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Her sarcasm slapped his hand away, and she brushed the dirt off her shoulder. Damn it, he’d slipped up already. Keeping his hands to himself now that he’d had the privilege of touching her was going to be harder than he thought.
“Shit, sorry.”
“Let me show you the other changes.”
He tried to keep the Valenti Brothers’ mission at the forefront of his mind, but then she walked in front of him in those jeans and shattered his concentration. He was tempted to give her whatever she asked for just to bring back her smile.
Shit.
Chapter 9
Sofia satwhere she always sat, behind her desk piled with papers, trying to make sense of the chaos that had landed there while she was out at demo day on the Shah project. After a full day of filming and emotional turmoil, she’d returned to the office to tackle her day job. The influx of paperwork hadn’t slowed just because she was designing and filming now. Purchase orders, catalogs, and the day’s mail had all been tossed haphazardly on her desk. Could no one see the in-box she’d labeled and placed on the corner of her desk? The one that was still empty, gathering dust?Why do I even try?
Taking a sip of hours-old cold coffee, she winced and began to restore order to her world. She’d just gotten everything into its appropriate pile when her dad popped his head in her door.
“Hey, princess. Still here?”
“Well, these bills aren’t going to pay themselves.”
“No, they won’t. Found that out the hard way when your mother quit working.”
“I know. I remember.”
After Gabe’s funeral, Mom had embraced thecarpe diemphilosophy with open arms, determined to make the most of every day remaining to her. Sofia had stepped into the chaos left behind. Three years later, she was buried while her mother went wine tasting.Damn you, Gabe. Why did you have to leave and change everything?
If he were still here, at least she’d have one more voice in her corner. He’d always supported her ideas, even letting her paint on the walls of his tree house. True, he’d hidden her pink and purple paints, but he had opened his hideout to her. He’d recognized, even at the age of ten, that creating made her happy. She’d been counting on that understanding to help her make a space for her talents at Valenti Brothers.
If only she’d had a chance to really prove herself as a designer before the world had come crashing down, maybe she wouldn’t be spending her evenings entering data and writing checks. Her dad would have hired someone else, or maybe Mom wouldn’t have shut down. But Gabe’s death had made Dad overly cautious about spending money. It seemed to make him realize how tenuous his stability really was. Every time she brought up hiring someone else, the answer was that there wasn’t enough design business to justify hiring someone else to take over the desk duties. The catch-22 was infuriating.
Oblivious to her internal musings, her dad leaned against her doorjamb, clearly settling in for a conversation. Great, now she’d be even later.
“I want to talk to you about Adrian.”
Do not blush. Do NOT blush!
“What about him?” She surreptitiously pressed a palm to her neck.Whew, still cool.
“Last time we talked about his proposal, you walked out.”
Proposal? Her mind flashed to Adrian on bended knee with a black velvet box in hand. The image was oddly tempting, and she made a mental note to revisit it later, before pulling her wits back to her current conversation. Domenico Valenti was not one to suffer quiet long, and he was already filling her pause with more words. Clearly, he’d been saving up.
“I know you two don’t always get along, but I’m seriously considering saying yes.”
Sofia’s temper flashed. True, she’d promised to help Adrian get his proposal approved, but how could her dad keep making these decisions without talking about it with any of them?
“Dad, I know he’s been a loyal employee, and he’s a great contractor. But how would that work? We’ve always been a family company, yes, but you and Zio Tony own this place. The rest of us just work here. Zio Tony is already retired and can’t move on with selling his part of the business until we figure this out. Does he sell out to Adrian? Or does he give his half to Seth? Does that leave Seth with a fifty percent share, and me, Enzo, Frankie, and Adrian fighting over what’s left? Or is it just going to be Seth and Adrian running things and me, Enzo, and Frankie stay on as employees? Have you thought about any of this? Because if you have, I sure haven’t heard about it. Is Adrian going to step into Gabe’s seat at the dinner table, too?”
Sofia tried to keep her voice even, but by the end of her rant she knew she’d gotten fast and shrill, her emotions spiraling out of control.Where did that rant come from?
“Why do you always have to fight everything?”
“I’m not trying to fight with you, Dad. I’m trying to protect our future.”
“Jesus, Fi. Don’t overreact.”
“You want to take what I thought was my inheritance, what I thought I was working to build and expand as a family legacy, what I sacrificed my dreams for, and sell it without a thought to the details, and I’m overreacting?”
“What have you sacrificed, Sofia? You sit here in this office pushing papers and signing checks. You’ve got it easy. Adrian understands what it means to sacrifice to build something that lasts.”
