Page 10 of Dating the Billionaire
CHAPTER FOUR
BLAIRHADNEVERtaken the easy way out. That was why she’d stopped herself from walking away, why she’d turned around and gone inside that gallery with Matteo. It hadn’t been because she had any interest in art, although a few of the pieces actually affected her, more because of what they reminded her of than because of what they were.
Just twisted pieces of metal.
She shuddered as she stared at one of the larger installments. She’d given in to the reaction because, for the first time since coming inside the gallery, she’d thought she was alone.
But a female voice asked, “Is it that bad?”
Blair glanced up from the mangled steel and copper. “You speak English,” she remarked to Matteo’s sister.
“Yes,” she said. “And I should have earlier. Teo will never forgive me my rudeness. Will you?”
“I don’t hold grudges,” Blair assured her. If she did, she probably would have stopped talking to Miranda long ago. Hell, maybe she should have; then she wouldn’t have been in this predicament. Although at the thought of never having met Matteo Rinaldi, a pang of disappointment struck her heart rather than any relief.
“Then perhaps you and I can be friends,” Francesca suggested hopefully.
She was probably thirty, Blair’s age, but she seemed younger, much younger. But then she probably hadn’t lived through the things that Blair had. Or her big brother had protected her even more than Blair’s big brother had.
While Blair didn’t hold grudges long, she wasn’t too quick to forgive, either, especially when she wasn’t certain if the request for forgiveness was sincere or a manipulation.
“I doubt you and I have very much in common,” she told Francesca.
“What about my brother?”
Matteo had wanted a date for the night—not forever. Blair had no illusions that she would see him or his sister again. But she’d promised to protect him from Francesca’s matchmaking, so she forced a smile. “I doubt we see him the same way,” Blair replied.
She suspected his sister saw him as an ATM to finance her whims. Some might have accused her of using her brother for financing, too, though.
“I hope we don’t see him the same way,” Francesca said with a laugh. “I hope you don’t see him the way other women have, either.”
“How is that?” she asked.
“As a meal ticket,” Francesca said.
“I pay my own way,” Blair assured her.
While Teo had financed the entire gallery for Francesca which included studios for artists in resident, Blair and Grant had invested equally in their business. Blair would never be less than an equal partner with any man—even her own brother.
“Francesca,” Teo said, his deep voice full of warning. “Are you harassing my date?”
His sister chuckled. “We are just getting to know each other. She was admiring my masterpiece.”
Blair glanced again at the twisted and tangled metal. “This is your work?”
Francesca nodded. “Maybe Teo will buy it for you.”
“I’ll buy it myself,” Blair said, “if I decide I can live with it.” But she was afraid that it would just continue to evoke bad memories—of her past and of this meeting with Matteo’s sister. “What is it called?”
“Chaos,” Francesca replied with an almost apologetic smile, as if she knew how badly the piece bothered Blair. As if it had bothered her that much as well.
Maybe they had more in common than Blair had suspected. “It’s definitely evocative,” she praised her.
“That’s definitely Francesca,” her brother agreed, but then he turned away from his sister and focused on her. “I called for the car. Alfred is waiting out front for us.”
He’d told her he was stepping outside to make that call, so she wasn’t surprised. His sister was, though, as she wailed in protest, “You can’t leave already!”
Matteo buzzed a kiss near Francesca’s cheek and stepped back. “We can’t monopolize the hostess. Go, charm all your patrons.”
