Taming Her Italian Boss (7 page)

‘You have plenty of discipline,’ he said. ‘Look at the way you are with Sofia. And sometimes you need that creative spark to liven all that structure up.’ He let out a long sigh and stared at the buildings across the water.

‘More fish! More fish!’ Sofia shouted, jumping up and down so hard she almost toppled into the canal. Ruby kept a firm hand on her as she shook the most recent catch into the bucket to join his friends. Sofia did it so vigorously that Ruby was sure the poor thing must have a concussion.

When Sofia was happily dangling the line in the canal again, Ruby looked at Max. ‘What’s up?’ she asked. ‘Was it something I said?’

He sighed again and crouched down to look at where Sofia was pointing at some silvery fish swimming near the surface of the water. ‘No. It’s something I said.’

She waited for him to stand again.

‘It’s a commission for the Institute of Fine Art,’ he told her. ‘I’ve worked for months on a preliminary design that I’m really proud of, but the board say they’re not sure about it.’

Ruby shook her head. She couldn’t believe that. The designs she’d glimpsed were amazing. They were totally Max, of course. No frills. No fuss. Nothing ostentatious. But there was an elegance to the simplicity. A pared-back beauty. ‘Why on earth not?’

He shrugged. ‘I think the actual phrase they used is that they want more “wow factor”.’

A screech from around knee level interrupted their conversation. Ruby hadn’t noticed it while she’d been talking to Max, but the bucket was now almost full and the crabs were scrambling over each other in an attempt to climb out.

Max knelt down next to his niece. ‘It’s time to put them back now,’ he said matter of factly and tipped the bucket over to let a stream of crustaceans, legs flailing, fall back into the salty lagoon water.

‘No!’ The exclamation was loud and impassioned and followed immediately by a stream of hot tears. ‘Want friend! Want friend!’

Ruby grabbed for the bucket and righted it. Only three crabs remained in the bottom.

Sofia stopped shouting and sniffed. ‘Want take fish home.’

Ruby crouched down beside her, put an arm round her shoulders and joined her in looking into the bucket. She might be wrong, but she thought one of the three crabs left might be the little one they’d caught first. ‘We can’t take them back to Grandma’s, sweetie. They belong here in the water. It’s their home. We just picked them out to say hello for a little bit.’

Sofia let out a juddering sigh.

‘Why don’t we put the last ones back one by one and say a nice goodbye to them?’

Sofia frowned. ‘Come back ʼmorrow say hello?’

Ruby smiled. ‘If you want.’

The little girl nodded. Ruby looked inside the bucket and then up at Max. ‘How do we...?’

Quick as anything his hand plunged into the bucket and he pulled out a crab. ‘There’s a trick to it. If you hold them at the back of the shell like this, they can’t reach to pinch you.’

He held the crab up for Sofia to see. She puckered up her lips. ‘Kiss fish?’ she asked.

Ruby’s heart just about melted.

‘Not too close,’ she said softly, imagining what Fina would say if her precious granddaughter came home with pincer holes in her lips. ‘Just blow a kiss.’

Sofia blinked then puffed heartily on the crab, who was so shocked it stopped waving its legs around angrily and went still. A deep rumble started in Max’s chest then worked its way up out of his mouth in the most infectious of chuckles. Ruby looked up at him, eyes laughing.

‘That’s a first,’ he said, smiling, and then he gently plopped the crab back into the canal.

They followed the same routine with the next crab, too, but when they came to the last one, Ruby asked, ‘Can I pick it up?’

Max nodded. He put the bucket down on the cobbles and took hold of Sofia while Ruby took off her watch and stuffed it in her jeans pocket. She inhaled, then dipped her hand into the cold water and aimed her forefinger and thumb for the parts of the shell the way she’d seen Max do it. It wriggled away a couple of times, but then she gripped more firmly and lifted the crab out of the water.

‘I did it!’ she exclaimed. ‘For a moment there I didn’t think I was—
Ow
!’

A searing pain shot through her finger, making her eyes water. She blinked the moisture away, slightly breathless, to find an angry little crab attached to her hand. She was sure it was scowling at her.

‘Ow, ow, ow...’ she yelped and started shaking her hand backwards and forwards. Anything to make it let go!

Eventually the force of the swinging must have got the crab, either that or it lost its grip on her wet hands, because it shot off, landed on the paving stones a couple of feet away then scuttled to the edge and flung itself into the canal.

‘Ow,’ Ruby said again, just to make her point, even though her attacker probably neither heard nor cared.

She looked down as her finger started to throb. That had definitely
not
been the original crab with the delicate little pincers that hadn’t punctured Sofia’s finger. This one had been mean and angry, and blood was now seeping from a hole in her skin.

‘Here, let me look,’ Max said and swiftly caught up her hand.

Ruby would have expected his examination to be practical and thorough, and it was, but she hadn’t expected it to be so gentle. She looked at him, head bowed over her hand as he ran his fingers over the area surrounding her war wound, and for some reason the sight of his dark lashes against his cheek made her feel a little breathless.

Sofia hugged her left leg. ‘No cry, Ruby. Fish no want let go.’

Despite the thudding of her pulse in her index finger, Ruby couldn’t help but smile. She looked up to find Max doing the same, but his face was very close. She blinked and sucked in a breath.

‘Kiss better!’ Sofia commanded.

Ruby would have been okay if she hadn’t realised he was holding his breath, too, that he seemed to be stuck looking at her the same way she was looking at him.

‘Go on, Uncle Max! Kiss better.’

Slowly Max raised her hand, not taking his eyes off her until the moment he bent his head and softly pressed his lips to where Ruby’s finger was throbbing. The sensation spread out from that finger, through the rest of her body, until she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. Max seemed to be similarly affected, because even though he’d lowered her hand again he still held it between his warm fingers.

Sofia tugged Ruby’s trouser leg, seeking a response she hadn’t yet got. ‘Him no want let go.’

Ruby swallowed. ‘I know, sweetheart.’ And as she spoke the words she slid her hand out of Max’s and looked away to where the crab had plopped into the water.

‘I think it’ll be fine,’ he mumbled, then busied himself collecting up the fishing equipment and putting it back in the boat.

CHAPTER SEVEN

M
AX
SPENT
THE
REST
of the afternoon in the library with the door shut. He tinkered with his plans for the institute until his eyes were gritty and his brain was spinning. It didn’t help that every time he wasn’t 100 per cent immersed in what he was doing he kept having strange flashbacks.

He kept seeing Ruby’s slightly swollen and bleeding finger. Inevitably that led to memories of looking up into her eyes. He hadn’t noticed their colour before. Warm hazel. Not green. Not brown. But a unique pairing of the two that was slightly hypnotic. He hadn’t been able to look away, hadn’t been able to let go. And then he’d gone and kissed her finger. What had all that been about?

Okay, he knew
exactly
what that had been about. He might not have been in the mood to date since his father’s death, finding himself drawn to his own company, filling his hours with work, but he was no stranger to desire.

He stopped tweaking a design for a staircase he had up on his computer screen and deleted all the last fifteen changes he’d made. It had been better before. Now it was
more
boring, if that was even possible. He’d seen a hundred different staircases like it in a hundred different buildings.

He pushed back from the desk, stood up, began to pace.

He needed something different. Something unique.

Like those eyes...

No. Not like those eyes. They had nothing to do with it.

For heaven’s sake! It wasn’t even as if Ruby was anything like the kind of women he usually went out with, the kind he’d hardly noticed he’d stopped seeing: cultured, sophisticated, beautiful.

He sighed. And next to Ruby they seemed like clones churned out by a production line.

In comparison, she was strangely easy to be with. There was no game-playing. No second-guessing whether he’d accidentally said the wrong thing because he was being subjected to some secret test. If Ruby thought he’d overstepped the mark, she just told him in no uncertain terms.

There was a knock at the door and he stopped pacing and faced it, grunted his permission to enter. A moment later his travelling nanny popped her head round the door. ‘Your mother wanted me to let you know that dinner is served.’

She looked down and away, as if she was feeling awkward. When she looked up again, a faint blush stained her cheeks.

The air grew instantly thick. Max nodded. ‘Thank you,’ he managed to say. ‘I’ll be along in a minute.’

She smiled hesitantly and shut the door again.

Max ran a hand through his hair and swore softly. Was he imagining it, or had she got prettier since that afternoon?

He went over and sat back down at his desk. He clicked over to his email and read a few messages to distract himself, although what they contained he couldn’t have said. When he felt a little more his usual self, he rose and went to the dining room, lecturing himself en route.

You have no business noticing her eyes, warm hazel or otherwise. She’s your employee. Get a grip and get over it.

Thankfully, he was sitting opposite his mother this evening at dinner, and Ruby was off to one side, so he didn’t catch her gaze while they ate their...whatever it was they ate. He kept his concentration on his plate as his mother once again pounced on their guest as both willing audience and source of conversation.

‘Maybe being a nanny will be your niche after all,’ she told Ruby. ‘You’re a natural with Sofia, and she’s already very fond of you.’

Ruby smiled at her. ‘Thank you. I’m loving spending time with her, too, and spending time in Venice. This really is the most remarkable place.’

Fina’s chest puffed up with pride in her home. ‘You’ve never visited before?’ she said.

‘No. I always wanted to, though.’

Fina clapped her hands. ‘Well, then we must make sure we don’t work you too hard, so you get time to see some of the sights! But the best time of day to see the city is the hour leading up to sunset, don’t you think, Massimo?’

Max let out a weary sigh. ‘I suppose so.’

Ruby smiled and sipped her glass of water. She’d refused wine, seeing as she was still on duty. ‘I’m sure it is, but I may have to wait until my next visit for that. By the time I’ve got Sofia bathed and in bed, it’s nearly always dark.’

Fina rose from the table to go and fetch the dessert from the sideboard. ‘Then Massimo must take you before he goes back to London. Don’t worry about Sofia. I’m sure her
nonna
can manage bedtime alone for one night.’

They both turned to look at him.

He should say no. Make an excuse that he had too much work to do, or tell his mother to drive the boat herself, but he looked back at Ruby, her eyes large and expectant, and found himself saying, ‘Okay, but later in the week. And as long as we’re not out too long. I have work to do.’ And then he returned to attacking his vegetables.

The women went back to chatting again but a while later Ruby piped up, ‘Oh! I almost forgot. Before Sofia went to bed, she insisted I give this to you.’ She pushed a piece of paper in his direction. ‘I was going to let her do it herself, but you seemed to be so busy, so I just...didn’t.’ She shrugged. ‘Well, here it is, anyway.’

He reached out and pulled the scrap towards him, careful not to brush her fingers. From the thick, riotous turquoise crayon that graced the sheet of paper, he could tell the colouring was Sofia’s, but the drawing, that was all Ruby’s. He smiled as he looked at it.

She’d drawn one of the crabs they’d caught that afternoon in dark ink. The little crab hanging on the end of the fishing line looked full of personality, feisty and ready to take on the world if anyone dared try to catch him and tame him. It really was rather good.

‘I think you caught him perfectly,’ he said, and made the mistake of looking up at her. ‘You’ve got that devilish expression down pat.’

She didn’t say anything. Just smiled. And her eyes warmed further.

Max returned his attention to his plate.

He forced himself to remember the conversation that had taken place round this dinner table only a few evenings ago. It didn’t matter how nice her eyes were, or how relaxed he felt around her, it would be foolishness in the highest degree to be bewitched by that.

Ruby Lange was a drifter. She’d said so herself. She didn’t finish what she started, always tempted to run after something better and brighter and shinier.

He didn’t need a woman like that in his life. He’d seen what his mother had done to his father, hadn’t he?

He returned his gaze to his plate.

Pork. They were eating pork.

He’d do well to keep his mind on concrete things like that. On his work. On his commission, his final gift to the parent who’d stuck around to raise him.

No more distractions, no matter how tempting.

* * *

The following evening Ruby approached dinner with a plan. Max was going home in just under forty-eight hours and still he was treating his mother like the enemy.

However, he’d softened up with Sofia nicely. He no longer held her as if she were an unexploded bomb, and interacted quite easily with her now. Sofia, who maybe had been lacking a positive male role model in her life, simply adored him. It was clear a bond was forming between them.

Surely the potential was there with Fina, too? All he needed was to be thrown in the deep end a bit, as he had been with Sofia.

So Ruby deliberately decided not to natter on at dinner time this evening, hoping it would encourage mother and son to converse. But as they waded their way through the main course, the only sound in the cavernous dining room was the clinking of cutlery and the dull thud of glasses being picked up and set down again.

Fina kept looking at him, willing him to glance her way, but mostly, unless he was reaching for the salt or refilling his glass, Max refused. As the meal wore on Ruby could sense more and more nervous energy in the woman sitting beside her. Fina must sense her chance for reconciliation ticking away with the hours and seconds until Max’s flight back to London. It didn’t seem as if he’d be in a hurry to return any time soon, either.

Eventually, Fina cracked. She put down her knife and fork and stared at him for a few seconds before opening her mouth. ‘Massimo. You’ve been having such a wonderful time here with Sofia these last few days.’

Max glanced up so briefly Ruby doubted he’d even had time to focus on Fina. He grunted then turned his attention to his plate.

Fina shot a nervous look at Ruby and Ruby nodded her encouragement.

‘Ruby’s been telling me all about your crabbing expeditions.’

Another grunt. This time without eye contact.

Fina swallowed. ‘I was thinking that maybe I’d invite the whole family to visit for the festival of San Martino in November. You used to love decorated biscuits of Martino on his horse, remember?’ She laughed. ‘You once asked me if we were cousins of the saint, because our last names were so similar.’

Max carried on cutting his chicken, and only when he’d precisely severed a chunk, put it in his mouth and chewed and swallowed it thoroughly, did he answer his mother. ‘I don’t think I’m going to be able to spare the time from work. If this commission goes through it’ll be full steam ahead until the new year.’ And then he went back to dissecting his meal.

Fina nodded, even though her son wasn’t watching, and hung her head over her plate.

Ruby glared at him. She wanted to fish that little crab they’d met the other day out of the canal and attach it to his nose! He was being so stubborn.

Didn’t he know what a gift this was? Maybe Fina hadn’t been the perfect mother, but she was trying to make up for it now. Surely that had to mean something? And there had to be good reasons why a woman as warm and caring as Fina had walked away from her marriage. She might try and act blasé, but Ruby couldn’t believe she’d done it on a whim, whatever Max might think.

Fina rose from her seat. ‘I promised Renata upstairs that I would look in on her. She’s not been feeling very well,’ she said, and walked stiffly from the room.

Max pushed his plate away. Ruby glared at him. ‘Couldn’t you just even give her a chance?’

He lifted his head and looked at her. His eyes were empty, blank like the statues topping so many of the palazzos nearby. ‘It’s not your business, Ruby. What happens in my family is my concern.’

She stared back at him, words flying round her head. But she released none of them, knowing he was speaking the truth and hating him for it. So much for the bond she’d thought they’d forged over the last few days.

She rose and followed Fina out of the room. ‘Thank you,’ she said as she reached the doorway, ‘for putting me firmly in my place.’

* * *

At least an hour passed before Max emerged from the library. The apartment was totally quiet. Sofia must be fast asleep and he hadn’t heard his mother return from visiting her neighbour.

Everything was dark—well, almost. A few of the wall sconces were lit at the far end of the corridor near the salon. His footsteps seemed loud as he walked down it and entered the large room. In here it was dark, too, with just one lamp turned on near the sofas, making the cavernous space seem smaller and more intimate. He looked for Ruby’s dark head against the cushions, for a hint of a purple streak, but there was no one there.

He was about to turn and leave the room, but then he heard a shuffling noise and noticed the doors to the balcony were open. He could just make out her petite form, leaning on the stone ledge, staring out across the water. Taking in a deep breath, he walked over to the open door and stood in the threshold.

‘I can hear voices,’ she said, her tone bland, ‘and I think it must be someone close by, but there are no windows open upstairs and no boats going by.’

‘It’s just another quirk of this city,’ he said. ‘Sounds seem oddly hushed at some times and magnified at others. Even a whisper can travel round corners.’

She nodded. Whoever had been talking had stopped now and silence grew around them.

What a pity it wasn’t silent inside Max’s head. He could hear another whispering voice now, one telling him to apologise. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard that voice, but he usually managed to outrun it when it prompted him to do anything as dangerous as letting down his guard, admitting he was wrong, but Venice was amplifying this sound, too, making it impossible to ignore.

Or maybe it was Ruby who did that to him.

Sometimes she looked at him and he felt as if all the things he’d held together for so long were slowly being unlaced.

He should go, retreat back to the library, to the safety of his plans and emails. That was where he’d built the fortress of his life, after all—in his work. Just like his father before him.

Ruby didn’t ask anything of him. Didn’t demand as his mother would have done. Instead she kept staring out into the night, a faint breeze lifting her feathery fringe.

Max stepped forward. ‘I was rude earlier on,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry.’

She kept her elbows resting on the stone balustrade and turned just her head, studied him. ‘I accept your apology, but you spoke the truth.’

She was right, he realised. That was something they always did with each other, whether they wanted to or not. ‘Even if it was, I shouldn’t have said it the way I did.’

Ruby’s cheeks softened and her smile grew. ‘Thank you.’ She straightened and looked back inside. ‘Sofia’s appetite for things to colour in is insatiable. I was going to get some outlines done to give me a head start in the morning, but I couldn’t resist slipping out here for a moment.’

She moved to go back inside, and his arm shot out across the doorway, blocking her. He didn’t know why he’d done that. He should have let her go. Ruby tipped her head and frowned at him, her delicate features full of puzzlement, her eyes asking a question. A question he didn’t know the answer to.

But other words found his lips, words he hadn’t even realised were his. ‘I find it hard to be here... This is the first time I’ve seen her since my father died.’

She looked back at him, understanding brimming in her eyes.