Page 128 of Grumpy Boss of the Year

“True, if he is my dad.”

“Elisabetta, I’m almost positive he’s your dad.”

“I don’t know, but whatever. Anyway, you can come over tonight if you want.”

“Oh, so, you want me to come over, do you?”

“Well, I was hoping to see you tonight because I didn’t see you last night.”

“I know, and I missed you.”

“I missed you more,” she says. “Are we weird?”

“Why would you ask that?”

“Because we’re acting like we’re an old married couple, and yet…”

“And yet, we haven’t even started that phase of our relationship.” I grin at her.

“This is just too kooky. Anyway, I have a meeting scheduled for you with an architect to discuss the parameters for the hotel on the island. He said that we should likely name each cabana after something specific, like flower types or native plants or…”

“Or what?” I ask her.

“Or anything else we decide. I thought it might be nice to name it after local flowers…” She pauses.

“Maybe we can even name it after local fruit.” She grins. “Like watermelon or mangoes or…”

I give her a look. “Watermelon?”

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist.” She giggles. “Anyway…”

“What are you doing over there?” I say.

“What do you mean?”

She looks up at me.

“Why are you sitting in a chair so far away from me?”

“Because we’re in the office, and I already told you, no hanky-panky in the office.”

“But what if I want a little hanky-panky? What if…

“Liam…”

“What? I’m just saying…”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you, your sister called.”

“Oh. What did she have to say?”

“She said that she’s desperate to see you and that your niece misses you, and she wanted to know when you’d be over in England again?”

“I see. Well, what do you think about taking a trip to England before we head over to Italy?”

“My dad’s already bought the ticket for me to get to Italy. Plus, he would want to know why I’m in London before I go to Italy, and seeing as he doesn’t know about us…”

“Okay, well, what about after the engagement? I can tell him that I want to introduce you to my family. I mean, he would understand that, right?”

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