’t stupid. You fell behind at school and the teachers you’ve had since—at university and in the workplace—haven’t recognised your need. I’d suggest that’s because you’ve been so clever at hiding it.’
She could feel herself flush.
‘You are not stupid. You’ve lost your confidence, that’s all.’
No, he was wrong. Oh, she’d lost her confidence all right, but it was because intellectually she wasn’t up to much.
He must’ve seen that sentiment in her face. ‘Fine,’ he snapped. ‘Let’s play a game. You can’t have your beautiful glass-topped tables in the restaurant. Tell me what you dislike about the current set-up.’
‘No colour,’ she responded instantly. ‘Wooden tables with white-on-white tablecloths.’ The entire room would lack personality.
‘You can’t have those new tables, but what else could you do to fix that lack of colour?’
She thought for a moment. ‘Beige, sand-coloured tablecloths with light blue overlays.’ That would look quite nice. She could manage a sophisticated beach theme with that.
‘See? You just found a solution to one of your budget problems like that.’ He snapped his fingers.
She had?
‘You just defined a problem and came up with a solution—’ he checked his watch ‘—in under a minute. That is not a sign of someone with a poor intellect.’
Really?
‘You have a lot to offer. Your passion for this hotel has infused its every corner—even to me. You have made me better at my job with all your challenges. Now let me help you become better at yours.’
She stared at him. She
could see he meant every word. Did she dare? To take him up on his offer meant risking failure.
‘But I need you fully committed,’ he warned. ‘Once we start, you aren’t backing out.’
But it meant the possibility of success, too. Minky batted her hair. ‘You really think I can do it?’
‘I’m certain of it.’
She bit her lip. She pulled in a breath. Finally, she thrust out her hand, choosing to trust him. ‘You have yourself a deal.’
‘Excellent!’
When he took her hand and smiled at her, she felt as if she’d won the lottery.
He didn’t let go of her hand. ‘You don’t need to prove yourself to Marco, Bella. He is already proud of you, regardless of what you think.’ His hand tightened. ‘But I do think you need to prove it to yourself.’
She blinked. She pulled her hand from his because it was starting to feel far too comfortable there.
‘We are going to make the hotel work, Bella. But there is something else I think you need to consider, and I want you to think about it long and hard.’
He sounded so suddenly serious that her mouth dried.
‘Do you really want to work in your father’s company? I know you want Marco to be proud of you, but you don’t have to work in his company to do that. What is it you want to do?’
She opened her mouth. She closed it again. She’d been so focussed on not failing, on doing what she thought her father wanted, that it wasn’t a question she’d actually asked herself. ‘I don’t know,’ she confessed. ‘All I know is that I don’t want to keep bouncing from one job to the next.’
‘What part of this job makes you happiest?’
‘Working in the kitchen,’ she answered without hesitation. ‘Cooking, planning the menus, training the chefs.’
He raised an eyebrow and it was as if he’d opened a floodgate as ideas washed over her. She shook her head to clear it. ‘I need to focus on the hotel’s restaurant first. If I do a good job there, then...’ She swallowed, a new kind of excitement spiking through her. ‘Then I guess we’ll see.’
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