Are you sure?” Adeline asked, her face alight with excitement.

“I have never been more unsure of anything in my life,” Nicolo answered with a laugh, “but it feels right.”

“I can help you. I’ve made all kinds of notes.” Adeline’s image was bouncing up and down on Nicolo’s little screen, and it made him happier than he ever imagined anything could.

“Meet me at the Romano del Mare tonight to talk things through and then I’ll take you to dinner?” With the choice to make some repairs to the Romano del Mare also came a landslide of decisions to be made, and Nicolo was hoping that Adeline’s obsession to see the resort restored rather than destroyed would provide him with an excellent body of research with which to tackle the job. They had a lot of work ahead of them, and he planned to make Adeline a full partner in the process.

Adeline’s features scrunched, and her pretty mouth frowned. “I can’t tonight. I’m finalizing another sale over dinner.” Nicolo must have looked as crestfallen as he felt, because she quickly added, “A very nice couple from the mainland is coming home to retire in Sicily.”

Nicolo smiled, surprised at how relieved he was that her dinner date was business related and not pleasure. “You frightened me. I thought for a moment that I might have to serenade you in order to win your affections from another man, a torture for all involved, I assure you.”

Adeline laughed. “If you can’t sing, how would that win me from another man?”

Nicolo’s voice grew in volume. “I would sing so loud that it would drown his voice out. All you would hear was me.” He did a closed-eye shrug. “And, I might call in my brothers to carry him off when you weren’t looking.”

Adeline giggled through her fingers as they covered her mouth, but her eyes sparkled.

“Until tomorrow, t’amu?”

“I’ll see you then.”

Nicolo sat back in his chair and enjoyed the afterglow of a beautiful conversation with his beautiful girl, then his brothers one by one invaded his thoughts.

They had trusted him. They’d tapped him with the sale of the Romano del Mare. Now he would have to tell them that they were going to be prioritizing investing more money into it rather than selling it.

How things could change in a day…

* * *

When Adeline arrived at the Romano del Mare the next day around mid-morning, Nicolo had a picnic laid out for them on the dock. He’d brought a batard of bread, an assortment of cheeses, Marsala wine and olives.

“What have you done?” Adeline said, a bright smile on her face. Then her smile fell. “This isn’t to soften the news that you’ve changed your mind, is it? Did… did your brothers refuse to back your decision to restore the resort? I know that they’re co-owners—”

Nicolo laughed, interrupting Adeline’s sudden concerns. “Bedda, you worry too much. Come, let’s eat.”

Smiling again, she brushed her light brown hair behind her ear as Nicolo showed her what he had brought for them. Then, as he held her hand to steady her, she sat gracefully atop the blanket that he’d laid at the edge of the dock. She sat her binder notebook down beside her, and within seconds she had her shoes kicked off and was sitting dangling her bare legs over the side with her skirt pulled up to her thighs.

Nicolo, of course, followed suit. Sitting down next to her, he poured them both a glass of wine. Yet, Adeline’s words were still heavy on his mind. While he had dismissed her fears, in truth they mirrored his own. He had not yet told his brothers about his change in plans, and he hoped that Adeline’s enormous binder held some information that he could use to sway his brothers to support his decision.

“Mmmm, this is nice,” she said after taking a sip.

The birds played above the sea before them, diving before swooping upwards again. With the day still early, the sun was gentle and the breeze off the Ionian Sea was forgiving.

“I do love this place,” she said, sitting back to lean against her outstretched arms.

Nicolo took in the glittering blue of the sea and the crystal clear water. He had travelled the world over, and there was nowhere else that had ever compared with this view—except for when he turned to look at Adeline. She was lovelier than anything else the earth had to offer.

I’m so gone for her. He downed his wine in one gulp at the ramifications. Loving her meant losing her which meant a broken heart. He was setting himself up for a world of pain.

Nicolo’s phone buzzed in his pants pocket, and he pulled it out. It was an email from Neerij, the owner of the company that had offered him the 500 million euro development job in India. He scanned it quickly, frowned, and then put his phone away without a response.

“Anything wrong?” Adeline asked. She had the expression of someone who was concerned but who also didn’t want to pry.

“Everything is fine,” Nicolo said, waving a hand through the air. “I’m being called to a meeting, but it’s not until next week.”

“Work?”

“Yes, it’s for a prominent construction project in India.”

“Oh.” Adeline seemed to deflate a little, and she took another sip of wine. “I guess that your work keeps you traveling a lot.”

Nicolo could hear her unspoken words. She wanted to know where she would fit into his life if he was always on the other side of the world. He wished he had an answer, but he didn’t. He’d had relationships before but they never lasted much longer than the work he did in that location. Work always—always—got the priority of his attention. It had been his truest and most lasting passion that no woman had ever been able to compete against.

It shouldn’t be a competition, he reminded himself, but the words fell flat in his head. It was his work that embodied all that was important to him in life, with the exception of his family. The women left behind had always faded away and were quickly forgotten as he started in on whatever project was laid out before him as his newest challenge.

I won’t let that happen to her, he silently vowed.

“You could come with me,” he said. “I could show you the world.”

“You mean for a weekend?”

Nicolo shrugged. “Or a month… or two.”

Adeline’s attention shifted to look out over the sea, and he knew that his answer had failed to impress. He understood why. Asking her to run around the world while he pursued his life was asking her to put her own life’s pursuits on hold. He would get everything, but she would only get him. Then, if he was gone, she would have nothing left but memories and a life to rebuild. It was a terrible thing for him to ask of her. He knew that, and now he realized that she knew it, too.

Silence dragged between them until Nicolo could stand it no more. “Tell me what it is that you want to see when you look at the Romano del Mare.”

Adeline twisted to look over her shoulder at the sprawling building that stood a dozen yards away. Then, she pivoted her hips and pulled her legs up so that she sat with the outside of her thigh pressed against the blanket and her knees together.

“Lights,” she said. “During the day, nature and the natural surroundings are what is most beautiful. But in the evening, I would love to see the Romano del Mare lit up as the star of the night.”

It was a very cosmetic answer that did nothing for the structural integrity that would keep the Romano del Mare’s patrons safe, but he liked it all the same. He loved the way she always looked for the best in all she saw. To her, everything glowed with the sparkle of a jewel.

A half-hour later, Nicolo helped Adeline to her feet, and they headed inside the resort to talk further about the updates that needed to be done.

“The entire building’s electrical system needs to be rewired, and the electrical systems for the kitchen, laundry and other service areas need to be updated to meet industrial needs. The inspector found several hotspots throughout the building that could have easily turned into fires,” Nicolo said as they stood within the grand foyer. The floor was made of marble and the ceiling reached all the way up both floors to the building’s roof.

“High speed Internet plug-ins for every room with an option of individually password protected Wi-Fi.”

Nicolo’s mouth dropped open. “Why not use one Wi-Fi signal for the entire resort?”

“It would overload it, and the user couldn’t be confident that their data uploads weren’t getting intercepted and stolen.”

“Oh,” Nicolo said, feeling more than a little bit impressed as he shoved his hands deep inside his pockets. He rocked back on his heels and considered Adeline’s suggestion. What she was recommending was addressing an actual safety issue, though not necessarily one that was life or death. “The plumbing needs to be gutted and reinstalled with a new boiler as well.” It was possible for the current plumbing to introduce lead contaminants into the water, and the old boiler was an explosive hazard.

“Restore the existing crown molding where possible and replace it in places it can’t be fixed,” Adeline said.

“Crown molding?”

“Mmhmm,” Adeline nodded. “When buyers come into the space, while they’re going to care about the updated wiring and plumbing, what they will see is the crown molding.”

Nicolo tried to hide his smile. Adeline’s plans seemed to be leaning toward getting the Romano del Mare ready for a new launch rather than a new owner, and he loved her ambition. He loved that when he gave an inch she then asked for a mile. Her drive, fire and passion were exhilarating. She was always ready to push him and challenge him, and his money meant nothing to her beyond what it could do for the Romano del Mare.

And yet, he was still torn. Restoring the resort would add decades and maybe even centuries to its life. He wouldn’t give someone else rights to the Romano name for all that time, and he was leaning heavily toward making a name change a requirement of any future purchase of the resort, even though that stipulation would likely make selling the place all the harder. The Romano del Mare once held the clout of having within it a Michelin five-star restaurant. For a restaurant to have five stars was as rare as unicorns, and many foodies still remembered the Romano del Mare’s name because of it. Its name had a lot of value, and most buyers would likely be reticent to move forward without it.

“And how much do you think this crown molding will cost, and do you think that its cost will be supported by an increased value of the property during a re-sale?” Nicolo thought that he was making a sharp point with his question, but to his surprise Adeline smiled with smug satisfaction and marched over to him with her notebook tucked snug under her arm. Pulling it out, she opened it, and then dragged her finger down one of many columns.

“Here we go,” she said, tapping her finger on “Crown Molding.” He followed the line item over to a column of numbers. The anticipated cost of the crown molding was marked in red, the anticipated re-sale value was marked in black, and then the difference between them was marked in black, indicating an increased value to the property above the loss of the expense of fixing the crown molding.

Nicolo took the folder from her and started flipping through its pages. “When did you do this?”

“I started on it eight months ago, right after I signed on with Vero Immobiliare Real Estate. That they handled the account for the Romano del Mare is the reason—the only reason—I accepted the job.”

Nicolo didn’t know what to say, so he did what he did best. He looked at the columns of numbers. “I know that you told me previously that these are accurate, but I don’t see how they could be,” he said, and then answered his own doubt by declaring, “These can’t be accurate. They’re too low. Anyone willing to do the jobs at these prices would do sub-par work.”

A tap sounded on the open front door of the Romano del Mare’s main entrance. Looking up from the notebook, Nicolo saw that it was a man who looked to be in his early 50’s, dressed in a rolled-sleeve, button-up shirt tucked into tan slacks that had definitely seen many a day of honest work.

“Alberto!” Adeline exclaimed and walked toward the man with arms open. They greeted each other with a two-armed embrace and kisses to each cheek. “Alberto, this is Nicolo Romano, the owner of the Romano del Mare.”

“One of the owners,” Nicolo said, crossing the space between them to shake Alberto’s hand.

“Alberto Scuderi,” Alberto said, completing his introduction. His face was weathered with deep-set wrinkles from squinting in the sun, but he had a genuine kindness to his eyes. Nicolo liked him instantly.

“Alberto is a contractor that I’ve requested to come by to talk to us about the restoration,” Adeline said.

Alberto took in a deep breath and looked around the great room while giving small nods of his head. “I’ve seen all of the inspection reports,” he said in a booming voice that could have belonged to an announcer, and Nicolo imagined him having to make himself heard over loud machinery. “I’ve walked every inch of her space and have crawled over much of her on my hands and knees. With regard to the main building and not what's beneath her, I can do this job and do it right. The rest will need a medieval specialist.”

“Do you have a price in mind?” Nicolo asked, wary of what he was about to hear. He wasn’t sure what renovations Alberto had in mind. They didn’t need everything fixed, only the basics—those items that were issues of safety.

“One point eight,” Alberto announced with his broad chest puffed out. Next to him Adeline was beaming.

Nicolo repressed a cough, then leaned in as he asked, “One point eight what?”

Alberto’s expressive brow shot up halfway to his hairline. “One point eight million euro,” his voice boomed.

Nicolo did cough. “I’m not sure that our expectations are aligned,” he said in the most congenial fashion instead of blurting, “Hell no!”

Adeline waved her hands in the air as if to halt Nicolo before he could say anything else. “He’s quoting that price for doing everything that is in that binder.”

“Everything?”

“Everything,” Adeline assured.

“Just a moment,” Nicolo said, excusing himself from Alberto. “I need to confer with Adeline.”

Alberto waved them off, the whole of his attention already absorbed in the building within which he stood.

Taking Adeline by the hand, Nicolo led them down the nearest corridor and around the corner where they would be out of sight and most likely out of earshot.

“What exactly is he offering to do?” Nicolo asked as he started with the first page of the binder and began scanning down the list. It was written in small print, and the number of items listed on each page was extensive. “This list is everything that would be needed to get the Romano del Mare completely operational again, save for the staff, stock and the catacombs,” he said in amazement. He flipped to the back of the binder and looked at the final total of estimated cost. “Three point nine million euro. He’s offering to do it for almost half! There’s no way he could do it. He’ll do a terrible job and cut corners in dangerous ways. How could you even recommend him, Adeline?” He turned sharp eyes on her and was surprised to see that her shoulders were back and her head was held high with determination in her eyes. She wasn’t backing down at all.

“He’s offering to do it at cost!” she said, jabbing her finger at the notebook. “Those numbers are based on what a builder would traditionally charge.”

“At cost?” Nicolo exclaimed, not convinced. “How would he even pay his workers?”

“It’s a family business, four generations—his father, his uncle, him, three brothers, fourteen nieces and nephews, two sons, and eight grandsons and two granddaughters. One of the granddaughters is a master electrician and he”—she motioned to where they had left Alberto—“is a master plumber. His father is a master carpenter, and one of his cousins is a journeyman roofer who is scheduled to be considered for master status in another year. They have experience with buildings this old, and they can even do landscaping.”

Nicolo wasn’t sure what to say. “That’s a lot of mouths to feed. They have to make a living. What’s in this for them?”

“Recommend me and my family for all future maintenance of this resort,” Alberto’s voice boomed from all the way in the foyer.

Adeline tried to keep a straight face but giggles overtook her, and she buried her face in Nicolo’s chest.

Nicolo chuckled as he kissed her head. Then she lifted her face to him, and he kissed her mouth. “What have you done, t’amu?”

“Everything,” Adeline whispered against his lips as her fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt.

“You are everything, t’amu,” Nicolo whispered back before losing himself in another kiss. Adeline had convinced him that the Romano del Mare had a future beyond demolition. Now he needed to convince his brothers of the same.