Chapter 2 #2
“Alright.” She didn’t sound that disappointed, and he counted that as his first win.
“I’ve got to get to work, Mom,” he said.
“Just . . .” Her voice softened, full of pure joy. “Just happy you’re coming home, darling.”
“I know, Mom.” He hesitated. Staring at the lavender paint in his hand. “Me, too.”
It wasn’t even a lie.
The moment she hung up, he texted Luca.
You flying home any time in the next two weeks? he asked.
Luca’s answer came through almost immediately. In a week. Why? She didn’t, did she?
Hey, I wasn’t the one who told her.
Sorry.
You’re not.
No. Not really. There’s living your own life, Enzo, and then there’s avoiding your old one.
You’re such a smug asshole.
But Enzo was laughing out loud, enjoying this, because despite what he’d once believed, he now considered Luca the brother he’d never had.
His phone rang again.
“I really don’t have time but I’ll make time for you,” Enzo teased after he answered.
“And you call me a smug asshole,” Luca said, sounding equally amused.
“Takes one to know one.”
Luca chuckled. “It sure does. So how did she convince you?”
“It wasn’t actually that hard.” Enzo sighed with resignation. “She wants me to paint a mural.”
“Oh, on Will’s building? Yeah, I can see that.”
“Who’s Will?” Enzo asked absently.
“A new guy in town. You’ll like him. And his ice cream.”
“Guess you didn’t open that gelateria you’d been talking about,” Enzo said.
“You know how busy we are, how were we gonna do that justice? It wasn’t going to happen. And then Will showed up with all these plans, and you know, Oliver said it best. Why would we try to do something when he’s such an expert at it, already?”
“You’re a huge sap.”
“Guilty as charged.”
There’d been a time when Enzo hadn’t exactly been thrilled that his smug asshole of a cousin had met, fallen in love, and then married his old teenage crush. But that was water long under the bridge.
He and Oliver would’ve been a disaster.
Had been a disaster. The worst first date both of them had probably ever been on.
“Let me guess,” Luca said, “you’re trying to avoid Giana driving into Charleston to pick you up.”
“If I let her, she’ll stop by every antique mall between there and Indigo Bay, and you know how I feel about antiquing.”
“It’s baffling to me why Giana moved back to Indigo Bay when she was so into the antique scene in Charleston.”
“You know it was too big for her. Not enough room to be her natural busybody self,” Enzo joked.
Luca laughed again. “You know her well.”
“Better than anybody else,” Enzo agreed. “So I’ll catch a ride back with you. Text me your flight info.”
His phone dinged again. “Done,” Luca said. “And if for some reason that doesn’t work for you, either Oliver or I can come into town and pick you up. No problem. Consider it karmic justice.”
“Done,” Enzo said.
“Ugh, that’s exactly what you intended, wasn’t it?”
“A happy accident,” Enzo suggested instead, and Luca scoffed.
“Sure,” he said, but he still sounded amused. “I am happy you’ll be home for a little while, karmic justice and all. I’m sure Oliver will be, too. And you know our cousin Rocco’s in Indigo Bay for the summer, yeah?”
“Rocco?”
“I’m sure you’ve met him before. At Chiara and Ilaria’s place, maybe? He’s a . . .second cousin? Third cousin? Anyway, Oliver’s teaching him everything he knows about the bakery, and he’s working at our place sometimes, and down the street at Rudy’s. Saving up.”
“Oh, yeah. Rocco.” He remembered the guy now. A real chip off the Moretti block. A fun, cheerful guy with a big smile that seemed to permanently reside on his face. “What’s he saving for?”
“Wants to buy his own place. Coffee shop slash bakery of some kind, somewhere.”
“He’ll be good at that.”
“He’s already good at that,” Luca said wryly. “I said Oliver was teaching him, but I think they’re teaching each other.”
“Aw, feeling a little left out?” Enzo asked knowingly.
“Maybe I’m not happy you’re coming home, after all.”
But Enzo knew he was, and he realized, again, that he hadn’t been lying to his mom, when he’d told her he was happy, too.
This was going to be good. He could reconnect with Luca and Oliver. Hang out with Rocco. Paint a mural. Indigo Bay should have an Enzo Moretti mural. It only made sense.
Yes, the deli had the interior mural he’d done, before he’d even gone to school, but this one would be for the whole town, in a spot everyone could enjoy it.
“Liar,” Enzo said jokingly.
“Smug asshole,” Luca retorted fondly.
“Just a Moretti.”
Luca laughed.
“See you in a few weeks, cousin,” he said.
“Uh-oh,” Kate said under her breath to Will as she scooped ice cream into a banana split dish.
“What?” He was distracted. He had two ice cream cones to scoop, a sundae to build, and a milkshake to blend.
Cherry’s was busy, maybe busier than they’d been since they opened, full of customers enjoying his ice cream and his frozen concoctions.
It was only about an hour til closing, but the weather, warming up every week since he’d been open, had finally started to draw the town in like insects towards a lamp.
“Giana’s here.”
Will glanced up and sure enough she was winding her way through the shop, between the bright white spindly chairs and the magenta enameled tables, shoes clicking purposefully on the black and white checkerboard tile.
“I gotta finish this order,” he hissed.
“She’s not gonna want to talk to me,” Kate retorted as she sliced open a banana and nestled each half on either side of the ice cream.
“She might,” Will theorized. But sure enough, he could see out of the corner of his eye that she was heading right in his direction, bypassing the line of customers, Mari, his newest employee, was taking care of.
“Will! Will!” Giana said excitedly, trying to get his attention loudly.
She hadn’t had to shout. He was right there, just on the other side of the long ice cream case.
He looked up, bowing to the inevitable. “Sorry, Giana, we’re slammed,” he said apologetically, giving her one of his best “customer service” smiles. “It might be a while before Mari can get to you.”
“Oh no, I’m not here for ice cream.” She beamed, and if Will thought he’d been treated to a Moretti smile before, he was floored by the one she was wearing now. “I’m here for you! To tell you Enzo will be home soon. For weeks!”
“That’s great. I’m really happy for you,” Will said, meaning it. Clearly she loved her son a lot, and considering he’d been in town for six months and hadn’t met him yet, Enzo didn’t come home much.
“I am too. And of course, happy for you, because you will finally meet him.”
“Giana,” Will warned. He scooped ice cream into the aluminum milkshake tin and added milk from a carton he grabbed from the mini fridge below the counter.
“I know, I know, you are too busy to date. But the first time I saw you, I knew. You were perfect for my Enzo. Big and strong and handsome, and you work hard. You made this place beautiful, when it was a dump before. Only someone with a little bit of art in their soul could do that.”
Or someone who was desperate to carve something out for himself, Will thought rebelliously.
It had taken a lot of long, hard hours to turn the dirty, dusty, partly dilapidated old hardware store into the bright, shiny white and cherry pink ice cream parlor with its white lacy-backed chairs, magenta-topped tables, and long soda counter with a curved glass ice cream case punctuating the middle, stretching the entire length of the big room.
Then there was the meticulously laid out, sparkling clean commercial kitchen in the back. He’d spared no expense, because he’d wanted a place he loved coming to work every day, and Cherry’s had become all of that and more.
“I don’t know about that,” Will said. He set a hand on his hip. “I just know I’m super busy. But of course, you’ll have to tell him to stop by for some ice cream.”
“Oh, I will,” Giana said and her eyes were glimmering with mischief and promise.
He supposed he should’ve been more afraid of that look of hers but he had two more sundaes to make, and the line in front of Mari was nearly to the door now.
“See you around,” Will said, turning away and whipping up his milkshake.
He spooned it carefully into one of the clear fluted glasses that he’d already prepped with a caramel drizzle and then topped it with a beautiful swirl of whipped cream and more caramel.
He nestled a snickerdoodle in and a bunch of his signature cherries next to it.
He was just pulling out two more dishes for sundaes when Kate wondered, “Gonna stop by for ice cream, is he? Or maybe something else?”
Glancing up, Will rolled his eyes. “I was trying to be nice. Friendly. Welcoming.”
“You gotta be careful,” she said. “You’re too friendly. Giana’s gonna take that as a positive sign and never give up. She wants you.”
“At least it’s not for herself?” Giana was still beautiful, sure, but she was definitely at least twenty-five years older than Will, and the wrong kind of sex for him to be interested in.
“It might be easier to dissuade her if that was her end goal,” Will continued with a reluctant sigh. “But hopefully Enzo is just as weirded out by his mom’s matchmaking as I am.”
“I’m sure he’s gonna be thrilled to find out that she’s been coming around, pimping him out,” Kate said with a grin. “Or maybe he’ll actually be glad. You never know. Maybe he has trouble getting dates, just like you said.”
“Maybe.” But Will wasn’t convinced. He was sure the first time he met Enzo Moretti, the two of them would share an awkward and uncomfortable moment, hopefully be able to laugh about it directly after, and then move on.