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“What are you thinking?” I asked.
“You don’t want to know.” His voice wasn’t full of threat, and it didn’t seem like his words meant anything sinister.
My curiosity forced my hand. “I do.”
“I was regretting my choice to dine with the public. If they weren’t here, I could be fucking you on this table right now. Or even against the window. So many options…”
Only he could pull off a statement like that and arouse a woman. I pictured those positions, my dress hiked up and his pants pushed far enough down so he could slip his dick inside me. I’d always been a sexual woman, but I’d never been as aroused as I was with him. With Bosco Roth, I wanted it all the time. “I could always crawl beneath the table and suck you off under the tablecloth.”
He clearly hadn’t been expecting an answer like that, because his eyes widened slightly and his jaw clenched. It was the same look he wore when he was angry, but this time, it was because he was so aroused he didn’t know how to react. Stunned and still, he continued to drill his eyes into my face.
I grabbed my glass and drank my wine, licking my lips when I was finished.
He still didn’t move. His chest didn’t even rise with his breathing. “Beautiful, I love you.”
3
Cane
I sat in my office at the second winery, the fifty-acre plot of land Crow and I bought thirty years ago to keep the business growing. The phone was pressed to my ear as I listened to my grandson talk.
“And then Grandma took me to the zoo to see the giraffes. I was hoping to see dinosaurs…but they didn’t have any.” His voice trailed away in sadness.
I tried not to laugh, finding this young guy beautiful and amusing. “Keep looking. Maybe you’ll find them someday.”
“Yeah,” Luca said. “And then we got ice cream. I’m not supposed to have ice cream before dinner, but Grandma says she can do whatever she wants.”
I laughed. “Yeah, that sounds about right. She says the same thing to me every day.”
“Grandma wants to talk to you again. Bye, Grandpa.”
“Bye, Luca. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
Adelina came back on the phone. “He’s got so much energy, huh?” she said with a laugh.
“Yes, Bellissima.” I didn’t expect to have a grandchild so soon, let alone one who was almost ten years old, but Luca had become a part of the Barsetti family overnight. Bellissima and I saw him as our son’s son, not caring if he had a father none of us would ever meet. We loved him with all our hearts. It was love at first sight for me. “Having a good day?”
“Yes.” She sighed into the phone. “I just don’t want to give him back…”
“Bellissima, I’m sure we’ll babysit all the time. Carter likes to travel, and I bet Mia would love to see the world.”
“But I’m sure they want to take him with them, unfortunately. I miss having kids, Cane. I want to have more.”
I couldn’t tell if she was joking or not. “We’re gonna have a lot of grandkids. Carmen will meet the right guy before you know it.”
“I hope so. She’s seeing someone now. She claims it’s not serious, but it seems like it is. I’m never sure with her.”
The last thing I wanted to think about was my daughter’s dating life. I just wanted her to find a husband, a great guy, and that be the end of it. Once she was married, I wouldn’t have to worry about her anymore, and she could have lots of kids and be happy. “When she’s found someone worth talking about, she’ll talk about it.” My phone started to beep in my ear because there was someone on the other line. “Bellissima, I have to go. I’ll talk to you when I get home.”
“Alright. Love you.”
“Love you too.” I ended the call and switched lines, readopting my cold tone. “Barsetti.” So many people called me that I didn’t always know who was trying to contact me, so that was how I answered the phone unless it was family.
“Hey, Mr. Barsetti. It’s Tomas from Giovanni’s.”
Giovanni’s was a restaurant in Florence. We recently struck a deal to supply them wine for the restaurant. It was a new relationship, but so far, it’d been going smoothly. “Hey, how are you? I hope you aren’t increasing your shipment because we’re low at the moment. You know, with tourist season just around the corner.”
“No, it’s not about business.” He suddenly turned quiet, like he didn’t know how to continue this conversation. Tomas and I weren’t close because we’d just met about a week ago. He came into my office, complimented a picture of my family, and we started a partnership. But other than that, very little was said. “I don’t know how to say this…but from one father to another, I thought I should tell you.”
