Two
“A month?” Claire was stunned. “Mr. Moretti—”
“Please, call me Luca,” he said with a smile that made her pulse quicken in her throat.
That was a dangerous smile. It was charming. Disarming. Combined with his movie star good looks, it was enough to make her forget that he was the enemy, not a potential paramour. She almost preferred that he return to his cold, businessman expression.
“Luca, I have a job. I’m a curator at the Museum of European Arts. I can’t just leave for a month, especially on short notice.”
“Do you think it will be easy for me to simply turn over the reins of my family company for a month? It will be a hardship for both of us, but it has become very clear that it is a necessity to make this work. We need time away, just the three of us, to get comfortable with one another. Don’t you think Eva’s welfare is worth the sacrifice?”
Nice. Now Luca was the good guy and Claire was the one being unreasonable because she wouldn’t do whatever it took for her daughter. “Of course she’s worth the sacrifice. My daughter is my whole life.”
“Then what’s the problem? The way I see it, our court date with the judge is in six weeks. After spending four of those weeks together, perhaps we can come up with an arrangement that makes both of us happy and can present that to the judge.”
Claire felt Stuart squeeze her knee beneath the table. She didn’t have to look at her lawyer to know that he liked this idea. No one wanted to go up against Edmund Harding in court if they could avoid it. Going to see the judge with both parties on the same page would make things easier on everyone. Including Eva.
That was the thought that won her over. Her boss wouldn’t be happy, but he would understand. He knew what she had been going through the past two years. He’d be the first to tell her she deserved a vacation. Maternity leave was hardly a break. That was just a six-week introduction to the hard life of a single mother.
“Okay. If you agree to take the emergency visitation filing off the table, I’ll agree to your proposal.”
Luca nodded slowly and gestured to his lawyer. “Okay. I’ll make the arrangements for a location.”
“I’d prefer it not be too far away,” Claire said. “Long trips with a baby are difficult, and I’m not sure I’m ready to take her on a plane.”
“I have an old friend from college who has a place on Martha’s Vineyard. Would that suit you?”
Claire tried not to react. Martha’s Vineyard was the summer playground of the rich. Until recently, she’d been solidly middle class, and a vacation locale like that had always seemed out of her reach. The sudden increase in her checking account balance hadn’t changed her mind-set along with her tax bracket. “That would be suitable,” she said, coolly.
“Very well. I’ll speak to Gavin and make sure it’s available. How long will you need to prepare for the trip and arrange the time off?”
It was Monday. At the best, she could leave this weekend. “I’m not sure, but it will take a few days.”
“I’ll give you my contact information. Let me know when you find out¸ and I’ll have a car sent to pick you up.”
“That’s not necessary. I can arrange my own transportation.” Claire was never the kind of woman who sat back and let people take care of her. Not Jeff, and certainly not Luca. She had the capacity and the money to handle this herself.
“Ridiculous. We’ll ride together and start getting to know each other as soon as possible.”
Claire clenched her jaw. He spoke as if everything was law. It made her crazy. She had to pick her battles, though. If he wanted to send someone all the way out to her brownstone in Brooklyn to pick them up, then fine. “Very well. Are we done here?”
Luca’s lips twisted into an amused smile. “We are.”
Good. Claire was in desperate need of getting out of this room. The spacious conference room closed in on her the longer Luca stared at her. Those dark hazel eyes had the slightest hint of gold twinkling mischievously in them. He seemed to look right through her, seeing all the secrets and shame she was desperate to hide.
Picking up her bag, she pushed up from her seat and turned her back on Luca Moretti. She needed some distance between them. She wanted to breathe air that wasn’t scented with leather and the spice of his cologne. Claire moved with purpose out of the conference room, exiting Edmund’s law offices with Stuart on her heels. She didn’t stop until she was standing on the sidewalk, looking at the traffic buzzing down Lexington Avenue.
Claire took a deep breath and felt the muscles in her neck and shoulders finally start to loosen. It wasn’t just what he saw in her. It was how he made her feel. Luca lit a fire inside her that licked at her cheeks and made her think about the needs she’d ignored for longer than she could remember.
When she and her husband decided to have a child and it didn’t happen easily, sex with Jeff became a chore. Mechanical. When that didn’t work and they went to the clinic, it was even worse. Desire and arousal went out the window with sterile rooms and medical procedures. Their relationship changed as their failures became all they could focus on.
It was no wonder Jeff strayed.
Claire had been so wrapped up in getting pregnant, and then obsessed with preparing for the baby’s arrival, she didn’t notice anything was wrong. Jeff was working later, going on more business trips, but a lot of people worked long hours. Even she did from time to time, especially when a new exhibit was getting ready to open at the museum. But she also ignored the fact that he took a shower the minute he got home, the distant look in his eyes and the complete disinterest in physical contact. She was so adept at justifying every red flag that if his mistress hadn’t died in the car with Jeff when he wrecked, she might never have accepted he was having an affair.
It had taken time to come to terms with the truth, but knowing that her relationship with Jeff would’ve ended no matter what had helped her cope with his death. She had lost her husband long before that night. If Jeff had lived long enough for the truth about his infidelity to come to light, they probably would’ve divorced. And if by some miracle they had fought through the rough patch, finding out that he wasn’t Eva’s father would’ve been the end. His ego never could’ve taken a hit like that.
Realizing all this had been a major blow to her confidence in her ability to make good choices. She had thought Jeff was the perfect man for her and she’d been wrong. She’d thought a baby would help give her what she was missing from her life and her marriage, and it wasn’t. She loved Eva more than anything and didn’t regret having her, but a baby hadn’t been the answer to their problems. In the end it made them worse.
Being attracted to Luca Moretti was another bad decision. Even as she could feel his gaze raking across her skin, she knew it was a terrible idea. And yet, she hadn’t felt that alive in years. He hadn’t even touched her and she’d reacted to him like no other man before him.
“Claire, are you okay?” Stuart came up behind her, placing a soothing hand on her shoulder.
“Yeah, I was just ready to get out of there.”
He nodded, looking out at the passing cars. “Let me take you to lunch.” They turned and started walking down the sidewalk. “All things considered, I think it went okay today. Edmund’s not filing an emergency visitation petition, so that buys us some time. He’s willing to work with us to come up with an agreement before we go to the judge. It isn’t going to get any better than that.”
“Yes, but it cost me four weeks of my life.” She would pay more than that for Eva and her well-being, but she was still a little shell-shocked from everything that just happened.
“Claire...it could be worse. You’re going to spend a month at a beach house on Martha’s Vineyard.”
“With Luca Moretti,” she pointed out. Somehow that made it seem like less of a vacation and more of an obstacle course she needed to survive.
“So what? Between you and me, I think you need the break. Get out of New York, sit on the beach and breathe in the sea air. It’s beautiful up there this time of year. It’s early in the season, but that means it won’t be too crowded or hot. Let Luca take care of Eva under your watchful eye and be grateful for the time off. How does Japanese food sound for lunch?”
This trip sounded good on paper, but she was certain that the reality would be very different. She’d barely made it through a half hour with Luca with both their lawyers present. What would she do when she was alone with him for a whole month?
* * *
Luca strolled down Park Avenue, heading toward his apartment. He could’ve called a car to pick him up, but he needed the walk. It helped him focus, or in this case think about something else. It took about ten blocks before he could get the sound of Claire’s sigh from his mind. Her steel-gray eyes haunted him.
He hadn’t expected to have a reaction to her like this. He didn’t want to, either. That woman had been nothing but difficult, despite how politely he’d tried to handle this mess of a situation. And yet, he couldn’t help pushing her buttons just to see the fire in her. Under that prim suit and tightly wrapped bun was a passionate woman, he was certain of it.
Of course, what did it matter? He was pretty sure that Edmund would advise him strongly not to get romantically involved with Claire. He knew it was the smart thing, but Luca didn’t always follow the advice of others.
Turning the corner, Luca finally reached his building. Standing beneath the dark green awning was Wayne, the second-shift doorman.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Moretti. You’re home early today. I hope everything is okay.”
Luca smiled at the doorman who had worked here longer than he had owned the apartment. “No worries, Wayne. All is well. I’m actually home a little early to start planning a vacation.”
“You, sir? I don’t think you’ve had one of those since you moved in.”
Was it that obvious that he was a workaholic? “Probably not. I’ve been working pretty hard lately. I’m going to be gone for a month, though, up to Martha’s Vineyard if all goes to plan. Will you let the building manager know I’ll be away? I’ll need my mail and packages held until I return.”
“I will, sir. May I ask if you’re doing something fun on your trip?”
The thought of the rosy blush running over every inch of Claire’s porcelain skin instantly came to mind. That could be fun. Or it could be four weeks of bickering by the beach. “Maybe. It depends on how it goes. I certainly hope so.”
Wayne pulled open the shiny brass door and took a step back. “Well, I hope you enjoy your time away. You’ve certainly earned it, sir.”
“Thanks, Wayne.”
Luca crossed the marble lobby floor to his private elevator. He smiled as he pressed the button that would take him up to his apartment. Claire thought she knew so much about him, but she was wrong on several counts. For one thing, he didn’t live in the penthouse. He lived on the tenth floor of his building. The penthouse apartment was just too large for his needs. His apartment had three bedrooms and an unused maid’s quarters. That was more than enough.
When he’d purchased the place a few years ago, he was pretty certain he would live there alone for the rest of his life. Despite the fact that he had bent to the will of his doctors and his mother as a teenager by storing the potential for future children at the clinic, he had no intention of ever using it.
A wife and a family were the furthest thing from Luca’s mind. He’d found that people who lived through what he had reacted one of two ways—they were either desperate for family or terrified by the idea of it. Luca fell into the latter category, although he hadn’t always felt that way.
The doors of the elevator opened to the marble foyer of his apartment. He unlocked the door, stepping into his living room. Luca slipped out of his coat and headed for his study. There, he poured himself a finger of Scotch and settled down in his favorite leather chair.
As the oldest of six kids, he’d presumed he’d have a family of his own someday. He enjoyed the camaraderie and the chaos of his childhood home. Then, at age sixteen, those presumptions went out the window when his whole life was derailed by an unexpected illness. The illness turned out to be testicular cancer. The treatment for his cancer was aggressive—surgery and several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. The majority of patients who went through the treatment were sterile when it was over. Although the idea of it was mortifying, he’d made several donations to be frozen at the fertility clinic for the future. His mother paid the clinic big money for them to hold on to it for as long as Luca might be in need of it.
Luca knew when he was doing it, however, that he would be storing, but not using it, forever. Despite assurances to the contrary, he knew he was a damaged commodity. At any time, the cancer could come back or spread. Physically, he wasn’t the complete man he’d once been. Plastic surgery had corrected the aesthetics, but he knew the truth. He couldn’t knowingly go into a relationship with a woman knowing that he was limited in what he could offer her.
And he was limited. He knew that in his heart. The one time a woman had claimed to have given birth to his child, he’d let himself get his hopes up. His whole family got their hopes up. When the miracle baby turned out to belong to someone else, everyone was disappointed, including the baby’s gold-digging mother, Jessica. He had always been adamant about using protection, just for safety reasons, but after that he was almost militant. He didn’t want another woman to even get the idea that she could have his child.
Sipping his drink, he looked around his study. It was a part of his perfect bachelor pad, decorated with masculine touches of leather and dark wood. The shelves were lined with books he’d never read. On one wall was a framed portrait of the world, reminding him of all the places he’d never been. He’d gone from being a child, to a cancer patient, to a college student, to a CEO. That didn’t leave room for much else.
It was just as well that Jessica’s baby hadn’t been his. Even if he wanted a family, he didn’t have time. From the day he was born, he’d been groomed to take over Moretti’s Restaurants. His great-grandfather had started the company eighty years ago with a small restaurant in Little Italy. By the time his grandfather took over, they had another restaurant in Brooklyn and one in Queens. It snowballed from there. His father’s goal of having a Moretti’s in every state had been achieved not long after Luca was born.
After he got sick, his mother had homeschooled him from the hospital to help him keep up with his studies while he received his treatment. When he graduated from high school in remission, Luca went to Harvard to get his business degree and started working at the corporate offices with his father. His MBA earned him the title of vice president, and his father’s retirement two years ago had turned the reins over to him entirely.
Luca had put his own stamp on the empire by diversifying their restaurants. Not everyone had the time for a long, sit-down Italian feast. He started a fast-food Italian chain called Antonia’s, after his mother. That had exploded, becoming one of the fastest growing chains in that market.
Overseeing this monster took all the time he had. And he liked it that way. When his life was so full, he didn’t miss the family he was lacking.
And now, suddenly, he found he had a family he never expected—one that had been confirmed as actually being his. Thankfully the apartment could accommodate Eva, in terms of size and space. There would need to be some childproofing and redecorating, but that was the least of his worries. The harder part would be seeing to it that the rest of his life could accommodate his newfound daughter, as well.
That started with this trip. The first thing he needed to do was to call his old friend Gavin Brooks. He and Gavin had met at Harvard and hit it off immediately. Like Luca, Gavin was the heir to a family empire of his own—Brooks Express Shipping. They both understood what it was like to have that kind of pressure on their shoulders. The difference was that Gavin had managed to run BXS and have a family. He and his new wife, Sabine, had two small children, including a baby girl named Beth, who was only a few months older than Eva.
Perhaps Gavin could offer Luca more than just a vacation house. He could use some advice, as well.
Reaching for his phone, he dialed Gavin’s number.
“This can’t really be Luca Moretti calling me,” Gavin answered abruptly. “I mean, that’s what my phone says, but my friend Luca never calls me.”
Luca sighed. “That’s because your friend Luca works too much and is never sure when he can call without waking up your kids.”
Gavin laughed. “It’s a crapshoot. Jared is an early bird and Beth is a night owl. We pretty much never sleep around here. How are you, Luca?”
“To tell you the truth, I’m overwhelmed.” It was nice to be able to talk to someone who truly understood what his days were like. He and Gavin were members of an elite club of young, successful businessmen in Manhattan.
“The restaurant business giving you trouble?”
“No. Work is fine. I called because I need your help for a more...personal matter.”
“I thought you didn’t have personal matters.”
“So did I, then it got dropped in my lap.” Oddly enough, this was another situation that Gavin could sympathize with. He didn’t learn about his son, Jared, until the boy was almost two years old. “I need your help, Gavin.”
“Sure, anything. What is it?”
“Okay. If I tell you something, will you promise not to tell anyone?” At this point, Luca couldn’t risk the news of Eva’s existence getting out. He’d worked hard to keep the lawsuit under wraps so far.
“Sounds serious,” Gavin said. “I’ll keep it to myself.”
“Thanks. I’m trying to ensure this whole situation stays quiet for the next few weeks, primarily because of my family. You know how they are. I need to deal with all of this without their interference.”
“Your cancer has come back,” Gavin said in a grave tone.
“No, thankfully. I’ve actually found out that I’m a father.”
“A father? For real this time?”
In retrospect, Luca had wished he’d kept the situation with Jessica quiet until he knew for certain. He’d never expected her to lie about it. He should’ve known when he saw the look on her face after Edmund demanded a paternity test. As though he’d just take her word for it. “Yes, this time it is tested and established to be my child. I have a daughter named Eva.”
“But wait,” Gavin argued. “I thought you couldn’t...”
“I can’t,” Luca confirmed. “But I had some sperm frozen before my treatment. There was a mix-up at the clinic and a woman ended up pregnant with my child instead of her husband’s.”
“Holy hell. What are you going to do?”
“Well, first I sued the crap out of the clinic. Now I’m trying to negotiate custody terms with the mother. I can assure you it hasn’t been easy. She’s not happy about all this.”
“I can imagine her husband isn’t that happy, either.”
“I’m not sure if it makes all this easier or more complicated, but her husband is actually deceased. Apparently he was in a car accident when she was pregnant.”
“I thought my situation with Sabine was complicated, but you take the cake, Luca.”
“Thanks. This brings me to the favor. I’ve proposed that all three of us spend some time away to get to know each other. She’s not very confident in my ability to take care of a baby and I’ve got to convince her everything is going to be all right.”
“Why don’t you just tell her that you helped raise your younger siblings and have spent time with a dozen nieces and nephews? The last time you came over, you handled Jared like a pro.”
That was a good question. “I doubt she would believe me. She’s a feisty woman, and to tell you the truth, it’s more fun to aggravate her.”
“It sounds like this vacation might prove a little dangerous. Where are you going?” Gavin asked.
“That’s where you come in. I was hoping that we could stay at your beach house for a couple weeks. A month, actually.”
Gavin only hesitated a second before he answered. “Sure thing. We’re not going back up there until after Memorial Day. But why wouldn’t you stay at your family’s place in the Hamptons?”
That had occurred to him. They had a huge place in Sag Harbor where the family liked to gather. But it was too big. And at this point, he didn’t want to run the risk of crossing paths with his family. “To do that, my mother would find out. As it is, I’ve got to feed my brother an excuse to run the business while I disappear for a month. I will tell them, and soon, but I need to spend time with Claire and Eva without Mama circling like a shark around her granddaughter.”
Gavin laughed. “Fair enough. When are you going up? I’ll have the place cleaned and the pantry stocked before you arrive.”
“I’m not exactly sure. We both have to make arrangements with work, but I’m hoping in the next week.”
“So, four weeks in a beach house with the woman you accidentally impregnated and the child you’ve never met? And the woman doesn’t like you, at that.”
Luca sighed. “That pretty much sums it up.”
“Well, good luck to you, man,” Gavin said. “I’ll have a bicycle messenger bring you the key tomorrow. And just in case, I’ll have the cleaning company hide anything breakable.”