Chapter Seven

It's been a few days since the whole thing with digging up Royce. Unfortunately, Edward wasn't there when I woke up in the morning, but he did leave me a sweet note. We have been messaging here and there, but I have been super busy. Today, I planned on running some much-needed errands. I finished getting dressed by putting on a black body suit, skinny jeans, a burgundy blazer, and black heels.

I had just grabbed my purse to leave the house when my phone rang. I smiled once I saw who was calling. "Good morning, Edward."

He chuckled. "Good morning, Tesoro. Are you free for lunch today?"

"I'm not free for lunch today, however, if I need to make myself free for dinner. I can. I will be in town all day for some errands, so I can meet somewhere around dinner time."

"My father, brothers, a couple of the family friends, and I were going to have a poker night at Eclipse. I know that the ladies were going to come along with to do their own things. I was going to see if you wanted to come when we met for lunch."

I smiled. "I would love to. What time?"

"I should be here all day, so if you want to come here after your errands, we could spend some time together before the riff-raff gets here." I giggled. "Or I could pick you up from your house after errands."

"I don't know what time I will be done today, so I will just come on over to Eclipse when I'm done."

He hummed. "Everything okay?"

"I guess it is." I sighed. "I'm meeting with my publisher about a few things. Then I'm spending the rest of my day doing things for Cigno Inc. So, we shall see if everything is going to be okay." I got to my car. "I need to get going if I am going to meet with Lydia. I will text you when I get done with my meetings."

"Sounds good. Call me if you need anything, Tesoro." We said bye and hung up the phone.

I got into my car and drove to my publishing company. When I got there, Lydia was standing at her office door with a sad look on her face. "Come on in." Once her office door was shut, she gave me a big hug. "I'm so sad to see you go."

I felt the tears well in my eyes. "I know. I just..." I trailed off because I didn't know the right words.

"Bella, you don't need to explain anything to me. I've known you for a while now. You love writing, but it's not what you want to do for the rest of your life. I knew this day was coming, but I just didn't know when."

She gave me another hug. "I will still do the deal with Seattle General. I can't just stop doing that." We sat down at her desk. "I want to say thank you for everything." I handed her the little gift that I bought. A bottle of wine and a gift card. "I need a break. I might pick it back up, but I can't make my promises."

Lydia sadly smiled. "I will miss you so much."

I chuckled. "Lyd, I'm not moving across the country. We can meet for dinner and girls' night."

"I know that, silly. I'm just going to miss you as an author. You don't have an option to not have dinner with me at least once a month." She hugged me again and handed me a gift as well. I opened it up to reveal a gift card to Sapori D'Italia, a bottle of red wine, and a little teddy bear. I held back my laugh about the Sapori. "Let us know if you would like to come back, though."

I nodded. We said goodbye, and I left. On my way to the distillery, I stopped by to get myself an iced coffee. When I got to the distillery, I saw that the team was bottling up some limoncello. "Ciao," I called out.

Arturo, the man who has been my rock with this company, waved wildly at me. "Bella, è così bello vederti. A cosa devo il piacere della tua visita?" (Bella, it's so good to see you. What do I owe the pleasure of your visit?)

I gave Arturo a hug. "Follow me," I said in English. Arturo understands and speaks English because he has lived here for most of his life, but his preferred language is Italian. The two of us walked into my office. "Non riesco a esprimere quanto mi dispiace per essere egoista. So da un paio d'anni che vorresti essere qui sempre di più con tua nipote. Mi hai detto che quando nonno se ne andrà rimarrai a tempo pieno e ti ho accettato l'offerta. Non avrei dovuto, e mi dispiace. È ora che tu stia qui di meno e di più con quella bellissima bambina." (I can't express how sorry I am for being selfish. I've known for a couple of years now that you have been wanting to be here less and more with your granddaughter. You told me that when Nonno passed that you will stay full-time, and I took you on that offer. I shouldn't have, and I'm sorry. It's time that you be here less and with that beautiful little girl more.)

Arturo wiped the tears that fell from my face. "Mi sarei offeso se non avessi accettato l'offerta, piccolino. La scomparsa di tuo nonno mi ha assolutamente sventrato perché siamo cresciuti insieme a Lorenzo. Deve averti colpito più forte. Avevi bisogno di capirti. Nessuno voleva spingerti. Sono felice di poter passare più tempo con la mia Julietta? SÌ. Ma dovevo essere qui anche per te. La mia famiglia lo sapeva. Il tuo nonno ha fatto molto per noi e sapevano come ti ha influenzato. Nessuno ti incolpa di niente. Non eri egoista." (I would have been offended if you didn't take the offer, little one. The passing of your Nonno absolutely gutted me because we grew up together with Lorenzo. It must have hit you harder. You needed to figure out you. No one wanted to push you. Am I happy that I could spend time with my Julietta more? Yes. But, I needed to be here for you too. My family knew that. Your Nonno did a lot for us, and they knew how it affected you. No one blames you for anything. You were not selfish.)

I sighed. "Grazie. Apprezzo te e la tua famiglia più di quanto tu creda. Non devi dirmelo oggi, puoi avere un po' di tempo per pensarci. Non c'è fretta. Ora, quello che vorrei che tu facessi è decidere cosa vorresti fare. Se vuoi fare un passo indietro rispetto alla tua posizione, molto probabilmente puoi o puoi svolgere un lavoro di amministrazione e io mi occuperei del resto. Non cambierei la tua paga o assicurazione se scegliessi questa strada. Ho parlato con Davina, la nostra consulente finanziaria, potremmo pagare la tua paga oraria con un'assicurazione per sei mesi, poi dopo i sei mesi l'assicurazione COBRA entrerebbe in vigore e dovresti entrare nel tuo fondo pensione." (Thank you. I appreciate you and your family more than you even know. You don't have to tell me today, you can have some time to think about it. There is no rush. Now, what I would like for you to do is decided on what you would like to do. If you want to take a step down from your position, you most likely can or you can do some admin work and I would handle the rest. I wouldn't change your pay or insurance if you would choose this route. I spoke with Davina, our financial advisor, we could pay your hourly wage with insurance for six months then after the six months, COBRA insurance would take effect and you would have to get into your retirement fund.)

Arturo's chin started to quiver. "Ne parlerò con Claudia." (I will talk it over with Claudia). I just nodded my head. "Vorresti che assumessi un sostituto per ogni evenienza?" (Would you like me to hire a replacement just in case?)

"Internal first. Then, we could explore outside options." He nodded his head. "I ended my partnership with Twilight Publishing today, so I'm here in full. I will be taking over as contact for our suppliers and the businesses that have our products. My plan for today is to call them to update them and give them my contact information." I pulled out my business cell phone and business cards that I had created at Staples. "I'm going to do that today and then I have to run to meet Davina."

Arturo smiled. "Damiano ti sta sorridendo." (Damiano is smiling down at you.)

"Thank you." He kissed the top of my head. "If you want to take the rest of the day and speak with Claudia, you are more than welcome to. I think we can handle the day."

"I think I will. I will let everyone know that if they need anything reach out to you." I smiled and nodded. He kissed the top of my head and walked out.

I spent the next couple of hours calling and letting our contacts know the changes in contact person. I did have one man question who I was multiple times, but other than that, the calls seemed to go smoothingly.

Once I finished the calls and did some logistic work, I went down to one of the storage rooms where we keep the grappa and some other items that we have on for specialty. I pulled out a box that we use to ship the bottles. I added four bottles of grappa, two bottles of limoncello, four bottles of whiskey, and two bottles of scotch.

"Miss Swan?" A voice called out. I walked up the steps with the box to see Mitch, one of our brewers. "Can I run an idea by you?" I put the box down on the table as I nodded. "We have scotch, brandy, vodka, and whiskey. I feel like we couple widen our profit margin if we look into maybe adding tequila."

I hummed. "I will most definitely think about it. In the meantime, I want you to look into what would go into making it. I will give a two-week deadline."

Mitch let out a sigh of relief. "I can do that. Thank you, Miss Swan."

I shook his hand. "Please call me Bella. I have to go to a meeting, so I won't be in the office. How is everything going on the floor?"

"It's going good. We just got a batch of whiskey bottled. Vodka has another week. We are getting ready to bottle up scotch and brandy."

My heart stopped. "The last barrels that Damiano signed off on?" He sadly nodded. "When will that be done?"

He gently patted my hand. "They are waiting on me to do that."

"Let me make a call. I want to be there." He nodded and left me alone. I got out my phone and called Davina. "Hey, D. Could we possibly cancel the first spot? I didn't realize that the last of Nonno's stock was being bottled today. I want to be here for it. I'm sorry. You can tell Milo that something came up, and we can visit that spot some other time."

"Bella, breathe," she said. "I will call Milo. You do what you need to do."

"Thank you." We said goodbye and hung up. I walked to the back area where the barrels are kept. I saw that Arturo was standing there with Lorenzo. As soon as I saw the two of them, I started crying. "I don't know why." I motioned to my face. "Was I going to be informed that this was happening?"

"We were going to bottle it up and let you decide what to do," Nonno Lorenzo said. He gave me a huge hug. "Hello, Little Belle." He kissed the top of my head.

"Hi," I hoarsely whispered. I walked over to the last barrels that my Nonno signed off on. "Non ci sono addii per noi. Ovunque tu sia, sarai sempre nel mio cuore." I kissed both barrels. My Nonno said this every time he went to my Papa's gravesite or anything that reminded him of my Papa. It was their favorite quote from Mahatma Gandhi. (There are no goodbyes for us. Wherever you are, you will always be in my heart.)

"Bella, do you want to do the honors?" Mitch asked as he nodded his head toward the barrels.

I bit my lip and shook my head no. Arturo cleared his throat. "I got it," he said. Nonno Lorenzo held my hand. I just watched as the team bottled up the scotch and brandy. "You don't have to decide now, deary. I want you to think about what we should do with these?"

I looked to see the bottles. "Growing up, Nonno was all about making sure that his team knew that he was there for them no matter what." I wiped away a tear. "You all meant a lot to him." Arturo and I nodded to each other. "You all have been this company rock after his passing. I couldn't even put into words how much it meant to me that you all were there for my Nonna." I wiped my tears and nodded. "For that I am sorry." The teary eyes of the team looked at me in confusion. "I wasn't here for you guys when you needed me the most. I have been selfish with my own grief."

"Bella, your family passed away within years of each other. You didn't get a break with that. We don't blame you at all," Brian said. "We had each other to fall back on."

I sighed. "I should have been one of those people." I took a deep breath. "I ended my business relationship with my publishing company today. I'm here. I canceled the first spot, and I might cancel the second spot because they don't need to see me like this, but I'm putting in some time to expand." I waved my hand to Mitch. "Mitch came to me just a while ago to think about tequila. He now has a task to see if we could expand into the tequila route. I'm supposed to meet with Davina and Milo about us possibly adding a store to sell our liquor at than just for distribution. For those who don't know, Davina is our financial advisor. Milo is a realtor." They all nodded their heads. "I'm here, and I'm so very sorry that it is taking me this long."

Arturo cleared his throat. "There are some things that I would like to say too." He sighed. "Bella and I spoke earlier. Around Damiano's passing, I was supposed to take a step back. I told her not to worry about that because I couldn't do that to her. Lorenzo, Damiano, and I were best of friends. I wasn't going to do that. Well, she gave me some options to think about." He took out a handkerchief to wipe his face. "I spoke with Claudia today. Marco, Alessia, and Julietta are moving to Boston because Alessia has an amazing job opportunity. Claudia wants to move with them as well to help with Julietta."

I put my hands on my chest. "I'm going to miss you."

"I think it's time that I retire," Arturo said. "Now, it will be some time before we get the logistics of the move, but I believe it's time."

I wiped my tears. "Let's make a toast," I said. Mitch pour us a shot glass of scotch. "May we never forget the past, live in the present, and anticipate the future. Salute." We all took a shot. "Delicious." Arturo shook hands with everyone. "There are three barrels each. I want to keep two of each here, and I would like them in the front area. I want the other ones for me." Mitch nodded. "There are enough bottles for everyone to have one of each."

Once the barrel room was cleared out, Arturo, Lorenzo, and I stood there. "We will discuss everything in a few days?" Arturo asked.

I hugged him. "You bet." He grabbed his bottles and left. It was just Lorenzo and I. "Take one to Papa E."

"I will, Little Belle." He handed me a handkerchief. I wiped my tears. "You okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I'll be fine. I brought my makeup bag just in case." I sighed. "I'm going to get my car and bring it around to load it up." I paid for the case of liquor that I pulled earlier, pulled my car around, and loaded up the last bit of Nonno's brew.

Off to the next meeting.