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He shook his head with a chuckle. “Notthatkind of happy ending!”
“Okay, good to know. Anyway, what can you tell me about selling my Hamilton-Groves shares?”
“Are you sure you want to do that?”
She shrugged. “Not really, no, but I am sure that I want to buy Dad out of Zosca, and I don’t see any other way I could raise the money.”
Smoke nodded slowly. “There might be a couple of ways you could do it.” He looked up at the yard. “We should probably get up there and see everyone. Let me wrap my head around it, okay? I’ll see what ideas I can come up with for you, and we can talk about it tomorrow.”
“Okay, great, thanks.” They made their way into the yard to join everyone.
Chelsea smiled when she saw Mary Ellen standing with Cam and Piper. She’d seen Antonio off in no uncertain terms. It made Chelsea laugh that he seemed almost scared of her. Normally he could sweet-talk any woman into doing whatever he wanted—usually him—but his charms just didn’t work on Mary Ellen—despite the fact that she found him totally swoon-worthy.
She spotted Rita standing by herself. “You should probably go and rescue Laura,” she told Smoke. “I’m going to go and say hi to Rita. I’ll catch up with you both in a little while.”
By the time she reached Rita, her parents had joined her. She kissed them on the cheek and gave Rita a hug. “Thanks for inviting me, Rita.”
Rita smiled. “As if we wouldn’t. It’s been a while since we got everyone together, and I thought it’d be nice for Gene to have everyone around. You know we see you as family.”
“And you know we see you that way,” said Chelsea’s mom.
“I do,” said Chelsea. “I’ve always thought of you and Gene as an honorary aunt and uncle.” She looked over her shoulder to where he was standing at the grill with Grant. “How’s he doing?”
Rita’s smile faded. “He’s holding up. He’s enjoying coming over to Zosca and helping you out. I don’t know what he’d do with himself otherwise.”
Chelsea’s dad smiled at her. For a moment she felt defensive, wondering if he was going to make some comment about her needing the help. She felt bad when he spoke. “You know what Chelsea’s like, she’s always the one to want to help out, to find ways to make people’s lives a little better in whatever way she can.”
Chelsea raised an eyebrow at him. Was it a veiled dig at her?
“I’m so proud of her,” he added.
“Aww, thanks, Dad.” She gave him a hug.
“It’s true. I am. Just because we don’t see eye to eye on the business, it doesn’t detract from anything else.”
Chelsea smiled at her mom, who nodded. “Don’t look so skeptical, Chelsea. He brags about you all the time.”
She looked up at him wide-eyed. “Seriously?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
She laughed. “That’s awesome. You just made my day.”
“I don’t know why you’re so surprised.”
“Because of the business.”
“As I said, the business isn’t everything.” He looked up. “And how’s it going having him around?”
Chelsea followed his gaze to where Grant now stood chatting with Antonio and Smoke. “It’s going well, much better than I expected.”
Her dad smiled. “Do you think you’ll be able to do as he says?”
“Probably not.”
Her mom laughed. “I told you, dear. I think you’re both counting on the other compromising further than they will.”
Chelsea gave her a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”
