“You know what they say about a change being as good as a vacation, Lucca. At my lowest ebb, Mel offered me a job with his company. I took it and never looked back.”
As she rounded a curve, another car started passing her. She had to brake so there wouldn’t be an accident. That was all they would need, especially Lucca, whose surgery needed more time to really heal.
“Speaking of looking back, keep your head down. We’re coming into Ravello. One of your family members or friends might be driving around and see you.”
“In the backseat no less.”
“And alone,” she quipped. “No sign of lipstick on your mouth. Just chocolate.” Giovanni wouldn’t believe it.
A scoffing sound reached her ears and Annabelle grinned.
“So where do you go for these photo shoots?”
He was full of questions. “Besides Rome, where I’ve already been, they’ve been scheduled around the most beautiful spots along the Amalfi Coast. Basilio has been the one working with me the most, but your father’s in charge of everything.”
A brief silence prevailed before he asked her another question. “How did you meet my father exactly?”
“At Mel Jardine’s dealership in L.A. He sells more Amalfis than any other in the States. Two months ago your father flew there to talk business with him.”
Through the rearview mirror she saw Lucca’s head lift. “You work for that dealership?”
“Yes.”
“After being a nurse?” He sounded incredulous.
At last they were home safe and hopefully still undiscovered, but it didn’t matter now that Lucca had promised to call his father. After she’d pulled in the drive, he climbed out of the back with the sacks. In the darkness he made an imposing figure. “What do you do for him. Don’t tell me you sell cars.”
“I won’t. I’m Mel’s private secretary.”
“There is no such animal with the Cavezzali dealers.” He stood there looking perplexed with his hands outstretched, Italian to the core. She wished she didn’t find him so…appealing.
“That’s true, but he created the job after his heart attack.” She hurried ahead of him and let them in the house.
When she would have gone straight to the terrace to start cleaning up, he caught her hand. “Not yet. I want to hear the rest to the part where my father comes into this.”
He wasn’t about to let it go. Naturally he was curious. In fact he’d shown amazing restraint up to now. “I have to be to work early in the morning, but I’ll make a deal with you. If you’ll let me help you with the dishes, I’ll tell you. We can get them done faster so you can get off that leg.”
With seeming reluctance Lucca let her hand slip out of his, but it left warmth curling up her arm to envelop her whole body. “The house doesn’t have a dishwasher.”
“It does now.” She smiled at him. “I’ll clear the table while you fill the sink.”
He returned her smile. Another one without shadows. Mama mia, as they said back in old Napoli.
“You made quite a mess in the kitchen,” Annabelle commented a few minutes later, “but it was worth it.”
Lucca’s arms were up to his elbows in suds. He scooped a few and blew them softly in her face. “Compliments won’t get you out of telling me what I want to know.”
She rinsed in the other sink and started wiping bowls and pans. “To make a long story short, Mel was one of my patients. He’d had a heart attack and needed special nursing after he left the hospital. The man is superenergetic and very persuasive. He arranged with my supervisor for me to go home with him for a few weeks.”
He glanced at her. “I take it you wouldn’t have consented unless you’d wanted to.”
“No. He’s very kind and treats me like a daughter really. Mel’s a widower and his grown children don’t live nearby. Though he has a housekeeper, he needed a nurse. We formed a friendship.
“When he got well enough to go back to work, the doctor cautioned him to cut down on his load and find an assistant to help handle his hectic schedule. Mel claimed I took such good care of him during his illness, he said he’d pay me triple what I made at the hospital if I’d come to work for him. So I did.”
“From nursing to cars. Quite a jump from one arena to another that’s vastly different.”
“I know. My job description was to keep him sorted out. I don’t know about cars, but I can work with people.”