Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 74214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
And there he was.
In another perfectly tailored suit.
Standing beside a table in the outdoor seating area.
“Oh, hey,” I said, giving him a smile that I hoped hid the way desire started to ping off every nerve ending.
“Couldn’t get enough, huh?” he asked.
“Who’s your friend?” a female voice asked.
I felt the irrational surge of jealousy before I turned to see an older woman in a neat pair of cream slacks with a crease up the front and a floral printed button-down shirt. There was something familiar about her eyes, too, that made me think she was likely Dante’s mother.
The way Dante’s eyes squinted ever so slightly at his mother’s tone, like he knew something was about to happen that was going to be frustrating, cinched it for me.
“Ma, this is Hazel. She is the operations manager at the garden center. Hazel, this is my mom, Giulia.”
“Oh! Isn’t that nice?” Giulia asked, her eyes going bright and a smile spreading. “You never mentioned hiring someone new,” she went on. “Or someone so beautiful.”
“Yeah, because that wouldn’t be something a boss can say about an employee.”
“Oh, who is going to stop you? You’re human resources. Tell her she’s beautiful.”
“Oh, that’s really not—” I started, finally seeing why Dante looked so flustered. His mom was the kind to want to set him up all the time. And given that my own mother and grandmother were forever trying to make me go on blind dates, I felt an almost overwhelming rush of sympathy for this sort of uncomfortable interaction.
But before I could, Dante’s dark gaze found mine, and he was speaking. “You’re beautiful.”
Well.
Okay.
I was kind of glad I didn’t interrupt him, given the little shiver that coursed through my core. Even if he’d been coerced into saying it. It had been so long since I’d felt anything close to butterflies. I’d begun to think they didn’t exist anymore.
“Thanks,” I said, feeling the heat rise in my cheeks.
“I made a handsome son, didn’t I?” Giulia asked, patting Dante’s chest.
“Yes. Very handsome,” I agreed, feeling even redder in the face.
“You have to join us,” Giulia said, moving aside to gesture toward an empty chair.
“She might have plans, Ma.”
At Giulia’s lifted brows, I admitted, “I was going to order some slices to try.”
“So you don’t have anyone expecting you.”
“No, I’m, uh, new to the area.”
“Sounds like you need friends then,” Giulia said, this time moving over to her seat. “Be a gentleman and pull out her chair.”
Dante was already moving to do so, giving me an apologetic head shake. “Sorry about this,” he whispered as I moved to sit, his warm breath teasing the shell of my ear, making my belly flip.
“So, Hazel, where are you from?” Giulia asked as she dropped her napkin onto her lap.
“Florida.”
“What brings you to Navesink Bank?”
“This is probably going to sound silly,” I said as Dante took the seat beside me while his mother reached to rearrange their drinks, making it clear she’d taken his seat so he had to sit closer to me, “but I really wanted to be able to experience all four seasons.”
“That’s not silly at all. I wouldn’t change a crunchy-leaf fall day or a snowy winter morning for anything. Even if I do love a nice growing season. I’m a big gardener.”
“Well, you must be really happy your son opened a garden center then.”
“I have been getting use out of my family discount.”
“If by ‘family discount’ you mean steal anything you want, then sure.”
“Thirty-two hours of labor,” Giulia said. “No epidural. You owe me flowers. Do you like to garden?” she asked, turning to me.
“Oh, you know, I’ve never really done it. I’ve lived in apartments my whole adult life.”
“Dante has a really nice front garden.” To that, Dante closed his eyes and shook his head. “I’ve been taking care of it for him since he bought the house, but I would be happy to pass it off to another enthusiast.”
“Ma, Hazel did a really great job setting up the garden center for Halloween,” Dante, looking close to shifting in his seat, said.
“We are all coming to see it. Me, his brothers, their wives…”
“And Valley, my sister,” Dante said. I got the feeling from his inflection that Valley was also single.
“Valley. That’s an interesting name.”
“Valentina,” Giulia explained. “Nino, Massimo, Dante, Santo, Valentina, and Augustine.”
“Six! Wow. You’re a supermom.”
“Do you have any siblings?” she asked.
“I have one sister.”
“Older? Younger?”
“Younger. She’s just seventeen as of two months ago.” I’d left the day after her birthday. My mom guilted me to stay until then. Though I was still getting ragged on for not coming home for her next beauty pageant.
“Is all your family in Florida?”
“Yeah. It’s actually just my mom, grandmother, and sister.”
“All girls.”
“Yeah. And you had so many boys.”
“Runs in the family. Do you want children?”
“Ma!”
“What?”
“You’re not supposed to ask that.”