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“Your grandfather doesn’t seem like the type to waste another person’s time with looking for a problem that doesn’t exist. And if he wanted you to know how well the company was doing, I’m sure he would have come straight out and told you.”
Roberto raked his fingers through his dark hair, giving it a tousled look. “Then I don’t get it. On the surface, the numbers all add up.”
“Then maybe you have to look beneath the surface.”
He stopped and looked at her for a moment. “You make a good point. I started with the consolidated report. I figured it would give a full overview of the business. But there are some other files. They have the backup information. The very detailed information. But it would take days for me to comb through. And I don’t have that much time before the end of the cruise.”
“You seem to like what you’re doing. Do you miss working at your family’s business?”
He shrugged, not answering the question one way or the other. “I should get back to work.”
Since she wasn’t having much success with her five-year plan, why not help Roberto? She could see how important this was to him.
“I could help you,” she said, not sure he would take her up on the offer.
He arched a dark eyebrow. “You don’t want to waste your vacation combing over reports.”
“But I want to help you. And between the two of us, maybe we can find whatever it is your grandfather thinks is important.” She paused. Maybe he was just trying to turn her down gently. “Unless, of course, those are secret files.”
He shook his head. “I mean yes, they are confidential. But I trust you. I just hate having you do something so boring.”
“You aren’t making me do anything. Remember, this was my idea.”
“Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you on this trip.”
His words filled her chest with warmth. Maybe he did want her around...just as much as she wanted to be around him.
“Wait here. We might as well work outside on this gorgeous day. I’ll just run and get my laptop.” She stood. “I’ll be right back.”
She had no idea what they’d be looking for on those spreadsheets. But she liked being able to help Roberto. It felt good to be needed. Everyone needed to be needed sometimes. And it’d been a long time since she was needed.
* * *
A few hours later, the answer was still elusive.
He knew what the problem was... Stasia.
Roberto was good at business. He was avid with spreadsheets. And he was great at numbers. But for the life of him, he couldn’t come up with the reason his grandfather had him going over these reports. There was something lurking in the figures. He was certain of it.
But every time he stared at the numbers for more than a minute or two, his mind strayed to the dark-haired beauty who for the duration of this cruise was his fake girlfriend. And the biggest problem he was having was that he was enjoying their time together. He was curious to see what it’d be like if they were truly dating.
He halted his thoughts. Was that what he really wanted? Because Stasia was nothing like the other women who had passed through his life. Those women had known up front not to expect anything long-term from him. They knew he didn’t do commitments—aside from the business kind. And he never ever uttered the L word.
He remembered how his parents would banter around the word love as he was growing up. They loved his art projects from school. They loved his grades. They loved how well he did on the polo team. They loved him. And then they were gone. As soon as the school holiday was over, they jumped on their respective flights and headed who knew where. If that was love, he wanted no parts of it.
It was like his parents used the word to make up for being absent in his life. They seemed to think if they said it enough times it would make up for everything. It didn’t. It never would.
And so the love word had become meaningless to him.
“Hey, did you find anything?” Stasia’s voice drew him from his thoughts. When he shook his head, she said, “I’ve found something but I don’t know if it’ll mean anything to you. It’s probably nothing.”
