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“Yeah?” I brightened. “Tell me about that.”
“My wife, forty-three years she give me before she pass. She leave me three kids and seven grandchildren.”
“That is sweet,” I agreed softly.
He leaned forward. “Some of them kids is spicy, let me tell you!”
“I’m sorry you lost your wife,” I added softly.
He looked away, his face softening further, before turning back to me. “I am, too. Not a day goes by I don’t thank God I had her for a little while.”
I stared at him. He was a beautiful man.
“You decide to leave or those stupids fire you?”
I laughed, and he grinned.
“Brayleigh’s been sick, so I’ve been home with her.”
I’d barely slept in two days. Technically, she was supposed to be at Lucky’s, but I couldn’t handle not being there when she was sick.
Especially after the last time.
“The big kahuna summoned me to discuss the job. Bottom line, I can’t commit to the travel demands.” I shrugged.
Travel amounting to two weeks per month, not to mention the crazy hours they expected while they weathered the changes, decidedly shifted the promotion into the con column. Eloise held my former position. There was nowhere to go but out.
Changes that could have and should have been made when the accusations against Ratcliffe began to pile up created the entire mess, and I didn’t feel inclined to pay the penalty for their neglect.
“And they can’t offer me anything else at the moment.”
“They give you good payout?”
“Yes, Giovanni,” I teased. “They did.” My smile dropped. “But they wanted me to leave immediately.”
“You have last laugh, eh?”
I tilted my head to the side. “How do you figure?”
“You’re young, but you gonna see. The time, she fly. No travel means you gonna find your sweetness at home. This is good. Healthy.”
“You’re an old-fashioned man,” I teased.
“Maybe.” He grinned back at me with a careless lift of his shoulder.
“You told me I had to take the good with the bad,” I reminded him.
“I did.” He pressed his lips together. “And looks like took you this long to listen.”
I drew back. “How do you mean?”
He patted my hand gently with his. “That is for you to figure out. But I think you getting there.”
I stood when he did and followed him up to the counter where he busied himself filling a bag with treats.
I took them gratefully, wondering how many I’d scarf down before I even got home, and pulled out my wallet.
“Your money no good here,” he said, waving me away.
