“As if you won’t be right here waiting for just that. Don’t worry. Daddy installed locks on all the windows.”
Nolan whines. I look down at him as he whines again and paws at the purse. I hit the button for the penthouse and put my key in. “Goodnight, bodyguard supreme.”
Only after I get upstairs, undress, and get in bed can I think straight. My little dogs in their beds, wearing a giant sweater that I got four sizes two large, eyes shut, all warm and cuddled.
I see those hazel eyes, I see his cheeks flushed, but his hair was longer, he was thinner, lanky and awkward and cute and –
I sit straight up in bed. “Konstantin.”
3
GIO
“Uncle Tony!”
“Gio.” He claps my back with a wide smile.
I look at the table and realize there are only two wine glasses set out. Odd. Our ‘family dinners’ have included Julia, at a minimum. Of course, I know that her mom can’t come around now. She’s been gone for nearly four years now. Almost five. It’ll be five in a month.
“Is Julie joining us?”
“Juliana? No.” Uncle Tony shakes his head. “She’s pooped out from the party.”
“Shame. I didn’t see her there.” I admit, taking my seat. Uncle Tony waves that away. He insists on us catching up.
He still treats me like I’m a teenager. I guess that should be expected from my father’s best friend. And my father made it clear that when Anthony Giovani treats you like family, you don’t second guess it. You don’t question it.
Considering Uncle Tony has welcomed me into the family and the business since my father died, I’m more than willing to accept it. I want a legacy to protect. I want a family, I want all the things I haven’t had.
But I glance to the side again after telling a story about how well things are going at work. I clear my throat. “I’m kind of surprised that I haven’t seen Juliana there. She talked about joining in on the company and working her way up all through college.”
“I know the world is changing, but the old ways have value. Juliana is lucky enough to be born into privilege. She doesn’t see it. She was given a gift. She can go anywhere she wants, she can never spend too much. She can enjoy every luxury and she doesn’t appreciate that.”
He takes another bite. “This desire to work will pass. It always does with women. She’ll move up in the ranks, figure out how much it really takes, everything that goes into it and she’ll be dying to let me take over again.”
Does he know his daughter at all? Or does he only see what he wants to see? I remember Juliana from school, determined and ambitious. She was ready to make the world her bitch and it was so damn inspiring, so amazing. I believed then that she would prove herself to her dad, that she’d be sitting as vice president by now.
Not that I’m truly complaining if I can finally beat her at something.
Uncle Tony and I finish our meal and he leads me outside. “You’re going to take over the business one day, Gio. You need to understand that as much as some people want certain things, it may not make the best business sense. I’ll teach you what that means.”
“I look forward to it.”
“Needs and sense always outweigh desire. If you want to be successful, sometimes you have to bite your teeth against the things you don’t want to do for the better overall.”
I nod once.
“I can trust you in that matter. And I can trust you to join Juliana and me tomorrow night.”
“What’s tomorrow night?”
“We are going to a banquet for the heir of the Volkov empire. It would look bad if we weren’t there. But you know Juliana. I can’t trust her around those men. She likes to play with people.”
Well, she does, but not in the way her father thinks. She doesn’t hop from man to man. She uses people for information, leaves them when she gets all she can, and moves on. Ruthless, just like her parents raised her to be.
But the next night, I’m running late. Which is next to unforgivable in Uncle Tony’s eyes, especially at an event like this. Traffic was a bitch. That’s my excuse. But when I get out, I see someone approaching a blonde woman and her two dogs.
The man chuckles. “I think that jewelry would be enough to pay my rent for a month ... or three.”