to their homes, read the conditions, take the time to absorb them and hopefully realise they were, indeed, quite reasonable.
Lorenzo was the one person who didn’t file out with the others. ‘That was unexpected.’
Scarlett drew a breath. ‘These steps have to be taken. I thought you understood that.’
‘Of course.’ He spread his hands. ‘As your assistant manager, I could have supported your cause better if I’d known your plans. That’s all.’
Scarlett had forged ahead without consulting him or asking for his support. She admitted this. Emotionally, she didn’t trust him and yet, when it came to Rosa, Isabella trusted Lorenzo. Luca trusted Lorenzo. The other staff seemed to trust Lorenzo. Could he be a wonderfully supportive assistant manager to Scarlett? Could they work together like that, despite their past history?
‘I will try to keep that in mind in future.’ In this moment, that was the best she could come up with.
Tomorrow. She would force herself to totally assess all of this tomorrow. Scarlett cast a longing glance at the door. ‘It’s, um, it’s getting late. We should be going.’
Scarlett needed to go, so she could stop being aware of the fact that they were here alone. Alone, together, for the first time in five years. She was pushing that knowledge down as hard as she could, but it was still there.
Why couldn’t she simply respond to him in the same way she responded to anyone? Only treat him as a co-worker. Her tummy was suddenly in knots and…
‘I’ll walk you to your bedsit.’
He already knew of this? ‘How do you know—?’
‘This is Monta Correnti.’ He gestured to the restaurant. ‘And this is Rosa, which is owned by Luca, who is a member of your family, which makes your presence here the topic of a great deal of interest amongst staff and patrons alike. Did you think the news that you’d moved out of Lisa’s villa and into your bedsit wouldn’t travel all through the restaurant in minutes?’
He shook his head. ‘All the family gets talked about here, Scarlett. A week ago, it might have been “The Angel of New York’s” baseball career, but your presence gets its degree of attention, too.’
Scarlett had not as yet met Luca’s sons, Alex and Angelo, born to an American woman. Her Italian family certainly knew how to keep life complicated, though Scarlett wasn’t at all sure that she wanted any time under the Rosa staff’s microscope!
‘Actually, I hadn’t thought that news would travel through the restaurant at all.’ She tugged so hard on her ribbon that it came out in her hand. Scarlett compulsively threaded it through her fingers and decided it wasn’t fair that she had dressed for success and got through a big day, only to be startled by the strength of the gossip mill right at the end of it.
‘Your nose is scrunching,’ he said softly. This observation was followed by a frown that seemed self-repressive before he quickly turned his gaze away and headed for the door. ‘It’s less than five minutes’ walk to your bedsit. I’m sure you can deal with my company for that long, despite your efforts to avoid me today.’
‘I did not.’ She had, though, and why did a tingle go over Scarlett’s skin and her breath catch in her throat at the thought of him walking her home, for goodness’ sake? ‘As for moving to the bedsit, it’s not that I wasn’t happy at Mamma’s villa.’
‘Happy to the degree that you chose to move yourself into a bedsit after just two days there? And that was with your mother not even in residence in her home at the time.’ He shook his head. ‘You left her at age twelve, preferring to move to the other side of the world and live with your father, Scarlett. I haven’t forgotten that you told me that, or of your inability to feel close to her.’
He hesitated. ‘I also hear plenty about Lisa in terms of her ownership of Sorella. Your mother’s restaurant is our key rival for business here.’
‘Well, at least this way I avoid any conflict of interest.’ Scarlett dropped her guard a little. ‘I’m sure Mum would understand. Working for Luca, I couldn’t allow that. Really, I should have thought of it before I came over here.’
‘Certainly. I’m sure your mother should understand this.’ A twinkle in his eyes showed that he could see the strategy in Scarlett’s outlook. A moment later his smile faded to a more serious expression. ‘Scarlett, this morning I said things about you—’
‘It’s all right. You explained why you made me the ogre of the piece.’
He shook his head. ‘I could have thought of a better way to handle that. Realising Dante’s situation…threw me off. Enough that it took all my attention to not let him know what I’d worked out.’
‘You allowed him to keep his pride.’
‘Sometimes pride is all a man has left.’ The moment the words emerged, he clamped his lips together.
There were shadows in the backs of Lorenzo’s eyes as Scarlett searched them. But he quickly shielded those eyes with long silky lashes.
‘Will Dante be able to move into that boarding accommodation?’ She needed to focus on that, not on her rising consciousness of Lorenzo.
Anyway, it had to be a ‘workers co-operating for the better good’ kind of affinity that Scarlett was feeling. Anything else would be quite insane.
Lorenzo nodded. ‘He did so this morning.’
‘That’s good.’ Scarlett glanced behind her to make absolutely sure they truly were alone. ‘I can get alongside him; watch him for a while to make sure he’s okay. That that horrid man, whoever he is, isn’t still—’
‘You don’t have to worry about that. I’ll keep a close watch on Dante.’ Oh, his voice was so deep, so soft.
As was the expression in his eyes as he looked at her. Out of nowhere a sense of affinity rose between them. Scarlett opened her mouth and spoke straight out of that fellow feeling. ‘I trust you to do that.’
She realised that she did. Without any hesitation, she knew she could trust Lorenzo with that. He might have hurt her, let her down five years ago, but she just knew this.
He’s a good head chef, Scarlett. Isabella had said this.
When Luca discussed Lorenzo, he’d gone even further. I have great faith in him.
Maybe it was the faith of Isabella and Luca that gave Scarlett this belief in Lorenzo. Or maybe it was what she had seen of his work practices and ethics in the past two days. But they didn’t seem to compute with the ‘love rat’ image Scarlett had carried of him for the past five years.
As Scarlett really didn’t know how to address these thoughts, she turned her attention elsewhere. ‘You said this morning that Dante had taken a key that Luca kept as a spare? That Dante used that to let himself into the restaurant?’
‘Yes. Luca had a secret hiding place where he kept a spare key in case he ever lost his.’ Lorenzo drew a key chain from the pocket of his chef’s pants. There were two matching keys on it. ‘I knew about it, but I thought Isabella and I were the only ones aside from Luca who did.
