A long weekend had passed with Stella furiously adapting her renovation plans for the Romano del Mare to a less stringent version, and she couldn’t wait to show them to Leonardo. Her new design allowed for more of the features that he tended to include throughout his various hotels. He liked to pamper his customers, but her original design had allowed for only very basic adaptations. She’d changed that, though, and with those changes she hoped that he would be more willing to implement her vision, which was still in compliance with the preservation laws.

“Where are you?” Stella muttered to herself as she stuck her head into Leonardo’s office. His assistant wasn’t at her desk and Leonardo was nowhere to be found.

Turning down the hall, Stella walked in whatever direction that her nose happened to be pointing. Sometimes she took a new hallway, sometimes she went straight, but the resort’s hallways were eerily quiet and empty today.

Scrunching her nose, Stella scratched at her head where her new hair extensions pulled at her scalp while she turned in a circle trying to figure out what direction to go next. That’s when she saw it—the box of antique door knockers that they’d found together. She hurried down the hallway toward it and knelt beside it to pick through the collection. There were even more knockers there than what they’d seen that day.

Stella’s heart soared. Not only had Leonardo bought the knockers, but he’d also furthered their effort by finding what looked like enough knockers to install one on the door of each suite’s main entrance.

Not giving it any thought, Stella scratched her head and pulled at her hair some more.

“I can help you with that.” It was a woman’s voice that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Stella pivoted around in her squatted position until she found the voice’s owner. It was a tall woman with a pixie haircut that had been jelled up and was spiky all over her head.

“I’m sorry?” Stella had no clue what the woman was offering.

“Your hair,” the woman said, giving her own hair a little tug as if to mime what she was talking about. “I can help you with those, uh… hair extensions.” The woman said “hair extensions” in such a way that Stella got the impression that the woman felt she was being generous in her description.

“They are pretty awful, aren’t they?” Stella said as she stood up before pulling and scratching at her head some more.

“I’m Angela, the resort’s new salon manager and stylist. Come,” she said, extending her arm and waving Stella in with the flip of her wrist. Stella did as she was bid and the woman enveloped her shoulders with her arm as they walked into one of the largest rooms she’d seen in the resort. It was still in a state of slight disarray with the salon’s modeling still in the works, but it was clear that the floor plan was coming together well. “Luciana, Gianpierre’s girlfriend, is coming in for a blowout, so I’ll take care of you, too.”

“I’m Stella.”

Angela laughed. “We all know who you are. Sit.” Stella sat down in the large, pedestal style salon chair that Angela had guided her to.

“You know who I am?”

“Se! You are the woman who wants to take all of our jobs away.”

Stella’s mouth fell open and her cheeks heated. She took a quick breath to lob a defense, but Angela cut her off.

“Hush now,” she said with a laugh. “We all know Leonardo. There is no way that you will be able to stop him from making the Romano del Mare the sparkling gem for this entire region once more. That boy is like his grandfather, at least that’s what my matri says. She said that there was no stopping that man, and she says that Leonardo is just like him. So, we hold nothing against you. You are doing your job just like the rest of us. We like that.”

“We?”

Angela moved to stand behind Stella and lifted sections of her hair, tsking as she did so. “Who did this to you? Ah… it’s no matter. I’ll fix.”

“We?” Stella prompted again as Angela did something to her hair. There was instant relief as one of the weaved-in hair extensions fell to the ground.

“We… The people who work here. We all work. We provide for our families. We do what our bosses tell us. You’re doing what your boss tells you. So, we hate your boss, not you.”

Stella leaned back against the chair and breathed a heavy sigh. She’d had no idea that the people who worked at the resort had any feelings about her at all. After all, the place wasn’t even open for business yet. But maybe that didn’t matter. Being open for business meant tourists walking through the door, but the people who would have to take care of those tourists would need to be already in place with training as to what to do in any given situation.

“It’s okay,” Angela soothed as she freed Stella’s scalp from yet another section of the hair extensions. “Everything’s good. Things move forward. My new flooring will be here next week!”

Stella started to sit forward in the chair but Angela’s hold on her hair kept her in place. “New flooring?”

“Se,” Angela said excitedly. “Cork!”

“Cork?”

“Se… Leonardo let me pick between seven different design styles. He’s so nice. He didn’t have to let me pick anything.”

Cork? Stella’s head was reeling. There was no way that cork flooring would pass the preservation society’s inspection. It was unlikely that the preservation society would block the Romano del Mare from opening its doors as a resort, but they would most likely be able to delay the opening. They would try to bury the resort in red tape and fines. They were very aggressive with those who did not comply with the preservation laws. Stella knew that she had to talk to Leonardo as soon as possible. Those floors could not be allowed to be installed!

“Angela?” A tap of knuckles against the open door followed the unfamiliar sound of a woman’s voice. Glancing toward it, Stella sucked in a surprised breath at how beautiful the woman before her was. She had to be a model arriving for an ad campaign shoot. There was no other explanation for it.

“Luciana! Please, sit. Stella’s hair was a crime scene. I had to do something about it. Whoever did this to you should lose their license.”

“Stella?” Luciana had a smile that lit her entire face, and her eager happiness at meeting Stella as she sat in the stylist chair next to her was undeniable. “I’m so happy to meet you!”

“Me?” Stella couldn’t believe her ears. “Uh, do we know each other?”

“Oh, don’t mind me.” Luciana said, reaching forward to give Stella’s arm a friendly pat. “I’m Gianpierre’s girlfriend, and we and Leonardo spent the weekend at Adeline and Nicolo’s new place. That boy wouldn’t shut up about you.”

“He wouldn’t shut up about me?” Stella was beginning to feel like a parrot, and her mind was spinning with all of the new information coming her way. “Oh!” she laughed as relief flooded her senses. “It’s because I’ve been such a pest, right?” She knew that they had shared a couple of kisses, but the man was a billionaire. And even if he didn’t have a euro to his name, he was gorgeous enough to date any Victoria’s Secret model he wanted. There was no way she’d turn his head beyond some fun flirting.

“Nooo… I don’t think that was it,” she said, her expression turning somber. “He seemed really smitten. Every half hour at least, he’d work you into the conversation in some way all weekend long. He really likes you.”

The insides of Stella’s belly did a somersault. Leonardo liked her.

Her thoughts turned to the box of door knockers out in the hallway as a cold chill moved through her. What if he’d gotten them for the simple reason of making her happy? What if he had no intentions of using them?

Ohhhh, this won’t do. She couldn’t have him going along with her ideas today only to turn his back on them tomorrow if he grew tired of her. She needed him to believe in a restoration that protected and respected the original craftsmanship that was so finely captured within the ancient monastery. The future of the Romano del Mare and the chance for thousands of people to see the monastery in its original glory depended on it.

There was simply too much at stake for her to allow emotions to get in the way. There was business and there was pleasure, and it was time to separate the two.