I lift my chin to avoid blushing. We head to the restaurant and I feel a ripple of nervousness in my belly. All three of these men around my father, after I’ve made two of them come? After I’ve kissed the third one?
Life should be a whole lot easier than this. If Dad would just calm down and accept that I’m a grown-up who can make her own mistakes, be with who she wants to be with, and all that, this wouldn’t be half as nerve-wracking.
But I take a deep breath and tell Max to go in and soften my dad up. He salutes me playfully. “Happy to do what I’m told ... but I’d be happier with a reward.”
“Going to ask me to smile?”
“No. I’ll just ask you to give me a little extra sweetness.” He winks.
I look at Gio and Konstantin. I need to remind them both that my dad is ...protective, but Konstantin is already wearing his mask and Gio has only broken from his work focus that one night when we were alone.
I take a slow breath. “I’m dreading this. I’m sure he’s going to have eyes on both of you and Max. You know how paranoid he is.”
“About what?” Gio crosses his arms and spares a glance at Konstantin.
“At any guy who spends more than five minutes with me without my father standing right there with us. You should know that better than anyone.”
“Not worried about it,” Konstantin says, dismissing it.
Gio arches an eyebrow at me anyway. Maybe my gaze has lingered too long. Maybe I’m just acting too suspicious. Who knows. AllIknow is that I want this to be over as soon as humanly possible. I take a slow breath and rub my hand over Nolan.
Konstantin, without breaking his stride, reaches to pet Charlie. Gio arches an eyebrow at me and I shrug. “Charlie has his favorites.”
“Just like you do.”
Well, guess I’m fucked in more ways than one.
15
GIO
Something’s going on with Juliana. She’s squirrely and she’s never squirrely. But I put that to the side since I know that the meeting with Uncle Tony is more important. He wouldn’t have called us all together if it wasn’t immediately necessary to Juliana’s survival.
He shakes out his napkin while listening to whatever Max is saying. He folds it over his lap and Juliana straightens her spine, takes a deep breath, and puts on that “it wasn’t me” look she wears whenever she’s around her father.
She sits, leaving plenty of space for Konstantin and me. Her father looks over, and notices the two heads sticking out of her purse. His lips curl with disgust. “Even at a restaurant, Juliana? I thought we’d had enough conversations about them to make it clear.”
“Daddy, they help me.”
“With what? Being around people? If that’s such an issue, maybe you don’t need to be working. I want to take care of you, will you let me do that? You can be inside unless you’re feeling up to going out.”
She looks to the side.
“It’ll be easier for you, Juliana. It might actually help you recover if you stop taking on so much at a time.”
“Working isn’t taking on so much.”
I clear my throat. I don’t need to have Juliana storm out of here before we get the information we need. Uncle Tony looks at me. “What do you think, Gio? Shouldn’t my darling daughter focus on getting better instead of worrying about things? It’s not like she needs to burn herself out right now.”
“I think you called us here for a reason and if it’s important enough for all three of us to be here, it must be more vital than this argument.”
He nods, but I see Juliana open her mouth. I discretely put my hand on her thigh under the table and shake my head once. She sucks her bottom lip with the effort it takes her to keep quiet. I can feel her tense.
My fingers gently stroke her skin, trying to calm her down. Konstantin glances at us, notices my hand and his jaw tightens. “Yes, Mr. Giovani, please let us know what we should be concerned with at this moment.”
“It seems that Mr. ... So and So.” His eyes flick to his daughter like she shouldn’t know who’s involved. “Has some friends who are also upset by my decision.”
“Uh-huh. Decision. Not blatantly going back on a contract or anything.” Juliana narrows her eyes.