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“Good morning. Did you need something?”
He huffed, his dark eyes twinkling. “Straight to business, huh? I remember when you weren’t so serious. There was that time you danced on a bar—”
“I’ve never danced on a bar. Why would I do that?” The idea horrified me. First, getting on top of the bar had to be completely awkward, and once you were up there—
Luca chuckled. “You’re thinking about it, aren’t you? Listing all the reasons you’d never do it?”
I sighed, my hands spreading on the smooth surface of my desk. “What’s the purpose of dancing on a bar?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. For fun? Attention? Does there have to be a reason to do everything?”
“Perhaps not, but I think my bar-dancing days have sailed.”
For a moment, I allowed myself to imagine what Jake would do if I climbed onto the deeply gouged mahogany at The Tavern. I was fairly certain if I made it up there, I would end up hauled over his shoulder with a bright-red backside.
I blinked away those thoughts and cleared my throat. “You never did say why you’re in my office.”
“Besides the obvious in wanting to see my sister?”
I nodded. “Of course.”
He shot me a mischievous grin. “I wanted to see how my darling niece is. Does she want to come spend the night with Uncle Luca and Aunt Saoirse soon?”
I lowered my chin, giving him a pointed look. “You know damn well if you dangle Clementine in front of her, she’ll be at your doorstep with her blankie and dolly before you can blink.”
My daughter loved their cat, maybe more than she loved me or anyone else.
She also loved her Uncle Luca. He’d been there with me when she was born and had stayed in the hospital for those first couple days. He did skin to skin with her when I was too out of it to function following my emergency C-section and hadn’t failed to be there for both of us since.
His wife, Saoirse, had become my sister in all but blood, and she and Nellie adored each other.
If there were a contest, though, Clementine would win, hands down.
“If I have to bribe her with my cat, I will,” Luca answered.
“I don’t know.” I tucked my hair behind my ear. “She spent the night with Mom and Dad last weekend. I wouldn’t feel right sending her away again so soon.”
Dropping his foot to the ground, he leaned forward in his chair. “Sending her away? It isn’t like having a sleepover with her family is tantamount to dropping her off at the orphanage. Jesus, Clara, we love her like she’s ours. You don’t have to do it all alone.”
“But she isn’t yours.” My stomach twisted with the guilt that never went away, and it made me defensive. “If you and Saoirse want a little kid around so much, why don’t you have one of your own?”
He slowly blinked at me. “Being a dick won’t push me away.” He drummed his fingers on his knee. “Saoirse and I aren’t ready for our own kids. Let us spoil yours.”
I tilted my head, considering my brother. He was thirty-three and had been happily married for three years now. We weren’t alike in a lot of ways, but family was everything to us. This was the first time he’d explicitly told me he wasn’t ready for kids. I’d assumed their pregnancy announcement would be coming any day now. Then again, I’d been waiting for it since their wedding day.
“Why aren’t you ready, Luca? Is it the job?”
He stared back at me, still doing that slow-blinking thing. More guilt rolled through me. By most standards, as the older, more serious Rossi sibling, I should have become CEO when our father stepped down for health reasons three years ago, but I had never wanted to take the helm. My role as COO was where I thrived. Being the public face of Rossi held no appeal to me.
I’d let that role fall to Luca despite him never showing any interest in the business.
Before he’d taken over, he’d been a freewheeling artist, the wild child of the family.
All that ended in one day.
As expected, Luca stepped in as CEO, and while it hadn’t been the smoothest transition, he’d grown into it beautifully. Our shareholders loved the direction he was taking Rossi, and the board basically kissed his feet at our meetings.
But it was a big job. He had to travel, work much longer hours than a typical office drone, and his moves were always being watched and reported on by journalists—local and national. If he and Saoirse were delaying their family because I’d forced him into a life he’d never wanted, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.
