been to Mike, giving him a job, even contributing to his college education after his mother’s death, he was still not one of them. It didn’t matter how hard he worked or how many holidays he spent at their table, he would never be a part of the inner circle.
Robert and Antonio would both deny it if questioned. Not that Mike would ever broach such a subject. He was grateful to be the only non-family member in management, and he knew he had a good chance to head the West Coast operation someday. They already trusted him to handle a major part of the business.
At twenty-eight, he had no student loans to pay off, and he made a damn good salary. More than most guys his age. No question he owed them big time. But he could never shake the need to belong, to have their unconditional acceptance.
“If you change your mind about that beer, Joe and I will be down at Angelo’s.” Robert stopped at the door, checking his reflection in the glass inset, and then pulled out his comb. “But I’ll only be there until five-thirty. I’ve got a date with Melanie tonight.”
A date. Mike couldn’t remember the last time he’d had one. He’d caught a couple of movies and late dinners with Daphne from the real-estate office upstairs last year. But she thought he was too work-obsessed, and when he’d called a couple of months ago, she told him she’d be washing her hair for the next year or so.
“Count me out today.” Mike opened his middle drawer looking for chips or anything to quiet his noisy stomach. “I still have the quarterly budget to work on.”
“Screw that. Work on it tomorrow.”
Mike found an open package of cheese crackers and sniffed it. Smelled okay to him. “I want you to review the figures before you go on vacation.”
An incoherent bellow interrupted them.
Mike looked up.
“Dammit, I gotta go.” Robert threw a disgusted glance down the hall. “The old man is hollering for me. How many times have I told him to use the intercom?”
“But you’re not in your office.”
“That’s not the point.” Robert stalked off, muttering under his breath.
Mike smiled as he tore into the cheese crackers. The Scarpettis sure were a boisterous bunch, especially Antonio. He’d left Italy thirty years ago but still clung to some of the old ways, personally and in business. Good thing the company was so well established and making a lot of money. But then again, there was a downside to their fairly easy success. No one seemed particularly interested in expanding or modernizing.
Except Mike. Once he got the West Coast operation into action, he knew he could double the company’s profits. Wouldn’t that make him nice and cozy with the family?
The blonde walked past his office again, this time slowing to smile at him. He nearly choked on the stale cracker. He had to admit, she did have great legs.
Hell with it being a long time since his last date. It had been a century since he’d gotten laid.
“JEEZ, POP, that damn cigar is stinking up your whole office. Put it out.” Robert waved a hand through the smoky air. “Disgusting.”
“This is my office. I do what I like in here. Sit down.”
Robert opened his father’s window, ignoring the humid August air that rushed in. Traffic noise from the street below the three-story Brooklyn office rose to compete with their conversation.
“All right, all right,” he grumbled over the din. “I’ll put out the cigar. Now close the damn window.”
Robert gladly shut out the warm air and noise. But that was the least of the problem. His father smoked too much, ate and drank to excess and stayed out late every night, a pattern that began after Robert’s mother died last year. It worried the hell out of him.
“What did you want, Pop?” He took a chair across the old scarred desk that belonged in a junkyard.
“Your cousin Gina is coming from Italy in three days.”
“Gina?” Robert frowned. He hadn’t seen her in eight years. Not since his last trip to Tuscany. She’d happened to be home from Catholic boarding school in Milan, shy, quiet, the perfect convent-school student. “Why?” Robert couldn’t imagine his timid cousin flying across the Atlantic alone. “Not that it won’t be nice to see her, but…how old is she now?”
“Twenty-three. She’s just finished all her schooling and your aunt says she’s been a little rebellious lately.” Antonio shrugged expansively and muttered something in Italian. Robert knew only a few choice words. “You know your aunt Sophia, the drama queen.”
“Is she coming alone?”
Antonio sighed and mopped his forehead. There seemed to be more and more of it each day, and Robert shuddered at the thought his hairline would one day recede like Pop’s.
“Unfortunately, yes, and she’ll be here for a month.”
Robert started to get a bad feeling. “I still don’t understand why Gina would come here.”
“To cut loose.” Antonio waved a hand. “That’s how you say it, right? You know, get the wildness out of her system.”
“Oh, brother.”
“What’s this?” Antonio scowled. “You suddenly don’t have time for family?”
“Me?”
“Who else should I ask to escort her around the city?”
“Oh, no.” Robert abruptly stood. “I’m on vacation starting this weekend, remember? I already paid for the cruise. Two weeks. Me, Melanie, lots of sun and piña coladas. I’m not baby-sitting anyone.”
“I will reimburse you for the cruise.”
“No way.” Robert backed toward the door. “Melanie pulled a lot of strings at work to get two weeks off.”
“Roberto.” Antonio slammed his palm on the desk. “This is family. This is important.”
“I understand.” But Melanie sure wouldn’t. “I’ll only be gone two weeks. Let Mike show her around in the meantime.”
“Mike?”
Robert mirrored his father’s expansive shrug. “He’s practically family, right?”
Antonio frowned. “Practically isn’t good enough. He’s a male, and she’s a female. You do the arithmetic.”
“Yeah, but we’re talking about Mike.”
“I’m talking about hormones or testosterone, or whatever those things are.” He shook his head in that stubborn way Robert hated. It meant the subject was closed. “You will pick Gina up at the airport and stick to her like glue. End of discussion.”
“Pop, don’t make me say something I’m gonna regret.”
Antonio narrowed his dark eyes. “What?”
Panic
