Chapter Four
Hazel
The opening week honestly went better than I could have ever imagined.
We’d been packed all day and night. The reviews started to get posted. We were tagged all over social media.
I went ahead and patted myself on the back a little bit even as I worked harder than ever to keep supplies stocked as demand exceeded our expectations.
I’d bought a big ledger to keep notes in for the future seasons, jotting down that we would need to amp up hay and pumpkin planting if we wanted not to have to buy external supplies.
The only real disappointment from my standpoint was the fact that I hadn’t seen Dante since opening day.
Though why I was letting myself think about that at all was beyond me. I’d never wondered about the owners of previous companies I worked for before. And I was sure one or two of them were attractive.
God, I couldn’t even stop thinking about him on my one day off.
What was wrong with me?
Maybe I needed to do some late-night perusal of toy websites and buy myself something to ease the tension I was clearly dealing with if I kept fantasizing about a man I’d interacted with once.
I had to get a grip.
Maybe he was just on my mind because I was making my way down the street toward the pizza place owned by his cousin.
Did I just have pizza a week ago? Yes. Had I been craving it ever since? Absolutely. Though this time, I was dreaming of one of those baked ziti pizza slices. And maybe a buffalo chicken slice. Or a chicken parm slice.
I was so distracted by the menu on my phone that I didn’t see him until he saw me.
“Hazel,” a newly familiar voice called, making my belly wobble as my step faltered.
My head snapped up.
And there he was.
In another perfectly tailored suit.
Standing beside a table in the outdoor seating area.
“Oh, hey,” I said, giving him a smile that I hoped hid the way desire started to ping off every nerve ending.
“Couldn’t get enough, huh?” he asked.
“Who’s your friend?” a female voice asked.
I felt the irrational surge of jealousy before I turned to see an older woman in a neat pair of cream slacks with a crease up the front and a floral printed button-down shirt. There was something familiar about her eyes, too, that made me think she was likely Dante’s mother.
The way Dante’s eyes squinted ever so slightly at his mother’s tone, like he knew something was about to happen that was going to be frustrating, cinched it for me.
“Ma, this is Hazel. She is the operations manager at the garden center. Hazel, this is my mom, Giulia.”
“Oh! Isn’t that nice?” Giulia asked, her eyes going bright and a smile spreading. “You never mentioned hiring someone new,” she went on. “Or someone so beautiful.”
“Yeah, because that wouldn’t be something a boss can say about an employee.”
“Oh, who is going to stop you? You’re human resources. Tell her she’s beautiful.”
“Oh, that’s really not—” I started, finally seeing why Dante looked so flustered.
His mom was the kind to want to set him up all the time.
And given that my own mother and grandmother were forever trying to make me go on blind dates, I felt an almost overwhelming rush of sympathy for this sort of uncomfortable interaction.
But before I could, Dante’s dark gaze found mine, and he was speaking. “You’re beautiful.”
Well.
Okay.
I was kind of glad I didn’t interrupt him, given the little shiver that coursed through my core. Even if he’d been coerced into saying it. It had been so long since I’d felt anything close to butterflies. I’d begun to think they didn’t exist anymore.
“Thanks,” I said, feeling the heat rise in my cheeks.
“I made a handsome son, didn’t I?” Giulia asked, patting Dante’s chest.
“Yes. Very handsome,” I agreed, feeling even redder in the face.
“You have to join us,” Giulia said, moving aside to gesture toward an empty chair.
“She might have plans, Ma.”
At Giulia’s lifted brows, I admitted, “I was going to order some slices to try.”
“So you don’t have anyone expecting you.”
“No, I’m, uh, new to the area.”
“Sounds like you need friends then,” Giulia said, this time moving over to her seat. “Be a gentleman and pull out her chair.”
Dante was already moving to do so, giving me an apologetic head shake. “Sorry about this,” he whispered as I moved to sit, his warm breath teasing the shell of my ear, making my belly flip.
“So, Hazel, where are you from?” Giulia asked as she dropped her napkin onto her lap.
“Florida.”
“What brings you to Navesink Bank?”
“This is probably going to sound silly,” I said as Dante took the seat beside me while his mother reached to rearrange their drinks, making it clear she’d taken his seat so he had to sit closer to me, “but I really wanted to be able to experience all four seasons.”
“That’s not silly at all. I wouldn’t change a crunchy-leaf fall day or a snowy winter morning for anything. Even if I do love a nice growing season. I’m a big gardener.”
“Well, you must be really happy your son opened a garden center then.”
“I have been getting use out of my family discount.”
“If by ‘family discount’ you mean steal anything you want, then sure.”
“Thirty-two hours of labor,” Giulia said. “No epidural. You owe me flowers. Do you like to garden?” she asked, turning to me.
“Oh, you know, I’ve never really done it. I’ve lived in apartments my whole adult life.”
“Dante has a really nice front garden.” To that, Dante closed his eyes and shook his head. “I’ve been taking care of it for him since he bought the house, but I would be happy to pass it off to another enthusiast.”
“Ma, Hazel did a really great job setting up the garden center for Halloween,” Dante, looking close to shifting in his seat, said.
“We are all coming to see it. Me, his brothers, their wives…”
“And Valley, my sister,” Dante said. I got the feeling from his inflection that Valley was also single.
“Valley. That’s an interesting name.”
“Valentina,” Giulia explained. “Nino, Massimo, Dante, Santo, Valentina, and Augustine.”
“Six! Wow. You’re a supermom.”
“Do you have any siblings?” she asked.
“I have one sister.”
“Older? Younger?”
“Younger. She’s just seventeen as of two months ago.” I’d left the day after her birthday. My mom guilted me to stay until then. Though I was still getting ragged on for not coming home for her next beauty pageant.
“Is all your family in Florida?”
“Yeah. It’s actually just my mom, grandmother, and sister.”
“All girls.”
“Yeah. And you had so many boys.”
“Runs in the family. Do you want children?”
“Ma!”
“What?”
“You’re not supposed to ask that.”
“Why not?”
“I babysat every kid on our block growing up. I love kids. I’m just nowhere near in a place to start a family.”
“Oh, so you are with someone,” Giulia asked, looking deflated.
“No. No, I’m single. But I would need to be a lot more stable before starting a family.”
“That’s where a husband comes in handy.”
“Ma, you—”
“Hey, Aunt G,” another voice joined our conversation, making me turn to find another tall, dark, handsome man with impossibly great bone structure.
“Lucky! I didn’t know you were here.”
“Promised the kids pizza. Well, I promised Via a night without cooking. So I’m going with pizza.”
“That’s very—oh, excuse me for a moment,” Giulia said as her phone started to ring.
When she got up to walk away from the table, Dante let out a deep breath.
“Yeah, I remember that feeling,” Lucky said with a chuckle. “Figured I would give you a couple minutes of reprieve.”
“Lucky, this is Hazel. She—”
“Works at the garden center,” Lucky cut him off. “Dom mentioned you having to break up a couple fucking in the woods.”
“What?” Dante asked, stiffening.
“Opening night. It was no big deal. And, don’t worry, we already have new safeguards up against that.”
“That’s not—”
“I’m so sorry,” Giulia said, coming back and grabbing her handbag. “I’m afraid I forgot my hair appointment,” she said, reaching up to pat her perfectly dyed and styled hair. “I have to run. Hazel, it was so nice to meet you, dear. Dante, you have to invite her to Sunday dinner.”
With that, the woman shuffled off before anyone could object.
“Your mom is a terrible liar,” I said when she was out of earshot, my smile breaking out.
“That she is,” Dante agreed. “I’m sorry about her. She’s…”
“A mom,” I filled in for him. “My mom and my grandmother have been the same way with me. They just want to see us happy.”
“In my mom’s case, I think she just wants more grand babies. Even though she’s already got a bunch.”
“Lucky, order’s up,” someone called from the door.
“That’s me. Nice to meet you, Hazel.”
“Thanks for the save, man,” Dante said.
Then his cousin was gone, and we were alone.
“The server is on her way out. Feel free to get back to your night if you want. Or you can stay.”
“I—”
“Hey! Sorry, I didn’t see you join the party. Can I get you something to drink?”
I really needed to get away from Dante and his intoxicating spicy scent and his charming smile.
“Water would be great.”
“And another glass for the wine,” Dante said, gesturing toward the bottle on the table.
“Absolutely. Be right back.”
“I don’t know if you drink, but this wine is great.”
“Wine sounds great. I haven’t had any since… before the move.”
“Any particular reason?”
“I don’t know anyone here. And I was raised to never drink alone. Of course that was odd advice since my mom and grandmother always lived together, so someone was always around to share a drink with. What?” I asked when his head tipped to the side and his brows pinched.
“I can’t fathom moving somewhere that I don’t know anyone.”
“It seems like you have a big family. I mean, this isn’t really a small town, and you guys keep popping up.”
“My mom and most of the aunts had like four or more kids each. And now they’re mostly all married and having kids. I swear we are half of Navesink Bank’s population.”
“Is it amazing or overwhelming?”
“It’s both. For example, you never have to worry about not having someone to help you move or pick you up if your car won’t start. On the flip side, your mom and aunts and cousins all want you to settle down enough to constantly try to hook you up.”
“Have you ever actually gone on a date with someone they tried to hook you up with?” His pained look was all the answer I needed. “Six times over the summer. It’s easier to give in than to fight it.”
“No winners?”
“Well, there was the woman whose entire apartment was full of those silly squishy stuffed animals. Couches, bookshelves, bed, seats in the dining room…”
“I mean, you’d always have something comfy to lay on,” I said, smiling my thanks to the server as she dropped off my water and wine glass.
“Oh, no, no. You couldn’t lay on them. They all had feelings. And names. And personalities. Apparently, the pink spotted cow and the purple pigeon had some sort of beef, but she didn’t feel comfortable telling me until she got to know me better so she knew she could trust me not to share it.”
“Oh, come on. You made that up.”
“I wish I did,” he said, pouring my wine.
“Was that your mom’s setup?”
“No. It was one of my aunts’ setups. My mom set me up last with her manicurist’s niece. A lovely woman on a carnivore diet who spent the entire dinner telling me how the pasta with my chicken parm was going to make me die at fifty.”
“Geez. It’s that bad out there, huh?” I asked, taking a sip of my wine.
“Been a while since you were on a date?”
“I was busy figuring out where to move, packing up, moving, finding a job, trying to find ways to fix up my apartment without doing any permanent changes that could get me in trouble. And, well, trying to get over my last relationship.”
“Was he an asshole?”
“Opened a dating profile the same month we became official.”
“Dick.”
“Yeah. And I guess I won’t be getting set up anymore, living this far from my family.”
“Oh, don’t get your hopes up. If my ma decides we aren’t a good fit, she’s not giving up on you. You’re gonna be her little pet project now. Especially since she knows where to find you.”
“Well, maybe I can make some new friends that way at least. I love everyone at work, but most of the employees are still in their teens. And nothing makes you older than nodding to what they are saying, then grabbing your phone to look up the slang.”
“I swear my fucking nieces and nephews are speaking another language sometimes.”
The server came back and I bit back any insecurity I felt at ordering four different slices of pizza. Then Dante went ahead and made it easier by ordering the same for himself.
“Are you going to punish yourself at the gym after this?” I asked.
“Nah. I hit the gym this morning. Might take a run before bed. Kinda just depends on if my mind will shut down enough for sleep or not. I recommend my gym, if you’re looking for one.”
“For right now, I’m getting a ton of exercise at work. And I’m kind of excited about the prospect of walking or biking along the beach in the summer. I want to look into hiking, too. There seem to be a lot of paths in the parks around here. If it’s safe.”
“As a whole, yeah, it’s safe. I mean, far be it from me to tell a woman that places that are safe for me are safe for her, but the rates of robberies and sexual assaults are pretty low around here.”
“That’s comforting. Because the missing rate around here is kind of scary.”
Dante shifted in his chair and reached for his wine. “Mostly men, though,” he said.
“Is a possible serial killer of men supposed to be comforting to me?” I asked, brows scrunching.
“Well, the women are safe from him if he exists.”
The food arrived then, and the conversation turned toward local attractions that I could check out over the next year, including a big local fair, movies and music on the beach, apple picking, dinner cruises, and a really cool-sounding giant koi pond that moved up high on my priority list.
The food and wine were gone too soon, and as a rush of other customers came through looking for places to sit, it seemed rude to keep taking up a table.
Dante insisted on paying, then walking me all the way to my car, even though it meant he would have to double back to his own car closer to the restaurant.
“Thanks for dinner,” I said, just barely able to stop my gaze from drifting to his lips that I couldn’t help but wonder if they tasted like pasta sauce or wine.
“Of course. I’ll see you at work. And apologize in advance for my mother’s inevitable drop-in.”
“I’m sure you’re worried for nothing.”
To that, Dante gave me a knowing smile.
And I found out soon enough why.