Page 104 of The Boss

“I know, Gino knows. He doesn’t know how to let others help.”

“I understand that, sweetheart, but that doesn’t excuse him from keeping secrets. May I remind you he did it to you?”

I sigh. I was hoping she wouldn’t bring that up.

“Mom, I know. He grew up in a world where that was commonplace.”

She pauses and looks at me flatly. “Juliet, I know you love him, but you can’t make excuses for him. He needs to earn his forgiveness. You can’t force that. He needs to do that work himself.”

“I know, but I don’t want him to do it alone,” I say quietly.

“Sometimes people need to do things on their own to learn from their mistakes.”

I nod my head.

I know she’s right.

The lunch and welcome home party for Mateo goes well. Everyone has a great time, and once everyone leaves, I notice Gino sitting in the living room with a beer, watching a basketball playoff game.

“Hey,” I whisper, taking a seat next to him.

I didn’t notice it before, but he’s sporting what looks like a fresh bruise on his jaw.

“What happened there?” I ask, nodding my head to his jaw.

He huffs a laugh. “Mateo did that. He wasn’t too happy about me keeping secrets from Ness.”

“Yeah. You understand those secrets almost cost you your relationship with her?” I ask.

He swallows.

I continue, “I’ve been by your side for a decade, and I won’t walk away now. But you need to put in the work. Spend time with her now that Mateo’s home and not having the burden of looking for him stopping you. And don’t keep any more secrets from her. Regardless of her feelings on the business, she wants to know. You need to trust that she wants to be involved and wants to know what’s going on.

While we’re on the topic of trust, you need to earn a lot of the group's trust back. Yes, we’ll always have your back, but you still mostly did things and made decisions on your own. It took a lot of strong-arming for us to get you to involve us in decisions. If you want everyone to be a part of this business and help you build it, you need to trust them.”

“I know you’re right, but I don’t know how to start,” he replies, sounding defeated.

“Sometimes the best way to start is to listen,” I say.

He swallows again and nods.

FORTY-THREE

GINO

It’s been a week since Mateo got back, and after spending time at home with his wife and kids, he’s itching to get back to work. He practically begged me to let him start doing something, and I only agreed if Vanessa was good with it.

Striding into my office, he closes the door and sits across from me at my desk.

“Alright, since I was out of the loop for a year, what's going on with you and Juliet?” he asks, like that is the most important part of it all.

“Don’t start,” I grit out.

“Don’t start what? All Vanessa’s told me is you two are together, so start talking.” After silence from me, he adds, “I’m not against punching you again.”

I let out an exhale. “Fine, what do you want to know?”

“Everything. But start with how you two got together,” he says.