Page 7 of Hello Goodbye Amore

“Something catch your eye, cousin?” Lorenzo said in Italian from behind him, setting Antonello’s teeth on edge in an instant. He turned and forced a smile to throw his cousin off the scent.

“I was just visiting with an old friend.” Elaine might have expected him to call Chase a frenemy. He had heard her use that term a few times, and she had explained it to him. Not that Antonello intended to take the time to explain it to his cousin. He wasn’t worth the effort.

“She must be really something from the way you watched her.” Sometimes his cousin saw too much, but he mustn’t have seen Chase and Ricky, which was a relief. “There’s plenty to look at today, but none of them compare to Gina here,” he added in English, flashing a smile at the beautiful woman with dark Spanish eyes on his arm, and she smiled, leaning a little closer to his smarmy relative. Antonello wanted to tell her to run for the hills, but she seemed besotted.

“Like I haven’t heard that line before. Maybe you should get some new material,” Antonello said in Italian as he flashed his biggest smile, figuring Gina didn’t understand it.

“Look who thinks he’s funny,” Lorenzo retorted, his lips curling downward just enough for Antonello to notice. He liked that he had gotten under Lorenzo’s skin. His uselessness had been demonstrated more than once, including his last foul-up, which had nearly cost the firm a valued customer in Milan. All because Lorenzo had no idea that when the customer specified Au on the order, they were using the chemical symbol for gold. They were a metallurgical company, and they used chemical symbols every day. God knows what Lorenzo thought, but it almost cost the company a lot of money as well as a longtime customer. As usual, Antonello had been called in to repair the damage.

Rather than prolong the conversation, he tried to get to the point. “What are you doing here?” Lorenzo had no realinterest in the family business other than what the money it could generate might buy him or using his last name to impress. Beyond that, he couldn’t care less.

“I thought I’d see if there was something in the store that Gina might like.” He made it sound like he would simply walk in and take what he wanted for some girl who was willing to be seen on his arm. Lorenzo definitely had a type: female, beautiful, and preferably just passing through. He could wine, dine, and get what he wanted from them with no chance of a commitment. The one Antonello felt sorry for was Lorenzo’s wife. Lorenzo had no shame at all and loved being seen with pretty women. Antonello was pretty sure that Aria was well aware of how her husband behaved. What he didn’t understand was why she put up with it.

Antonello stepped a little closer and lowered his voice, switching to Italian. “Sorry, but not today. You’ve pulled that trick enough that your account has been closed. You pay full price and in cash.” With that message imparted, he figured it was time to deal with the real elephant in the room. “Does Gina know you have a wife who will castrate you if you do anything with this girl?” He kept his voice light, but he wanted Lorenzo to know that he was on very thin ice. His cousin needed to grow up and stop acting like a stupid teenager.

Lorenzo paled and cleared his throat.

Once again Antonello flashed a smile. “Have a good day, cousin. You too, Gina. Enjoy your stay in Florence.” Antonello waited until they moved off the Ponte Vecchio before returning inside the shop and made a point of reminding Claudio and Renate, the team who ran the shop for his family, that Lorenzo’s days of shopping on the family dime were over. Not that either of them liked Lorenzo anyway, and he was fairly certain that if Antonello wasn’t here, Claudio would be more than happy to send Lorenzo on his way.

“Is there anything more that you need, sir?” Renate asked. “Claudio and I can handle things.” Renate had been working in the shop for thirty years and probably knew more about it than Antonello ever would. She immediately fussed in the window, replacing the piece Antonello had removed, and like clockwork, two couples came inside, interested in the new piece. Antonello knew that he wasn’t needed and thanked both of them before heading away from the river toward the Duomo and the center of the old city.

To his surprise, it was a relatively quiet day. The square outside the cathedral had the usual line of tourists waiting to get inside, along with a separate line to view the baptistry and bell tower.

“But I wanna go up there.” That voice caried on the breeze, and Antonello turned to where Chase and Ricky stood in one of the shadows, with Ricky pointing toward the top of the dome. “Can we go?”

“I don’t think you’re old enough,” Chase said as Antonello waved. Ricky waved back and then broke away from his dad and ran up to Antonello. “Do they allow kids up there?”

“Ricky…,” Chase scolded as he approached. “I’m sorry. Once he gets something in his mind, he gets pretty stubborn.” He rolled his eyes just like he used to in college. “I have no idea where he gets that from.” He smiled once more. “He wants to climb the dome, but I think he’s probably too young.” Chase held out his hand, and Ricky took it, looking up at Antonello like he was some sort of savior and the kid’s very last hope. It was adorable.

“You have to have a time slot, and they are very hard to get,” Antonello said. “And it’s a lot of stairs, like over four hundred.”

Ricky’s mouth hung open.

“How about we get gelato instead?” Chase was clearly trying to divert the kid.

Antonello decided to play into the redirection. “I know the best place,” he offered and then paused, because he had allowed to let himself get excited at the prospect of spending a little more time with Chase, and he hadn’t been asked. “It’s around the far side of the Duomo and then a block down the street next to the museum. You can’t miss it, and they make all their own, so it’s really good.” He smiled and took a step back. Having Chase here was getting into his head, and he needed to stop that. They had agreed to work together and nothing more. That was all Chase wanted. Not that Antonello could blame him after how he had treated him and his sister after college. “You two have fun.” His original intention had been to get himself an afternoon pastry, but he wasn’t in the mood any longer.

He checked the time and tried to remember if he had eaten lunch and decided what he truly needed was something a little more substantial than pastry.

“Mr. Nello, Mr. Nello.” Ricky ran around people before barreling into him. “You come too.”

“Where is…?” Before he could finish his sentence, Chase hurried up.

“Don’t run away like that,” Chase scolded. “Remember the bad man from earlier?” Ricky’s expression immediately grew serious, and he nodded. “Just stay with me.”

“But Guncle Daddy, Mr. Nello needs ice cream too. I can tell.” He said it with such conviction that Chase seemed to cave in.

“I’m sure you have plenty to do,” Chase said softly.

“But heneedsit,” Ricky said.

Chase scooped up the boy, twirling him around to fits of laughter. “Oh, does he really? Or is that your way of saying thatyouwant gelato?” Chase ticked Ricky until he squirmed, laughter following more laughter. Chase stopped his tickling and Ricky settled in his arms, his smile huge.

“I want Mr. Nello to come with us,” Ricky said, and Antonello nodded and ended up leading the way to the best gelato in Florence.

Ricky looked over the case with his mouth open while Chase tried to help him figure out what he wanted. Antonello got a combination of chocolate and pistachio. “Do you still like mango?” he asked Chase quietly, getting a raised eyebrow in return before Chase ordered exactly that.

“How did you remember that?” Chase asked.

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