location, but hey, it's just a matter of finding some outdoor space where we can set up tents like we were going to do at the Desert Star. How hard can that be in golfing's world capital?"
"It doesn't matter to me whether you go ahead with the party or not. I told you I won't go."
"But it's different now," Joey insisted.
"Different how?" Tea asked. I'm different now. I know what it can be like in a man's arms. I know what it can be like when you really let go. When you let go and lost control of your heart. She shook off the thought. "Nothing's different now. Nothing."
"More's at stake. We need to show the world the Carusos stick together. Mom said even she might come to the party if we decide to go ahead with it."
Tea's gaze jumped to her mother. "Mom?"
She gave a little shrug. "Cosimo's retiring. Maybe it's time I retired my... discomfort too."
This wasn't right, Tea thought. Everyone around her was either changing their minds or changing their spots.
Her mother was willing to associate with the Carusos.
Her Johnny was Giovanni Martelli's son.
How can that be?
How can that fee?
Giovanni Martelli's son.
All at once, anger exploded inside her. It melted the ice and evaporated the anesthesia that had been affecting her emotions. The teacup dropped from her hand, shattering against the hardwood floor.
"Are you all right?" Her mother started forward with a napkin.
Seething, Tea stared down at the mess and wondered what they'd think if they knew she'd let go of the thing in lieu of throwing it. "No, I'm not all right," she said. "Not nearly all right."
Something in her voice must have warned them all.
Her mother halted mid-stride. Eve's head jerked sharply toward Tea. Even Joey stopped talking, her mouth hanging open.
Tea was not all right. She was furious.
She'd lost the design job that was a wonderful artistic opportunity.
She'd lost the chance to build her professional reputation into something to be proud of.
She'd lost the man she might have loved.
She hated him now. Hated him!
His face popped into her mind. Full of humor as he laughed with her. Tender as he leaned down to kiss her. Battered by the Hollywood P.I.
She should have hit him herself.
He'd wanted to get close to the Carusos, so he'd found a way to get close to her.
Bastard.
She rose to her feet and the anger rose with her, starting at her toes and filling her with an unyielding strength until she felt a hundred feet tall. Powerful. Royal.
A woman determined to find a way to pay back the man who'd done her wrong.
'Tea?" Eve said softly, in a voice you'd use on a wild animal. "Do you want to tell us what's going on?"
I lost my father, I lost a man I could have loved, but I'm not going to lose anything else.
"Joey said it," Tea told her sister. "Carusos never back down."
"Oh-kay. And that means... ?"
She wasn't sure. Not yet. But then -
Yes. Oh, yes.
"Joey also said you'll have to find another place to set up the party tents. And that some place like a golf course would do?"
Eve narrowed her eyes. "A golf course would do fine."
The course at Johnny's had always been well-maintained and the new landscaping team had done wonders with the rest of the property. She could put a rush on the inside workers and get a lot more of the interior finished in the next ten days. If they held Cosimo's party at Johnny's, she'd make sure the press was given a tour to show what her firm had done to the house. Mid-century modernism was a pet love of Palm Springs, of all Southern California these days, and was certain to get attention.
The publicity would be the kind of advertising she couldn't afford, and enough of a plus to overcome the downside of the Mafia association.
The association was what she'd always worked to avoid, but what Johnny had done made it clear that she would never escape the Caruso connection. So now, by God, she was going to use it to her advantage.
If only he would agree. If only she could face him again, and again and again, until the job and the party were over.
"Carusos never back down," she murmured to herself. She'd been doing that for years, backing down, backing away, hiding her true nature and turning from what she'd learned from her father.
But she was going to embrace his ruthlessness now.
She could face Johnny. And if she did, she knew