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But she would not let another man break her. She was stronger than that. It’s just that she should have known. She really should have known.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
LIGHT FILTERED THROUGH the floor-to-ceiling windows of Quinn’s bedroom, ushering in a new day. Head throbbing, she swiped at her alarm, rolled out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom for a shower. The thought of walking into that pitch room made her feel ill. The coffee with Matteo more so. If he dumped her today, she wasn’t sure she was ever going to trust herself again. She had been so sure he was the one.
She pushed shampoo through her hair. Tried to jolt her brain out of the fog it was in. But all she could do was wonder why. What part of her was so deeply bruised, so inherently defective that everyone always left? Her birth parents. Julian. Now Matteo. What was it about her that made them change their minds?
She rinsed her hair, dried herself off and walked into the bedroom, stumbling over the clothes she’d kicked off last night. Her brain on automatic pilot, she stopped in front of the dresser and reached for underwear. Froze at the glint of metal on the top of the dresser.
Matteo’s watch. Her heart jumped. He would never leave something with such sentimental value anywhere unless he intended on coming back.
Her mind whirling, she turned to the closet and pulled out a blouse. Stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Matteo’s favorite suit hanging at the end of the row of her clothes. His lucky suit. The suit he’d been going to wear to the pitch.
Something like hope sprang to life inside her.
I am not going anywhere and neither are you. We are going to do this together. Capisce?
She’d believed him when he’d said it. She’d promised to believe in him. So what was she doing? What if she was wrong? What if he hadn’t left?
I need to talk to you before the pitch tomorrow... What did that mean?
What if her past was eating her alive?
Wasn’t it time she started believing in something?
* * *
Matteo entered the boardroom on the fifty-fifth floor of Davis Investments ten minutes late from a delayed landing, with the tense stance of a man ready to do battle. He was poised to annihilate the past. To right everything that had been wrong and secure his future with Quinn.
He had gone through the presentation with Gabe. It was perfect. He had spent the flight back imprinting every detail on his brain so he could focus on selling it. If this didn’t win it for De Campo, nothing would.
Adrenaline firing through him, determination tightening every muscle with purpose, he greeted Walter Driscoll, Luxe’s COO and the new head of the decision committee. Shook hands with the others, including Margarite and Warren Davis. It wasn’t until he stopped to press a kiss to Quinn’s cheek that he noticed she was all wrong. There were big dark bags under her eyes, they were puffy as if she’d been crying and her gaze was so packed full of emotion, he didn’t know which one to choose.
“What’s wrong?”
Her gaze fell away from his. “Daniel Williams is right after you. You should get started.”
He stepped closer. “Quinn, what’s wrong?”
She shook her head. Stepped back. “You should start.”
He walked to the front of the room, pushed a button on his laptop to project his presentation on to the screen and tried to ignore how the woman he was now convinced he loved beyond a shadow of a doubt looked as if she might cave in at any minute.
Walter Driscoll nodded for him to start. He began, training his gaze on the first slide. Channeling the mood he wanted to create. Focusing on the presentation he could not lose. Heads were nodding, eyes flashing with the recognition of what De Campo could bring to the table as he worked through it—the wines, the restaurant experience, the revolutionary work Gabe was doing in Napa. But the further he got into the presentation, the farther Quinn slid down into her chair, as if it were physically painful for her to be sitting there.
Something inside him snapped. He clicked to the next section of the PowerPoint and set the remote down. “Would you mind,” he asked Walter, “if I borrowed Quinn for a moment?”
Walter frowned. “You have fifteen minutes left to make your case, Mr. De Campo. Use them as you will.”
Matteo inclined his head toward Quinn whose eyes were as big as saucers. “Join me in the hallway for a moment?”
She started to protest, then a quick glance around the room at the undivided attention the two of them were generating brought her scrambling to her feet. “What are you doing?” she hissed as they walked out into the hallway and he shut the door. “You have at least a third of your presentation left.”
He braced his palm against the wall. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“Matteo, you need to get back in there and—”
“Not until you tell me why you look like crap.”
“Where were you?”
His gaze sharpened. “In California with Gabe like my text said.”
She stared at him. “The only text I got was the one that said we needed to talk.”
He frowned. “I sent one in the morning before I left. Told you I’d be back today in time for the pitch.”
“I never got it.”
His mind whirled in a race against time. “Where did you think I was?”
“I thought you’d left.”
“Left?”
She squeezed her eyes shut and leaned back against the wall. “The first I knew my marriage had ended was when Julian sent movers on a Saturday morning when he was supposed to be in Boston watching a ball game.”
His jaw dropped. “You think I would have walked out like that? Dammit, Quinn, has this week not convinced you of how I feel? I was talking about buying houses with you, for God’s sake.”
She pressed her palms to her face. “I came home so excited to cook a meal for you. I was so hurt when you weren’t there. I didn’t get that text. I wasn’t thinking rationally. All your things were gone. Then I saw Giancarlo’s watch this morning, and your suit, and I told myself I needed to trust you. That for once I needed to have faith in someone.” She locked her gaze on his. “Because if it isn’t you, Matteo, I won’t ever have it.”
His heart contracted into a tight fist in his chest. “Do you think a confirmed bachelor starts making plans to buy a house with a woman he isn’t crazy about?”
“You were very casual about it.”
“I was fishing. Seeing what you thought.”
“Oh.” A tiny smile curved her lips. “Sometimes I’m not so good at the subtle.”
“You don’t say.” He shook his head. “You operate with all the subtlety of an 18-wheeler.”
The vulnerability staining her green eyes tore at his heart. He uttered a low curse. “You are killing me right now, Quinn. I have a very beautiful, very you rock in my pocket I was going to give to you in a very romantic proposal after this presentation to prove I love you no matter what happens with this deal. Do not make me do this now.”
Her eyes rounded. “You have a ring in your pocket?”
“Yes.” He put her away from him with a grimace. “Now if you could please wipe the thought from your head, preferably until tonight when I can do it right, I will go and try to secure our future with the ten minutes I have left.”
“I’m not sure I can do that,” she whispered.
“Work it out,” he came back grimly.
She followed him back into the room. Heart racing, he tore ruthlessly through the rest of the presentation in just enough time to get to the last slide, take five minutes of questions and look around the room. All the committee members were smiling except for the cagey Luxe head chef. He exhaled deeply. He’d done all he could. And when it came down to it that’s all a man could do. Lay down your best and hope it was enough.
Walter Driscoll thanked him and said he’d be in touch within the week. Matteo shook hands with the others, gathered his things and gave Quinn a pointed look. “Time for a coffee?”
* * *
Quinn tried not to think about the ring as she dropped her things off in her office and rode the elevator to the ground floor with Matteo. But she was walking on air and dammit, the man she was crazy about had a ring in his pocket. How was she supposed to pretend it didn’t exist?
Her heels clicked on the pavement as they walked outside, her love for this man bigger than all of it. Bigger than the vibrant city that pulsed around them. Bigger than the sunshine beating down on their shoulders, gilding everything in a warm golden glow.
Bigger than the pain of the past.
She tugged on his hand as he dragged her toward the coffee shop on the corner and dug in her heels.
“I can’t.”
He eyed her. “Can’t what?”
She pulled in a breath. “I can’t go for a coffee with you when I know you have a ring in your pocket. It is physically impossible.”
