Chapter Twenty-Four Lorenzo
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Lorenzo
J ulian, Dahlia, and Lily are outside the Munoz house when I pull into the driveway that Friday evening. Julian is in the middle of sifting through a toolbox in the back of his truck while Lily is looking at him, panicked.
I hop out of my G-Wagon and walk over to them. “What’s going on?”
Dahlia glances up from her phone. “Julian tried to fix the fountain while we were waiting for you.”
“Did you get it to work?” I ask him.
Julian shakes his head. “I told Lily she’s better off replacing it.”
She makes a face. “I want to keep it.”
“Maybe I can call one of my guys to come take a look, but the parts alone are going to cost more than a new one.”
Typical Julian, wanting to tear anything of value down.
“I’ll cover the cost of fixing it,” I say without thinking twice.
Lily glances over at me with wide eyes. “You don’t have to.”
I pull her into my arms as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. With the number of fake dates we’ve been on, it has become second nature to touch her, to keep her close.
I’ve even come to enjoy the little flutter in my chest that occurs whenever we’re in proximity to one another, which I never thought was possible.
“But you totally should fix it,” Dahlia tells me while linking her arm with her sister’s. “Lesson number one of dating a billionaire: When they offer their black card, you only ask, what’s the limit?”
“There isn’t one,” Julian and I say at the same time before shooting each other a look.
“Well, thanks for the tip,” Lily says with a sassy eye roll.
I grin before turning to face Julian. “Send me the bill?”
“Yeah, sure,” he grumbles under his breath.
I was so distracted by the fountain that I didn’t notice everyone’s luggage packed inside Julian’s truck until now.
“I thought I was driving,” I say, keeping my tone light despite the tightness in my jaw.
Dahlia smiles. “Julian thought it would be better for him to drive since we’ll need to stop by the client’s house on Saturday morning.”
“You can borrow mine.” I tuck my hands into the pockets of my jeans—a move Lily follows with obvious interest.
I ignore the concerned crease between her brows. “I don’t mind.”
I’m an image of nonchalance while internally panicking at the idea of giving someone else full control behind the wheel. My hands start to sweat over the thought of sitting in the back seat while Julian drives, and if I’m not careful, everyone will notice.
“You know what?” Lily jumps in and ropes her arm around mine. “What if we take two cars?” she asks.
Julian shoots her a look. “And pay double the parking?”
Lily hits him with a glare. “Are you complaining about spending money when you dropped a thousand dollars on a prank last month?”
Dahlia laughs under her breath while Julian grumbles, “That was different.”
Lily ignores him. “We’ll see you at the hotel?”
“Sure,” her sister replies, still looking confused but thankfully not pressing for answers.
Lily reaches for her bag in the trunk, but before she wraps her hand around the handle, I carefully move her out of the way and grab it instead.
She follows me to my G-Wagon, giving her sister one last wave while I open her door.
She has to use the step to climb into the passenger seat, and I get a glorious view of her ass in the process.
“Eyes up here, Vittori.”
I slowly drag them toward her face. “Don’t act like you don’t do the same thing when I’m not looking.”
Her mouth falls open.
I tap it shut with the tip of my finger. “It’s okay. I like when you can’t help yourself around me.”
I shut her door with a grin and head to the trunk, where I place her suitcase beside mine before checking all the tires once again.
I already did my usual routine back at my house because I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, but my anxiety climbs when I see Lily in the passenger seat, depending on my driving to keep her safe.
Julian rolls down his window. “You all good?”
“Yup. Checking if I ran over a nail,” I lie.
He reverses out of the driveway and leaves while I confirm that all the tires are in mint condition. Once I’m done with that, I pop open the hood and look over the engine.
The compulsion to assess every nook and cranny is proof enough that I’m slipping, but instead of being concerned over my safety, I’m preoccupied with Lily’s.
That much I can confirm as I assess the dipstick—despite having my oil changed last week—and the serpentine belt—looks brand new, because it is.
At some point, Lily climbs out of the SUV and leans against the side of it. “Want to talk about what’s bothering you?”
I slam the hood shut and walk over to her side of the car. “In you go.”
She steps onto the platform and climbs into the SUV. I reach behind her chair for the seat belt and clip it in place before tugging on the strap.
Before I move away, she reaches for my hand. “Lorenzo.”
“Don’t.”
“We’re not going anywhere until you talk to me.”
“Fine by me. It’s not like I wanted to spend the weekend with you and your overbearing family anyway.”
Her eyes widen. “Excuse me?”
I want to rip my own hair out by the roots because why does she always push me to talk at the worst times.
Don’t blame her for your lack of control.
Cazzo .
I can’t look at her when I apologize. “I’m sorry. Driving long distances… It’s a…” Fuck . I pause before losing the battle against my pride. “It’s a trigger .” I spit it out like poison.
“For what exactly?”
I stay quiet, hoping she gives up while knowing her well enough to predict she won’t.
“I’m asking because I want to better understand you. That’s all,” she says in that calming cadence of hers.
With the deepest breath that makes my diaphragm burn, I answer.
“My OCD.” There. I said it. It’s not like I have done the best job hiding it from her. Not like I do with others.
“I don’t know what it’s like to have that diagnosis, and I won’t act like I do, but regardless, being triggered doesn’t give you the right to lash out at me like that.”
“No, it doesn’t.” I hang my head in shame. It’s been twenty years since I was diagnosed, so I should’ve learned to manage it by now, but lately I feel completely out of control.
“You don’t want to end up upsetting the wrong person one day.”
“I agree.” I shut her door before getting behind the wheel. “Can we restart the weekend?”
She doesn’t answer right away, so I follow up with “Please.”
With a sigh, she nods. “Fine.”
“Thank you,” I say in earnest.
Out of all my cars, Lily seems to be the most interested in this one, to the point of her checking out the center console, dashboard display, and glove compartment. She even asks me a few questions about the way it drives after she notices the chair cushioning her when I turn.
“Do you like it?” I ask after hitting the button that turns on her chair massager.
She delicately traces the edge of the leather seat, and for one deranged second, I’m jealous of a chair.
You’re…
No. Don’t you even think about saying it.
She looks over at me with those doe eyes of hers and nods. “It’s…fancy.”
I make a show of connecting my phone to the display—a feature her dinosaur of a car is lacking, along with blind spot sensors and a dash cam.
“Imagine not having to use a portable speaker every time you want to listen to something,” I say when music softly begins streaming through the car.
Her eyebrows shoot up. “Manny told you about that?”
“He was impressed by the system you jerry-rigged.”
Her eyes fall to her lap. “I could’ve replaced the speakers, but then I would’ve had to cut back on buying clothes.”
“Who needs functioning speakers anyway?”
“Exactly. I knew you’d get it.” Her small smirk turns into a full-blown smile.
“Your dad gave you that car, right?” For some reason, I’m not ready to put the conversation to rest. When I think of Lily driving around town in that shitty car, I get this uncomfortable tightness in my chest that is impossible to ignore.
“Yeah. He bought it for Dahlia and me to share.”
“That’s a nice gift.”
Her throat visibly tightens from her swallow. “Yeah. Money was tight, so we were surprised when he decided to get us a new car versus a used one.”
“Only the best for the people’s princess.”
She groans. “You know about that nickname?”
I smile. “Impossible not to hear it whispered whenever you walk into a room.”
She shoves my shoulder with a laugh. “Shut up. That’s so not true.”
I shrug. “If you say so… principessa .” I
Her eyes roll.
“Not a fan? Okay. What about cucciola ?” II
“Immediately no.”
I choke on a laugh. “We’ll have to workshop some options.”
“I like the classics. Like baby . Babe . Love , but only if you’re British.”
“What about amore mio ?” III
Her cheeks flush, and I officially have her new nickname.
As much as I want to keep the conversation light, I can’t shake the idea of her driving an old car. “If your dad were here now, would he want you to be driving around in that car?”
Her hands, which were lying flat against her lap, curl into tight fists. “You’re not letting this go, are you?”
“Do people typically give up by now?”
Her silence is confirmation enough. I tell myself not to push, to let it go and move on to another topic, but maybe that’s Lily’s issue. Maybe everyone is willing to give up at the first sign of upsetting her, and while that has its place, it shouldn’t come at the price of her safety.
So you’re her protector now?
My own hands tighten around the steering wheel. “What if there was another way to hold on to his memory without anchoring yourself to a two-ton relic?”
She glances over at me from the corner of her eye, likely assessing my angle. “I don’t know.”
I pull the dice from my pocket and hold them out for her to grab. Her fingers brush against the soft flesh of my palm, sending a few sparks scattering across my skin as she takes the dice.
“There are other ways to honor someone that don’t compromise your own needs. With the Moirai, I was stubborn. I didn’t want to accept that it wasn’t the same buzzing casino my father built and managed, so I held on.”
She rolls the dice between her fingers, back and forth like I do, clearly lost in thought. I don’t want to interrupt whatever silent conversation she has going on inside her head, so I focus on the road until she is ready to talk.
“Letting go was hard, but I found a way to always keep a piece of it with me.”
She is silent for a while after that, and I give her time to process what I said.
She turns in her seat to face me. “Let’s say—hypothetically speaking, of course—I was ready to get a new car… Would you mind going with me to the dealerships?”
My breathing stutters because that was not what I was expecting her to ask.
“Sure,” I say, knowing this is only the start of blurred boundaries and broken rules.
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and me offering to help Lily find a car is the first step down a dark, obsessive path.
I can’t say I’m sorry about it though.
At least not yet .
A few hours later, we finally make it to the hotel. Dahlia and Julian are already waiting in the lobby with our room keys, so we head to our rooms to drop off our bags, which are located on different floors.
Dahlia mentions our dinner reservation before we part ways, and I spend the time it takes Lily to get ready checking out reviews online. There are a few that make me pause, and my stomach is in knots by the time Lily steps out of the bathroom.
“What’s wrong?” she asks as she brushes a hand down the material of her dress.
“Nothing.” I head to the bathroom so I can wash my hands.
She follows me. “Are you upset about sharing a room?”
Not as much as I should be. “No.”
“Then what’s the matter?”
“I was thinking about dinner tonight.”
Her lips turn downward. “Shit. I forgot.”
I freeze. “About?”
“You don’t like eating at restaurants.”
My shoulders, which were already tense, bunch up. “Contrary to what you think, I’m not completely incapable of—”
“Whoa. I never said that.”
“You might as well have.”
“I’m sorry if it came across that way. I was only trying to support you.”
“I’m not sure why you assumed I wanted that from you.” My voice is snappier than usual, and she winces. “I’m sorry,” I say immediately. “That was stupid of me to say.”
She takes a deep breath, holds it for a few seconds, and slowly exhales through her mouth—a technique I’m familiar with. “Apologize by telling me why you reacted that way.”
She could’ve walked out on me, but she is choosing to stay and give me a chance to explain myself, so I take it.
I stare out the window. “I don’t want you treating me differently because you know about my OCD.”
A wrinkle of worry cuts between her brows. “It’s called caring , Lorenzo. I know it’s an unfamiliar concept to you with the way your family has acted, but it’s normal. Hell, it should be the standard, and I’m sorry people in your life made you think it wasn’t.”
“I’m—”
“I don’t want an apology. I want you to do better, or else one day I’m not going to forgive you again.”
She leaves the room without letting me get the last word in, and instead of being happy that she’s gone, I’m worried about where she ran off to. We’re a far cry away from Lake Wisteria, where she’s accustomed to talking to random strangers without questioning whether they’re safe or not.
I drop my head into my hands and groan.
One day you’ll care about someone so much, you’ll miss them as soon as they leave , my dad had told me when I asked why he called my mom as soon as she drove off for work.
Back then, I thought it was ridiculous. I mean, he saw her not even two minutes prior, and he was already calling her to talk?
I tug on the roots of my hair hard enough to make it hurt.
“I don’t miss Lily,” I say aloud, my voice full of false bravado.
I can’t .
Or at least that’s the lie I tell myself only five minutes later when I grab our hotel key off the dresser and head out to find her.
Becoming reliant on Lily feels like a fork in the road, where one wrong step could lead me down a path of no return.
A path riddled with complications, an expiration date, and, worst of all, love .