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“Are you that upset about the fire?” Joey asked. “Because I talked to Aldo this morning and he really doesn’t think the damage is that bad. He said if we get the green light from the code inspector, we could probably be up and running again by the end of the week.”
“It’s not the fire,” Luca started. “Or at least not just the fire. We’d done little more than gut the place, so while the cleanup is a pain in the ass, it would have been a hell of a lot worse if we were also dealing with destroyed appliances and furniture. Shit, the place had been stripped down to bare bones—the drywall ripped out so that the beams were exposed. I kinda think that’s why the fire didn’t do that much damage. There wasn’t a hell of a lot left there to burn.”
“True,” Joey agreed. “So stop letting it ruin your Sunday. Enjoy the game.”
Luca and his brothers had all been employed right out of high school by Moretti Brothers Restorations, the company started by another pair of Moretti siblings, Uncle Renzo and Luca’s dad, Frank.
After Renzo’s passing due to a heart attack, Dad slowly began to turn more and more of the running of the business over to Luca, Gio, Joey, and Tony. Nowadays, Dad’s capacity within the company was almost exclusively in an advisory role, as rheumatoid arthritis made it too difficult for him to work construction anymore.
Tony, the oldest, had taken on the position of figurehead for the company, overseeing most of the managerial tasks. He still worked onsite as well from time to time, but as the company began to grow and take on more jobs, Tony’s days of wielding a hammer grew fewer.
When Joey had first gotten the network job, they’d all been thrilled for their brother, but there’d been some growing pains as the roles shared by four brothers in the business had been reduced to three. Joey’s time with Moretti Brothers was now limited to less than half a year, as he spent the rest of his time touring the country to film the show. He was home now on one of those breaks, so he was splitting his time between working with Luca on the restaurant renovation in the morning before heading over to help Gio at his current worksite.
Luca and Gio served as the primary onsite project managers, along with several other men who’d risen through the ranks over the years, as it wasn’t unusual for the company to be working a half dozen jobs at the same time, with at least that many more on their waitlist. Business was booming.
“I can’t believe we’ve been here nearly an hour and you haven’t touched on what we really want to know.” Miles reached for a wing from the platter in the middle of the table. “When are you going to tell us about Harper, man?”
Luca chuckled. “She’s more beautiful in person.”
“Oh damn,” Miles said, leaning back. “I’m so fucking jealous. That woman has starred in way too many of my?—”
Luca held his hand up to cut the other man off. “Spare me the details.” Now that he’d met Harper, it bothered him to think about how many guys used her as spank bank material because she was a hell of a lot more than just a smoking-hot body. “She’s a really cool person, funny and open, and my God, can she fucking eat.”
Miles and Joey laughed.
“Seriously?” Joey said. “I thought models lived on shit like celery and diet pills.”
His brother wasn’t too far off the mark. “That was true for Harper for a long time, but remember, her next career is going to be as a chef. She said cooking classes and culinary school opened her eyes to a whole new world as far as food goes.”
“Good for her,” Joey said. “Life’s too short to be hungry all the time.”
Harper would probably have a run for her money if it ever came to an eating contest between her and his second-oldest brother. Luca had watched Joey polish an entire large supreme pizza and a dozen wings on his own, and still bitch about there not being dessert.
“Agree.” Luca took a drink of her beer. “Last night was the first time we’ve met in person, but I can tell she’s going to be great to work with, unlike?—”
“Gwen Baxter,” Luca and Joey said in unison.
A couple of years earlier, Moretti Brothers had the misfortune to work with one of Philadelphia’s haughtiest, most entitled socialites. Tony had been the contractor on the job, and she’d made his life a living hell for months, burning up his phone with texts and calls that fluctuated between irrational demands in terms of the renovation to obnoxious sexual come-ons.
Luca had harbored some tiny concerns the same might hold true with Harper—not the come-ons but the demands. Regardless, he’d decided to take the risk because working with her had felt like a dream come true.
“I’m glad Harper’s cool,” Joey said. “But that doesn’t really explain why you’re sitting here like someone just ran over your puppy.”
“Harper isn’t the only person I’m working with on this job.”
Joey nodded slowly, the light going on. “Ah…Conor Russo. I have to admit, I was surprised when Tony sprung it on us that Moretti Brothers and Russo Enterprises were working on the same team for the first time in what? Seventy? Eighty years? I know there’s a tentative peace, but I’m not convinced jumping into business together is the wisest way to test it.”
Joey had been out of Philadelphia more than he’d been in it the last couple of years, so he’d been absent for a lot of the bridge building that had occurred one tiny brick at a time between their family and the Russo brothers.
“I don’t think this has anything to do with the families,” Luca said. “Just me and Conor. Not that that’s anything new.”
Joey frowned. “I don’t remember you having a beef with Conor.”
“Beef isn’t the word I’d use to describe it because the truth is, I don’t have a problem with the guy.”
“Does that mean he has one with you?” Miles asked, his brows furrowed in confusion. It was a testament to just how good a friend Miles had become, given the way he found it hard to believe someone wouldn’t like Luca.
“Apparently. It started back in high school, though I don’t have a fucking clue why. We were in Spanish together when I was a junior. Conor, the brainiac, was in the same class even though he was a sophomore. We sat beside each other almost the entire year, and I actually thought we were friends. Then we got partnered up on a Spanish project toward the end of the school year. We hung out in the library after school every day for a week ‘working’ on it.” He air-quoted the word working, which cracked his brother up.
