by Natalie Ann
“Where did that come from? No one is thinking that. No one has even said anything remotely close and if they did, I’d put my fist right in their face.”
The tears rolled down her cheeks. She didn’t cry in front of people. Ever. It was either lose her temper or dissolve in a pile of tears. Guess tears were winning at the moment and she needed a fast exit.
She stood up to leave, but he beat her to the door and blocked her path. “No. Stay and talk.”
There was that firm voice of his again. Not shouting, but not backing down. A teacher to his students telling them they weren’t getting their way.
“I’ve got nothing to say,” she said firmly, forcing back the crack in her voice.
“You do. I want to know why you think that my brother—or any of my family—would think you were a whore because we’re dating.”
“Forget I said that.”
“I’m not going to. So start talking.”
His arms were crossed and she could see he was dead serious and not budging until she said something. It wasn’t like she could run with him blocking the door. They were at a stalemate and she had a feeling he’d hold out longer than her.
“I come from nothing, Aiden. I don’t have your schooling. I don’t have your talent. I don’t have your experience. I’ve been here over a month and I’m a good cook. Then next thing I know, you’re giving me private lessons and putting my family name on the menu. Everyone is bound to think you’re doing it because I’m giving you sexual favors.”
He had the gall to laugh. She had the resistance to just clench her fist and not throw a punch like he said he wanted to do…barely. “I’d like to think I was giving you back just as many sexual favors.”
“It’s not funny,” she said, grinding her teeth.
“No, it’s not. Why are you so hard on yourself? This isn’t the first time you’ve knocked your own abilities. It’s not the first time you’ve sold yourself short. I want to know why.” When she made no attempt to speak, he added, “You can be as stubborn as you want, but I can be more so. I’ll stay here all night until you talk.”
Exactly like she’d assumed. “Do you know what happened to my grandparents’ store?” she asked.
“It burned down,” he said.
“Yeah. But did you ever hear how or why that happened?”
“No. Does it matter?”
“It does to me. Maybe it wasn’t big enough news to make it to the ears of Fierce, but in our small area—our small cultural community—it was the talk of everyone. Italians talk, they gossip. This was big news.”
“What?” he said when she stopped talking. He was showing an impatient side right now too.
“My mother set the store on fire,” she blurted out. There was no way to ease into it, so might as well throw it out like the torch it was. “It was arson and she did it. She’s in jail right now paying the price for that, but it won’t make a difference because in her eyes she was justified.”
“How can anyone think they’re justified burning down their parents’ business?” She was glad to know he looked as appalled as she felt when they found out the truth.
“My mother has issues, Aiden. I don’t talk about it because it’s embarrassing. But if you asked around enough, you’d hear things. I’ve heard things whispered in the kitchen downstairs already.”
“Like what?” he asked, crossing his arms to the point his biceps were flexing under his red T-shirt.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s just talk from people who don’t know. But I’ll tell you so you do know. And that you know the truth. My mother was always a little bit of a wild one. Weak in some ways. Just a follower. She got caught up with the wrong crowd when she was younger and got pregnant. She and my father stayed together for a few years, trying to make it work. He turned his life around, but she really didn’t want to.”
“So where is he right now?’
“Who knows? As far away from Charlotte and my mother as he can be. I haven’t seen him since I was five. Haven’t talked to him since I was maybe seven or eight. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t support me and doesn’t care about me and would probably just assume I didn’t exist.”
She’d long since given up feeling anything over the rejection of a man that she barely knew or remembered.
“So your mother raised you alone?”
“Hardly,” Nic said. “My grandparents raised me with my mother filtering through the picture now and again. There were periods of time where she tried, but primarily it was out of boredom. She was in and out of trouble with the law most of her life. Theft, prostitution, drugs. You name it, she probably got caught doing it. It was an embarrassment to my grandparents.”
“And to you,” he said.
“Yeah well, you can’t pick your parents.”
She wiped the tears off her cheeks. The anger was gone and now it was just a dull ache that came with exposing skeletons in the closet of her dismal life.
She was determined to make up for her mother’s sins with her grandparents. To step in and be there for them. Work her fingers to the bone to keep the family business going. Something their own daughter should have done, but all her mother wanted was to take money from the register when she did work.
To this day, she’d never told her grandparents it wasn’t what she wanted—to be part of the family business. It wasn’t the life she’d hoped to have. But she couldn’t walk away and leave them to do it for themselves.
“No, you can’t. So your grandparents raised you. They taught you everything they knew. They taught you their trade.”
“I guess you could say that. The more my grandparents spent time with me, the more it annoyed my mother. Then when I was eighteen they talked about putting the business in my name and letting me take over.”
“That’s a good thing,” he said, smiling. She should feel thrilled that he was happy for her, but all she felt was guilt. She wasn’t ready for the responsibility back then and told them that, just hiding the fact she didn’t really want it. They’d held off longer actually doing it and she was glad it never came about, tying her down even more. Then there was guilt over that tiny bit of relief.
“Not really. I was too young and not ready. I didn’t see that for myself. It wasn’t the life I wanted. But I couldn’t tell them that. So I just kept working harder and harder. Trying to get the store in the black. It didn’t matter how hard I worked, or the changes I made, it was too much for me.”
She still had nightmares about going through the rubble of the burned store. Finding the remains of her one dream destroyed. So stupid to have left it there that night.
“You were barely an adult when they wanted you to take over.”
“How old were you guys when you took over Fierce?” They didn’t struggle like she did and it was twenty times bigger even back then.
“There were five of us. And on top of that, we all had the education and experience to do it. Not that my parents ever got out of the picture, because they didn’t.”
“I guess you’re right. It probably made a difference. It doesn’t matter though. My mother was getting desperate and desperate people do stupid things. When she found out they were considering putting the store in my name legally, she decided if she couldn’t have it, then no one could.” Looking back, she wished she could have seen the signs of that too.
“So she set it on fire,” he said.
“Yeah. It was pretty obvious it was arson, but they were trying to figure out who started it. At first they thought it was me.”
She’d never forget when they were investigating her and her grandparents. The thought of having to get a lawyer to defend them when they’d just lost everything had made her ill. She was feeling the desperation again just talking about it to Aiden.
“Why in the hell would they think that?”
“Because everyone thought I was just like my mother. My mother slept around, she got in trouble, she did what she wanted. I had just gotten out of a relations
hip with someone. A police officer’s son in the area. It wasn’t a good relationship. Not a healthy one in my eyes. He was controlling and demanding and jealous. I ended it, but he spun up some rumors and the next thing I knew, I was being looked at like some cheating whore in the area.”
“What’s his name?”
Aiden’s face had turned red. Maybe he did have it in him to attack his brother, because he sure the hell looked like it now.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s old news. The point is, his father was the one that pushed the investigation onto me and my grandparents, but we were cleared. My mother ended up getting drunk and confessing in a bar one night. If she hadn’t, who knows how things would have turned out?”
“So what does this have to do with what happened today?”
“Don’t you see? I’ve been talked about so much in my life. Looked at like a gold digger at times. Called names and accused of being a whore. Investigated for arson. I’m just tired of it. I’m so over it,” she said, crying now. She was crumbling and there was no way to stop it. Every emotion she always blocked out was just erupting like a volcano ready to blow. Pieces of her were just flying everywhere with no control.
He walked over to her and held her tight, then let her cry. “I get it now. You’re afraid everyone is going to accuse you of sleeping with me to help your grandparents out. To make something of your life, even when I know differently.” She nodded her head against his chest. “All that matters is what I believe. No one else.”
She sniffled and lifted her head. “What do you believe?”
“He believes that all those people are shallow assholes and we don’t think like that.” She turned to see Cade standing in the doorway. “And we won’t stand for it at Fierce.”
Behind Cade was Ella, Brody and then Mason.
Not About Money
Three weeks later, Nic and Aiden were on a flight to New York City. “I want to do something for your grandparents.”
“Why?” Nic asked.
“Because they just signed over legal consent without question. They didn’t want anything in return. No compensation, nothing. That’s not right.” Though Aiden and his family weren’t surprised it turned out like that, they hadn’t felt right about it either.
“It’s not about money to them. They’re just happy to see the Moretti name carried on.”
“Do you think your grandmother would be willing to come in and show us how to bake her bread and do a few other things? The bread is a big one though. We serve bread daily in the restaurant and it’d be better than being tied down to a supplier if we could produce it in house.” It’d been something he’d considered for years, but never really put much thought into it. Until now.
“You want my eighty-year-old grandmother to come work for you at Fierce?” she asked, laughing. “Making bread every morning?”
“It was Cade’s idea.”
“Really?” Nic asked, sitting up straighter. He didn’t like the look in her eyes.
“Yeah. But it’s not about putting her to work like you’re thinking.” He hoped that was what the nasty gleam in her eye meant. “He suggested if we could get your grandmother in the kitchen, then we could pay her a nice contracted fee as oversight. Teaching others, and supervising. To make up for not wanting anything for the cannoli. Between you and me, Cade and Ella are talking about drawing up a contract giving your grandparents a percentage of the sales in exchange for your grandmother’s knowledge and recipes.”
He reached over and pushed Nic’s jaw back up. “Why would they do that?”
“Come on, Nic. It’s business. Moretti’s isn’t officially up and running, but if they were, and if we bought the bread from them daily, then we’d pay for it. Not full price obviously, but we’d have a contract. Let Cade do this. It’s the right thing. Give your grandparents a purpose again, without them having to work as hard for it. Without them having to have overhead costs or worry about business nuisances.”
She crossed her arms. “Cade thinks I’m only looking for money.”
“No, he doesn’t. You heard him that day. It’s not who we are. One thing about Cade—he spews ridiculous thoughts out of his mouth at the worst time around family. Never anywhere else. But around family—the people he feels the most comfortable with—it just flies out with no thought. You should feel honored.”
“Honored that he insulted me?”
He didn’t want to spend too much time talking about Cade, but he knew Cade felt horrible and had been going out of his way to make it up to Nic any way he could. Thinking of Theresa and Vinnie was a good way to get to Nic’s soft side. Aiden was pretty impressed it was Cade’s idea, yet it didn’t seem to be going well. Or not like he’d thought it would in his head when he told Ella and Cade he’d broach the subject with Nic.
“I took care of that. He wasn’t insulting you. Not directly and he feels horrible about it.”
“Did you really ram him into the wall?”
She was almost smirking at him now. “It’s not the first time. I hope it’s the last. The punishment isn’t worth it for me.”
“Punishment?” she asked.
He hadn’t meant to let that slip. He was dying to know what Cade’s punishment had been, but didn’t want to ask anyone and no one was talking about it. Just like he didn’t tell anyone that when he’d gone home that night he knew right away something was off in his kitchen. He couldn’t figure it out by his first glance, but when he opened up a cabinet, he saw nothing in its place. All his cabinets had been rearranged.
His mother. She was one nasty evil woman when she wanted to be. He’d stayed up all night pulling everything out and putting it back together. Then, the next morning, she had the gall to ring his doorbell nice and early, as if she didn’t use her key the night before to mentally terrorize him.
He’d let her in. She gave him a kiss on the cheek, said she was proud of him for standing up for Nic, but that she never liked physical violence. Then she marched into his kitchen and said she was in the mood for crepes. He made them for her like he always did. The first course to the breakfast he’d had planned for her all those years ago when Cade ate half the ingredients.
She was rotten, but she had a way with her actions of bringing all of them back down to earth. Reminding them what it was all about. Family.
He looked over at Nic just now and thought of family. Knew that she felt the same way about her grandparents. Knew that she’d do whatever they needed. It was another common bond between them right now.
“Nothing,” he said, brushing it off. “So you’re doing good right now. Here on the plane? No issues?” He’d talk about her grandparents again at another time.
“Yeah. I wasn’t sure. I mean, it’s not like I’ve ever flown before so I didn’t know what to expect. But I’m not scared at all. Of course it helps that I’ve got you next to me,” she said, picking his hand up, threading their fingers together. He loved when she did that. Made a move toward him first.
“We never fly with Cade. Not unless he takes meds.”
“Why?” she asked.
“He has such a weak stomach. I almost feel sorry for him. It took forever for my parents to find a doctor to give him a higher dosage of anti-nausea meds that didn’t knock him out. For years we had to drive to all our vacations. Even then he had to sleep through it, or sit in the front.”
“Are you trying to make me feel sorry for him? Drum up sympathy and forgive him?”
“Is it helping?” he asked. That hadn’t been his thought, but he knew he needed to try.
“A little. I don’t like throwing up when I’m sick. I couldn’t imagine every time I got in a moving vehicle feeling that way.”
“He drives whenever we go somewhere with him. No one even questions it. We pick on him about it, but really, it’s nasty and I wouldn’t want to have to deal with it.”
“It’s nice that you guys are all there for each other. Even when you’re fighting,” she said.
“It’s more than b
eing siblings. We argue and fight. Make up and fight again. But we’ll always stand behind each other. Not for the business. Not because we’re quintuplets. But because we would do it for our parents.”
His mother not only saved his career, but she made them all who they were. He’d never let her down. Never go against her. Never do more than raise an eyebrow when she bestowed one of her hideously ridiculous punishments on him.
“I feel that way about my grandparents. They’re all I’ve ever really had. Sometimes we have to give up our own dreams to make others’ come true.”
He was about to ask her what she meant by that when an announcement came on to fasten their seatbelts. They were getting ready to land.
The moment was gone, but it wasn’t the first time she’d made comments about this not being her life. Not what she really wanted. He wondered if she’d ever tell him.
***
Nic was in the cab looking out the window at the bright lights as they sped around the city. She thought she’d be tired by now but wasn’t. Instead she felt energized. Alive in a way she couldn’t ever remember feeling before.
She worked five hours today, going in early and making cannoli only, then ran home and showered. Aiden picked her up and they were at the airport ready for their six o’clock flight. She was starving by the time the plane took off, but Aiden told her to just snack, that he’d take her to dinner. There were so many wonderful places he couldn’t wait to show her.
So she decided to put this time in his hands. Right now they were heading to the hotel, then out to eat somewhere.
She wasn’t sure what she was more excited about. Having her first ever mini vacation, watching Aiden film a TV show, trying all the fabulous food, or just having time away where she and Aiden could be an actual couple.
The last one. That was it. That was the one she was the most excited about. Being a normal couple.
Sure, it was her idea to keep this all a secret, and even though his family knew, she wasn’t ready to make it known elsewhere yet. It was too early, in her eyes. She just wanted to enjoy the time they had together. That wasn’t too much to ask, was it?
