“Best buds since middle school.”
“Are you hoping to attend MIT as well?” Vincenzo showed every sign of real interest.
“I wish. Mom and Dad made me apply. I didn’t want to waste their application fee, but Dad especially just wouldn’t listen. Even if I get scholarships, that’s not happening. I’m not letting Mom and Dad go into major debt so I can attend an Ivy League school.” The longing in Brian’s voice said just how much he wanted to, though.
His parents were better off financially than Audrey, but they were still firmly in the middle-class income bracket and had four kids to put through college, not one.
“That seems to be a recurring theme.” Vincenzo’s tone was thoughtful.
“I’m planning to go to UMass Boston. We’ll still be close enough to hang on weekends though, right?”
University of Massachusetts, Boston campus, was Toby’s backup plan, too. It was a good school, but not the one Audrey knew either her brother or Brian most wanted to attend.
“Right,” Audrey said, giving the teenager an encouraging smile.
She liked Brian. A lot. He’d been a good friend to Toby, even when her brother came out in high school and some of his friends dropped him because of it. Brian dated girls, but he’d joined the Gay-Straight alliance on campus to support his best friend.
Conversation around them settled down once the game started. Vincenzo’s comments and loud team support showed that not only was he fully aware of which position Toby played, he had a genuine understanding of the game.
“I didn’t realize you were such an enthusiastic fan,” she said to him after a particularly loud shout of approval accompanied by him standing up to give it. “I thought Sicilians were all about European football.”
“Soccer has never been my game. There is something very satisfying to the primitive in me to watch men face each other in such direct combat.”
“It’s a game, Enzu.”
“Tell that to the young men doing their best to take your brother out at the knees.”
“Don’t remind me.” Football was a dangerous sport, and the wide receiver got tackled more often than the quarterback got sacked.
“He’s fast and talented.”
“He is.”
“He is not interested in playing at university?”
“Maybe.”
“But he is not looking for an athletic scholarship?”
“No.” She did not want her brother’s college education dependent on him being on the football team. “Football is a huge time commitment. Toby can handle it now, but MIT’s courseload is terrifyingly heavy.”
“Terrifying for him, or for you?” Vincenzo asked with too much insight.
“I just don’t want him locked into playing sports when he might need that time to study.”
“You’re very protective.”
“Someone has to be.”
Vincenzo didn’t reply, going back to watching the game. Very vocally.
When halftime came Audrey suggested getting something warm to drink. Vincenzo sent one of his security guys for hot chocolate, which was not what Audrey had meant. But it did give them the chance to take Franca behind the bleachers to run off some of the amazing amounts of energy stored in the body of a four-year-old.
When the game resumed Franca crawled into Audrey’s lap. The third quarter was only half over when the small body went lax in sleep against her.
The look Vincenzo gave Audrey and the sleeping child was odd, almost tender. “Do you want me to take her?”
“No, she’s fine. I can’t believe she’s sleeping through your cheering, though.”
“Me neither. It must be a child thing.”
“I remember my Danny at that age. He could sleep through an earthquake,” a woman in front of them said.
“He did.” Her husband turned his head to them and winked. “We lived in California and he slept right through me carrying him to a doorway and holding him through the after-tremors.”
Everyone laughed, but Audrey’s heart squeezed. She wanted that. She wanted stories to tell when her children were teenagers; the shared experience of a lifetime spent with another person.
The prospect that Vincenzo might choose someone else for Franca and Angilu’s mom grew more painful by the day. Her desire to be the one had never only been about Toby, but Audrey’s desire to make a difference in the small children’s lives had only been a vague concept before.
Now she knew them. Knew how much Angilu loved his bath time, how important it was to Franca to have her pictures hung on the walls of the nursery. The little girl had been ecstatic when Audrey had showed her a photo on her phone of Franca’s latest floral masterpiece, hanging on the cubicle wall in Audrey’s workspace.
It had taken less than the week they’d had together for both children to take firm footholds in Audrey’s heart. She knew the days to come would only make her attachment to the children stronger.
The probability her heart was going to end up broken at the end of this only grew.
CHAPTER NINE
ENZU WAITED WITH Audrey outside the athletic building for her brother to come out of the locker room.
She’d tried to get rid of him, saying Franca needed to be taken home and put to bed.
Sending his daughter with one of the bodyguards to the limo took care of that particular argument. Enzu wanted to meet Toby, the young man Audrey had sacrificed so much to protect and raise.
“It could be another hour before he comes out.” Audrey tried again.
He doubted it. Particularly after the offer Enzu had made to the team’s head coach that afternoon. But he only said mildly, “You think so?”
He was not surprised in the least when a blond youth, easily as tall as Vincenzo, wearing jeans, T-shirt and letterman’s jacket came bursting out of the door to the gym building. Eyes the same dark brown as Audrey’s scanned the people milling around before landing on Enzu and Audrey.
Toby loped over, his blond hair dark with moisture. “Audrey!”
It said something about how agitated she was that his sister had not noticed the boy’s exit until that moment.
She jumped, glared at Enzu and then turned to face her brother. “Hey, Tobe. Great game.”
“It was,” Enzu agreed with a nod, putting his hand out for the teen to shake. “Vincenzo Tomasi. You are a very talented ball-player, Toby.”
The boy’s handshake was firm and long enough to indicate confidence, but not so long he gave the impression of trying to prove anything. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Tomasi. Thank you for the party tonight. That’s just sick.”
“Sick means good in teenspeak,” Audrey translated, before demanding, “What party?”
“Mr. Tomasi rented a bowling alley for the team and any friends we want to invite to celebrate our last game. Coach told us just now. Free games, shoe rental, food and soda until midnight.”
Audrey gasped. “What? I didn’t know—”
“Like I didn’t know the guy you were dating was the freaking CEO of your whole company?” Toby interrupted.
“We haven’t gone public with our association,” Enzu inserted smoothly while Audrey looked like she’d swallowed her tongue.
“Why not?” the boy demanded brashly.
Enzu gave Toby a measuring look. “Because a man in my position does not announce who he is dating before he knows if that dating is going to lead somewhere at least somewhat long-term.”
“I guess that makes sense.” Toby didn’t look entirely convinced, though. He turned to Audrey. “So, it’s okay?”
“If you go to the party?” she clarified.
“Yeah.”
“Yes, but I want you home by one.”
“As to that,” Enzu said before Toby could reply, “my country home is the same distance in the other direction as your apartment. I would like it very much if you came there instead.”
“Why would I come there?” Toby asked in confusion.
“Because you and your sist
er will be spending the rest of the weekend with me and my children.”
“What? You’ve got kids, man?”
“They’re his niece and nephew,” Audrey explained. “He got custody when his brother died six months ago.”
“Oh.” Toby’s youthful features reflected honest sympathy. “I’m sorry, man. That blows.”
“Yes, it does.”
“Text me the address. I’ll GPS it on my phone.”
Audrey put up one hand in a gesture that meant stop. “Wait, I didn’t agree to spend the weekend.”
“Would you disappoint Franca and Angilu?” Enzu asked, knowing the answer. “They are looking forward to it.”
“Angilu is a baby and you shouldn’t have told Franca without asking me first.”
“Have you not heard the saying it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission?”
“Oh, how come I didn’t know about that one?” Toby teased.
Audrey frowned at them both. “We don’t have any clothes, pajamas, toiletries… No, it’s impossible.”
“I took the liberty of having everything necessary procured in your sizes. Including swimsuits. We have an indoor pool,” Enzu said to entice the teenager.
Toby looked at Audrey as if to ask if Enzu was for real.
She nodded with clear resignation. “If he says he got us clothes and things, he did. And they probably cost more than I make in a month, too.”
“But—”
“As your sister likes to remind me, I am a billionaire and my money can be used for more than making another business acquisition.”
Toby looked flummoxed. “Get out of here. A billionaire. Nobody is a billionaire. Well, except maybe one guy I can think of.”
So Audrey had told Toby nothing about Enzu. Interesting.