Page 31 of Hello Goodbye Amore

MORNING CAME way too soon, and the last thing Chase wanted to think about was the fact that he had a meeting with Dewey first thing East Coast US time.

What he wanted to do was call in sick and then stay in bed with Tio, whose head rested against his arm.

He hadn’t left in the night. Chase smiled and checked the clock beside the bed.

It was a little before six, and he didn’t have to get up for another hour.

Chase closed his eyes once more and tugged Tio closer to him, holding him tightly.

He sighed softly, a sense of contentment sinking deep into him.

This felt right, and that both comforted and frightened him.

It was so easy to feel safe and cared for with Tio right next to him, but it scared him too.

Chase didn’t live here, and eventually he would go home.

There was also the lingering question about Ricky’s parentage.

Was Tio really Ricky’s father? He had lived under the impression that it had been Elaine’s boyfriend at the time of her death—the possibility of Antonello being Ricky’s biological father had never occurred to him until he got here.

Maybe he had been deluding himself, thinking that no one else seemed to notice.

Why in the hell did his life have to be so complicated and filled with mines he couldn’t seem to avoid?

It wasn’t like he knew for sure, but some part of him still felt like he was lying.

“You’re awake,” Tio said very softly.

“It’s still early. Go back to sleep,” Chase said as a cool morning breeze freshened the air. He didn’t want this to end.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. It’s really early, and there’s no need for us to move.

Not just yet.” He felt like they were playing the scene from Romeo and Juliet where they teased each other about what time it was just to avoid ending their magical night together.

Tio hummed softly and shifted closer. “I know we need to get up and go to the office, but we have time, and Ricky isn’t going to be up for a while yet.

” He closed his eyes, hoping to fall back to sleep, but that didn’t happen.

Chase didn’t want to miss a single second of their time together.

Tio pulled the covers up over both of them, the chill morning air cooling their skin. “I don’t want to go, but I should get home so I can dress for work.” Still, Tio snuggled down against him. “But I don’t want to.”

“Are you worried about your parents?”

Tio sighed. “I have no idea what I’m worrying about.

Business associates are not going to care if I’m gay or not.

All they want is to ensure that we deliver on time with a product they can count on.

The rest is pretty much crap, as you used to say.

As long as my father backs me, then it will not be an issue.

” He held Chase tighter, their warmth nicely melded.

“I guess I don’t know how to act. I feel different, and yet the same. ”

Chase drew Tio’s gaze. “The important thing is to act the same, because you are the same person you were yesterday and the day before. The only thing that’s different is that you are being honest about it.

Nothing else has changed. You’re the same man you were and will always be.

You’re confident, smart, and caring. You were always those things, just like you can be a hardnosed jackass.

It’s all part of the package that is Tio.

And none of that has to do with the fact that you’re in my bed rather than one of the women your mother tries to set you up with. ”

Tio chuckled. “I do have to say that if I were inclined that way, my mother tends to have good taste, but I think I would reject anyone she suggested on principle. I’ll select my own partner, and I told my father that.”

Chase chuckled. “Did he say ‘father knows best’?”

“In his own way, I think he did. He told me that they only wanted the best for me. I told him that I would be the judge of that. I don’t know if that will sway him and Mother, but I think the fact that I threw my mother off her game stands in my favor.”

“But will she be angry?” Chase asked.

Tio let out a deep breath. “I don’t really care at this point.

This is my life, and I’m the one who has to live it.

She needs to get it through her head that it isn’t the sixteenth century and I get to make my own decisions.

Besides, what are they going to do? Put my cousin in charge of the business?

Though I suspect my cousin will see it as an opening once he hears.

That man is so stupid.” Tio pushed back the covers and sat on the side of the bed.

“As much as I wish it were Saturday and I could stay in bed with you for hours, I have to get home so I can get ready for work. And you have things you need to do as well, including seeing to Ricky.” Tio turned around and kissed him hard, threatening to ignite the heat banked inside.

When he pulled away, Chase smiled, basking in the warmth from Tio’s eyes.

Then he stood and slowly began to dress.

Chase watched every movement as Tio’s pants slid upward, covering that perfect ass, and then as his shirt obliterated the glow of his chest. He lay back as Tio finished pulling on his shoes.

“I’ll see you at the office a little later this morning. ”

“I don’t know how I’m going to be able to pretend that nothing has changed.” Chase had already found it hard to act like he and Tio were simply colleagues, and after last night, it was going to be nearly impossible.

“Me neither, but we’ll figure it out. We have jobs to do, and those have to continue. I can’t get lost in thoughts about you all day, no matter how easy that may be.” He smiled and kissed him once again before leaving the room.

Chase lay back, listening as the front door closed behind Tio. He knew he had time, but there was no way in hell he was going to fall back to sleep, so he got up, showered, and dressed before waking Ricky and making sure he was ready when Bianca arrived.

“Daddy,” Ricky asked, wiping his eyes, “can we have pancakes?”

Chase checked the time and set about making his son breakfast as Bianca arrived. He gave each of them a plate, with Bianca looking at the flapjacks like they were alien food. Still, she took a bite and seemed to enjoy them.

“I have to go,” he told Ricky, giving him a kiss on the head.

“Ciao, papà,” Ricky said, waving, and Chase said goodbye too, then left and made his way to work.

CHASE WAS earlier than usual, and the building was mostly quiet.

He went to the office he was using and got to work answering the emails that had come in after he’d left work the day before.

There was nothing pressing, and he relaxed as he made up the list of things he needed to accomplish.

Fortunately they were in a quiet time and Chase was able to take a breath and get his mind around the revelations of the previous day.

Tio came in just as he was finishing. He went right to his own office and closed the door.

Chase kept his mind on his work and refused to read into Tio’s behavior.

They were at work, and professionalism needed to be the order of the day.

Still, he hoped Tio was all right and that he hadn’t had a run-in with his mother this early in the morning.

Some time later, Tio opened the door between their offices. “Everything is on schedule, and there are no issues.”

“Great. I’ll report back that we’re still on schedule and check in with the team in the States as soon as they come in to verify there are no issues on their end.

” He loved it when things went according to plan, and a good part of his job was to ensure that they did.

Chase smiled and then turned away because it was the only way he could stop himself from looking like a lovesick teenager.

“Thanks.” He began typing as Tio drew closer to his desk.

“You know, in Italy, we believe that business is personal and that we should get to know the people we are working with so that we can build trust. Business isn’t sterile like in America. We don’t cut ourselves off from it the way you do.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen that. But you do realize that I have to live with my boss, who is a real dick.

” He swallowed hard. “And I’m starting to find it difficult to keep my perspective.

” It was his job to do what was in the best interest of his company, and that was becoming harder.

He couldn’t care less whether his boss was happy, because he was such a self-centered jerk.

And the people above him, well, they let him get away with the crap he pulled.

“I see. Do you need me to back away?”

Chase paused. The thought sent a cold shiver up his spine. “No. Just understand that I might need some distance sometimes.”

A knock sounded on Tio’s office door. He excused himself and went through to his office.

“Mamma,” Tio said before continuing in Italian.

Chase didn’t understand the words, but the accusatory tone was unmistakable.

He went to the door to close it, but Tio’s mother strode into his office, turning her vehemence on him.

“What is she saying?” Chase asked, but Tio seemed completely shellshocked and didn’t say anything. “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand.” He tried to keep his voice level, hoping a calmness he really didn’t feel might deescalate whatever was going on.

“My mother is accusing you of stealing her grandson,” Tio finally said before speaking to his mother.

She yelled back, then reached into her pocket and pulled out a photograph.

She shoved it at Tio, speaking fast, pointing to the image.

“She says that your son—Ricky—looks exactly like I did at that age.” He passed the picture over, and Chase gasped, because the image in the photograph looked so much like Ricky.

“I didn’t know,” Chase said.

Tio sank down into one of the office chairs. “Was Elaine pregnant when I left?” Tio asked. The gaze that had been so warm and soft a few minutes earlier was now as cold as stone.

“I don’t know. She started dating someone else a while later and then told us she was pregnant.

She said that he was the father, and I had no reason not to believe her.

” Chase could barely breathe. “He was never in the picture once she told him she was pregnant, and she had the baby with just me there. And when she died, Elaine left a will delivering Ricky into my care. I adopted him four years ago.” Tio’s mother spoke again, rapidly.

“I know you speak English,” Chase told her.

“If he is my grandson,” she began, “then this adoption of yours can be overturned.” She whirled around and stomped out of the office.

Chase watched her go.

“Did you know?” Tio asked. “I know what you told my mother, but….” He didn’t move from the chair.

Chase shook his head.

“But you thought it was possible,” Tio accused.

Chase paused and then nodded once. “Elaine’s boyfriend was Spanish, and now that I think about it, he looked quite a bit like you.

I think now that was why Elaine dated him.

Maybe she was trying to replace you. I couldn’t have guessed, and I still don’t know.

” It was time for him to be as honest as he could.

“After that day on the Ponte Vecchio, I never meant for you to see Ricky again. I was afraid that you would recognize yourself in him. But then no one made the connection, not you, Isabella, or the other people we met. No one even looked at Ricky twice, so I thought I had imagined it all.”

“But Mother….”

“It seems she saw the resemblance almost instantly.” Chase stood.

“Look, I don’t want to cause trouble, but I’m not going to give Ricky up.

He’s Elaine’s son, and I adopted him, so I’m Ricky’s daddy now.

” Maybe it would be best if they simply left Florence and went home.

He’d think of something to tell his boss, and then he could get the hell out of Dodge.

“It’s not that simple.” Tio lifted his gaze.

“I have a duty to my family, and if Ricky is my son, then he stands in line to inherit everything—all of this. That is how things work in my family. I would have an heir, a legacy to pass everything down to. There would be no worry about my cousin trying to wheedle his way into the business. Do you understand?”

Chase understood all too well. “Yes, I do. This duty that you have—it’s the same one that you had when you left after college, the one you had when you abandoned Elaine and me.

And it’s the same duty that, if you happen to be Ricky’s father, drove you to leave him and his mother behind.

So excuse me if I tell you that I don’t give a damn about your family duty, or honor, or any of that crap, for that matter.

All I care about is my son, and I will do whatever I have to in order to keep him safe.

” Chase went to the desk and snapped his laptop closed.

He put it in his bag along with the picture of Ricky he had placed on the desk. Then he headed for the door.

“Where are you going?”

Chase didn’t answer or pause on the way out. No matter what Smithson said, it was fucking time he went home. This family duty shit of Tio’s had messed up his life before, and he’d be damned if he was going to allow it to pull his life apart again.