Caroselli's Accidental Heir (3 page)

Shame on her for forgetting who she really was.

Tony shut the door behind them and when he touched her shoulder her heart stopped. But then she realized that he was only helping her with her jacket, which he tossed over the back of the sofa. His suit jacket landed on top of it, and his tie on top of that. “Would you like something to drink? I have juice and diet soda. Or I could make tea.”

“Just water,” she said. There were newspapers strewn across the coffee table and a blue silk tie draped over the back of the leather chair. Guy furniture. The apartment was full of it. Leather, metal and glass. Bare wood floors. She would have thought that something might have changed in the four months she’d been gone, but everything looked exactly the same. And she saw no evidence of a woman staying there.

“Sit down,” he said, gesturing to the sofa, more an order than a suggestion. He was working up to something, she could feel it. For every second he didn’t speak, her nerves wound tighter as her hopes for a civilized solution faded. Responding to her tension, the baby was doing circus acrobatics deep in her womb.

The galley-style kitchen was separated from the living space by a wall, but she could hear him rattling around in the fridge. He reappeared a second later with a bottled water for her and a beer for himself, and though she’d assumed he would sit in the chair opposite her, he sat down beside her on the sofa instead.

The urge to touch him, to scoot closer and lean into him—to knock him onto his back and climb all over him—was as strong as ever. She longed for him to take her into his arms and hold her, promise her that everything would be okay. Make love to her until the last four months no longer mattered.

All he said was, “I can’t let you leave again.”

She should have known he wouldn’t give up. He was the kind of man who was used to getting his way.

He would just have get unused to it.

“It’s not your decision to make.”

“The hell it isn’t,” he said, and his sharp tone startled her. He’d never so much as raised his voice in her presence, though at times she may have deserved it.

“Fatherhood doesn’t start after the baby is born,” he told her. “You robbed me of the opportunity to share the experience of your pregnancy with you.”

Just when she thought she couldn’t feel like a bigger jerk, he had to go and say that. And he was absolutely right. She had robbed him of all sorts of things. And robbed herself of sharing the experience with someone who actually gave a damn. Unlike her mom, who spent the first month and a half trying to convince her to “get rid of the
problem.
”

Lucy had also robbed herself of the most basic creature comforts. Her mom’s couch, where she had been sleeping the past four months, was miserably uncomfortable. She woke most mornings with either intense lower back pain or a severely kinked neck. Sometimes both. The idea of sleeping in a bed again, getting a peaceful night’s rest, was alluring. But what would it do to her heart?

She reminded herself yet again that this was not about what she wanted. Or couldn’t have. She needed to do what was best for the baby, and for now that meant taking care of herself. Tony could help her with that.

“Hypothetically, suppose I do agree to live here with you,” she said. “I would have to have my own room.”

“Or you could share mine.” His hand came to rest on her thigh. She didn’t have to see his face to know the expression he wore, and that it had the ability to melt her in seconds flat. Hadn’t she promised herself that she was through making irresponsible decisions?

Tempting as it might have been, for the sake of her own pride, she couldn’t go back to the way things used to be. At least in the past there had been some hope that someday things would change, that he could fall in love with her, but now she knew that would never happen. If she was going to stay here, in his apartment, they would have to establish some boundaries. Like,
no
fooling around.

She took his hand and set it on his own leg. “I think for the baby’s sake we should keep our relationship platonic. So things don’t get confusing.”

“You can’t blame a guy for trying,” he said, and this time she did look at him, which was monumentally stupid. Curse him and his captivating smile. His deep-set, bedroom eyes.

“You can have my room,” he told her. “I’ll sleep on the fold-out in my office.”

Before she could object, his cell phone started to ring. He pulled it out of his pants pocket and checked the screen, cursing under his breath. “It’s
Nonno,
” he said, rising from the sofa and heading toward the kitchen. “I have to take this.”

Lucy had never actually met Tony’s grandfather, but she’d heard so many stories about him, in a way she felt as if she already knew him. It occurred to her that she hadn’t seen him at the wedding. According to Tony, his grandfather—and before she passed away, his grandmother—had been present for every significant event in his life.

Why not his wedding?

The call barely lasted a minute before Tony hung up. “It was my mom,” he said, shoving the phone back into his pocket. “She’s at
Nonno
’s cleaning up. She wanted to make sure everything was okay. They want us to come by their house tomorrow to talk.”

The idea of facing his parents, especially so soon, left her weak with terror. It must have shown on her face because Tony said, “Don’t worry. I told her we had things to work through first, and I would let her know when it would be a good time for us to meet.”

How about never? Could they meet then?

If she’d had a crystal ball, and could have seen the way events would unfold, she never would have left Chicago in the first place. She would have handled the situation like an adult instead of a lovesick adolescent. So why delay the inevitable? All she could do is apologize and hope they would take pity on her.

“I’d like to get this over with sooner rather than later,” she told Tony.

“There’s no rush.”

“I’m responsible for this mess. I need to own up to it.”

“Don’t you think you’re being a little hard on yourself?”

Was she? “Imagine how you would feel if your son was getting married and some woman you’d never even met showed up claiming she was pregnant with his baby. Wouldn’t you want to know who she is? What she’s up to?”

“You’re talking like you’re in this alone. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase ‘It takes two to tango.’ I’m just as responsible.”

She doubted his family would see it that way. “We shouldn’t put this off.”

He shrugged and said, “If that’s what you want.”

It wasn’t about what she wanted. It was the right thing to do. “Is your grandfather okay?”

The question seemed to puzzle him. “Why do you ask?”

“I didn’t see him at the service today. I thought he might not be well.”

“He’s fine. Just stubborn.”

She wasn’t sure what that had to do with it, but before she could ask, Tony’s phone rang again. He pulled it out and checked the screen, muttered a curse, and rejected the call. He didn’t even have time to slide the phone back into his pocket before it began to ring again. Once again he rejected the call, and this time he switched his phone to silent, muttering under his breath as he turned to Lucy. “So, are you staying?”

“I should probably tell my mom that I won’t be needing a ride home from the airport, or the use of her couch,” Lucy said.

Tony frowned. “She made you sleep on the
couch?
”

“It was that or the floor.” Which frankly could not have been any less comfortable, though she shuddered to imagine the horrors residing in the fibers of the ancient, threadbare carpet. Her mom’s friends—if you could call them that—were a motley crew of drug addicts and alcoholics.

“She couldn’t take the couch and let her pregnant daughter use the bed?” Tony asked.

If he knew the kind of lifestyle her mom lead, he wouldn’t blame Lucy for not wanting to get anywhere near her mattress. Lord only knew what she might catch.

But he didn’t know much about her family, and she preferred to keep it that way. Tony knew that she and her mom hadn’t had much, but he had no idea how rotten Lucy’s childhood had been. The constant moving from one dumpy, cockroach-infested place to another. Sometimes going hungry for days because there was no money for food. The endless flow of men through her mom’s revolving bedroom door.

But that was all in the past. It had happened, now it was over, and Lucy had moved on.

When she and Tony talked, it was usually about him and his work, or his family. Everything she had ever told him about her life, from birth to the present, wouldn’t take more than a ten-minute conversation. He knew she didn’t see her father, but he didn’t know why. And all he knew of her mom was that she and Lucy had never gotten along.

He didn’t know that starting when Lucy was eight, her mom would leave her alone while she went out, and often wouldn’t return till morning. He didn’t know how many of her mom’s male “friends” had watched Lucy with a lascivious smile, said lewd and inappropriate things. Her mom used to say that it was Lucy’s own fault. That she was inviting the attention by putting out “signals.” And at the time, being a naive and gullible preteen, Lucy had believed her. She still wasn’t sure if on some fundamental, primitive level, she was destined to be like her mom. Maybe she was hardwired that way, and it was inevitable. Only time would tell.

She wondered what Tony would think of her if he knew the truth. If he knew the kind of background she came from, and the questionable origin of the baby’s genetics. What would his family think?

Tony handed her his phone, saying gently but firmly, “I won’t make you sleep on the couch. Make the call.”

It boiled down to what was best for the baby. So she made the call.

Three

T
hough he was technically on his honeymoon for the next seven days, Tony had some personal business to deal with, so the following morning he went first to the gym, then into the office. He knew full well that at some point during the course of the day he would be accosted by nearly every member of his family. After repeated calls and texts that had gone unanswered they had gotten the hint and stopped bugging him around ten o’clock p.m. last night. And started right back up this morning at eight. He loved his family. He knew that any one of them would be there for him in a pinch. They were just too damned nosy. An Italian trait, he was sure. Or maybe all big families were like that. Either way, he was tired of people being all up in his business, all the time.

He was going to have to deal with them eventually, and shy of calling a press conference, this was the easiest, not to mention quickest, way to deal with this. The alternative to work was staying home twiddling his thumbs until Lucy woke up. Yesterday, after they had a carryout Chinese dinner, she laid down to take a short rest, and had been sound asleep ever since. Over twelve hours when he left for the gym.

He still couldn’t fathom how Lucy’s mom could make her pregnant daughter sleep on the couch. He knew they didn’t get along well, but that was just cruel. If she didn’t want to give up her own bed, couldn’t she have at least sprung for an air mattress? He didn’t know much about the woman. Lucy’s family was an off-limits subject, but meeting her mom seemed inevitable now that he was about to be the father of her grandchild.

It still hadn’t completely sunk in that in three months he was going to be somebody’s parent. He and Lucy still had so much to talk about, so many decisions to make. He wasn’t even sure where to begin.

Tony’s secretary buzzed him. “Rob and Nick are here. They say it’s urgent.”

He sighed.
And so it begins.

With a sigh of resignation, he looked at the time on his computer monitor. Nine-fifteen. That hadn’t taken long. “Send them in.”

Here we go—round one.

The door opened and his cousins stepped into his office. It was hard to believe that just six months ago they had all been childless bachelors. Now two of them were married and all three were expecting babies. And it was all because of
Nonno.

“So,” Nick said, making himself comfortable in the chair opposite Tony’s desk. “Should I clear my calendar?”

“For what?”

“Your next wedding,” Rob said, standing behind Nick, his arms folded.

As if. “Don’t hold your breath.”

Nick looked surprised. “You’re not going to marry her? Mr. Responsibility? You always do the right thing.”

“As far along as she is, I figured you would have set a date by now,” Rob told him.

“I’m working on it.”

“Did you find out why she left?” Nick asked. “And why it took her so long to tell you about the baby?”

“And are you sure it’s yours?” Rob said.

“Yes, I’m sure that it’s mine. As for why she left, and why she came back when she did, that is between her and me.”

“I assume she’s claiming that it was an accident,” Rob said.

“It
was
an accident. Lucy wasn’t any more anxious than I was to settle down.”

Rob came back with, “Or so she says.”

“It’s the truth.”

“How can you be sure?” Nick asked. “Maybe this is some elaborate setup.”

Lucy didn’t have a devious bone in her body. “It’s not. She had every intention of going back to Florida last night. She didn’t even bring a change of clothes.”

“Maybe she was betting you would ask her to stay.”

“Ask? I practically had to
beg
her to stay in Chicago and move in with me. She flat-out refused to marry me.”

“You proposed?” Rob said.

Tony nodded. “I told her I thought it was best for the baby.”

Nick’s eyebrows rose. “And she said no? I can’t imagine why.”

“I know how it sounds, but Lucy made it very clear from the time we met that she doesn’t want anything exclusive. She’s incredibly independent, not to mention practical. Sentiments of love would only scare her farther away.”

“Is it a boy?” Rob asked.

“We don’t know yet.”

“If it is?” Nick said.

“Yes, I’m taking the money. Why wouldn’t I?” It was his ticket to freedom. It would benefit him, Lucy and the baby.

“How’s that going to happen if she won’t marry you?”

“You have to understand, it’s different for us. You guys are happily married to women you love. You gave up millions of dollars to prove that to them.”

“You don’t love Lucy?” Nick asked.

“What I feel is irrelevant. But I do know how Lucy feels, and she happens to be the one calling all the shots right now.”

“So you’re just going to live together?” Rob asked.

“For now. At least until the baby is born.”

“Then what?”

“She’s been back less than twenty-four hours. We haven’t planned that far ahead yet. We have time.”

“You think so?” Nick said.

“Yes, I do.”

“Terri is barely showing and she already has the kid on a waiting list for preschool.”

Preschool?
“No way.”

“It’s not like it was when we were kids,” Rob said. “For any hope of getting a kid into a good college, you have to get them into a good private primary school first, and to do that they have to go to the right preschool.”

Tony wasn’t even sure if he would want to put his child in private school. As a kid, he would have given anything to go to public school, if for no other reason than to have a little privacy, and anonymity. Any childhood mishaps or embarrassments had been fodder for the entire family. Every time he tried to shirk the rules, it always got back to his parents somehow. He’d had no choice but to behave. Not that he would have been a delinquent otherwise, but being the second oldest cousin—Nick’s sister Jessica beating him out by a year and a half—he’d been held to a higher standard his entire life.

“They look up to you,” his dad used to tell him, and being the oldest of the three brothers, Antonio Sr. understood sacrifice. “It’s your responsibility to set a good example.”

That’s how it was in the Caroselli family. No sacrifice was too large. Working for Caroselli Chocolate hadn’t been Tony’s first choice as a career. It hadn’t been his second or third, either, but he fell in line, because that was what families did. Or so he used to think. He was getting tired of playing by their rules.

He was inching closer to forty every day. When did he get to start living his life the way
he
wanted to? When he was
Nonno
’s
age?

“I think Lucy and I will just have to take this one day at a time,” he told his cousins. “Which would be much easier to do if everyone would just give us the time and the space we need to figure this out.”

“Everyone means well,” Nick said.

That didn’t change the fact that they were only making things more stressful.

“There’s another matter we came to talk to you about,” Rob said. “We have concerns about Rose.”

Rose Goldwyn, the daughter of
Nonno
’s secretary, had come to them last fall looking for a job. Because of her mother, Phyllis’s, twenty-plus years of dedicated service to Caroselli Chocolate, they’d felt obligated to hire her. Unfortunately, Rose was nothing like her mother. She did her job, but unlike Phyllis, who had been like a part of the Caroselli family until she retired, Rose didn’t fit in. There was something about her that just seemed a little...off. Lately Tony had come to realize that it was an opinion shared by a good majority of the family, and most of her coworkers.

“Megan pulled me aside yesterday,” Rob told him. Megan, Rob’s younger sister, had just bought her first home and brought Rose in as her roommate. “She said she’s a little creeped out by Rose’s recent behavior.”

“
Recent
behavior? She’s creeped me out since the day she was hired,” Nick said. He was one of those guys who got along with practically everyone. If he thought something was off about Rose, they would be wise to listen.

“Meg said that Rose seems unusually interested in the family,” Rob told them. “She asks a lot of questions about
Nonno
and
Nonna.
”

“What kind of questions?” Tony asked.

“What they were like, did they have a good marriage?”

That
was
odd. “What does she care about our grandparents’ marriage? How could that possibly be relevant to her?”

“It gets stranger. She asked if Meg had any old family movies.”

“I suppose this would be a good time to mention that Terri and I caught her coming from the direction of
Nonno
’s study on the day of our wedding,” Nick said. “Rose claimed she was looking for the bathroom and got lost, but then she scurried down the stairs without using the bathroom. I figured she was just nervous being at a family function for the first time. It can be a little overwhelming for an outsider. But Terri was convinced that she was lying.”

Rob muttered a curse. “A couple of months ago Carrie caught Rose red-handed trying to jimmy the lock on my dad’s office door.”

And they were just hearing about this now? “I would think you might have mentioned something as important as someone breaking into the CEO’s office,” Tony said.

“She claimed there was a paper in there that she needed, something my dad’s secretary left for her. She said she forgot to grab it before my dad left and locked his office. She was afraid she would get into trouble if she didn’t take care of it. Then out of the blue she got a call saying she didn’t need to do it after all.”

“Sounds like she always has an excuse.”

“Carrie said she looked guilty.”

“All the more reason to report it,” Nick said.

“I didn’t want to get Rose in trouble if she hadn’t done anything wrong. I meant to look into it, then we found out that Carrie was pregnant, and I totally forgot to follow through.”

“Understandable,” Nick said.

“No kidding,” Tony mumbled, and Rob chuckled.

“Do we even know for sure that Rose is Phyllis’s daughter?” Nick asked. “It’s not like we can ask Phyllis since she’s dead. Rose could be an impostor. She could be a spy going after company secrets. She could be an undercover reporter working on an exposé.”

“An exposé about chocolate?” Tony couldn’t think of anything less interesting. “
Why?
Or is there something else going on here that I don’t know about?”

“If there is, I don’t know about it, either,” Rob said. “I only know that Meg is worried. And that has me worried.”

“We could take it to our parents, tell them what we know,” Nick said.

“Why don’t we do a little digging first?” Rob said. “I don’t want to get her in trouble if her only crime is being a little odd.”

“It’s your call,” Tony told him.

“Give me a week or two,” Rob said.

Tony found himself hoping that Rob did discover some nefarious activity. With any luck it would take the focus off him for a while. At least until he figured out what to do. Lucy would marry him eventually, of that he was positive. It was just a matter of wearing her down and making her see reason.

* * *

The rich and salty scent of frying bacon woke Lucy from a deep sleep with a smile on her face. Tony almost always made her breakfast when she spent the night. Even if he only had time to toast bread or pour her a bowl of cereal before he left for work. He kept her favorite kind around for such occasions, which had been more frequent in the weeks before she left.

Until just now, Lucy had never stopped to consider what a nice gesture that was. In fact, he did an awful lot of nice things for her. She couldn’t help feeling that she’d taken him for granted.

She wouldn’t be making that mistake again.

She pried her lids open and looked at the clock. She blinked several times, sure that her eyes were playing tricks on her. It couldn’t possibly be 11:30 a.m. That would mean that she’d slept for almost
eighteen
hours.

On the bedside table her phone chirped, alerting her that she had new text message. She reached over and grabbed it.

Ugh.

There were half a dozen text messages. All from her mom.

Lucy had taken the coward’s way out last night. Instead of calling, she’d messaged her mom to say that she wouldn’t need a lift from the airport after all, and she’d be staying in Chicago a little longer than expected.

How long and with who?
had been her mom’s immediate response.

As tempting as it was to throw her mom’s words back at her—
wouldn’t marry a woman like me, my ass
—that sort of thing always seemed to blow up in her face. After careful consideration, Lucy decided that it wouldn’t be worth the temporary feeling of satisfaction. The less her mom knew at this point, the better.

She texted back,
A friend, not sure how long, no time to discuss it.
If Lucy believed for a second her mom was concerned for her well-being, she would have answered. She knew better.

She rolled out of bed and looked around for her clothes, then remembered that Tony had offered to wash them for her. He must have forgotten to take them out of the dryer.

She grabbed his flannel robe from the back of the closet door where he’d always kept it. The scent of his soap and aftershave tickled her nose as she pulled it on over the white undershirt he’d given her to wear last night. While the shirt was so huge it hung to just above her knees, the robe didn’t quite make it all the way around her tummy.

With the baby doing aerobics on her bladder, her first stop was the bathroom. Tony used to keep a hot pink toothbrush for her in the vanity drawer, but he wouldn’t have kept it all this time. Would he?

She slid the drawer open, gasping softly when she saw it lying there next to a brand-new tube of her favorite toothpaste. How did he remember that? And why keep her toothbrush if he was planning to marry someone else?

One thing at a time, she reminded herself. She brushed her teeth and finger-combed her hair into place. She had always worn her hair on the short side, but her current style, a messy-ish pixie cut, was by far the easiest to maintain, and she knew Tony liked it that way. Her mom claimed it made Lucy look like an elf. The way Lucy looked at it, the less she had to fuss over herself, the more time she would have to fuss over the baby.