Her mother laughed. “I assure you that wasn’t the case.”
Emma stopped for the red light. If her parents’ marriage was the goal, Emma would happily stay single. A conclusion she made during her brief time with Kyle.
“How did we get onto your father’s and my relationship?”
“You were telling me how I smile when Giovanni is around, and I was comparing you and Dad based on your assessment of my relationship with my boyfriend.”
“Ha! He is your boyfriend.”
“Mom!” Traffic started to move again.
“What does he do for a living?”
“His family owns a restaurant.”
“Oh . . . a restaurateur.” The singsong of her mother’s voice said she was impressed.
“One family restaurant does not make him that. He is also a sommelier, hence both of us being on the tour in Italy.”
“Something the two of you have in common.”
Emma pulled into the parking lot of where they were going to have lunch. “Kyle and I had wine in common, too . . . so I won’t hold that against Gio.”
“Gio?”
“Yes. It’s a nickname. He said there are a half a dozen Giovannis in his neighborhood and growing up, it was easier being called Gio.”
Emma turned off the engine and Beth reached for the door. “He introduced himself to me as Giovanni, so that’s the name I’ll use.”
Emma hesitated before getting out of the car.
This was going to be exhausting.
“Thanks for this,” Gio said to his family. Their weekly dinner took place on Sunday without him since he was with Emma, but they went ahead and had a second one midweek to accommodate him.
“Eventually you’ll bring your girlfriend here so we can meet her.” Mari passed the plate of chicken as she spoke.
He didn’t correct the girlfriend comment since that was how he viewed Emma, even if they hadn’t gone so far as to give the other a title.
“I’ll help her get settled into her new place and then bring her. She’s pretty busy right now.”
“I think it’s sexist of you to only invite the men to help move her next weekend. I can help,” Chloe offered.
Dante had already agreed.
Luca was tied up in the restaurant kitchen since one of their chefs was on vacation.
“I need brawn, not beauty,” Gio told his sister with a smile.
“That’s a backhanded compliment.”
“I can help,” Franny announced.
Gio pressed a finger to his niece’s nose. “Soon, bella.”
“When is all this wine that you bought in Italy going to arrive?” Mari asked.
“I wouldn’t expect anything for another month. Customs is always slow,” Gio told her. “Speaking of wine . . .”
Mari glanced at Luca, Luca looked at Chloe . . . then they all turned to Gio.
“Yes?” his mother asked.
“What was that?” he asked.
“We’re all waiting, brother,” Luca said.
“Waiting for what?”
“For you to start the conversation about your place in Temecula.”
Chloe leaned forward. “None of us believed that you’d return from Italy and be happy here for long. You’ve been talking about a winery in Temecula since Papa was alive.”
Gio released a breath. His family supported him in everything he did, but in this, it would take more than a few days, weeks, or dollars. “I’m going to need every dime from my accounts, and once things are in motion, I won’t be here to help with the restaurant. I’ll be in debt up to my eyeballs. Probably have stress streaming from my ears.”
“Sounds like a party,” Dante said.
“I’m serious. I’m going to help Emma find the loans and get on her feet. Get through the first harvest. If land is going to go on sale, it will be after the grapes are off the vines. I’m hoping this winter I can find something.” If Gio could find half of her size of land, with a quarter of the house, he could make it work.
Chloe reached for her wine. “Count us in,” she said.
“In for what?”
“Us, too,” Luca added.
Gio shifted his gaze between his brother and sister. “I’m confused.”
“Investors. Papa’s insurance money might be growing, but it isn’t making any of us happy.”
Gio shook his head. “That money is your future. I can’t risk that.”
“But you can risk your own?” his mother asked, her voice stern. “We’re a family. We do things together as a family.” She pointed to Chloe and Dante. “Dante speaks of another boat by next year to double his business . . . we help. Not because we need the money but because his happiness is our happiness. And the same goes for you. Luca, Chloe, and I talked of this before we sent you on your birthday trip. We knew this was the push you needed to take the leap you’ve always dreamed about. I offered to take a loan out on the building—”
“No, Mama.”
She stopped him with a wave of her hand. “I know, I know. Bad decision, but I’ll help in every way short of that. And you’ll accept that help. All of it.”
The warmth in Gio’s chest rushed to his head. Their investment would make every step of this that much easier.
“I’ll write up contracts.”
Mari cussed . . . in Italian. “The hell you will.”
Gio slapped his lips shut.
She shook her hand in the air and raised her voice. “Family!” she said as if that was the answer to a question. “Contracts are for strangers.”
Emotion welled inside of him. “Thank you. All of you.”
“Now eat. The food is getting cold.”
Luca lifted his glass. “To the future wine with the D’Angelo name on it.”
“Salute!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Emma had to stop herself from staring at Giovanni and Dante as they juggled her furniture into and out of the moving truck Gio had rented early Friday morning. The two of them working and laughing together, both of them winking at her with bella this and bella that . . . It was as if they were biological brothers and not just friends.
Dante had greeted her with a kiss to each cheek as if he knew her.
They were absolutely lovely to look at.
“I have a feeling you two got into a lot of trouble in high school,” she told them after they’d moved her couch into the great room.
“What one person calls trouble, others call fun,” Gio told her.
Dante was laughing. “We had a lot of fun.”
Emma was in the kitchen, unpacking the rest of her boxes.
Her entire week had been spent packing and researching what she needed to make Casa de Emma work.
“Broken hearts everywhere,” she said.
Gio walked up behind her, kissed the side of her neck. “I saved my heart for you, cara.”
Her mother was right . . . Gio had all the lines.
Lines that didn’t suck to hear.
They walked back out the front door to bring in something else. The truck Gio had rented this time was bigger, and they managed to pack her entire life into one load. Well, two, if she counted the one they’d done the week before.