by Eva Moore
“I don’t know, Dad. Have you figured that out yet?” Her sarcasm would only make the situation worse, but she couldn’t stop herself as she grabbed her phone back.
“It’s mine. My company! I poured years of blood, sweat, and tears into it to make it what it is today. First, you kick me off of my own show. Now you think you can kick me out of my own company? You have no right to treat me like a child at my own table and embarrass everyone! How dare you question my leadership, especially in front of Adrian?”
Usually her father was all bluster and little bite, but today, Sofia knew she’d pushed him into true anger. But she couldn’t back down now. She’d come too far to lose it all. She met his accusations with an angry one of her own. “How dare you determine everyone’s future without thinking through the details?”
“Little girl, you watch your tone,” Dom snapped.
“That’s just it, Dad. I’m not a little girl anymore, and you can’t keep treating me like one. For years, I’ve dreamed of running this company with Seth, Enzo, and Frankie. Is that ever going to happen? You need to nail down your retirement plan before we sign these contracts. Otherwise, you’re locked in, and the rest of us can’t move forward.”
“I’m still running this place.”
She hated when he yelled. It always brought the little girl who loved her daddy trembling to the front of her brain, afraid to do anything wrong. She fought to stay focused and stand up for herself. “Barely. Adrian and I have kept this pilot project afloat, because you couldn’t handle it. All I’ve seen you do lately is peek over Jake’s shoulder and raid the craft services table. I’ve been asking you for months to figure out what you want. The time has come. I want you to step back. I can hire an office manager to take over my duties there, with my supervision.”
“Money should be handled by family.”
“Then get someone else to do it. I think I’ve proven my business and creative chops, and I deserve a chance to keep designing.”
“One over-budget house design doesn’t make you a designer. Did you think I wouldn’t hear about how your plan kept shifting to recoup losses? Or how you wanted to take out a structural wall just because? Or that you strong-armed Enzo and Seth into donating their labor for free? That is not how we run Valenti Brothers. You give the client a solid plan in their budget and you stick to it. We pay our employees what they’re worth. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”
“But Dad, if it is broken, why can’t we fix it to be amazing? Did you see the look on the Shahs’ faces? They love that house,” Sofia pleaded. Why couldn’t he see that she wasn’t trying to kill the company, but expand it and make it better?
“Good work, safe fixes, under budget. That’s the promise I’ve made for thirty years, and just because you want to play dollhouse with people’s lives doesn’t mean I’m going to step back and let you.” His angry words slapped at her pride, and she lashed back.
“Is that what you think I’m doing? Playing dollhouse?” She cringed at how shrill her voice had become but it was hard to stay calm when your father was tromping all over your dreams with his steel-toed boots.
“I don’t have time to let you experiment with people’s homes. I need you to take care of business.”
“Is this how you treated Mom? Did you just dismiss her dreams and needs because they didn’t line up with your expectations? Because I’ll tell you, it feels pretty shitty. I can understand why she doesn’t want to be around you anymore. I don’t either.”
“Did she say something?” A hint of vulnerability teased the edges of his voice, but Sofia wasn’t going to get sucked into this. This roller coaster ride of emotions was making her sick, and she was getting off. The fact that after everything that had happened for the show her father still didn’t respect her skills had despair threatening, and she wasn’t sure how long she could hold it together.
“No, if you want to know how Mom feels, you’re going to have to ask her yourself. I’m going to go back inside and eat my meal, with my boyfriend Adrian, and enjoy myself, since I know this mess will be waiting on my desk in the morning.”
“So you and Adrian are serious?” The doubt in his voice poked at her already tender heart.
“We’re seeing each other and figuring that out. Is there a problem?”
“No, just that he’s a good man. He’s been through a lot in his life, and he deserves to be happy. I rely on him to keep the crews running. I don’t want this to cause any problems.”
“Business first. Right, Dad? How’s that working out for you?”
He turned and went back into the house, and Sofia could do nothing but stare after him. Lowering herself to the back stoop, she let her frustrated tears fall. Had he really just assumed that this relationship would fail? And he was more worried about Adrian than his own daughter? Where was her father who had always told her she could do anything she wanted for the first twenty years of her life? Where was her mother who’d always been her biggest cheerleader? And how had it gotten to the point that her parents weren’t speaking? Had she been too wrapped up in her own grief to see that their marriage was disintegrating? The painful reality was that her parents were humans, just like anyone else. Her shiny image of their perfect marriage was tarnishing quickly. If they couldn’t pull it off, what made her think she could? From seeing Adrian sitting in Gabe’s chair to being dismissed professionally, she hadn’t thought her heart could be hurt any more tonight. Once again, she was wrong.
Chapter 23
Dom returned to the table a changed man. He looked tired. In all the years Adrian had worked with the man, he’d seen him worn out at the end of a big day, but he’d never seen him this soul-deep exhausted. Adrian almost felt embarrassed to witness the longing glance he sent across the table toward Jo.
Jo caught the look and turned away, leaving the table without a word. Dom’s eyes followed his wife as she left the room, but he didn’t go after her. Adrian didn’t understand it. If his wife were mad at him, he’d chase her down and argue it out. You couldn’t have make-up sex if you skipped the fight. He could picture himself and Sofia arguing fiercely over some future disagreement. Yeah, he’d really like to make up with her. Oddly, instead of worrying him, the image clicked in a fundamental place deep inside him as exactly right. He glanced at the back door, waiting for his partner to come back in.
“Zio Dom, I love you. We can talk more later, but Brandy’s got an early morning. We should get going.” Seth rose from the table as if on cue. Hugs and kisses passed between everyone before the young couple finally took their leave.
Dom gestured to the dishes left at the table. “Enzo, Frankie, you’re on dish duty.”
“But, Dad…”
Dom cut off the whine with a glare and a head shake. His remaining children left the table, leaving Dom and Adrian alone. This was it. They were going to talk about the proposal now. Why else would he have sent everyone away? Was Sofia giving them space for this conversation? Somehow he’d thought she would be by his side for this moment. Dom dropped heavily into his chair and drank down the rest of his mostly full wine glass.
“Adrian, you know I love you like you were my own.”
Oh no. That didn’t sound good. Adrian’s gut clenched in anticipation.
“Yeah, Dom, I know. You’ve been a second father to me every step of the way.”
“You make me so proud, which is why it kills me to say this.”
Why wouldn’t Dom look him in the eye? “Then don’t say it yet. Let’s talk about it.”
“I’ve been turning over your idea in my mind, trying to visualize how it would work, but there are too many obstacles to see a clear path.”
Adrian took the words like a punch to the stomach. It hurt like hell to hear it, but it wasn’t going to knock him out of this fight. “Like what?”
Dom scrubbed his hands over his hair with a sigh before pulling them down his face. “For starters, what kind of role would you have in the company? Would you keep leading teams, o
r do you want to take over more of the management?”
“I’d like to do both. I’m happiest running teams, but I can take on some management duties if it helps spread the load.” Finally, they were having a conversation about how this would work. Surely Dom wouldn’t dismiss the plan without giving him a chance to compromise.
“How do you see the balance of power at the top?” Dom still wasn’t looking him in the eye. He intently pushed his pork roast around his plate with his fork.
“Look, Dom, I can’t buy out the whole business, and I don’t want to. I want to keep working with your kids and Seth to make Valenti Brothers strong. I just want to have a say in how it gets run. Like you said, I’m the one who best understands what Valenti Brothers is about. Quality work, under budget.”
“Does your relationship with my daughter compromise your ability to work together rationally?”
That one hit Adrian a bit higher, right in his solar plexus, knocking the breath out of him. He was still fighting, but it was getting harder to breathe. He and Sofia were still figuring things out. Was Dom going to toss out this plan because he didn’t like Adrian dating his daughter? That question slipped from his lips before he could stop it.
“Do you have a problem with me dating Sofia?” Even saying it out loud scraped at Adrian’s heart, torn between affection for the man he loved like a father and the growing attraction he felt for his daughter.
“No, son. She couldn’t do better than you. But I know how hard it can be to work alongside the woman you love. It’s not for the faint of heart. Have you thought about how you’ll handle that?”
“No, but I’m sure we can figure it out.”
Dom looked up at that with a wistful gaze. “God, I wish I still had that optimism. Maybe it is time for me to step away. Adrian, it comes down to this. How can I make you a partner and take part of my kids’ company away from them? I would in a heartbeat. You have to know that. I trust you to run the building side of the business more than any of my kids at this point, and I hope to God you’ll stay, but it’s not just my decision. I’m getting pushback on this.”
Adrian had temporarily dropped his guard and the jab landed solidly, rattling his confidence. “Who is against it?”
“Sofia keeps butting heads with me whenever I try to talk with her about it. She just told me she wants to run the business with her siblings and her cousin. So as much as I hate to say this, I think the answer has to be no.”
There it was, the knockout combination. Being told no was bad enough, but having the reason be the words of the woman he was falling for knocked him out. He scrambled to recover, but his back was firmly on the floor. How could Sofia turn on him like that? It couldn’t be true. Surely Dom had misunderstood.
“Don’t say no yet. Give me a chance to convince her. Let’s pretend we didn’t have this talk. I can’t believe that she would say that.”
“I’ll keep an open mind, but she is pushing me to decide before we get the new show launched.” Dom held his hands out as if they were tied, which pissed Adrian off. His were the only hands that weren’t tied in this unholy mess.
Adrian could see his dreams slipping away, but he wasn’t ready to give up yet. “Let me talk to her.”
“Good luck, son. She takes after her mother. You’re going to need it.”
Dom quietly rose and headed for the kitchen, where his real kids were clanging dishes in the sink, leaving Adrian alone and still firmly on the outside.
Had he misjudged her completely? Had he given his heart to someone who didn’t respect him? Was his dream of stability for his family and his friends going to blow up in his face because he couldn’t keep it in his pants? What the hell was he going to do now? He knew how to build walls, so he steadfastly began to build one to protect himself while he figured out the answers.
Sofia was unnerved by Adrian’s silence. When she’d come back inside, he’d been sitting alone at the table, quiet and withdrawn. Waves of hurt were rolling off his hunched shoulders and crossed arms. What had happened while she was getting her shit together outside? Honestly, she didn’t know if she had the emotional energy to handle one more round on the roller coaster tonight after her fight with her father.
She was a grown-ass woman. Why was it so hard to stand up to her dad when she knew she was right? If it had been any other boss, she’d have calmly and coherently laid out her argument. Sofia hated that her knees and her voice still trembled when her daddy got mad. It was exhausting.
And now here was another man in her life, clearly angry about something. They climbed into her car, and Adrian still hadn’t said a word. When she couldn’t take the wall of silence any longer, she chose humor as her hammer of choice. Hopefully she could get him to laugh off whatever her mom or dad had said, and get back to the happy vibe they’d had before they came.
“Well, you made it out alive. That’s better than most.”
Adrian grunted.
“Come on. It couldn’t have been that bad.”
He huffed out a breath and kept his eyes glued to the window.
“You know, that whole grunting instead of speaking thing is really only sexy when Tom Hardy does it.”
No response. Not even a twitch of his dimple. So much for humor. She reached for the jackhammer of details.
“Are you worried about the contract? I convinced Jake to let me have it back. I think we can bargain for better compensation for your guys since it’s going through the network this time.”
Adrian stoically refused to look at her, flashing street lights illuminating his furious profile an eerie orange.
“What am I missing here? Why are you so mad?”
“It’s what I missed.”
“What are you talking about?”
“How did I miss that you never supported my proposal?”
Sofia barely managed to keep her eyes on the road. What was he talking about? “That’s bullshit. Of course I support you.”
“Oh really? That’s not what your father said tonight. He said he hoped I wouldn’t leave, but it was looking like I wouldn’t have a unanimous vote. He said he couldn’t see how to make it work around your reservations. What the hell, Sofia?”
“That’s what he took away from what I said?” Sofia clenched her hands on the steering wheel, wishing they were around her father’s neck instead. She could believe only too well that he hadn’t really understood her point. She had to take her foot off the accelerator before she caused an accident.
“So you did say that? Jesus, Sofia. You know how much this means to me. How hard I’ve worked.”
“I have reservations about it, sure. Has he talked to you about any details? Any numbers? Any structure of the deal?”
“No, not yet. If you had concerns, why didn’t you talk to me about them?” Adrian was glaring at her now, and she kept her eyes on the road so she could say what she needed to say. She would not let another man intimidate her tonight.
“Because they weren’t concerns you could address. Only my dad can figure out how he’s going to structure the company. But yes, I asked questions about what would happen to my share of the company, and Enzo and Frankie’s, too. It’s our legacy. I need details, Adrian. How can I figure out how to support your proposal if I don’t know what it is?”
“Because we are together. I thought you had my back.”
Sofia pulled up to a stoplight and finally turned to face him. The anger in his eyes burned. She knew she’d hurt him with her questions, but she had to be true to herself. She knew her dad was impulsive, and she had to be the voice of reason. “I do, but you can’t expect me to jump into a deal without knowing what’s what.”
“But you can design a house without the inspection, right?”
“That was different.” Yes, she’d made mistakes, but with the pressures of the show, she’d thought he understood.
“That’s bullshit. It’s irresponsible and unethical to spend the client’s money so recklessly.”
“Excuse me?”
A horn honked behind her, startling her into motion. How long had that light been green?
“You should have my back on this. I thought we were building toward something here. How can I be with someone who doesn’t support my dreams?”
Sofia turned the corner onto her street and pulled into the drive of her apartment building. “All I said was—”
“That you don’t believe in me or my plan. Yeah, message received. I thought we were on the same team. Don’t worry. I won’t make that mistake again.” He was out of the car and stalking to his truck before she could do more than call his name.
“Adrian! Wait!” She fought her seat belt, frustration and fear making her fingers clumsy. She managed to fall out of the car and race to the end of the driveway as he slammed his door and peeled his truck off down the street, taking half of her heart with him.
The show didn’t stop filming just because the pilot was done and her heart was broken. She had a full day of B-roll scheduled around the office. Sofia pulled herself out of bed and managed to strip out of the sweats she’d been wearing for two days straight. Friday night, she’d barely made it into her bed before collapsing into a mess of tears and snotty tissues. Now, after a weekend spent dissecting every last detail of that nightmare family dinner, she had two-day-old makeup caked on her face in oh-so-attractive rivulets and had to face the world. She hadn’t realized that Adrian had managed to get inside her walls, so when he’d swung his words with the force of a sledgehammer, the damage was severe.
At least you held your own. The little voice inside was trying to offer comfort, but it wasn’t making a dent in the sad yet. Yes, she’d pushed back against his accusations, defending her actions. But in doing so, she’d been forced to see just how little he respected her work, how little what they’d shared had meant to him. Apparently, his ego mattered more than making a reasoned decision. Honestly, it was for the best that things between them were over. She refused to be with a man who would treat her that way. She had to believe that or she’d crumble onto the floor of her shower, fragments of her soul rinsing down the drain.