Catherine Fox was a client. An important one. This was no time to get distracted. Not when his family was counting on him. And sadly, odds were she’d be packing up soon enough. Catherine would never belong here in Little Italy.
* * *
“TO MAKING THINGS OFFICIAL...boss.” Luca held up his icy beer as he looked at Tony.
“Just don’t take that title too seriously, but yeah,” Dominic said. “To the new boss.”
Tony clicked his glass to theirs and looked pointedly at Luca. “Thank you.” Then he turned to face Dom. “And don’t you start getting any crazy ideas in your head. Everything’s going to be just like it has been. Well, there’ll be a few changes, but Pop went out of his way to accommodate your website design and marketing plans, and—”
“Shut up,” Dom said. “I’m a Paladino, too. I’m not about to neglect my duties. Chill.”
Their waitress arrived with their dinners, and as she served them, Tony gave his youngest brother a hard look. Dom wouldn’t do anything too crazy. All the kid wanted was to test out his natural gifts. He was a hell of a charmer, could sell almost anything to virtually anyone. Dom didn’t want to stay in the neighborhood, Tony knew, and he would do everything in his power to make sure the kid could fly the coop. Eventually. When things were a little more stable, and after Dom finished getting his master’s degree in marketing.
Tony got busy fixing his baked potato and shifted his attention to Luca. He had dreams, too. He’d make a hell of an architect once he went back to finish his apprenticeship. Their dad’s poor health had temporarily turned everyone’s life upside down.
“So,” Luca said, “what did you think of Catherine Fox’s newfound love of restoration?”
It had been a couple days since he’d met with Catherine and he’d thought about that visit far too often. “I think she’ll make the place a stunner.”
“Dad said she wanted to restore everything she could get her hands on,” Dom said. “If this plan of hers comes together, she’ll make a fortune flipping that house.”
“That’s the thing,” Tony said, as he cut into his steak. “She doesn’t want to sell it. She wants to live there. Permanently.”
Luca put down his almost empty beer. “Seriously? She’s got blond hair and blue eyes. I know some Italians do, but I got the impression she’s medigan. And she wants to settle there?”
Tony shook his head. “I thought about saying something before she gets too invested. She’s got the Masucci clan on one side and Pia Soriano on the other. Those old ladies are so goddamned determined to keep out anyone who isn’t certified Italian, it’s a crime.”
“I don’t think we have any room to throw stones,” Luca said. “Isn’t that what the Paladino Trust is all about?”
“Yeah, but we’re trying to do exactly what Catherine’s doing. Preserve what was already there. And you have to admit, Little Italy is a far cry from what it was. If she’d bought a place a couple blocks over, she’d have been fine, but—”
“Maybe she does have some Italian in her.” Dom signaled the waitress with a nod and one of his guaranteed-to-dazzle smiles.
Tony shrugged. “I’m willing to be surprised.”
“Even if she’s not, you shouldn’t tell her a damn thing until the job is done. Capice?”
“Ah, you’re such a cynic, Dominic. Why is that?”
“Because I live in a family of saps. Someone has to have a level head.”
Both Tony and Luca burst out laughing.
“What?”
“Sell that to someone who doesn’t know you,” Luca said. “Tony, I can go back and give the house another look if you want.”
“That’s okay,” he said. “I’ve got it covered. Besides, I’m waiting for George to call me back.”
“He’d do a good job. But he’s booked for weeks.” Luca shrugged. “If you want I can—”
“I got it.”
Luca was staring and not eating. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” Tony stared back at his brother. He swore to God, sometimes he wished he had sisters instead. “What?”
“Why are you... You like her.”
“Yeah.” Tony switched his focus to eating his overcooked broccoli. “I like her. She’s nice.”
Dom turned away from the waitress, who was already making eyes at him. “So if she’s not Italian, maybe she wants a little Italian in her, huh?”
“Nice,” Tony said. “Real nice. You’d better start going to Mass with Nonna. You’ll never finish confessing your sins if you live to be a hundred.”
Both his brothers laughed, and then still looking at Dom, Tony added, “By the way, she remembered Luca’s name but she couldn’t remember yours.”
Luca elbowed his younger brother. “Must be losing your touch, hotshot.”
Dom’s look of disbelief was almost comical.
Luca said, “By the way, how’s Rita?”
Tony rolled his eyes. “Look, Catherine’s interesting, okay?”
“I’d changed the subject already,” Luca said, grinning. “But if you want to talk about Catherine, then yeah, she’s very attractive, in her own way. But a little aloof. You know what I mean?”
“No, actually, I don’t. She’s very—”
Luca smiled at him.
“Shut up and eat your fish.”
Dom took a bite of his T-bone, but still said, “Hell, she’s got to be loaded to buy that house and do all those renovations. Maybe she’s an heiress or something.”
“Dad mentioned she works at the UN,” Luca said. “As an interpreter or something like that.”
Tony shrugged, ready to drop the topic of Catherine Fox. Yeah, he’d thought a lot about her in the last couple days. And she wasn’t off-putting or anything like that. He could see why someone might get the wrong impression, but only because of the way she moved. She stood and sat like a ballet dancer, or a model or something. Smooth as silk.
He couldn’t get over that damn little twirl she’d done when she’d forgotten her coffee cup. It wasn’t exactly stroke material, but it kept playing in his head, like an ear worm, but one he could see.
Which was stupid. He couldn’t afford to give her so much real estate. He had a company to run now. And Dom was right about her having enough capital to become a very profitable client. There was still time to take Luca up on his offer to take over until George was free.
But Tony knew damn well he wasn’t going to do the sensible thing.
FINALLY, THE ELECTRICIAN was gone. He’d been the last of the day crew to leave. She knew Sal’s team was working very hard to give her the house she wanted, but today that had meant moving wiring that displaced her temporary kitchen and living room. After a good deal of consideration, she’d decided not to move into a hotel until the restoration was done.
Although she was beginning to doubt it would ever start, let alone finish.
Tony had sent her the contract amendment, worded so that she’d have an out if the cost became too high.