“Or I could come to you.”
“I wish.” Luca mumbled something, then said, “I have to go. I love you.”
“Love you too.”
Ten minutes after our conversation, Lauren sent over the travel itinerary. The woman was possibly the most impressive executive assistant I’d ever come across.
The week went by in an anxious blur of vendor mess-ups and a Saturday night spent drinking in Scott’s workshop while he scrambled to source more hand-painted, white wallpaper. Sunday morning, Luca and I were seated comfortably in first class.
“It’s a thirty-minute flight. First class is a bit overkill, don’t you think?” I dug through my purse for the five-dollar gum I’d bought at the newsstand by the gate.
“No. Thirty minutes or thirty hours—we're too tall to fly economy.” Luca stretched his long legs out to prove his point.
“I guess—Aha! Want a piece of gum?” I waved the package around.
“I’m fine.”
“Are you taking any meetings this week?”
He frowned down at his phone. “A few.”
“Oh?”
“With everything that’s gone down with Tootsie, my Uncle Telly wants to talk about how . . . people are being handled. He never wanted Tootsie to come to St. Louis, so now I have to smooth things over with him and my cousin Taz.”
“That makes sense.” I paused, visualizing the family tree Rosa had given me. “So that’s Telemaco and Tazio, and Tiziana is Taz’s twin? The Adamos?”
“Someone’s been studying.”
“The wedding’s coming up, and I want to make sure I at least know your aunts, uncles, and first cousins.”
“There’s a lot of them, and most are a pain in the ass.” He slapped his phone on his lap, throwing his head into the headrest. “But I think you’ll like Tizzy. She’s the family wild child.”
“Can’t wait.”
Luca picked up my hand, kissed the back of it, and set it on his thigh. “I was trying to keep this week wide open, so we could have some fun in between you putting out fires.” Rolling his head toward me, he smiled. “You’ve been my rock for the last few months. I want to be there for you while you’re busy being a boss.”
“You’re too much. I hope I have time for some fun. Everything should go smoothly, but the more we scale up these projects, the more opportunity there is for problems.”
“I’m sure you got this.”
“From your lips to God’s ears.”
* * *
Monday and Tuesday went off without a hitch, and we were on track to finish two days early.
“I can’t believe we’re pulling this off,” Scott shouted over the noise of his workshop.
“I can. We put in the work, had the plans and the back plans, and Miranda absolutely crushed Philly.” Ashley sneezed for the hundredth time, and Malcolm’s deep voice in the background told her to go lay down. “I’ll lay down when the clock hits five. Leave me alone.”
“Be nice.” I wedged the phone between my shoulder and ear while I signed for a delivery.
“You try to be nice when you’ve got some control freak barking orders.”
Scott broke into a fit of laughter. Even Axel scoffed.
“Why are you two laughing?” Ashley sniffled.