Page 42 of Bellini Born

The gesture was so domestic, not something you’d expect to see between a boss and his employee.

Staring up at where he loomed above me, I swallowed involuntarily when I saw the intensity in his dark brown eyes. Voice breathy, I managed to say, “Thank you.”

He dipped his chin. “Long day?”

“No, I wouldn’t say that.”

Matteo took the seat on the other side of Serafina, and his gaze swept over his daughters before returning to meet mine. “Girls behaving for you?”

“They’ve been amazing. Bianca’s been my little sidekick all week, and Serafina is so mellow. They make this job easy.”

His husky chuckle made my toes curl. “Not sure any of those who came before you would agree.”

While I’d been witness to my predecessor’s resignation after Bianca bit her, I hadn’t seen an ounce of aggression from the little girl in the past week.

Shrugging, I replied, “Maybe the timing was right after all they’ve been through.”

Matteo leaned a forearm on the table. “Maybe it’s you.”

My breath caught in my throat. There was an implication that not only was I special to the girls, but that I was special tohim. But that couldn’t be right, could it? We barely knew each other.Sure, there was an attraction swirling in the air, and every time he walked into a room, my heart began beating faster, but that would fade once I got used to his presence.

It had to. I worked for him. His daughters needed me, and I was only here to work off the student loan debt he’d paid without my asking. In less than sixteen months, I would walk away from this family and never look back as I moved on with my life. This period in time would become nothing more than a blip, a story I told my grandkids one day about how I found myself living inside the home of a bona fide mafia boss.

“Where’smywine?”

Enzo’s voice had me breaking eye contact with his cousin and busying myself cutting up more spaghetti for Serafina.

Matteo’s voice carried an edge of annoyance. “You know damn well where to find it if you want some.”

A tsk sounded. “Make sure to remove ‘good host’ from your resume.”

“I’ll do that just as soon as you add ‘ungrateful mooch’ to yours.”

“Ouch.” Enzo hissed, and I peeked up in time to see him clutch at his chest like that jab actually hurt.

I brought a hand to my mouth in an attempt to stifle my snicker.

Matteo’s piercing gaze turned in my direction. “Amused,dolcezza?”

For a second, I was stunned speechless. He was sexy as hell when he slipped into Italian, and this was the first time it was aimed in my direction instead of one of the girls. As soon as I was alone, I would be looking up what he called me.Dolcezza. It sounded beautiful rolling off his tongue. A tongue which I grew increasingly curious about, and whether it was skilled beyond uttering those fancy foreign words.

“Summer?” he prompted, and I wondered how long I’d sat there, silent and staring.

Shaking my head as if to clear it, I regained my bearings. “Sorry. I was just thinking that the two of you fight like siblings. Or at least, how I imagine they would since I don’t have any.”

Enzo reclined in his chair with a smirk. “That’s probably because we were raised together like brothers.”

That was new information. “You were?”

He shrugged. “No moms, so our dads figured it was easier to keep us all under the same roof.”

My eyes bulged. “Wait, you didn’t have moms?”

Matteo cut a sharp glare in the direction of his cousin. “Obviously, we had mothers. Kinda hard to exist without them. It’s just that we never knew them, is all.”

“Ah.” I nodded in understanding. “I know what that’s like. Never really had a dad.” Under my breath, I added, “Pretty sure my mom doesn’t know who he is.”

After that, we fell into silence as we ate our dinner, demolishing the pasta piled high in the center of the table.