Page 7 of Hello Goodbye Amore

“YOU’RE TRYING to find something for your nonna?

That’s what we call our grandmas in Italy,” Antonello asked Ricky, who nodded seriously.

“Nonnas are really important here too, and we always treat them right.” He watched Chase, whose eyes had filled with tension that Antonello wished he could wipe away.

Hell, he had wished for years that things could have been different, and he knew that Chase’s reaction was his fault.

Antonello realized it was going to take a lot of work to get Chase to trust him on any level, even just professionally.

“Antonello,” Chase said softly, “I know everything in here is a lot more than we have the budget for. Ricky was really excited to see the bridge, and….”

He nodded slowly, holding Chase’s gaze for a second, just to see his reaction. “It never hurts to look.”

“Yeah, Guncle Daddy. We can look, right?”

Antonello stifled a snicker at the name as Ricky again pointed out the piece that had caught his eye.

It was gold with hand-enameled purple flowers on flat beads.

Antonello lifted the piece out of the window and took it to the counter, where he placed it on one of the black felt pads so Ricky and Chase could see it better.

He already knew the price because he knew everything they sold in the store.

Most of it came from their own workshops, and the pieces were one of a kind.

There was nothing mass-produced in the Glorioso shops.

“Is this the one you wanted?” Antonello asked as Chase lifted Ricky so he could see it better.

“It’s really pretty,” Ricky said before turning to Chase, who flashed his son a smile, one Antonello hadn’t seen in years. “And it’s for Nonna.”

Antonello grinned at the way Ricky incorporated the Italian and how he had Chase wrapped around his little finger. “Don’t worry. If it’s what you really want, I’ll give you the family price.”

In an instant, Antonello was transported back to college and the happiest times of his life.

He was far from home, at his college orientation, trying his best to project confidence and hide the fear that he had made the wrong decision and should have gotten his education closer to home.

As he’d waited for the day to begin, a pair of twins sat down next to him, speaking so quickly he could barely understand a word they said.

“Are you okay?” Elaine had asked him much more slowly. “You look pale.”

Antonello had swallowed hard. “Just wondering if my English is good enough. Maybe I should have gone to school in Bologna. You speak fast, and I didn’t understand any of it.”

Chase had smiled wide enough to light up his eyes.

“Don’t pay attention to us. We’re twins, and sometimes we slip into a sort of communication shorthand.

” He pulled out a notebook and set it on the long lecture hall table.

“I’m Chase, and this is my sister, Elaine.

” He held out his hand. Antonello shook it, and in an instant, he’d felt that first spark of attraction, one he knew he had to deny.

“Don’t worry,” Elaine said with a smile nearly identical to her brother’s. “We’ll watch out for you.” And they had. Within weeks, they became inseparable and as close as, or closer than, family.

“You don’t have to do that,” Chase said, snapping Antonello out of the past.

“Of course I do,” Antonello told him softly. “Freshman biology,” he said, leaning slightly over the counter.

Chase’s expression softened slightly, some of the wariness leaving his eyes until finally Chase smiled at him, a real smile that turned into laughter that carried Antonello right along with it.

Damn, that was good to see, and it gave Antonello hope that they could eventually get along and that maybe Chase wouldn’t rip him to pieces if he got the chance.

“What’s so funny?” Ricky asked, looking at both of them like they had lost their minds.

“Nothing,” Chase told him, still chuckling. “Just Mr. Antonello trying to dissect a fish, but he lost the instructions, and in the end he ended up filleting it like he was going to eat it for dinner.”

“Fish are yucky,” Ricky pronounced and turned back to the necklace. “Can we get it for Nonna?” The kid had a one-track mind.

“How about if I put it aside for you until you can make a decision?” Antonello offered and pulled out a felt bag. He slipped the piece inside and added Chase’s name and a hold note before putting it behind the counter. “Okay?”

“Daddy,” Ricky said, that lower lip sticking out.

“I’ll think about it,” Chase said to Ricky before turning to Antonello with his gaze so intent Antonello could feel him searching for Antonello’s motive. But then he held out his hand to Ricky. “Now, we should let Mr. Antonello get back to work. Tell him thank you for helping us.”

Ricky waved with a smile. “Thank you.” They went through the door, and Antonello couldn’t help following them out of the shop, watching as Chase and Ricky continued across the Arno. Once they disappeared from sight, he returned inside.

“Something catch your eye, cousin?” Lorenzo said in Italian from behind him, setting Antonello’s teeth on edge in an instant. He turned and forced a smile to throw his cousin off the scent.

“I was just visiting with an old friend.” Elaine might have expected him to call Chase a frenemy. He had heard her use that term a few times, and she had explained it to him. Not that Antonello intended to take the time to explain it to his cousin. He wasn’t worth the effort.

“She must be really something from the way you watched her.” Sometimes his cousin saw too much, but he mustn’t have seen Chase and Ricky, which was a relief.

“There’s plenty to look at today, but none of them compare to Gina here,” he added in English, flashing a smile at the beautiful woman with dark Spanish eyes on his arm, and she smiled, leaning a little closer to his smarmy relative.

Antonello wanted to tell her to run for the hills, but she seemed besotted.

“Like I haven’t heard that line before. Maybe you should get some new material,” Antonello said in Italian as he flashed his biggest smile, figuring Gina didn’t understand it.

“Look who thinks he’s funny,” Lorenzo retorted, his lips curling downward just enough for Antonello to notice.

He liked that he had gotten under Lorenzo’s skin.

His uselessness had been demonstrated more than once, including his last foul-up, which had nearly cost the firm a valued customer in Milan.

All because Lorenzo had no idea that when the customer specified Au on the order, they were using the chemical symbol for gold.

They were a metallurgical company, and they used chemical symbols every day.

God knows what Lorenzo thought, but it almost cost the company a lot of money as well as a longtime customer.

As usual, Antonello had been called in to repair the damage.

Rather than prolong the conversation, he tried to get to the point. “What are you doing here?” Lorenzo had no real interest in the family business other than what the money it could generate might buy him or using his last name to impress. Beyond that, he couldn’t care less.

“I thought I’d see if there was something in the store that Gina might like.

” He made it sound like he would simply walk in and take what he wanted for some girl who was willing to be seen on his arm.

Lorenzo definitely had a type: female, beautiful, and preferably just passing through.

He could wine, dine, and get what he wanted from them with no chance of a commitment.

The one Antonello felt sorry for was Lorenzo’s wife.

Lorenzo had no shame at all and loved being seen with pretty women.

Antonello was pretty sure that Aria was well aware of how her husband behaved.

What he didn’t understand was why she put up with it.

Antonello stepped a little closer and lowered his voice, switching to Italian.

“Sorry, but not today. You’ve pulled that trick enough that your account has been closed.

You pay full price and in cash.” With that message imparted, he figured it was time to deal with the real elephant in the room.

“Does Gina know you have a wife who will castrate you if you do anything with this girl?” He kept his voice light, but he wanted Lorenzo to know that he was on very thin ice.

His cousin needed to grow up and stop acting like a stupid teenager.

Lorenzo paled and cleared his throat.

Once again Antonello flashed a smile. “Have a good day, cousin. You too, Gina. Enjoy your stay in Florence.” Antonello waited until they moved off the Ponte Vecchio before returning inside the shop and made a point of reminding Claudio and Renate, the team who ran the shop for his family, that Lorenzo’s days of shopping on the family dime were over.

Not that either of them liked Lorenzo anyway, and he was fairly certain that if Antonello wasn’t here, Claudio would be more than happy to send Lorenzo on his way.

“Is there anything more that you need, sir?” Renate asked.

“Claudio and I can handle things.” Renate had been working in the shop for thirty years and probably knew more about it than Antonello ever would.

She immediately fussed in the window, replacing the piece Antonello had removed, and like clockwork, two couples came inside, interested in the new piece.

Antonello knew that he wasn’t needed and thanked both of them before heading away from the river toward the Duomo and the center of the old city.

To his surprise, it was a relatively quiet day. The square outside the cathedral had the usual line of tourists waiting to get inside, along with a separate line to view the baptistry and bell tower.

“But I wanna go up there.” That voice caried on the breeze, and Antonello turned to where Chase and Ricky stood in one of the shadows, with Ricky pointing toward the top of the dome. “Can we go?”