A Billionaire for Christmas (5 page)

“I should go.” Anthony folded his napkin and placed it beside his plate.

“But you’ve barely spoken to Shelly.”

“I’ll see her soon.” Anthony forced a smile to his face. “I’m excited to hear about her job, her place, her life.” His lies seemed to appease Mrs. Bello. What he truly wanted was to put Shelly back on a plane now, tonight.

She was trouble. Trouble with azure blue eyes and white-blonde hair. She might be clean, she might be drug-free and employed…but then again, she might not. Wasn’t that the curse of the addict? Always one step from falling off the wagon? Well, he wasn’t going to attempt to help her out of the muck if she fell this time. He wouldn’t follow her into the abyss, and he definitely wouldn’t allow Shelly to drag down Mrs. Bello too.

“Thank you.” Anthony bent down and pressed a kiss to each of Mrs. Bello’s soft cheeks. She smelled of powder and talc with hints of espresso. “You’ll tell Shelly good night and thank you for me?”

“Of course. We’ll see you soon.” Mrs. Bello started to rise and he squeezed her arm.

“Don’t get up. Finish your espresso and cannoli.”

Anthony pulled his jacket from the closet, put it on, and headed out the front door. The cold air, sharp as glass, sliced his skin. He shook his head and walked down the front steps. Let the chill bite him and cool the remnants of heat that still pulsed through his body. The desire for a woman he wanted nothing to do with. As his foot hit the front sidewalk, the glimmer of red Christmas lights reflected on blonde hair caught his peripheral vision.

Shelly.

His gut tightened and an all-too-familiar thrill warmed his blood. Smoke rings caught the light and drifted up toward the flashing lights. He turned to look directly at her. Shelly stood at the corner of the house, in the shadows.

“Caught me.” She tossed the cigarette to the ground and rubbed it out with the tip of her boot. Her gaze caught his. “Old habits die hard.”

The muscle in his jaw tightened. “All old habits?”

Her eyes seemed to harden with his inquiry. She walked toward him. With each step, heat built in his gut. No, this wasn’t the Shelly of Texas, nor was she the Shelly of his youth. This creature was something new, someone unknown to him, and yet she created the same heat, the same desire, the same damned need within his body as the Shelly he’d fallen deeply in love with so long ago. She stirred something else, too. Her eyes were harder, edged with a what seemed to be a hard-won knowledge. He wondered if that knowing gaze came from a deep understanding of herself or of the depravity of human nature.

She stood before him now. Not too much shorter than him, but just enough. His chest tightened. Her skin was once again healthy and nearly flawless. As she turned her face to him, a glow from the moon outlined her features, and the blinking Christmas lights tinted her face first red, then green.

How many times had he stood in this exact spot and kissed Shelly Bello good night? Pulled her body against his and slid an arm around that tiny waist. Felt the press of her breasts, her hips, against him. More times than he could count, more times than he wanted to remember. Her body would still fit his, and his body still wanted hers.

“The worst habits are the hardest to break.” Her words were laced with innuendo.

“As long as they’re broken.”

Anger flashed in her eyes.

He glanced past her. His gaze hovered above her head, directed down the street toward the corner where his childhood home sat. “Your Nonna would be heartbroken if they weren’t.”

“I wouldn’t come home unless I was clean.”

His gaze landed back onto her. She didn’t shrink from his look. He’d seen her in Texas. He knew how bad she’d been, he’d tried to save her, and she’d run, unwilling to be saved. “That’d be too much for her.”

Shelly nodded. Her tongue trailed over her full bottom lip. “I’m not the girl you saw in Texas,” she said, as though reading his mind.

“No,” Anthony shook his head. “I can see that. But you’re also not the girl I used to love, either.” He took a step closer, crowding her, wanting a reaction to his blunt challenge. She didn’t move, didn’t flinch, seemed unfazed by him. “I’ve taken care of your grandmother for a lot of years. Do not hurt her. Are we clear?”

Again anger flared in her eyes. But this time, it wasn’t a flash. Instead, a hardness remained in her steady gaze. “Don’t threaten me,” Shelly said. “She’s my grandmother.”

“That’s exactly right. She’s Vinnie’s grandmother too.”

With the mention of her brother’s name, Shelly’s bravado collapsed. The anger in her eyes turned to pain.

“I made a promise to him.” Anthony tilted his head. “Actually, we both did. Or did you forget?”

Shelly shook her head. “I never forgot.” Her gaze locked with his, a sadness in her eyes. “Even when I didn’t want to remember.”

An ache clutched his heart. Anthony clasped his hands into fists at his sides, for fear he’d grab Shelly and try to kiss away her pain.

“That night was amazing.” She remembered that night too, the last night they’d seen Vinnie, the night they’d promised to take care of Nonna, to take care of each other. A good night. A sad night. But a night filled with memories to which they both clung.

“A long time ago.”

“A lifetime.” Shelly took a deep breath. She pressed her fingertips to her forehead. “I need to go.” She stepped back from him, then turned and bolted up the steps. The front door slammed against the cold air.

A lifetime ago. A hard unforgiving lifetime.

Anthony spent the next morning touring commercial properties. Two were run-down warehouses on giant lots, while three others were high-rises filled with companies and offices. They were merely a few of the multiple investment properties he intended to buy. After he’d left the last site to drive to his office, his thoughts flew to Shelly. Who was this new Shelly? Was she eternally damaged from her years of addiction? What was she thinking, what did she want? And why did he care?

Once he’d parked, he took the elevator up to TF. Just outside his office, Anthony handed his coat to Tricia.

“Your brother is in your office.”

Anthony quirked his brow. Tricia wouldn’t willingly let Justin into Anthony’s office, especially without Anthony present. Too much bad blood flowed between the brothers since the incident with Max. Trust, which had once been an automatic gift between the four Travati brothers, had been replaced with suspicion and judgment.

Anthony tugged at his cuffs and entered his office. Justin stood at the wall of windows, facing the New York skyline. A prickly feeling of annoyance hovered in the silence between them. Anthony’s gaze skimmed his desktop. Pristine. Every object remained unmoved, in the exact same place as he had left them the night before. The darkened screen of his computer was still off.

“I didn’t touch your things,” Justin said, without shifting his eyes from the view. “I would never be deceitful.” He finally turned toward Anthony. “I’m your brother. I thought you knew me better than that.”

“You’re also the managing partner of TF.”

Justin’s eyes widened. He crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s what this is about?” He shook his head. “My being your boss? I thought you were angry because of Max, and my marriage to Aubrey.” He lifted an eyebrow. “You’re angry because you’re not in charge.”

“Angry isn’t the correct word.” Anthony settled into his desk chair. He turned on his computer. He’d grown cold working in his older brother’s shadow. Grown tired of being the little brother who had to ask for permission before he made any kind of business decisions. “Did we ever vote about you being in charge? I can’t remember. Or was it just like when we were kids? You were automatically the boss because you’re the oldest?”

“In case you forgot, I started TF before you even went to college. I hired you when you finished grad school.”

“Right,” Anthony nodded. Yes, definitely time for him to move on and start his own company. He was finished living under the command of his brother.

“I’m here for two reasons,” Justin said. He angled toward the chair across from Anthony’s desk and clutched the seatback with both hands. “This is my first Christmas with Aubrey and Max, and it’s an important Christmas for us. Aubrey would like us to all be together for Christmas Eve at Mrs. Bello’s, but I wasn’t certain if you’d be willing—”

“Your
wife
was unsure if I wanted to spend the holidays with my family? That’s rich, seeing as she’s only been a Travati for a couple of months.”

Justin’s jaw tensed. “It wasn’t Aubrey who was unsure. I was, for this very reason. Because of your strident feelings with regards to my family, because of this anger you seem to have toward my wife and son, who
is
your nephew, by the way, I was unsure if you planned to spend the holidays with us.”

As a younger brother, Anthony knew how hard Justin fought to contain his irritation. Hmmm, perhaps he should give his big brother a couple more jabs, see if he couldn’t make him lose his cool. Because the glow that hovered around Justin and his bride and the lovely little family of three that they’d created frankly turned Anthony’s stomach.

After nearly six months, he could admit, at least to himself, that perhaps Aubrey did love Justin and wasn’t the gold digger that he thought she was. But what else could he have thought when Aubrey turned up after a fifteen-year absence, claiming Justin was the father of her fourteen-year-old son Max? But after a paternity test, a wedding, and countless events where he had seen his new sister-in-law in action, Anthony doubted any actress would be good enough to fake all those looks of love that Aubrey shot at Justin.

“I’ll be there Christmas Eve,” Anthony said. “Before all of you leave for Switzerland.”

Justin nodded, but didn’t take the bait. He said nothing about his choice to spend the week between Christmas and New Year’s in Switzerland with Aubrey’s family and the two other Travati brothers without inviting Anthony. And Anthony would be damned if he’d reveal how much that decision bothered him. If it were up to them, the ice between the brothers might never thaw.

“I’ll let Aubrey know. She’ll be pleased.”

“You mentioned two things,” Anthony prompted.

“Aubrey invited Shelly Bello and her grandmother to dinner tonight, and she was hoping you’d join us.”

Irritation mixed with surprise raced through Anthony. He maintained his stony countenance. Why was Aubrey meddling? What did she hope to prove?

“I’ll need to check my calendar. I’ll have Tricia let your assistant know.”

Justin nodded and turned toward the door. Then he paused and cocked a brow. “If you do come to dinner, stop at Carmine’s, won’t you? Pick up some cannoli for after dinner.”

Anthony said nothing. Rumors always surrounded the Travatis’ comings and goings. Justin’s comment had tipped his hand; he knew where Anthony had been, and he was attempting to figure out exactly what Anthony had planned for after the new year. Let Justin think what he wanted, vacation where he wanted, do what he wanted. Yes, let his three brothers, who were barely speaking to him because he’d had the audacity to demand proof that Max was a Travati, exile him from TF. Let them all band together and do what they wanted without him, because, very soon, Anthony intended to do what he wanted, without them.

*

Shelly ran her fingernails up her arms and walked to the closet. Her room was an untouched shrine to her adolescence, with high school pictures and honor certificates on the walls, soccer trophies on the bookshelves. Pictures of a girl in a cheerleading uniform who she barely recognized, surrounded by beaming friends, stared back at her. How could that time in high school feel both like forever ago and yet as though only ten minutes had passed? The room looked the same as it had the day after Vinnie’s funeral, when Shelly had scraped together all her money, packed a backpack, and left. Tonight, as she tried to figure out what to wear to dinner at Aubrey and Justin’s, felt much like the night she’d run from her family, stifling. The walls closed in on her, pressing the breath from her lungs. The air too thick with memories of the past.

Deep breath. Deep breath.

She yanked the black wool pants she’d brought with her from San Francisco off the hanger. They’d have to do for dinner tonight, because the dress was meant for Christmas Eve.

Aubrey had sounded nice on the phone. Almost too nice. Shelly had never thought that Justin would settle down, he hadn’t been the type. Not like Anthony, who’d been serious and geared toward family since the day he was born.

Family. Kids. Now Justin had both, and Anthony had none. Funny, right? The two people who everyone thought would get married, she and Anthony, had veered as far away from that future as possible. She’d been a drug addict and he’d become a cold hard-ass who, according to Nonna, barely spoke to his family. Wow, life was full of zigzags, uncontrollable ups and downs. What had made Anthony so angry, so hard, so cold, as though his heart was frozen in a block of ice?

Shelly shivered. Maybe she knew. Maybe it was the same things she’d run from, the pain, the past. She’d tried to numb her feelings, but then, when Anthony had come to Texas to find her, to save her, to do what he’d promised Vinnie he’d do, he’d failed in his attempt. Maybe those few days in Texas with her, the addict version of her, had been enough to turn his heart cold.

She’d gone on an eighteen-month bender after she ditched Anthony in McAllen. The memories were vague, and she didn’t really ever want to recover them. Shelly pulled on a blue sweater with silver threads woven through the front and turned to the mirror above her dresser.

The face staring back at her still didn’t feel like her own. She closed her eyes. The urge, the desire to take these feelings away, clawed through her blood. She craved a fix. She wanted a fix so badly her skin hurt. Alex, her sponsor, had told her that the holidays could be a recipe for disaster. Damn, she needed a meeting. She grabbed her phone and tapped out a text to Alex.