Damage Control

Chapter 70

It took Nonna only two seconds to give me her blessing, and she even offered to fly out so she could help me with my plans, but I had to explain that I needed her to stay in Italy to ship the paintings out to me, and after a few minutes of going back and forth, she eventually agreed to stay instead of hiring help to do the shipping for her. Once that was taken care of, the next thing on the very long list was finding the right building and contractors to get the job done, and as easy as it sounded, that was going to be the hardest part of this entire project, considering the fact that I needed an entire building renovated within the next four weeks.

As soon as Frank dropped me off home, I immediately hopped in the shower then curled up in bed, waiting for Nathaniel to call but eventually, my eyelids grew heavy, and before I knew it, I fell asleep peacefully with my phone lodged in my hand.

* * *

"Stazi," a voice whispered softly but urgently in my ear.

"Go away," I mumbled sleepily, turning around and lifting the covers over my head.

"Stazi, it's me, Carter," the voice spoke up again, pulling me out of my sleep.

"Carter?" I questioned groggily, whipping the covers off my head and squinting up to find him standing a few inches away from the bed wearing a pale blue polo shirt, tight-fitted dress pants with dark loafers. His chocolate brown hair was brushed back neatly, similar to the way Nathaniel styles his. "What are you doing here?"

"Nate asked me to check up on you; something about you missing his call last night?"

"Oh shit," I mumbled lowly, sitting up against the headboard and running fingers through my matted bed hair. "I kinda fell asleep."

"Here," Carter held out his phone randomly, but when I took a look at the screen, I saw Nathaniel's name.

"Shit," I mumbled again, clearing my throat before taking the phone out of his hand and pressing it against my ear.

"Anastazi," Nathaniel's baritone voice called my name, sending shivers down my spine.

"Nathaniel."

He sighed heavily as if he were relieved to hear my voice. "I called you last night."

Before I answered, Carter, signaled that he'd be downstairs waiting for me whenever we finished talking and I quickly nodded before turning my attention back to the call.

"Yea, sorry about that; I fell asleep."

"I thought something happened to you," he spoke again, a hint of panic evident in his voice.

"Nathaniel," I sighed, feeling butterflies in my stomach at the thought of him worrying. "I'm fine. I just had a long day at work and ended up falling asleep while I waited for you to call."

The line went silent for a couple of seconds, and I almost thought the call ended until he spoke again.

"Maybe I should come home."

"Nathaniel, no," I snapped immediately. Not only would he ruin my plans to surprise him, but he'd miss out on an amazing business opportunity if he left earlier than scheduled. "You can't panic like this if I don't answer the phone at a specific time. I'm fine, I was just tired, and I planned to text you when I woke up."

"Fuck, you're going to be the death of me," Nathaniel growled lowly, and I didn't have to be there to know he was stressfully running fingers through his hair right now.

"I love you too," I chirped brightly.

"I'll call you later, love."

"Mhm, and try not to book a flight home if I'm too busy to answer."