Fuckwad might have been a first-rate sleaze, but he wasn’t as dumb as Joel previously assumed, because he kissed Luciano on both cheeks and excused himself to get more wine.
Joel tracked him until he was sure that Nico was walking in the opposite direction of Lucy. When he saw him head toward Vanessa, he almost excused himself as well. No way was this jerk getting his claws into the next Barone sister, but then his gaze found Jordan, who was standing not far from Vanessa. After one exchange of looks, Jordan gave a resigned nod and went to intercept Nico. The man took instruction without words needing to be exchanged, andJoel wondered where in his corporation he could use a mind like that.
“Ah,” Luciano sighed, pulling Joel’s attention back to him. “It does my old heart good, seeing this.” He gestured grandly around the bar.
“You like the flower chandeliers?” Joel ventured.
Luciano laughed. “Your marriage to Lucy is a good thing, Joel.”
On this, they could agree. “The best thing that has ever happened to me.”
“I should have seen it long ago. You two are very similar, where it counts. You understand family and connection. Building things into bigger things.”
Where was this going? Joel took his final sip of his drink and let his eyes roam over Lucy again, his gaze lingering on the round shape of her ass under her gold dress. Tonight, he was taking her to bed. He’d strip that golden silk off her body and worship what was underneath for hours. Then he’d bathe her, feed her, and do it all over again. And again, until?—
“Barone & Sons will be yours.”
What. The. Fuck? Every single molecule of his attention snapped back to Luciano. “Excuse me?” He must have misheard, but pride was shining so brightly in the old man’s eyes, Joel was nearly blinded.
“I love my daughters. My wife. Every hour I have worked, every late night, every risk I took, it was all worth it to provide them with the best life I could. But I never had a son.” He rubbed one of his gruff paws over his age-worn face, stopping to pinch between his eyes. “You have grown up around business your entire life. When you took over your father’s company, it was the proudest moment of hislife, and you have done well for Morgan Construction, more than well.” Luciano clapped Joel on the bicep, giving it a firm and affectionate squeeze. “You will take care of my daughter and my company, and I will retire knowing both are safe and secure.”
Something turned in Joel’s chest, something that ached and hurt like a bruise that was so deep inside he only felt it when he breathed. He knew how much Barone & Sons meant to Luciano, and how fucking honored he should be to have him say the things he had and offer what he had. But that bruise, the ache deep in him, thudded closer to the surface because he knew that he wasn’t the one who should have been given these words.
“Luciano…” He wasn’t often unsure of what to say or do. In fact, he made sure he always knew what to say or do, but this was…personal. Delicate.
Across the bar, Lucy observed them, a small smile tugging at her full red lips, an elegant eyebrow arched. She was wondering what they were talking about. If only she knew.
“The papers are ready to sign. I had my lawyer draw everything up. I cannot imagine a better person to pass my life’s work onto. Not even Nico. He’s family, but he doesn’t know Barone & Sons like you do.”
Without taking his eyes off Lucy, Joel murmured, “I can.”
“What?” Luciano leaned in, trying to hear over the crowd.
Joel shifted his gaze to his father-in-law. “I said I can imagine a better person to pass your life’s work on to.” He let his gaze trace back to Lucy, slowly this time, purposefully, so Luciano was forced to follow the movement. “In fact, I cannot understand how you do not imagine it yourself, since it has been happening for years.”
They watched her together. Under their joint scrutiny, her cheeks heightened in color, like she was embarrassed to have been caught staring. Lucy gave them a little wave and a bashful toothy grin before she turned quickly back to the table where she sat with Hope, Ivy and Natalie.
“What are you talking about?” Luciano asked, sounding confused. “Lucy would not want the business.”
“Wouldn’t she?” Was the old man blind or obtuse? “Has she not worked alongside you every day for years? Has she not learned every aspect of cabinetry, product demand, design? Is she not in charge of all the financials? Did she, like her sister, turn away from your company? Seek other opportunities? Ever once make you think she wanted to do something else?”
Luciano stood, wide-eyed in his shock, like the dots had never connected before in his brain. “But she’s—she’s,” he stammered. “My daughter. All that work, it’s too much.”
A red haze bled through the periphery of Joel’s vision. “Too much? It’s not enough. She deserves your company and a thousand more.” Maybe he was going too far, towing the line of disrespect that he could never take back, but his rage on Lucy’s behalf unhinged him, snapping his finesse and control. “Do you even listen to her when she speaks?”
Luciano jerked back, eyes widening. Yep, he’d definitely just disrespected his father-in-law. So be it.
“Because when she speaks, she’s all I hear, all I see, all I care about. And that’s how I know, as you should have known long before me, that she would do anything for Barone &Sons.” He hissed the last word like a curse, and it had been for Lucy. A twenty-nine-year curse she couldn’t break no matter what she’d tried.
Obviously, not even a fake engagement or strategic marriage could help her, because the man in front of himwas still staring at him far too blankly for someone who had just had an epiphany.
“With all due respect, sir, and I do respect you, I would never take Barone & Sons. It doesn’t belong to me, it never did. And if you listened and looked with your heart, you’d see that it doesn’t belong to you anymore, either.”
“Joel—” Luciano’s head whipped back like he’d had a collision but couldn’t believe who he’d collided with. “Luciana is not—she could not—” He was unable to get whatever he wanted to out. Years of narrowmindedness and pride had apparently rendered him speechless.
“I’ll take your daughter, if she’ll have me. But I won’t take her company.” His vision blurred under his disgust and anger.
Lucy’s father had just offered him the one thing Lucy had been fighting for her entire life, and Luciano was ready to sign it over to Joel with a flick of a wrist.
