by Lily Zante
“It’s a summer baby, so I have some time to get things ready and at least the morning sickness is over.”
“That’s good to hear,” said Ava. She’d been lucky and hadn’t suffered too much with morning sickness. She cleared her throat. “Would it help if I made arrangements for the crib to be shipped back?” she asked, seeing as they no longer needed it for proof. “Or if you like, I’d be happy to have a brand new one sent out—the proper fixed side ones that we normally sell—but I understand if you’d rather not buy from my store again.”
“I’ll need to take another look online.”
It surprised her that someone who had been as cold as Gwen Harding would even consider shopping on her site again.
“Sure,” said Ava. “And…” she paused, “I’d like to offer you a credit note to the value of three thousand dollars.” She’d pulled the first figure that came to her head. “You can purchase anything from the store up to that value. I feel it would only be right, given what has happened.”
“Does that include shipping?”
Huh? “No,” said Ava. “Don’t worry about the shipping. The shipping’s on me. You take a look online and email me a list of the things you like and I’ll take care of everything here.”
“That’s mighty kind of you.”
“You’re very welcome,” said Ava, unable to stop the smile spreading from cheek to cheek.
She hung up and examined the trio of photos she’d placed on her desk in readiness for her return. There was one of her and Nico on their wedding day, one of the two of them with Elisabetta when she was a few days old, and one of Elisabetta alone. Ava was still smiling when Nico entered.
“Guess who’s having a second baby?” she asked, getting up because she couldn’t hide her excitement.
“Rona?”
“Rona? Pffft,” she snorted as she walked over to him and grabbed him by the waist. “My sister can barely manage one baby, how do you think she’s going to manage two?”
“Us?” Nico asked, making a wild guess but she could tell by the way he said it that he didn’t really mean it.
“Not possible,” she said. “I’m being careful.”
“Don’t be too careful,” he murmured, lowering his lips to the hollow in her neck and planting a soft kiss there. It was the type of kiss that had the potential to make her toes curl. “I want to make more babies with you.”
“I want to have more babies with you,” she said, her mind starting to get dizzy from the feel of his lips on her skin. “But we have a plan, remember?” He lifted his head and surveyed her with interest. “I’m returning to work after Easter, I’m still interviewing for nannies—”
“None of them were any good?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t get the right vibe from them.” She’d interviewed two this morning and she didn’t feel comfortable about leaving Elisabetta with either of them. “It might take a while to find the right person.”
“And if you don’t find anyone by then, I’ll look after her.” He was making an effort to be supportive and she liked it. And for some reason, she liked to think it wasn’t just because Dino was interested in her business. The more she had relaxed, and the more they had spoken, the more he supported her and helped with the baby, the more she was able to finally feel secure. To not feel as if she had to do it all. He had made her see once more what she loved about running her online store.
“How can you look after Elisabetta? You’re so busy as it is.”
“And you’re not? The hotel will be open in a few weeks and after Easter everything should be starting to settle down.”
It was true. The safety inspection had taken place last week and they had the go-ahead to open. It was all systems go again; the advertising, the media blitz and the launch party.
“Let’s see what happens by then,” she said. “I’ve got a few more nannies to interview next week. Now,” she said, her squeezing his waist. “Are you ready?”
“Ready?” Nico stared at her blankly.
“We have a lunch date, and you’ve forgotten already.” She’d decided that since both of their schedules were hectic, going out to lunch at least once a week would help them to take time out, away from home and away from their offices. “My mom’s happy to have Elisabetta while we go.”
“She was in the gardens earlier,” Nico told her.
“Poor Salvatore.”
“Do you think—”
“Do I think what?” asked Ava, moving over to her desk to grab her bag.
“That’s the reason she came back?”
“You mean because she’s so obsessed by the gardens?” Ava shrugged. She was suddenly reminded of one of the reasons she’d come in today. “I need a new printer,” she said, “Over there, and also a scanner.” She turned around. “I think an L-shaped desk might be better for me, what do you think?”
“Nice,” said Nico. “Why do I get the feeling that before long, this office is going to be too small for you?”
“I also need a warehouse.”
His right eyebrow shifted north.
“But not yet,” she said quickly. “In time. When we open in Europe. Now, let’s go to lunch,” she said. “The Hardings aren’t pursuing things further and I have a good reason to celebrate. I’m in the mood for an indulgent lunch and it’s been a while since I had a glass of champagne.”
“I thought you didn’t like me to wine and dine you.”
“That was when we were dating,” said Ava, looping her arm through his. “I didn’t need for you to impress me back then but it’s nice to be offered that occasionally.”
“That Harding woman didn’t have much of a case, it sounds like. I offered to send her some things for free.”
“For free?”
“I was relieved she wasn’t going to sue. I told her she could have anything she wanted up to $3000.”
“$3000?” He almost choked.
Ava recalled her visit to the family. “For all I know, she might not even be pregnant.”
“She might not be.” He kissed her on her nose. “She might want all your free stuff so that she can sell it on eBay.”
Ava eyes opened wide.
“What are you going to do? Fly out there to check?” Nico grinned at her. “Send her the stuff and forget about it.” He made a move to leave. “Give me ten minutes,” he said. “Gina wanted to see me about something.”
“I’ll see what other new office furniture I need.”
He knocked on the door to Gina’s office and walked in. She looked nervous and he had an uneasy thought that he wasn’t going to like whatever it was she wanted to see him about.
“You wanted to take some time off,” he said, pre-empting the conversation as he sat across the desk from her.
And that was when he saw it. A white envelope addressed to him in her handwriting, lying on the desk.
“What’s this?” he asked, even though he already knew.
How had he not seen this coming?
“It’s my resignation letter, Nico.”
Of course it was. He narrowed his eyes and stared at the white envelope in disbelief. “So you want to leave?” The question hung in the air like a decaying cobweb.
“It’s been a difficult decision to make.”
“I was under the impression that you wanted time off. Could that still be an option?” He asked, his voice hopeful.
“I don’t think so, Nico,” she said. He saw from the way her mouth set that this was as difficult for her as it was for him to take it in.
“But why? What can I do to make you stay?”
“You can’t do anything.”
“Where are you going?”
“It’s—”
“Complicated,” he said. “I know. You said that last time. But what’s the reason behind it? I need to know so that I fix it or help, or do what I can.” But if she already had a job lined up then it was too late. He had increased her salary when he’d promoted her, but she had been in line for another
promotion for all her hard work as well as a bonus of some sort. He’d been too swamped to take care of such matters.
Gina looked up at him with puppy dog eyes. “My decision to leave is not a reflection on you or the Cazale hotels or the Casa Adriana. It’s my personal circumstances.”
Personal circumstances. He couldn’t really help with that and it seemed that she’d already made up her mind.
“I want to refuse this,” he said, wishing she had spoken to him first, before she’d made her mind up. It was clear from the stoic expression on her face that she had, that her decision was final. It would be wrong of him to try to make her change her mind even if that would be the right thing to do for him and for the hotel. For the first time, Nico had to do the right thing by Gina. “This is a sad day,” he said, finally.
“I’m sorry, Nico.”
“I’m sorry, too,” he said, “I’ve placed far too much stress on you. Given you way too much responsibility and I should have known better. I should have looked after you better.”
“Nico,” she said, her mouth twisting. “It is many things. Not you or the hotel or the pressures.”
“Demetrio? Does he have something to do with your decision?”
“He hasn’t been the easiest of people to work with but he’s not solely to blame.”
“But you loved working here,” Nico said, determined to get to the bottom of this. “What did we do wrong? How could I get you to change your mind?”
“You can’t. Please, Nico,” she said, “It’s a lot more complicated than that.”
“But you asked for leave, one to two months and I was happy for that.”
She looked away.
“The offer still stands,” he said, determined to do what he could to make her stay.
“But—”
“The offer still stands. What is this? One month’s notice?” Technically, as a member of management, it was three months’ notice he required.
“Three months,” she said.
It gave him hope.
It wasn’t only because the Cazale Ravenna would be opening soon and would no longer drain so much of his time, or that June, her proposed date of leaving, was a long time away, and anything could happen between here and now. It gave him time to try to make things up to her but unless he found out what the cause of her problems were, he couldn’t really do anything to make her change her mind.
“I’m not happy to accept this, Gina,” he said, “But duty makes me and in the meantime, my offer for you to take a long leave of absence still holds, if that would help.”
“Thank you,” she said.
He got up then and walked out to find Ava waiting in the lobby for him. He wanted to tell her, to share this bad news with her, but she looked so happy, and he didn’t want to dampen her mood.
Chapter 36
3 weeks later
“Beautiful,” said Ava. She was spellbound as she walked around in her high heels, perhaps not the most appropriate of shoes to be wearing for the launch party at the Cazale Ravenna. She smoothed down the front of her dress, the dark red sequins of her fitted cocktail dressed shimmering as she walked.
“You are,” said Nico, entwining his fingers firmly around hers as they wandered around enjoying the fresh, spring day. The start of a new beginning. She dismissed his compliment easily and concentrated on this breathtaking surroundings around her. She hadn’t seen the Cazale Ravenna since that first time Nico had shown it to her when the old hotel had been up for sale. But what she saw now was a completely transformed property which bore no resemblance to its former self. And as for the new spa center, and the glass tunnel connecting the hotel to it, and the landscaped grounds and gardens—they were all so much more spectacular to see than the photos and video clips that Nico had shown her. From almost ruins, he had created this. Her heart swelled with pride.
“What I want,” she said, in constant amazement as he showed her around, “is to stay here for a long weekend.”
“We can do that,” said Nico, giving her hand a squeeze as they walked around. He looked so happy, so proud, and she was happy and proud for him, for all that he had achieved in getting it to this state. She hoped that it would prosper and do as well as Nico wanted but only time would tell.
Selected people from the press where here, as were VIPs, influential guests, business leaders and partners, industry bodies and agents, as well as personal friends and family. They’d spent the better part of the last hour mixing with the business people, until Nico had pulled her away and given her his own personal tour. Andrea and Dino were here as were most of Nico’s management team. Even the new nanny, Ingrid had been invited. Ava felt completely at ease with her but Elsa, it seemed, did not. Her mother followed the new nanny around, keeping a close eye on her as she pushed Elisabetta around in a stroller. Her daughter looked like a cherub in her white cotton dress with a pink and white cashmere cardigan and soft pink baby shoes.
“Is that Bruno’s girlfriend?” Ava asked, looking over at the man who stood in the far distance near the glass tunnel with a tall and elegant red-head by his side.
“I have no idea. I don’t even know if he’s married.”
“You’ve worked with him all this time and you don’t know?” Ava asked. She was always surprised by how much he focused on strictly business.
“It’s different for us men,” said Nico. “We’re don’t jump at any opportunity to do lunch.”
“Maybe doing lunch might be the very thing you men need.”
“I could organize a ‘thank you’ dinner for everyone who worked on this project,” he said.
“It might be an idea. They’ve done a magnificent job, Nico. Seeing this place with my own eyes, being here—it makes me want to stay here. I love it. I love all of it. You’ve brought it to life, all the things you used to tell me, the garden showers, and the outdoor treatment areas. I can’t wait to have a massage in one of those.”
“I can give you a massage out there if you like”, Nico whispered into her ear. “But we’d have to do that in our bedroom, I can’t be trusted to end it on a professional note.”
She returned his smile. “I’m going to hold you to that massage later tonight,” she said, her words barely audible, but judging by the smile on his face, loud enough for him.
“That’s a promise,” he said.
They looked over to see Gina and Ines standing with a group of people. “I haven’t seen Demetrio around,” said Ava.
“He’s not here,” Nico told her. “He’s doing the upgrade in Rome and can’t make it.”
“That’s a shame.” She had been eager to watch the dynamics between this new hire and Gina.
“You didn’t get anything more from Gina, then?” Nico asked.
“No, unfortunately not.” She had been to lunch recently with Andrea and Gina but hadn’t managed to extract any more information from Gina about her decision to leave Nico’s employment. “I didn’t want to ask any pointed questions,” she said. “I left it to her to bring up the subject if she felt comfortable, and she never said a thing.” She knew that news of Gina’s resignation had wounded him deeply. He’d been so used to having her around and had relied on her so much that the news of her departure had completely blind-sided him.
Ava sensed that he blamed himself for it even though she kept telling him that there had to be more to it than work pressure. She didn’t agree with Nico’s suspicion that there was something going on between Gina and Demetrio. She knew Gina, and she didn’t think it was something as obvious as that. She couldn’t see her leaving because of a romantic issue. It had to be something deeper.
The order mix-up was nearly resolved. In a few more weeks’ time the rest of the erroneously shipped cribs would be returned to Dino’s factory. There was also a hint of potential good news in the air. Her lawyer had hinted that the Dawson’s claim appeared to be frivolous and it was highly likely that it would be dismissed but until she knew this for certain, Ava knew she wouldn’t rest easy.
Dino had forked out a fortune to have every crib shipped back to Italy and had offered to pay for the new replacements that were being shipped out. This had caused more heated debates between them both, especially when Dino had initially refused to pay for cribs that weren’t his, but after much negotiating, and stubbornly standing her ground, with the thinly veiled threat of never selling his cribs again, he finally gave in.
As a result, the loss she had projected for her business wasn’t going to be as much as she had forecast. The time and money she had spent in visiting Denver, in trying to do her best to recall the offending cribs, had served them all well, even if Dino Massari chose to conveniently forget this fact.
“Look at you!” said Andrea, tapping her on the shoulder from behind. They both turned to find Andrea and Dino behind them. This was the first time they’d been face-to-face since she and Nico had returned from Denver. They’d had meetings and conversations over the phone but the busy run up period to the hotel opening had been crazy and had prevented her from going to Montova to touch base with these two in person.
“Nico,” said Dino, acknowledging her husband. The two men eyed one another before stiffly shaking hands. “I’m impressed. You’ve completely turned this place around. It’s unrecognizable from the hotel it used to be. I’m not so sure about the location but when I come here I forget I’m in Ravenna.”
“I take that as a compliment,” said Nico. “I know Ravenna isn’t a highly sought after travel location, but I consider this to be a trial. It’s been a labor of love to get this place up and running.”
“You’ve done well,” Dino said.
“As have you,” Nico remarked. “Your situation could have been far worse, could it not?” She gently nudged him in the ribs hoping he wasn’t going to use this evening to tell Dino exactly what he thought of him.
“We’re still not in the clear,” Andrea added.
“I know,” said Nico, hugging Ava closer to him. “We’ll have to wait and see what happens.” She looked up and stared into his eyes, knowing that whatever the outcome, it would be alright. They’d find a way through it. According to her attorney, the Dawson child’s fractured shoulder might not have been caused by a fall from the crib. Child protection had been involved with that family before. It made her heart heavy to hear of such things.