by Kira Ward
Dante nodded. “They have a strong connection to the community. But there was this one company that tried to take advantage of my father’s distraction while my mother was sick. This guy went to the bakery and convinced Faustina that he was there to do some work on the ovens. She gave him a tour and then he had her sign some papers. Faustina…she knows some English but not a lot. And she doesn’t read it. She had no idea that she signed a contract allowing them to bring in an appraiser so that they could make an offer on the place.”
“They were going to buy it?” Emma asked, interested despite herself.
“They were. They wanted to force my father into a corner and take away his only source of livelihood.”
Sophie shook her head. “That’s not fair.”
“They saw an old, ailing couple and a manager who couldn’t speak English and thought they could take advantage.”
“But you stopped them, right?” Jill asked.
When Dante looked at Emma this time, it wasn’t just a cursory glance. There was meaning behind his gaze, a need for her to understand something he wasn’t saying. She was so caught up in his story that she almost asked…she almost wanted to know what it was he was trying to say. But then her cellphone rang, breaking the silence that had fallen over their table.
Emma pulled the phone out of her skirt pocket, stiffening as she read the display.
Drake.
When he asked for her number, she hadn’t thought he would actually call. In fact, the shock of getting off that private plane and going back to her job as a cashier in a department store reminded her that they live in two very different worlds. She wasn’t going to answer it, but Dante glanced at the phone, saw his name, and that tight, angry look came into his eyes again.
“Your boyfriend checking in on you?”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” she said in a harsh whisper, glancing over at Sophie.
“You better get that. Wouldn’t want him to worry.”
“I will.”
Emma slipped out of her chair and activated the call, pressing the phone to her ear as she walked to the quiet hall where the bathrooms were hidden away at the back of the restaurant.
“Emma? It’s Drake Foster. Is this a bad time?”
“No, it’s fine. How can I help you?”
“I was wondering if you would be interested in a job?”
Emma wasn’t sure what she’d expected when she saw Drake’s name on her phone, but this was definitely not it.
“A job?”
“Yes. My father’s company is based out of New York, but we have some deals going on out here. My assistant can’t be here—she has to handle things back east—but when I’m here, I need some help. And I’ll need someone watching over things here when I’m not around.”
“You need a secretary.”
“Something like that. And I thought of you.”
“I’m honored.”
“Would you be willing to have lunch with me tomorrow so we can talk about this?”
Emma didn’t hesitate. She needed something better than what she had now if she was ever going to catch up on her bills. She was a little afraid he wouldn’t appreciate the fact that she’d never held a clerical job before, but she didn’t mention it. Instead, she agreed to be at his hotel room by one the following afternoon.
As she hung up, she found herself wondering what Dante would think of that. And then she reminded herself that he was no longer a factor in her life.
Except for the fact that he had her sister and her sister’s friend rolling with laughter when she returned to their table.
***
“The building I want to move the tenants into has been empty for more than six months. My workers have been in there, cleaning things up, making sure the place is up to tenancy.” Dante picked up his water glass and took a sip. “It should be ready in a few weeks.”
“Weeks? That seems like a long time.”
Dante crossed his legs as he turned toward Emma. “These things take time. It’s a pretty big building.”
“But it’s on our side of town?”
“Yes. Just a block or two from your building.”
Emma sat up a little straighter so that she could see Jill and Sophie over the low barrier that blocked their section from the lobby. They were giggling as they played the claw machine that was too juvenile for them to play earlier.
“They’re fine.” There was a softness to Dante’s voice that made Emma look sharply at him. He was leaning close to her, close enough that she could feel the heat of his nearness. She lifted her hand to touch him—it was an instinct, like the instinct to take a breath that he body was currently ignoring. She pulled back, tucking her hands under her thighs to force them to behave.
“You’re good with your sister,” he said. “And she clearly cares about you.”
“Yeah?” She asked, and then realized what he was trying to do. She sat up a little straighter. “You asked me here to talk about the building.”
Dante sighed as he sat back. “Each of the tenants will have to sign the new lease before they can move into the building. But, like I said, none of them have responded to the letters Rainy sent out this week.”
“Rainy? Are you sure she sent them?”
Bitterness burned in Emma’s chest as she remembered the glee she’d seen in Rainy’s eyes after she announced what Fautina’s relationship was to Dante. She’d known the woman had a crush on Dante, but it had never occurred to her how deep her crush went until that moment.
“Rainy has her faults, but she’s a good assistant.”
“I can imagine.”
Amusement danced in his eyes. “You don’t like her?”
“Do you like Drake?”
The amusement died as he looked down at his hands, a muscle popping in his jaw. “I know you don’t trust me right now,” he said softly, “but I know Drake Foster better than you. When I say you should be careful around him, I’m being quite serious.”
“I’ll try to remember that.” Emma stood as she spotted Sophie and Jill coming their way with a small, stuffed dog in Sophie’s hands. “What do you want me to say to the tenants?”
He stood too. “Do you think they would be more comfortable meeting somewhere neutral, or somewhere familiar?”
“Meeting? I don’t know. It depends on what you have in mind.”
“I normally have meetings of this type in one of the boardrooms at my office building.”
Emma shook her head. “What about my apartment?”
“What about our apartment?” Sophie asked.
“We have an announcement for the tenants of the building.” Dante turned, addressing only Sophie. “Would you mind if we invited them to your apartment to make it?”
Sophie looked at Emma who offered a subtle nod. “Sure,” she said. “Just not tomorrow because I have a Spanish club meeting.”
“Then the next night.”
Sophie agreed, standing a little taller as Dante offered to escort her out of the restaurant. Emma walked behind a heaviness settling in her stomach as she realized that Dante was the first man Sophie had allowed past her walls in a long time.
And he was going to break her heart.
Chapter 5
Emma stood in Sophie’s bedroom doorway and watched her sleep. It was late—much too late—but she was having trouble sleeping. There was just too much on her mind.
Emma walked over and checked Sophie’s CGM—her continuous glucose monitor—to make sure Sophie’s blood sugars were in range before she left, curling up on the couch as she looked around her small living room and wondered how she was going to fit a dozen families in there alongside Dante, his people, and the platters of food he assured her he would provide for the meeting. She hadn’t thought about the limited space when she suggested it, only that her neighbors would be more likely to listen to Dante if he came to their territory rather than the other way around.
She was glad Dante was sticking to the deal. She worried a little a
bout the new building, wondering if the apartments would be comparable to these. She couldn’t take an apartment with any less square footage than this one offered. She and Sophie were already tripping over each other most of the time. A smaller place and they’d likely kill each other after just a few weeks.
But, again, she had to admit that this was a much better option than the one she had before it. And with Drake offering her a job…things were really beginning to look up.
Emma leaned back against the couch and closed her eyes, her hands moving almost thoughtlessly over her legs. She could almost feel Dante’s hands on her skin as it had been that night in Maine. She could almost feel the heat of his breath, the taste of his kiss. She’d never given herself so freely to a man before. There hadn’t been time for men before. She had to watch over her sister, make sure there was always food in the kitchen cabinets even when her mother disappeared for days at a time. She always had to make sure Sophie wasn’t around when her mother was in one of those moods.
There was always someone else, something else that was more important to Emma than her own desires. Her own needs. And when Dante came storming into her life…she had thought he was just another abuser, another control freak, like her mother. He didn’t do much to dispel that assumption, not the first time he touched her, not the first time he kissed her. But then he backed off, gave her the space she needed to see something else in him. She suspected that he wouldn’t have touched her again if she hadn’t offered herself. And that confused her. That was not the Dante she had thought she knew.
But the Dante who neglected to tell her he was married—that was the Dante she knew.
Tonight, however, she saw that other Dante again in the way he was with Jill and Sophie, in the way he was careful to include Sophie in the decision to have the tenant meeting here in their apartment. That Dante was a good, caring man. She just wished that was the Dante who stuck around all the time.
Bitter tears filled her eyes. She hated that she wanted anything from Dante. She promised herself that as soon as the tenants were all secure in their new apartments, she wouldn’t see Dante again.
It seemed like a simple promise.
***
Emma rushed Sophie through her morning routine, reminded her that she had an early class on Wednesdays.
“I know, I know,” Sophie said as she discarded a second t-shirt. “Do you work today?”
“No. So I’ll be there after Spanish club and we’ll have dinner together.”
Sophie didn’t acknowledge Emma, she just pushed past her on the way to the bathroom.
“Come on, Soph, I need to go.”
They rushed out the door together, Emma pausing to lock it despite the fact that the deadbolt was broken. Again. She smoothed her hands over her skirt, feeling a little stupid wearing her one, expensive suit to class. But her meeting with Drake was less than an hour after her last class and she wouldn’t have time to change.
Emma walked Sophie to the corner, so distracted by her spinning thoughts that she missed the fact that Sophie was on her cellphone practically the whole way until just before they arrived.
“Who are you talking to?”
Sophie blushed as she shoved the phone into her back pocket. “Nobody.”
“A boy?”
“No,” Sophie insisted, but her blush deepened. Emma smiled, realizing that she wasn’t the only one with a man on her mind. And then the smile died as she realized she wasn’t the only one with a man on her mind.
“Be careful, Soph,” she said as she watched her sister rush off to meet a group of her friends further down the block.
***
Drake smiled as he pulled open the door of his hotel room. Or suite was more like it. He was dressed in a suit, but the jacket and tie were gone, the shirt untucked and partially unbuttoned, like he was a man trying to get comfortable after a long morning of meetings.
“Thanks for coming to the hotel. I wanted to meet at a proper restaurant, but I had a long night trying to hammer out one of these deals and just got back a few minutes ago.”
“No problem.”
His smile widened. “That’s what I like about you. Nothing fazes you.”
He gestured her inside. Emma tried not to look impressed by the tall windows at the back of the room that looked out over the city, or the expensive furniture that was all white and perfectly pristine, or the bar that discretely showcased crystal glasses that were probably worth more than everything Emma owned.
Soft music played—something familiar, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it—and the television was muted, but displayed a financial market ticker along the bottom. A laptop sat open on a table top, papers scattered around it. Drake’s missing jacket and tie were on the chair set before the laptop, wrinkled from hours of wear.
“Do you want a drink or something?” Drake asked.
Emma shook her head, turning to watch him cross the room and resume his seat at the table. He gestured for her to join him. She was careful to tuck her skirt under her thighs as she settled down in the tall chair that was covered in some material that she could only imagine cost hundreds of dollars per yard.
It was not her kind of hotel.
“Well, I’ll get right to the point.” Drake pulled the lid of his computer down so there was no barrier between them. “Like I said on the phone last night, my father’s company is arranging a few deals down here that will require some oversight. I’ll be flying in a few weeks a month, and during that time, I’ll need an assistant to help me keep appointments straight, take phone calls, organize materials…that sort of thing. And when I’m not here, I’ll need someone around to answer important calls and to make calls, to basically be my liaison between the deals here and me back in New York.”
Emma nodded. “Sounds pretty straightforward.”
“Oh, it’s nowhere near straightforward. But I pay well—you’ll get four times your current salary plus a pretty generous medical insurance plan. But I will need you on call twenty-four seven, which means there will be days when you’ll get very little sleep. But there will be other days when you’ll have nothing to do but sit around and twiddle your thumbs.”
Emma was still stuck on the ‘four times your current salary’ part. She wasn’t quite sure how he knew what her current salary was, but that much money would mean a whole new world for her and Sophie. And that was without the ‘generous medical insurance plan’. With Sophie’s diabetes…that would mean a huge weight off Emma’s shoulders.
She was ready to agree, but Drake wasn’t done.
“I will, of course, provide you with a cellphone dedicated to my business and a laptop to be used as you need.”
Her own laptop. That would make her class work so much easier.
“Think about it,” Drake said. “It will be an enormous commitment, but I can’t imagine anyone else I want to work with out here.”
“Thank you,” Emma said.
Her head was once again reeling as she stepped off the elevator in the lobby a few minutes later. Drake sent her off so that he could get some sleep—some, clearly, much needed sleep. She couldn’t imagine how different her life would be with a job like the one he’d just described to her. She could put money aside for Sophie’s college tuition. She could make sure Sophie had months of medical supplies stocked up instead of struggling to pay for it once a month. She could make sure Sophie had all the right clothes, the right school supplies…everything she always had to fight to make sure she had would come with ease, for once.
It would change their lives to have this job.
“What are you doing here?”
Emma looked up, shocked to see the elevator doors had opened. Rainy, a dark turn to her head, was watching her.
“I had a meeting. Why are you here?”
Rainy glanced behind her, then shoved Emma forward, stepping on to the elevator in front of her.
“How is it that you always show up at the most inopportune times?” Rainy demanded as the
elevator doors closed behind them.
“What are you talking about?”
“You just seem to know when he’s at his most vulnerable and you just show up. The day his mother died, the day his wife shows up to ask for a divorce. The day he planned the most important announcement of his career. And there you always are, ready to ruin the day.”
“You say that like I plan it.”
“Don’t you?” Rainy studied her for a long minute. “He just saved his spot as CEO of his own company. And now you’re here at the same hotel where his biggest stockholder happens to be staying?”
“And what am I interfering in now? Is he planning on assassinating Drake or something?”
The expression on Rainy’s face made Emma’s blood suddenly run cold. She studied her, took in the fact that Rainy wouldn’t look her in the eye, the fact that she wouldn’t say anything, not even a snide comment that was sure to cut right through Emma.
“Where is Dante, anyway?” Emma made a dramatic point of looking behind Rainy at the closed elevator doors. “Why isn’t he with you?”
“It’s business, Emma. You wouldn’t even begin to understand.”
“I understand that you’re the one who’s in a place where she shouldn’t be.”
“Don’t go sticking your nose in a place where it doesn’t belong, Emma.”
“Then keep your nose out of my relationship with Dante. If he had wanted you,” Emma said, moving close to Rainy even as she jabbed her finger against the button that would open the elevator doors, “he would have had you already.”
Emma walked away without looking back, her knees shaking so much she was surprised they kept her upright.
Chapter 6
“Did you know Mom gets out of jail in a couple of weeks?”
Emma glanced at Sophie, a rock settling in the pit of her stomach. “How did you know?”
Sophie shrugged. “Do you think we can go see her when she gets settled in the halfway house?”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Soph.”
