A smile tugged his lips as he hung up the phone. She was right. He wasn’t going to let some sleezeball conglomerate ruin his evening, too.
Tonight was about Sophia, not Colarusso Construction.
***
Happy to find the design room empty, Sophia closed the door behind her and pulled out her phone. Three missed calls—all from Gino—along with three voicemails. Deleting them without even bothering to listen, she breathed an inner sigh of relief that she wasn’t in the city to put up with him showing up at her door uninvited.
Everything inside Sophia had frozen when Ryder mentioned her family’s company. God, where they really the ones underbidding him all this time?
Her grandmother’s maiden name was Colarusso, and it was her grandmother’s father—Sophia’s great grandfather—who’d started the construction company several generations ago.
When Sophia’s father was a teenager, he’d started working there before he and her mother were married. After her grandfather had passed, her dad became the CEO.
Her stomach clenched. How in the world was she ever going to tell any of that to Ryder? Sure, he was a reasonable man, but would he still want to see her? Would he still give them a chance, even though the conglomerate encroaching on his business—possibly causing him to lay of his workers—was her family?
He only just recently opened up. Took her to his house. Let her in a little. Things were still fragile. If he found out, he’d might possibly use her heritage as an excuse the close up again.
She didn’t want to give him that excuse. Didn’t want him to shut her out. She didn’t want to lie to him, either.
Dammit.
Everything was screwed up. But, she knew, no matter the outcome, she had to do something to help Ryder. To fix the mess her family made for him and his business.
She swiped the screen, selected favorites, then hit call.
“Colarusso Construction.” Her father sounded tired.
“Dad? What are you doing answering the company phones?”
“Sophia! Hi!” His tone brightened. “When are you coming back? We haven’t found a good replacement for Elle, and your mother refuses to help.”
Despite the anxiety crushing her chest, she smiled at the idea of her mother sitting behind a desk answering phones.
“I’m desperate. I need your help, Sophia,” her father said.
She straightened her shoulders. “Sorry, Dad. I won’t be finished here until the end of the summer. I was calling to ask who is in charge of the jobs in the Poconos?”
“Poconos? No one is in Pennsylvania,” her dad said.
Someone had to be. She blew out a breath, keeping an eye on the door. “Who’s in charge in southwestern New York?”
“Tony? Why?”
“Just wondering,” she replied. “Thanks, Dad. Got to go.” She hung up and quickly called her brother.
Tony answered on the second ring. “Yo. Sophia, what’s up? How’s things at the theater?”
“Hi, Tony. Things are good.” Or at least, she hoped they would be by the time she got off the phone. “I’m actually calling to ask you to back out of the bid you just won tonight.”
He was silent a moment. “What bid?”
“An ice cream parlor,” she replied, hating what she was about to do. “I need you to call them back and cancel.”
“Sophia.” His tone was borderline scolding. “First of all, that’s not good business.”
She stopped pacing and scowled. “I don’t care. You’re supposed to be working in New York. Why are you dipping down in Pennsylvania?”
Of course, she knew they had the proper licenses, because she’d been in the office when they’d arrived in the spring.
