The last thing she expected was for him to burst out laughing, grab her by the hand, and drag her over to the little sitting area where Luciana and Maddie were looking at the distinctive fireplace.

"Oh, Lucie, wait 'till you hear this – she thinks you're my hot Italian lover."

Then Luciana was laughing too, and to Stephanie's surprise, pulled her into her arms and kissed both her cheeks.

"Bless you, but I promise, I am not robbing the cradle."

"Robbing the cradle? You can't be any older than I am."

"I love you for thinking that. I was eighteen when I left this country to come to your country as an au pair and care for my baby boy," she said, pinching Mike's cheek, "when he was five years old. Such a sad and lonely little boy he was."

"Lucie," Mike said.

"But we fixed that, didn't we, darling? And I love you like you were my own." She turned to Stephanie. "For thirteen years I stayed, and the Wellingtons paid for me to work on my accounting degree while he was in school, and I cried the day he left for college. Then I studied more and I became a CPA and later a partner with a big company in New York, but I missed Italy. Now I do consulting work as an auditor at the companies my Mikey takes over. I travel often, but I keep a small place on the Amalfi coast for when I am not on a consulting job.

"But for now, it is my pleasure to put aside the books and numbers and finances, and spend time with this little patatina."

Stephanie felt an instant connection to the woman, who traveled internationally for her job and already seemed to be at ease with Maddie.

"What's a patatina?" Maddie asked.

"It means 'little potato.' You are my little potato. It's something you say to an adorable child who you already like very much."

"Weird," Maddie said, but she was smiling. "You're my big potato," she said to Luciana, who laughed and then kissed her on both cheeks as well.

"What do you say we get settled in our rooms?" Mike suggested.

"Yes," Luciana said, "I have you all checked in and your luggage arrived before you, so come and see." She smiled. "I feel guilty staying in this fancy hotel and having you also pay me for what seems like a vacation. But I will swallow my guilt and let you spoil me," she said, laughing and holding onto Mike's arm. She grabbed Maddie's hand again with her free one. "We are going to have a very fun time together, Madelyn."

As they all rode up in the elevator together, Stephanie wondered, could it really be this easy?

* * *

Mike and Stephanie had connecting suites, with balconies overlooking the Villa della Spiga, the most famous fashion street in Milan. Luciana had a separate room nearby, and the plan was for her to spend her days with Maddie, keeping her happy and entertained while Mike and Stephanie conducted business. At night, Maddie would cuddle up with Stephanie in the big bed with the soft comforter. Stephanie was starting to think this was actually going to work.

The hotel also offered convenient meeting rooms, a fine dining restaurant, and a less formal café. Mike took advantage of all three to conduct business.

Their first meeting went about as well as expected. The atmosphere was tense, with the representatives of eight members of the winery consortium looking stern and unbending, while only one of their group engaged in any actual discussions.

They had reviewed the situation, he asserted boldly, and decided to invoke their option to terminate the contract, based on Miami Import's lack of liquidity, rejecting out of hand the changes Mike had proposed to the deal.

Mike spread out the new financial statements, and explained the recent infusion of cash into the company. He explained step by step how the company would carry out its obligations under the contract. Then just as calmly informed them that if any of their businesses attempted to walk away, he'd use the considerable resources of Wellington Ross to file a legal action against each one. And if he found out any of them had already been dealing with one of Miami Imports' competitors before the actual termination date of the existing contract, he'd sue them each individually for collusion.

Signor Giuseppe Verona, the apparent leader of the group, sputtered as he rose to his feet.

"How dare you come here, to our city, and threaten us. Signor O'Connor already admitted six weeks ago that he didn't have the resources to meet his obligations, and that we had every right to walk away."

"Do you have that in writing?" Stephanie asked coolly. "Because I'll remind you that Mr. O'Connor no longer speaks for this company. And unless you have a written release, executed by Mr. O'Connor and signed by the Chairman of the Board of Miami Imports, as per the contract, then whatever telephone conversations you may have had with Mr. O'Connor have no relevance here."

They had brought their own lawyer with them, a weaselly little guy, in Stephanie's opinion, who explained all the reasons why Miami Imports was in breach of the agreement, throwing in obscure references to Italian law. Stephanie felt that familiar surge of adrenalin, the thrill of knowing that she was better prepared than her opponent, and that he had underestimated her.

 She listened politely, then when he was done, calmly eviscerated every argument, citing specific provisions of Italian law, while the lawyer sank lower in his chair. This was the work she was accustomed to, and it pleased her for Mike to see her in her element. By the time the meeting concluded, Signor Verona, the lawyer and the silent members of the group filed out of the conference room, looking much less certain of their impeding victory.

It was only then that Stephanie realized, guiltily, that it was long past the time she'd expected to return to their rooms for dinner with Maddie. Today had been Maddie's first full day in Italy – her first day in Luciana's care. She remembered how hard it had been for Maddie just a few weeks ago the first time Stephanie had left her for longer than an hour with Lisa, and hoped Maddie hadn't had a complete meltdown. As she approached the door to the suite, she was prepared for the worst.

But she was completely unprepared for the sounds of laughter that greeted her when she and Mike stepped inside.

"Aunt Stevie!" Maddie tore herself away from a disarray of packages and papers and toys strewn across the floor of the sitting room and ran to Stevie, throwing her arms around her. "Lucie and I had so much fun today!"

They had, Luciana explained, spent most of the day at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della ecnologia Leonardo da Vinci – which apparently was the best children's museum ever, with endless amazing things to do.

"It was so cool!" Maddie said. "I got to go in a real submarine, and there were so many airplanes and cars and I helped build a robot and looked through a microscope and there were these giant bubbles!" She tugged Stephanie further into the suite. "Look at all the stuff we got! Because Lucie and I might want to stay here tomorrow all day and they had things in boxes that you can build and color and put together! And we had lunch there and then we came back and walked all around the shops and we had dinner outside at a little table and then we got gelato! That's like ice cream but it's better!"

Stephanie leaned down and wrapped her arms around the little girl and just hugged her tight, looking over her at Luciana and mouthing thank you.

"I thought you'd be sad I didn't get back in time to have dinner with you, Maddie."

"That's okay, Aunt Stevie. I'm not a baby."

"No, you're not."

"Now you can go have dinner with Mike!"

"I think Luciana's already had a long day. Why don't we let you go relax," she said, turning to Luciana, "and I'll just have something sent up."

"Nooooo!" Maddie said. "Lucie promised she'd read to me. We bought books today." Maddie pointed at a stack of books on the coffee table, and Stephanie glanced over at the titles and frowned.

"But Maddie, those are all in Italian. You don't speak Italian."

"I'm already learning how to order food in Italian. Tell her, Lucie! I ordered my gelato all by myself today," Maddie said, her little face beaming with pride.

"That's right," Luciana said. "The young pick up languages so quickly. By the time you leave Italy Madelyn will have begun to speak like a native. Besides," she said, "I'm going to read the books in Italian and English."

"Please let Lucie stay," Maddie said, pushing Stephanie toward the door. "You go have dinner, okay? I'll be good for Lucie."

Before she knew what had happened, Stephanie found herself in the hallway with Mike.

"Well," she said, looking down at the trim business suit she'd worn for the meeting. "I guess we go have dinner."

Author's Note:

Since Maddie is perfectly happy spending the rest of the evening with Luciana, there's no excuse for Stephanie not to go out to dinner with Mike. Alone. So . . .. that's a good thing, right? Hmmm. We'll see.