Even I had to pinch myself.
I tried not to admit it to myself but I knew what time Sal’s plane was supposed to land in Chicago. I tried not to watch the clock yet found myself glancing at it every ten minutes. When I didn’t hear from him for a few hours I tried not to let it bother me.
He had a big meeting the next day so he probably had to prepare for it. I resigned myself to a quiet evening at home. I’d come to realize that alone didn’t have to mean lonely.
Then my phone rang.
I didn’t recognize the number so I considered ignoring the call. Then I realized I’d never put Sal’s number into my phone.
“Hello,” I answered on the fifth ring hoping it hadn’t already gone to voicemail.
“I didn’t think you were going to answer.”
My body turned into a pliable mass at the sound of his deep voice. I missed him already.
“Well someone didn’t give me his phone number, and I don’t always answer calls from unknown callers. It can get a girl in trouble.” I leaned back onto the couch, sinking into its comfort so I could talk to him as long as he could stay on the phone.
“I didn’t?”
“Nope.” The tapping of keys on a computer dotted the background then my phone dinged in my ear like a text had come in. “What did you do?” Instead of waiting for an answer, I pulled the phone from my ear. He’d sent me a message with his cell number, work number, email, and his Skype info. Shaking my head, I went back to the phone call. “You know you’re crazy, right?”
“I’m vaguely aware.” He chuckled in my ear. “I just want you to be able to get a hold of me whenever you need to. That’s something boyfriends do, right?”
“The good ones.”
“Then I’m ahead of the game now.”
We talked for almost an hour even though we’d just seen each other that morning. I would’ve stayed on longer with him but we both had work in the morning.
I went to bed that night with Sal DeLuca on the mind.
Chapter Twelve
Work got busy, like insanely busy, but I loved every minute of the day. The delivery aspect of the business was so natural that it almost ran itself, however, having people look to me for answers and having the extra responsibility was something I didn’t know I was craving after I graduated. But I was. I wanted responsibility.
The guys we hired, both for delivery and the kitchen, were fantastic. They fit in with everyone else though Joe and Gio grumped around about the ‘kids’ not knowing what they were doing. I couldn’t help but laugh every time Gio complained about “one of the kids”. He sounded just like Joe. Maybe those two spent too much time together.
First week in the books and smooth as hell. An added benefit of working at Romano’s was the opportunity to harass Gio about sounding like an old man.
But our big test would be the first weekend.
Sal sent me a text asking me to set up a Skype account so we could see each other while we talked. More like actually being together. I tried to figure out how to set the account up but my laptop would not cooperate with me. But I also was not tech savvy at all. I let him know I wouldn’t be able to keep our ‘date’ for that night but he said to take the computer to Gio.
Which I did.
But jerk face didn’t want to help me out at first. In the back of my mind, I hoped he was just giving me a hard time otherwise I was going to turn Bianca loose on him. I wasn’t asking for much.
“Oh come on, Gio, you know you can do it.” Bianca prodded him.
“Sure I can. My hands are magical.”
Bianca snorted.
“But the question is do I want to?”
Bianca and I looked at each other, smiled, then turned back to him with a resounding “Yes” at the same time.
He laughed it off then gave my best friend a kiss goodbye before she went to the restaurant to do some paperwork, leaving him and me alone.
Not something that happened very often.
Gio grabbed my laptop from me, flopped down onto the couch, and went to work.
“If you knew you were going to fix Skype anyway why did you give us a hard time?” I sat on the fluffy chair closest to me and pulled my knees up to my chin.
“Because my nuts still hurt,” he said without even a glance at me. I’d punched him in his man area one time because he’d broken my best friends’ heart. He still loved to throw it in my face though.
“You deserved that and now I know just how much you deserved it. If I’d known the whole story then, you still wouldn’t be walking right.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered under his breath.
“So, I’m going to ask you something, and Sal told me you guys don’t discuss each other in regards to what you went through but I have to ask.” I took a deep breath and couldn’t help but notice that everything about Gio stiffened. He kept working on the computer but his body turned rigid. His posture was straighter, his fingers moved across the keyboard slower. “Why does he have more guilt than you do?”
“He doesn’t.” Gio sighed. “He just deals with it differently.”
“No, he definitely does. Or maybe it’s shame.”
“Ok.” Gio shifted slightly, still wouldn’t look me in the eye while he continued typing. “I’m going to break our rule this one time, Bailey. Once. That’s it. Got it?”
I nodded much more aggressively than necessary.
“I’m serious, Bailey, and you fucking better not tell Sal I told you anything.”
“Got it.”
“You don’t know this unless he tells you. Understand?” His eyes burned into mine with the fire of ten thousand suns. I thought he might just be able to ignite me right there on his couch.
This was Gio times ten.
He’d never been more serious with me.
“Gio. I promise. I just want to know what I’m working against.”
“Ok.” He sighed again. “There are a few reasons that Sal had things worse than I did. I mean, we were both required to do the same thing. But… ”
Gio paused to take a big drink of his water before returning to the distraction in front of him. As if he wasn’t looking at me then he wouldn’t really be betraying any promises, spoken or not.
“First, Sal is older than me by a few months so he was kind of the guinea pig in the beginning. His parents ‘encouraged’ him to start… ” he swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple strained against the skin covering his throat, “start honing his skills when he was fifteen. Things didn’t go smoothly, and they found waiting until we were a little older would be better. You get what I’m saying?”
“I think so.” If what he was saying that Sal’s parents made him lose his virginity at fifteen so he could be ‘good enough’ to serve their purposes, which I was fairly certain was exactly what he was saying.
My stomach clenched and I felt like throwing up.
“Second, my assignments pretty much revolved around daughters and granddaughters.” He visibly flinched because Bianca fell in there. “So did his except for him it was once… the owner’s wife. He broke that marriage up, so they’d have to sell the place to settle the divorce. That fucked him up pretty bad.”
“Yeah, that would do it.” There wasn’t any judgment behind my words, but I felt terrible for them all. “Is that it?”
“The only other thing I can think of is that when the shit hit the fan, I had Bianca. He’s been flapping in the wind alone for months trying to keep the company from collapsing. I do what I can from here but it’s not the same.”
“And there’s nothing that can be done about that?”
“He’s been thinking about moving here but I think you already knew that. We could run Trinity together from here which means I could take some of the work off his shoulders. I just can’t… go back to living there.” Gio stopped and shook his head. “Anyway, I already had someone I loved and who loved me. He’s never had that. Neither has Gemma. Having Bianca made standing up to my parents easier.”
With a few last clicks, Gio shut the top on my computer. “All set. You shouldn’t have any more trouble.” He held the laptop out to me. “You can Skype sex to your heart’s desire.”
“Ugh.” I scoffed. “That’s not why we want the thing to work.”
He chuckled. “Bailey, I don’t care. Whatever makes Sal happy.”
Working on instinct, I did something I’d never done before and probably never thought I would. I leaned in and wrapped my arms around Gio, pulling him down for a big hug. Seemed like the thing to do but my doing that surprised him as much as me.
A full two seconds later, he hugged me back and we released each other at the same time. Any longer would’ve just been weird.
“Thanks.” I took the laptop back as I stepped away from him. Gio and I didn’t hang out alone but honestly, after that talk, I kind of felt like we could. “And next time you deserve a punch to the junk, I’ll give you a pass.”
“I will definitely hold you to that.” He laughed as he walked me to the door.
That night at nine, as pre-arranged, I got comfortable on the couch, leaning against the arm with the laptop on my lap and chose Sal’s contact on the Skype list.
“Hey.” He smiled, sort of. He had a towel over his head, rubbing water from his hair as if he had just stepped out of the shower which dear lord he had. The band at the top of the shorts hung so low on his hips that the wrong movement and nothing would be between my eyes and the suit he was born in. “It works.” He tossed the towel aside. Messy just out of the shower hair was my new favorite on him.
“Yup. Apparently Gio does have magic hands.” We both chuckled at Gio’s words that I’d repeated. “You know… this is the first time I’ve seen you without a shirt on.” Thankfully, I was somehow able to control myself and didn’t have to wipe any drool away.
“I can grab one.” He smirked in this sexy, cocky sort of way.
This new playful, sexy side of him did something to my insides. Created a mushy warmth that I couldn’t ignore. There was an extra thrill in the fact that I was the only person who’d ever seen this side of him.
“If you do I’m disconnecting.”
His head fell back with another laugh.
My eyes greedily roamed every inch I could see. The man was beautiful and I couldn’t help myself. “Hey, you don’t have any tattoos?”
“This surprises you?”
“Well, Gio is covered in them so I kind of assumed you’d have some, too. I don’t know why.” Admittedly, I sort of hoped he would have at least one. I’m not ashamed to say that I found tattoos kind of hot but the absence in no way changed my budding feelings for him.
“I have a couple.” He admitted.
My eyes grew wide then scanned everywhere I could see again in case I somehow missed something.
Nothing.
All that covered him was olive toned skin that looked like it might feel like silk and hard muscle. The downside of being on the computer was that I definitely couldn’t reach out and touch him whenever I wanted to.
“Where?” I demanded. The force of my tone surprised even me. He shrugged with a smirk. “Sal, I have to know.”
“Couple on my back, one on my side.”
My teeth worked on the corner of my lips as I thought about what he said.
A big grin sat firmly on his face. I’d guess I looked a little crazy because that’s sort of how I felt on the inside. “What?”
“I’m trying to decide if I’m going to make you show me now or if I want to wait until you’re here in person. It’s a tough decision.”
I thought for another moment but knew myself better than that. No way could I wait. Instead, I twirled my finger in the air telling him to turn.
He smiled and shook his head like he couldn’t believe I was making him do this.
Slowly he turned and lifted his right arm to expose the most beautiful script over his ribs but I couldn’t make out the words. I cleared my throat so he’d know to keep moving. I couldn’t trust my voice right then.
Sal stopped when his back was fully in view. Once I could get past the strong, broad shoulders in front of me, I was able to see the tattoo on his back right between his shoulder blades. It looked like a knot of some kind.
On one shoulder, there was a fist-sized geometric pattern. I really needed to get a better look at all of them.
I sighed.
Looking at his back and him letting me look made me want to unleash a cartoon character’s eye bulge along with the entire tongue hanging out of my mouth but decided that might spook him.
“Sexy.” I cleared my throat again and decided to move the conversation along. “So how’s work?”
Sal sat back down and told me about how he’d spent the week so far. I wanted to hear about everything he did if for no other reason than he wanted to tell me. But I didn’t understand most of what he said because I wasn’t a business major.
Once he finished, he wanted to hear more about the restaurant. I’d already told him almost everything, still, he wanted more. Since I was so excited about the expansion, I repeated my stories complete with exuberant hand gestures and the enthusiasm I felt inside.
When I yawned, I tried to carefully hide behind my hand and glanced at the clock. It was only eleven, still early. Yet I was yawning like a geriatric.
I was either getting old or all the work was catching up with me.
“You should go to bed,” he said.
My eyelids popped open to see him bent over with his chin on his folded hands watching me. Maybe the yawn hadn’t been hidden at all. Didn’t matter. No one could miss the fact that the last time I blinked, my eyes stayed shut just a little longer than normal.
“I’m fine.” I adjusted myself on the couch to prove I wasn’t falling asleep.
“Bailey, you’re tired. You just almost fell asleep. Which means one of two things. Either I’m very boring which I know isn’t true or you’re really tired. Go to bed. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
“Ok,” I said then pouted but made no move to disconnect. “So, goodnight then.”
“Night, Bailey.”
We both just kind of looked at each other through the screen. Then he, obviously the stronger of the two of us, gave me a little smile, shook his head, and disconnected.
Chapter Thirteen
The next two weeks moved too quickly.
The expansion went smoother than anyone could’ve predicted, and I was pretty proud of what we accomplished in such a short time. Bianca and I worked well together. But I wasn’t surprised by that and I didn’t think she was either. This expansion had to be a success otherwise all that work was a waste and I would’ve been a walking zombie for no reason.
I couldn’t let that happen.
Sal and I talked every single night but had only been able to Skype once a week since we both had these stupid grown-up responsibilities and some nights I collapsed early without even making it into bed.
On the weekends, I worked nights so that I was there to supervise the startup. Bianca was there most of them, too but she was busy with the main restaurant as well. I tried to take as much off her plate as I could and Gio pushed her out of the restaurant several times only for him to take an extra shift in the kitchen so she could go home and rest.
One night Gio blew my mind, though really his actions shouldn’t have. I was in the delivery kitchen trying to help them catch up. We were running an hour and a half on delivery which was unacceptable. Then Gio came in and tried to push me out.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I asked him in contempt. Seriously. His hands were on my shoulders as he literally pushed me toward the break room.
“You’re going home,” he said as if the decision had already been made.
“The hell I am. Do you know how far behind they are?”
“Yeah, I do. I’m going to stay until delivery’s caught up.”
“Huh?” His words made sense and yet, I was utterly confused.
“You’re tired. Bian
ca is dead on her feet. You guys need to go home and get some fucking sleep.” He only stopped pushing when we were in front of my locker.
“You’re… you’re taking the rest of my shift so I can sleep?”
He nodded, and I rushed him. He didn’t expect it but I rushed him and wrapped my arms around his waist then squeezed with everything I had left inside. It took him a second to recover from the surprise but eventually, he hugged me back.
“I love you so much, Gio.” A lump formed in my throat and my eyes started to burn. I thought I might actually cry.
“Shit.” He laughed. “You must really be exhausted. Like, delusional exhaustion. I’m not sure I should let you drive home alone.”
A silent laugh shook my body as I pulled back from him.
“I know. I might need medical help.”
I pulled my locker open and jammed my arms into my coat. I wasn’t about to let him change his mind before I got the hell out of there.
“Seriously. I can’t tell you how grateful I am.”
He nodded like he already knew. “It’s not a problem.”
I move past him toward the door.
“Sal’s been worried, too,” he said when I was almost out of the room.
I turned to face him.
“About what? Me? Why?”
“Have you seen yourself?”
“Ouch.” I flinched. I knew I’d been neglecting myself but damn… I didn’t think I’d completely let myself go.
“No. I didn’t say that.” He held a hand up in defense. “That’s not what I meant. It’s you and Bianca. You’re exhausted. You have bags under your eyes and you’re pale, I think because you haven’t been out in the sun in weeks. You both need a break.”
I couldn’t argue with him there. We were dead on our feet.
On Wednesday, Gramps insisted I meet with him in the office. But what surprised me was Bianca joined us. It was like we were back in high school and about to get a lecture from him on something we did wrong.
I went back through everything I’d done looking for a mistake. Couldn’t think of one. When Gio came in, I grew suspicious. Those two had been known to be in cahoots on more than one occasion.
Love by the Mile Page 11