said, “I still say something is up with this fiancé of hers. If she didn’t tell him she’s considering staying in Italy, then there’s trouble in paradise. If she did, and he isn’t on the next flight to Florence, then I question his sanity.”
Rafe laughed.
“Seriously, Rafe, has she talked to you about him? I just don’t get an engaged vibe from her.”
“Are you saying she’s lying?”
Emory inclined his head. “I don’t think she’s lying as much as I think her fiancé might be a real dud, and her engagement as flat as a crepe.”
Rafe said only, “Humph,” but once again her statement that her fiancé wasn’t the perfect guy rolled through his head.
“I only mention this because I think it works in our favor.”
“How so?”
“If she’s not really in love, if her fiancé doesn’t really love her, we have the power of Italy on our side.”
“To?”
“To coax her to stay. To seduce her away from a guy who doesn’t deserve her.”
Rafe chopped the celery. His dreams were filled with scenarios where he seduced Daniella. Except he had a feeling that kind of seducing wasn’t what Emory meant.
“Somehow or another we have to be so good to her that she realizes what she has in New York isn’t what she wants.”
Sulking, Rafe scraped the celery into a bowl. Why did he have to be the one doing all the wooing? He was a catch. He wanted her eyelashes to flutter when he walked by and her eyes to warm with interest. He had some pride, too.
Emory shook his head. “Okay. Be stubborn. But you’ll be sorry if some pasty office dweller from New York descends on us and scoops her back to America.”
Rafe all but growled in frustration at the picture that formed in his head. Especially since she had said her fiancé wasn’t perfect. Shouldn’t a woman in love swoon for the man she’s promised to marry?
Yes. Yes. She should.
Yet, here she was, considering staying. Not bringing her fiancé into the equation.
And he suddenly saw what Emory was saying.
She wasn’t happy with her fiancé. She was searching for something. She’d gone to Rome looking for her foster mother’s relatives—family! What Dani had been looking for in Rome was family! That was why she was getting so close to the staff at Mancini’s.
Still, something was missing.
He tapped his index fingers against his lips, thinking, and when the answer came to him he smiled and turned to Emory. “I will need time off tomorrow.”
Emory’s face fell. “You’re taking another day?”
“Just lunch. And Daniella will be out for lunch, too.”
Emory caught his gaze. “Really?”
“Yes. Don’t go thinking this is about funny business. I’m taking her apartment hunting. Dani is a woman looking for a family. She thinks she’s found it with us. But Mancini’s isn’t a home. It’s a place of business. Once I help her get a house, somewhere to put down roots, it will all fall into place for her.”
Rafe’s first free minute, he called the real estate agent who’d sold him his penthouse. She told him she had some suitable listings in Monte Calanetti and he set up three appointments for Daniella.
When the lunch crowd cleared, he walked into the empty, quiet dining room.
Dani smiled as he approached. “You’re not going to yell at me for not going home and costing you two hours’ wages are you?”
“You are management now. I expect you here every hour the restaurant is open.”
“Except my days off.”
He groaned. “Except your days off. If you feel comfortable not being here two days every week, I am fine with it. But if something goes wrong, you will answer for it.”
She laughed. “Whatever. I’ve been coaching Allegra. She’ll be much better from here on out. No more catastrophes while I’m gone.”
“Great. I’ve lined up three appointments for us tomorrow.”
She turned from the podium. “With vendors?”
“With my friend who is a real estate agent.”
“I told you we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves.”
“Our market is tight. You must be on top of things to get a good place.”
“I haven’t—”
He interrupted her. “You haven’t decided you’re staying. I get that. But if you choose to stay, I don’t want you panicking. Getting ahead of a problem is how a smart businessperson staves off disaster.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Good. Tomorrow morning, Emory will take over lunch prep while you and I apartment hunt. We can be back for dinner.”
* * *
Sun poured in through the huge window of the kitchen of the first unit Maria Salvetti showed Rafe and Dani the next morning. Unfortunately, cold air flowed in through the cracks between the window and the wall.
Dani eased her eyes away from the unwanted ventilation and watched as Rafe walked across a worn hardwood floor, his motorcycle boots clicking along, his jeans outlining an absolutely perfect behind and his black leather jacket, collar flipped up, giving him the look of a dangerous rebel.
For the second time that morning, she told herself she was grateful he’d been honest with her about his inability to commit. She didn’t know a woman who wouldn’t fall victim to his steel-gray eyes and his muscled body. She had to be strong. And her decision to stay at Mancini’s had to be made for all the right reasons.
She faced Maria. “I’d have to fix this myself?”
“Sì. It is for sale. It is not a rental.”
She turned to Rafe. “I wouldn’t have time to work twelve-hour days and be my own general contractor.”
“You could hire someone.”
She winced as she ran her hand along the crack between the wall and window. “Oh, yeah? Just how big is my raise going to be?”
“Big enough.”
She shook her head. “I still don’t like it.”
She also didn’t like the second condo. She did have warm, fuzzy feelings for the old farmhouse a few miles away from the village, but that needed more work than the first condo she’d seen.
Maria’s
