“For our bringer of the light, our Luca,” Drea read.
“That’s the name of the man I bought the building from. He inherited the building from his parents after they died. It makes sense they wrote the bringer of the light because he was their only child.”
Drea gasped. “Oh, Leo, it’s a sign.”
“Don’t tell me you believe in that old country stuff,” I chided.
“Of course I do. This building that will birth my gallery just happens to have exposed wood withItalianwriting?”
Trying out the name, I said, “Luca Neretti.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“Luca Gabriele Neretti.”
“Yes, that’s wonderful.”
I smiled at her. “Yeah, it is.”
With a squeal, Drea threw herself at me. “Oh my God, you make me so happy.”
“Because I agreed with the name,” I teased.
“Because you’re the most amazing man I’ve ever met.” She gave me a sly smile. “And you’re going to take me from here and sweep me back to the hotel where after you make love to me, you’ll rub my feet while I watch trash TV and eat room service.”
“Seriously, after I went to all this trouble?”
“Oh, I promise when I tell everyone the story, I’ll include how you catered in the most amazing dinner by candlelight.”
Crossing my arms over my chest, I countered, “Throw in a blow job, and you’ve got yourself a deal.”
Drea grinned. “Deal.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: DREA
Another month of my pregnancy had flown by. Of course, it didn’t hurt that I’d spent every waking moment busy. Not only had we temporarily moved to Philly, but I was also working nonstop on the gallery.
Since I was at eight months in real pregnancy time, not the seven that Leo thought, I knew it was time to encourage the move Father and I had spoken about. Leo and I had taken a fully decorated apartment about two blocks away from my gallery and ten minutes from the future casino.
We came back to New York on the weekends, which gave me time to finalize the nursery. I’d decided to paint my own mural of nursery rhymes. It became quite the undertaking.
As soon as Luca was born, we would be coming back to New York. Leo would just have to make the daily commute. I couldn’t imagine how stressed out that was going to make him.
He was already drowning with the casino setbacks. I didn’t claim to know what it all entailed, but he needed the property adjacent to where the casino was going to go. But there had been so much red tape, and now he was locked in a bidding war.
Today I planned on leaving the gallery early and cooking one of his favorite meals to cheer him up. When the doorbell rang overhead, I said, “I’m sorry, but we’re not open yet.”
“Well, well, what do we have here?”
At the sound of Father’s voice, I froze. I knew I couldn’t keep the gallery a secret forever, but I’d hoped to have a little more time.”
Forcing a smile to my face, I said, “Hello, Father. What brings you here?”
“Do I have to have a reason for checking out your new endeavor?”
“While I would love to think it was out of the kindness of your heart, I doubt that seriously.”
“You’re right. I do have a reason to be here.”
