Page 143 of Unruly

Dante looked to Cross with a grin and a nod. “Hmm, see.”

“Well, shit.”

“I bet she hasn’t even realized it yet, has she?”

“I don’t … no, she hasn’t,” Cross settled on saying.

“Life is finally settling,” Dante said.

“It is.”

“It’s a nice place to be, Cross. Of course, you’ll both have your moments where it gets to be a bit much again. That’s unavoidable in this sort of business. It’ll feel like nonsense begins to snowball one after the other.”

“But it’ll settle again.”

Just like it did this time.

Dante nodded, and sipped from his drink. “It will settle.”

The silence stretched on between them, but Cross didn’t really mind. He used it to further consider what Dante had told him, and the new realization he now had. All the while, he watched Catherine and her mother work at the island. Cece stole pieces of white meat when she thought no one was looking.

Finally, Dante spoke up again, “She needed these past three or so years, Cross. She needed to be busy like that to truly understand and appreciate how to manage all of it coming at her at once. Catrina knew that the right upset—or just a little too much being thrown at Catherine—might put her in a bad place.”

“Mentally, you mean.”

“You can’t pretend her history doesn’t exist.”

“We don’t,” Cross pointed out.

“Good. The fact still remains the same in that she has spent the last three years of her life on constant, high alert. One issue after another. One task after another. Progressively more and more business until it seemed like that’s all she was doing. And what did she learn from it?”

“How to be a good boss.”

Dante chuckled. “More than that.”

“How to be away.”

“And how to make it all go away, Cross. She needed to learn it, of course, and in a way that was firsthand and in her face. Otherwise, pretend learning would have done no good for her when faced with the real thing.”

“Of course,” he echoed.

“I always used to say I pitied the person Catrina decided to let take over for her business.”

“Why?”

“I thought her nature—just who she was—would be a bit much for anyone when it came to business.”

“Kind of is,” Cross muttered.

Dante tipped his head to the side as if to acknowledge what Cross said without verbalizing the words at the same time. “True, yet I don’t think anyone is quite as stubborn and quick as Catherine when it comes to her mother.”

“I used to think they were like two bulls ready to fight.”

“Mmm, me too.”

“We were wrong.”

“In most circumstances,” his father-in-law agreed.