Page 20 of Last First Kiss
It turned out that Wendy was a talker but a sweet and excited talker. A rotund woman in her late fifties who clearly loved Rocco, she wouldn’t let Annie wash the blender or even make her own bed. She followed her all over the house, yapping sweetly the entire time. She reminded Annie of her mother. Which reminded her that she’d missed two Sunday dinners in the last month that she needed to make up to her mom soon. As overbearing as they could be, Annie still missed the hell out of her family, especially now that her brothers were all in town, a very rare occurrence.
When Rocco finally emerged from his room, his hair was wet and slicked back. He wore loose-fitting jeans that looked ancient and a plain black T-shirt, and his face was cleanly shaven. Not once did his eyes meet Annie’s.
“Wendy, my love, how I’ve missed you,” he said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.
Wendy waved him off. “I just saw you yesterday.” But her smile was huge and genuine. “I hope he’s being a good boy. Polite?”
“Oh . . . uh yes. Very much so.”
Wendy patted him sweetly on the shoulder. “Never doubted it. I’ll get out of your hair. I’ll see you tomorrow. It was lovely to meet you, Annie.”
“It was a pleasure, Wendy.”
Alone again, they stood on the upstairs landing, awkwardly.
“Good time as any to give you a tour,” he said. “Come on. We can start upstairs and work our way down.”
“Sure. One sec.” She ran to her room, grabbed a notepad, and came back. “Okay, let’s do this.”
“So you’ve already seen your room,” he said, pointing to where she’d been staying. Again, she couldn’t help but eye the way the house was decorated. It was so simple yet beautiful. It’s how she would decorate if she lived there.
“Did you decorate?” It was an odd question, but she couldn’t help asking. She’d wondered since the moment she stepped inside.
“Some of the things I purchased through the years, but I also had a decorator help.” He held the door open to her as he spoke. “Why? You don’t like it?”
He was close to her as she walked through the door and she noticed he was very careful not to touch her. Even when they walked through the narrow hall he stepped away. “No. No, I love it. It’s just not what I imagined.”
“What did you imagine?”
“I don’t know. Something more pretentious or gaudy, I suppose.”
“It seems like you made a lot of assumptions about me.”
Ouch.
He was right.
She had come here with certain expectations. She ticked them off in her head. First, he’d only hired her because he was physically attracted to her. But other than a few stares and heated moments, he hadn’t been inappropriate. Second, he was a womanizing asshole, but so far he’d been sweet and chivalrous and there hadn’t been any signs of him gallivanting. Third, he was wealthy and lived ostentatiously. That was the completely wrong assumption. He had a lovely home but it wasn’t what a millionaire of his caliber would own. She’d seen him on that first meeting wearing expensive designer clothes, but since then she’d seen him dress casually in much the same style and brand names as her brothers. So, yeah . . . she’d been a judgmental cow and she felt terrible about it now.
There was no difference between what she had done and what men did to her all the time. They assumed that she couldn’t handle something just because she was a woman.
“I’m sorry, you’re right. I did come here with certain assumptions, but you’ve pretty much squashed them. I expected solid gold toilets and jewel-encrusted staircases.”
He chuckled. “Sorry to disappoint.”
“No.” This time it was her who laughed. “No. This is perfect. Your house . . . it’s perfect.”
“Doesn’t like gold toilet or jewels. Noted. I learn something interesting about you every time you open your mouth.” He smiled at her and they stood there for a moment, neither of them moving.
Something shifted a little and she knew what it was, she was thawing. Her hesitance wasn’t about Rocco and it wasn’t fair that she was being so standoffish to him. He had easily admitted yesterday that he’d been wrong about her and he hadn’t done or said anything to show he didn’t trust in her abilities. She was making an already awkward situation worse by being so bitchy. He’d repeatedly extended an olive branch; it was on her to take it. It would ultimately make her job easier and it was time to focus on work.
“Well, I didn’t say I didn’t like jewels.”
“I’ll put that in my Annie-log.”
She smiled and then walked past him. “Shall we continue on the tour?” She pointed. “How about this room?”
“This is one of the guest rooms.”
