Read the book: «Invitation to Italian»

Her lips sought his and nipped and tasted

When Sabastiano opened his mouth, Julie didn’t need any encouragement, and they plundered at will.

Then his mouth stilled against hers. She steadied herself against the vibrations tingling her whole body.

“Well, that was unexpected, but clearly enjoyable. Why did you stop?”

“There are rules. Morals,” Sebastiano explained, though obviously with some difficulty on his part.

“What? Adversaries have morals in this day and age?”

He looked at her askance. “When it comes to taking advantage of damsels in distress, even adversaries in this day and age have rules.”

Julie smiled. “Perhaps it’s time to suspend the rules?”

Dear Reader,

Autumn has come to Grantham again, and it’s time for school!

Julie has been chomping at the bit to have her story told. Let me tell you, it wasn’t easy keeping the opinionated obstetrician at bay. But I think you’ll agree that Julie has met her match in suave hospital administrator Sebastiano Fonterra. Was there any doubt that sparks would fly in a class in Italian conversation? They don’t call Italian a romantic language for nothing.

On a separate note, you’ll see that Julie loves to do needlepoint—a hobby I am addicted to, as well. There is nothing like handwork to clear the mind and relax the body. And in the end, you have something to show for your efforts—though I think my friends and relatives probably have enough pillows by now.

As always, I love to hear from my readers. Email me at tracyk@tracykelleher.com.

Tracy Kelleher

Invitation to Italian
Tracy Kelleher

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tracy sold her first story to a children’s magazine when she was ten years old. Writing was clearly in her blood, though fiction was put on hold while she received degrees from Yale and Cornell, traveled the world, worked in advertising, became a staff reporter and later a magazine editor. She also managed to raise a family. Is it any surprise she escapes to the world of fiction?

Many thanks to Maria Engst for her expertise

in Spanish and Dan Shapiro for sharing his

knowledge about obstetrical care.

This book is dedicated to two people:

Bob Bogart, the man to have in a flood.

I owe you much more than a case of beer.

And to Anna Ruspa Fedele—

una professoressa straordinaria.

Mille grazie.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY

CHAPTER ONE

Sunday, 10:00 p.m.

“I’M HAVING SOME TROUBLE getting a heartbeat,” Julie Antonelli said. Her tone was steady despite the bad news. She looked at the anxious mother in labor who shook her head and turned to her husband who hovered by her shoulder. Too nervous to muster his meager language skills he grimaced in confusion.

“Espere un minuto.” Julie held up a finger before turning to Maria, one of the delivery nurses. By law, the hospital was required to have a translator, and Maria spoke Spanish fluently.

“Tell them what I just said and add that this happens sometimes,” Julie said. Maria translated efficiently and without drama.

The husband nodded stiffly and gripped his wife’s shoulder. She lay back and closed her eyes. The concern was etched in the lines on their faces, but they both breathed a little easier now.

Julie’s breathing, by contrast, sped up. After six years as a practicing obstetrician, she recognized a potential crisis in the making, and she wasn’t about to let that happen. She already carried around enough guilt.

Not that guilt was all bad, she liked to tell herself, or, more accurately, to fool herself. Either way it reminded her just how precious life was. She focused on the nurse at her side.

“Maria, could you explain to Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez that I’m ordering an ultrasound machine brought in? I want to get a better look at the baby.” So far neither a fetal monitor nor a scalp probe on the baby’s cranium had yielded evidence of a heartbeat.

Maria translated while eyeing the monitors. “Two hundred over one-fifty,” she whispered in English.

Julie nodded. The patient’s blood pressure was dangerously elevated. Julie leaned toward the patient. “Carlotta, are you a diabetic?”

“¿Carlotta, es usted diabética?” Maria translated.

Carlotta shook her head.

“Have you had regular prenatal checkups, Carlotta?” Julie continued with a kind smile.

“¿Carlotta, Usted ha tenido chequeos prenatales regularmente?”

Carlotta shook her head. A contraction gripped her. She reached to squeeze her husband’s hand.

Julie leaned over and patted her shoulder, watching the monitors for signs of distress.

Carlotta breathed through her mouth as the pain passed. She wet her lips. “Yo trabajo durante el dia cuando la clinica esta abierta,” she said.

“I work during the day when the clinic is open,” Maria translated quickly. Carlotta spoke some more. “She says that she couldn’t leave work because she was afraid to lose her job.”

Julie bit back an oath. “What kind of job does she have?”

“¿En que trabaja?”

“Soy la ninera de una familia en Grantham.”

“She says she’s—” Maria started to translate.

Julie waved Maria off before the nurse could finish. “That’s okay. Even I get that she’s a nanny. You wanna make a bet that her employer never misses her doctor’s appointments!” Julie could feel her anger mounting, but she needed to keep a lid on it for now. Concentrate on the situation at hand. But later all hell might just break loose.

The door bumped open as Tina, the other nurse, wheeled in the ultrasound machine. Julie wasted no time and moved to the side. “Tell her I need to raise her hospital gown to get a better picture of the baby.”

Maria translated, explaining how the lubricating jelly made better contact with the transducer. Then she pointed to the monitor.

“Now, we’ll get a look, all right?” Julie said calmly. She placed the ultrasound wand on Carlotta’s raised belly.

Carlotta wearily lifted her head. Her husband peered into the monitor at the gray image. “¿Ese es el bebé?”

Julie nodded and flicked some dials. “Yes, that’s the baby.” She switched to another view, hoping to find what she had not been able to register so far. And then she caught it. The rapid, shallow flutter of the baby’s beating heart.

Just then, another more severe contraction gripped Carlotta. She let out a piercing scream. Blood gushed out between her legs and onto the sheets.

The room erupted into emergency mode. Lights flashed, and an alarm sounded. “Call the O.R. for us,” Julie ordered.

Maria got on the phone. Tina whipped open cabinet doors. She reached for some pads, and all three of the women packed them to staunch the blood flow, but it kept coming. “Let’s get FFP going, stat.” Julie didn’t stop working on the patient as she ordered, calling for fresh frozen plasma containing clotting factors.

“I’m already on the way,” Tina called as she rushed out of the room. She hastily pushed aside the ultrasound machine and banged the doors behind her.

“I need it yesterday,” Julie urged.

She turned back to the expectant mother, whose face was streaked with tears as she hiccupped away her sobs. “Carlotta, the ultrasound shows that your baby is very weak. And we can’t wait any longer for it to come out.” Tina stormed in and hooked up the IV bag. She got the line going immediately. She read out the signs to Julie in a trained staccato.

Underneath the hubbub and rapid-fire activity, Maria translated Julie’s instructions, looking from mother to father and back to Julie.

Carlotta blinked rapidly and shook her head. She reached blindly for her husband’s hand. “¿Qué, qué es lo que esta diciendo?”

Julie knew they couldn’t waste precious time. She needed Carlotta and her husband to understand what was going on—now, sooner than now. “You are experiencing eclampsia or pregnancy-induced hypertension. This is a very serious condition. Both you and the baby are in jeopardy, and I will need to perform an emergency cesarean section,” she said quickly, urgently.

“¿Que le pasa al bebé? I don’t understand?” Carlotta’s husband looked from Julie to Maria. His face was contorted in fear. The tendons stood out in his neck.

Julie opened her mouth to spe—

There was no time to answer. Carlotta’s limbs went suddenly rigid. Her eyes rolled back. As if struck by lightning her body jolted, and foam immediately gurgled from the corner of her mouth.

“Magnesium sulfate. Now!” Julie yelled. She needed to control the convulsions. Tina readied the injection and handed it to Julie.

“Carlotta, Carlotta!” her husband screamed, his hands going to his face.

Julie administered the dose and checked Carlotta’s vital signs. “Maria, explain to Mr. Sanchez that we are doing everything to ensure his wife’s safety,” she said, not bothering to stop, let alone look up. The antiseizure medicine was fast-acting, and Carlotta settled into unconsciousness, her breathing aided by an oxygen mask. Julie turned to the nurses. “Let’s get a move on. I want this baby out of here and the mother out of danger. O.R. knows we’re coming?”

“They’re waiting for us,” Maria said. “That was my first call.”

“Then we’re outta here,” Julie ordered. Tina readied the IV poles. Julie put up the side guardrail and bent to push the bed. Maria, at the foot of the bed, pulled backward, banging the door open with her butt.

Julie put all her weight behind her efforts, keeping her eyes on her patient as the bed rolled swiftly forward. “Maria, explain to the husband that he’ll have to stay in the waiting room, but we’ll keep him informed.”

Maria spoke rapidly.

Carlotta’s husband brought up the rear, jockeying to get closer to his wife and reaching out his hand to touch the rolling bed. “You will save her and the baby, won’t you?” he pleaded in Spanish with Maria translating.

Julie didn’t need the English. She could sense what he was asking from the tone of his voice. And she could feel him breathing hard as he rushed to catch up with her. “Le prometo,” she said as she continued to move forward. “I’ll do every—” Hanging on to the bedrails, she swiveled to reassure him face-to-face…

And never saw the ultrasound machine.

The corner clipped her right in the side of her face. She momentarily saw stars.

“Doctor, are you all right?” Tina asked.

Carlotta’s husband blanched. He held out a hand to help.

Julie blinked. “No, no, I’m fine, really. Estoy bien.” She tried not to wince. “It’s my stupidity. Really. Let’s just keep moving everybody.” She pushed the bed and nodded to Tina to get going again. “And, please, somebody get a social worker who speaks Spanish to stay with Mr. Sanchez.” It’s the least we could do, she thought.

They reached the operating theater, and an orderly held Mr. Sanchez by the arm as they whisked through the doors. Julie didn’t bother looking back. All she thought about was the delivery and that it was going to be difficult. She would need all her training and expertise to guarantee a happy ending.

Then—no matter what—somebody was going to pay.

And she knew just who.

CHAPTER TWO

Monday morning

DR. SEBASTIANO FONTERRA folded his arms and leaned on the blotter positioned precisely in the middle of his immaculate desk. A Venetian glass vase, black with orange swirls, was juxtaposed against the flat plane. It was a gift from the board of directors of Grantham hospital, and in Sebastiano’s opinion, hideous. Naturally, he kept it prominently displayed.

Sebastiano offered a sincere nod to demonstrate his attentiveness to the stately woman sitting across from him who had been speaking to him—no, haranguing him—for more than half an hour.

He smiled politely, masking the subversive fantasy bubbling in his brain, the fantasy of jumping atop his desk and, with his arms outstretched and his face raised heavenward, shouting at the top of his lungs, “Per me questo lavoro non vale la pena!” Which somewhat loosely translated to, “They can’t pay me enough to keep doing this job!”

Not that he would ever allow himself to act so…indecorously. So emotionally. Sebastiano didn’t do emotional, let alone fantasy.

What he did do was perform his job as the CEO of the University Hospital of Grantham with admirable skill and considerable grace. He needed both qualities when dealing with the woman seated across from him, the woman who headed up the hospital’s fundraising committee and who had, through personal donations, ensured that her late husband’s name would be emblazoned on the oncology wing of the new hospital.

So with seeming equanimity, he shifted his posture and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Since he didn’t have the slightest idea what she’d been talking about—having tuned out somewhere between her description of her newest peony cultivar and her criticism of how the ink on the local newspaper, the Grantham Courier, came off on her cream-colored Chanel suit—he offered his tried-and-true conversational gambit. “You always bring a unique perspective, Mrs. Phox,” he said warmly. Then he offered up a smile meant to convey sincerity and sensitivity. Not many could carry off the feat with such visible genuineness.

The society dame rotated her head slightly. If a weighty volume of Emily Post’s Etiquette had been atop her immaculately coiffed gray hair, it wouldn’t have shifted a millimeter. She eyed Sebastiano with arched brows. “I was merely inquiring if you were free for a working breakfast at the Grantham Club on Friday to meet with Rufus Treadway. We need to discuss the impact of the new hospital building on the neighborhood,” she said. Rufus was the former mayor of Grantham and unspoken representative for the historical African-American neighborhood where the hospital was located.

“As I am sure you are well aware, the proposed expansion is not completely welcome in the immediate neighborhood, and I thought that Rufus could prove to be an effective mediator.” She looked at him with a skeptical eye. “And, please, I insist. Call me Iris.”

Sebastiano cleared his throat. “Of course. Iris. What I meant was your suggestion to meet over lunch at the club presents a less confrontational setting.” He wondered if Iris Phox bought it.

She didn’t blink.

Sebastiano sighed. “Listen, I have to apologize. I must confess my mind wondered a second there, not a reflection on your conversation but my own hectic schedule.”

Iris nodded. “You do work hard. And don’t think that we on the board don’t appreciate it. Your efforts at ushering the building plans through the zoning and planning committees have been masterful. Your ability to attract corporate sponsors beyond compare. And needless to say, your embrace of the community hasn’t gone unnoticed.”

Sebastiano had long ago lost count of the number of rubber chicken dinners he’d attended to support various local causes, everything from the Grantham Open Space Committee to the Grantham After-school Program, with the Grantham Historical Society, the Grantham Chamber Music Society and the Grantham Public Library Fund somewhere in between.

“You’re too generous,” he said, still experiencing the indigestion from Saturday evening’s Friends of the Grantham University Art Museum fundraiser. The meal had a Spanish theme in honor of a recent acquisition of a Goya painting. The chicken paella had left a lasting impression.

Iris sat ramrod straight. She placed her gloves beneath the stiff handles of her alligator bag, which was neatly positioned on the side of his desk. “Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?” She tilted her finely pointed chin a precise fifteen degrees.

Sebastiano winced. “Personal?”

“Yes, I don’t mean to pry.”

That seemed exactly what she was trying to do.

“I was wondering…are you happy here?” she asked.

Sebastiano frowned. “If you mean am I content with my job, you don’t need to worry that I am considering other offers.”

Iris pursed her lips. “That’s not what I mean. And I know you’ve been offered positions at larger hospitals.”

Sebastiano raised his eyebrows.

“However tantalizing some of these offers may be, I am a good enough judge of character to know that you wouldn’t think of leaving until new ground is broken and all the funds are raised.” She crossed her still trim legs at the ankles. “No, what I’m talking about has nothing to do with professional contentment. On the contrary, I’m talking about personal fulfillment.” She eyed him closely. “Are you happy?”

Sebastiano ground his back teeth. His dentist had warned him at his last checkup that he was doing this. “What is ‘happy’?” he asked.

“Please, I’m not discussing Schopenhauer here,” Iris said, dismissing his question. “Though after taking a course on German philosophy at the Adult School, I wouldn’t mind. Still, that is not the point of this discussion. What I’m getting at is that to me, you appear disconnected, which is not to say uninterested or lacking empathy. Nor am I referring to the fact that you seem overworked. What I mean to say, and, please, you must remember that I am not one to mince words.”

Sebastiano bit back a grin. “How could I forget?”

“What I mean to say then, is that you appear quite alone, one might even say lonely. Is there anything I can do to help?”

Sebastiano couldn’t think of anything he wanted less than company. “That’s very kind of you, but I’m really quite all right. There’s absolutely nothing wrong, and as a doctor, I make sure to stay atop my physical condition.”

“I’m not talking about blood tests and annual checkups,” Iris clarified.

“I understand, but rest assured.”

There was a knock. His office door swung open.

He narrowed his eyes, hesitated, then focused his attention again on Iris. “Trust me. Nothing’s wrong.”

A sarcastic laugh from across the room mocked his statement. “Well, you might not be able to think of anything wrong, but believe me, I can tell you more than a thing or two!” the irate female voice announced.

Sebastiano stood up. He buttoned the middle button of his charcoal-gray suit jacket. “Mrs. Phox…Iris…excuse this unexpected interruption. I’m not sure if you’ve met one of our obstetricians?”

Iris leaned around the side of the wing chair to get a view of the intruder. “Ah, Julie, my dear, so good to see you again. I was just speaking of you this morning.”

CHAPTER THREE

“DR. ANTONELLI. I WAS unaware we had an appointment.” Sebastiano stood stiffly. He shot the cuffs of his starched white shirt and straightened his sterling silver cuff links.

If he had wanted to appear more intimidating, it would have been difficult to say just how, Julie observed. Well, he could grow four more inches, she thought with a certain amount of self-satisfaction. She was six foot one in her stocking feet. Right now she had on clogs, her usual footwear for surgery, and she topped him by a good three inches.

It was a silly sense of superiority, but she’d take it. Because frankly, Dr. Sebastiano Fonterra scared her witless.

True, the old CEO of the hospital had never been her favorite person. He hadn’t seemed to be the brightest bulb, but he had been approachable, always appearing open to suggestions even when he didn’t have the least intention of following through on those suggestions. Still, he listened.

Sebastiano Fonterra was anything but approachable. He was aloof, often arrogant and, even more maddening, sexy as hell.

There was something about that voice of his—the faint Italian accent to an otherwise flawless command of English. The vowels were more distinct. The enunciation a little crisper. He simply didn’t have the lazy lips of American speakers. Although her female colleagues didn’t normally bring up the topic of enunciation when it came to discussing them.

Still, when she’d come storming in, dressed in her operating scrubs and minus a shower, enunciation had been the furthest thing from her mind. Not that her mind was functioning all that well after having been awake for more than twenty-four hours.

Julie slowly pulled off the blue cotton cap left over from surgery. Her short dark hair was matted to her forehead.

“Dr. Antonelli, I’m waiting,” Sebastiano said again.

Sebastiano might look gorgeous and wield more than a fair share of authority at the hospital, but she refused to be intimidated.

Iris Phox was a completely different matter.

Nevertheless, this was too important for Julie to back down now. “I have something that couldn’t wait.” She took a step forward, positioning herself to the right of Iris, who was sitting in the high-backed chair and within easy spitting distance of Sebastiano. Julie leaned forward and braced her hands on his desk. Spitting from this distance would be a slam dunk.

“I’ve just come from an emergency cesarean on a patient who had seized out from eclampsia.” Through her peripheral vision, she could see Iris’s blinking stare of fascination, but Julie narrowed her eyes and focused on the man across the desk.

“The mother made it?” he asked, still standing. There was no emotion in his voice.

“Yes.”

“And the baby?”

“Underweight and with a low Apgar score, but she’ll pull through.”

“I presume this came as an emergency room admit?” Sebastiano said.

Julie nodded.

“Then you are to be commended. They were lucky that you were on call.”

“This is not about me. This is about the fact that she had never received any prenatal checkups simply because the clinic is not open long enough during the day,” Julie decried in frustration. She threw up her hands…and bumped the glass vase. Before Julie could react, it skittered off the desk and seemed to hang suspended until it fell on the rug, thumped loudly, then bounced twice more. There was an ominous clink as it landed against the metal heater vent.

“Oh, my God, I’m so sorry.” Julie rushed to retrieve the vase. She brought it back to the desk, wincing when she noticed a visible chip in the rim. “Please, I will gladly replace it.”

“You can’t. It’s a one-of-a-kind piece.” Sebastiano spoke so quietly it was clear he was seething internally.

Julie put her hand to her mouth. “Oh, no. I suppose it had sentimental value, too?” What a total screwup, she thought.

“It was a gift upon my acceptance of my position here at the hospital.”

“Oh…” Julie’s voice trailed off.

“Never mind the vase,” Iris said behind her. Julie turned.

Sebastiano glanced at Iris. “As a board member, I’m sure you’re well aware of its value.”

“I never cared for it. If it had been left to me, I never would have chosen it. Black and orange may be the colors of Grantham University, but I always found the piece somewhat garish. I’ll make sure we give you something more suitable to replace it—a simple Paul Revere-style silver bowl.”

“You’re too kind,” he said. That didn’t stop him from glaring at Julie. “But that still doesn’t eclipse Dr. Antonelli’s carelessness.”

“Let’s move on for now,” Iris ordered, ignoring the obvious tension in the room. She turned to Julie. “I’m curious as to your comment about the clinic,” she said. “I wasn’t aware there was a problem.”

“With all due respect to Dr. Antonelli, if I may?” He measured his words.

Julie crossed her arms. She tapped her fingers on her elbows. She didn’t like being preempted.

Sebastiano forged ahead. “With all due respect, the clinic is open three days a week and one evening, more than the state mandates. Moreover, the hospital maintains these hours despite the cuts in government spending.” He waited, looked at Iris, then back at Julie.

She wasn’t ready to give up yet. She raised her hand.

“Which way are you aiming this time?” he asked, jutting his chin out.

Julie paused. She knew just where she’d aim. But she didn’t. Instead, she clenched her jaw. “I realize the hospital is trying to do its part for the community—but it’s simply not good enough. Here we live in one of the richest towns in the country, and we still find expectant mothers risking death due to inadequate medical care. Do we really want it written on our tombstones that we exceeded state mandates? Wouldn’t we rather be known as the local hospital that did everything it possibly could?”

Sebastiano lowered his eyes to the blotter of his desk. He lined up his Montblanc pen exactly in the middle, parallel to the horizontal edges. “You know there are proper channels for lodging a complaint about hospital policies.” He lifted his head and focused on Julie. “An unannounced visit to my office while I am discussing business with the head of the board is not one of them.” He didn’t threaten.

He didn’t need to.

Julie wet her lips and realized that some of her fury was starting to seep away. Maybe it was all the hours with no sleep. Maybe it was the thought that she could lose her privileges at the hospital. And then maybe it was staring into Sebastiano Fonterra’s disturbing deep-brown eyes that finally took the wind out of her sails.

She had felt she was right to barge in when she did. Maybe that was the problem. Too much emotion, not enough strategy. When would she ever learn?

Julie held up her hand. “You’re right. I apologize. To you and to Mrs. Phox.”

Iris nodded in acceptance. In fact, she seemed to have an amused look on her face. “No need to apologize, dear.”

Julie swiveled on her clogs to leave but caught herself before she had fully turned away. “I still have to ask, though.” She couldn’t help herself.

He waited silently.

“How can you live with the thought that a baby could have died knowing we could and should have done more?” She peered at him closely.

He remained standing like a man in charge, barricaded on the other side of his desk, but something about him—be it his normally entrenched aura or some indefinable spirit—appeared to contract within.

Until finally, after what Julie felt was one of the most awkward moments of her life, he responded, “I do what I do every morning. I get up and try to do what I think is best for the future of this hospital.”

“And you can be sure that members of the Grantham community recognize that,” Iris said in support.

Oh, hell, who was she kidding? Julie thought. Iris was right. Sebastiano had improved things at the hospital. He appeared to have an almost miraculous green thumb when it came to raising money, and he had spearheaded interim renovations on the chemotherapy infusion clinic besides increasing the number of social workers to help patients navigate the intricacies of insurance coverage for various levels of care. Charging full steam into his office, wanting to do the best for her patients, she’d made a mess of things. “As those of us on staff at the hospital realize what you’ve done, as well,” she said belatedly.

Suddenly she ached, inside and out, and she wasn’t sure what hurt more. She brought her hand to her cheek and rubbed it. She felt a bump. That’s right. That stupid ultrasound machine. Well, she’d have a doozy of a bruise tomorrow. That was for sure. The sooner she got out of this predicament, the better. “So, if you’ll excuse me…” she said, easing her way toward the door.

“Before you go, Julie.” Iris caught her in midflight. “Just the other day, Sarah was showing me the baby pillow you made for little Natalie—my granddaughter,” she said by way of explanation to Sebastiano, with a beaming smile. “And then she gave me the sampler pillow you made for me. It’s beautiful, and it will definitely take pride of place in my library. And I just love the saying, ‘If I had known how much fun grandchildren would be, I would have had them first.’” She mimicked writing the words with queenlike aplomb.

Then she turned abruptly toward Sebastiano. “You do know, of course, that Julie does absolutely magnificent needlepoint, extraordinary stitches.”

He raised his eyebrows. “No, I learn something new every day about Dr. Antonelli.”

“Yes…well…I have many facets, including my innate ability to run half-cocked into a situation. So, if you’ll excuse me again…” She winced. The talking was really starting to take a toll on her composure, not to mention her sore cheek.

Sebastiano frowned. “Actually, you’re not excused. If you ladies would stay here for a moment, there’s something I need to do. I’ll be right back.” He circled the desk and left the room quickly.

Julie looked over at Iris. “Well, that was a little weird,” she said, feeling embarrassed.

Iris looked at Julie, then glanced over her narrow shoulder at the open door before slowly turning back to Julie. She waited a second before commenting, her pearls shining with a yellow, old-monied hue in the morning light coming through the bank of windows. “I believe you’ve taken him out of his comfort zone.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Julie asked.

Iris smiled. “We’ll have to see, won’t we?”