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“Happy New Year.” She stretched out with a long, contented sigh, reminding him of a sleepy kitten as she slowly woke up. “I never sleep this good in Philly. Of course, I live in an eight-story apartment building with paper-thin walls, so it’s safe to say it’s never this quiet. Between the neighbors and the traffic outside, noise is just a fact of life.”
“You ever consider moving out of the apartment, looking for something else?”
Gianna flipped to her back, yawning, as she tried to come fully awake. “I think about it, but I’d never find somewhere decent for what I’m paying in rent. Although I’m sort of hoping…”
“Hoping?” he prodded.
Gianna sat up, facing him. “Well, I haven’t told anyone this…so do you mind if we keep it a secret just between us? For now?”
Elio sat up as well. “I won’t tell anyone.”
“You know that Gio and Rafe are opening that haunted inn, right?”
Elio had been amused by Keeley’s assertion that Rafe’s grandfather was haunting the place, but when she started telling him some of the strange things that had happened since the three of them moved in there, he had to admit she might be right. “I know about their plans.”
“One of the perks for the person they hire to manage the place is free lodging in the guest cottage behind the mansion.”
“That’s a pretty good perk.”
“I know,” Gianna said. “I’m hoping to convince them to let me run it. My degree is in hotel management, but God knows I’m not using it much in my current job.”
“Don’t care for your job?”
She shook her head. “It’s been beyond dull.”
“Rafe and Gio know you well, Gianna. You and Keeley are good friends. I’m sure they would hire you,” Elio said, certain all Gianna had to do was ask.
“Yeah, but…I don’t want to just ask for the job. I want them to know I’m the right person for it. I’ve been cleaning up my resume and creating a business plan to show them my ideas for running the inn. I don’t want to say anything to them until I have everything in place. It’s like you said, Keeley and I are friends, so I don’t want to put them on the spot or make them uncomfortable by asking them to hire me out of obligation. So my plan is to lay out everything—staffing, reservation policies, scheduling, even some ideas for possible special events. I want to play up the haunted idea, and I’ve even started generating a list of names for the inn, too, since Gio admitted the three of them can’t come up with anything they like.”
“Damn. That’s a lot of work,” Elio pointed out, though he was impressed by her efforts.
“Well, I probably wouldn’t do this much if it was a usual job interview. If it wasn’t Gio and Rafe, because it has been a lot of work for a job I don’t have. I just want them to feel confident that if they hire me, it’s for what I can do, not who I am. Running that inn would be my absolute dream job.”
“You dream of working with ghosts? And I’m the creepy one for watching you sleep?”
Gianna giggled. “You’re still the creepy one,” she joked. “If they hire me, I’ll only be two years late on achieving that particular goal.”
Elio tilted his head, confused. “There’s a timeline?”
Gianna flushed slightly, which he’d learned was a tell for her. She blushed whenever she confessed what she considered one of her obsessive-compulsive quirks.
“I had a Great Life plan I’ve been working toward for the last few years. Dream job at twenty-four, engaged at twenty-six, married at twenty-eight, first baby at thirty. Of course, that’s all shot to hell now. I’d intended to use my time here this week coming up with a new plan.”
Elio fought not to laugh, but in the end, he couldn’t hold back his grin. “Yet another plan.”
She rolled her eyes. “I know everything I just said probably makes me sound like a crazy person.”
He shook his head. “No, but that original plan is oddly specific. Was there any reason for the ages you picked besides the fact they’re all divisible by two?”
Gianna picked up her pillow and swung it at his head. He dodged in time so all she hit was his upper arm. “Those ages just felt right to me,” she replied, though Elio didn’t think she sounded convinced.
Then he said something that had been bothering him for a while. “You know, eleven years is a long time to date someone. I’m curious why you were putting the engagement and marriage off for so long.”
Gianna pulled the pillow she was still holding to her middle, wrapping her arms around it. “Sam was the one who came up with the list originally. He’s an architect, and he was determined to land a job with his dream firm by the time he was twenty-four.”
“Did he?”
Gianna nodded. “Yeah. One night, shortly after Grandma died, we were lying in bed, talking about the future. He’d moved in a few weeks before that and I remember thinking it felt so right, being in that apartment with him. It was like the next part of my life—the adult stage—had begun, and I was happy.”
