8. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Enzo expected his mom to return to the scene of the crime sooner rather than later, but to his surprise, she didn't.

When he finally finished up the scaffolding, it was nearly full dark—and she'd still not stopped by.

Gathering his phone and the basket, he rounded the corner and discovered a whole crush of people inside Cherry's. He'd been planning to stop in and maybe re-configure the plan, but Will looked run off his feet, and happy , and so Enzo left him alone, trudging the few blocks back to his mom's house.

Unlike Cherry's, her house was dark. Unexpectedly. Where was she? Enzo paused in front of her door, considering texting and asking, but a shower and his bed were calling, and he was honestly too tired to deal with this tonight.

He'd find her in the morning, and this time, he had a feeling she wouldn't be so intent on avoiding him. After all, she'd want to know all the details of their romantic rendezvous in Cherry's back room.

He took a long, cold shower, and when he was finally clean, slumped down on the futon that doubled as his couch. Discovered he was too tired to even flip on the TV. But not too tired to glance over at his phone, especially when he realized Will had texted him while he'd been thoroughly scrubbing himself down.

How did it go?

Didn't see her actually. She's not home, either. He omitted that it was weird for him not to find his mother absent at nearly eight PM on a weeknight. Don't tell me you're that eager to fake date me? The artichoke spread is good but not that good.

My tastebuds beg to differ.

Enzo laughed, head slumping back against the edge of the futon. He should really drag his exhausted ass to bed.

You guys looked busy tonight.

Busier every night, Will texted back. I'm gonna need to hire some more help.

You thought about asking Rocco? I know he works at Rudy's but only during the weeknights. I think his weekends are free.

Great minds. I've already called him up. But I think I'm gonna need another more permanent employee. I know Rocco's not planning on sticking around.

He wasn't. Eventually he'd find a business he wanted to buy in another small town, and leave.

I wish I knew someone to suggest, Enzo replied.

It's alright. Part of being a business owner.

Let me guess. One of the worst parts.

Right up there with being the person everyone calls when something goes wrong.

Luca likes to say everyone who starts their own business secretly has a savior complex, Enzo texted back.

He's not wrong.

Is that why you're trying to bail me out with my mom?

Enzo regretted the text the moment he sent it. It sounded needy and desperate like, tell me instead that you liked me too much to resist.

But they both knew that wasn't true.

Maybe I'm trying to bail us both out.

Enzo relaxed against the futon cushions again. How did Will always know the right thing to say?

You're annoyingly perfect.

If you were my fake boyfriend, you wouldn't find my perfection annoying :)

True. I'm gonna talk to her tomorrow.

Good luck. And good night.

When Enzo fell asleep ten minutes later, still on the futon, it was Will's face, bright smile, and those irresistible dimples swimming in front of his eyelids.

At least before he'd fallen asleep at nine, like a freaking old man, Enzo had remembered to set an alarm so he was up bright and early. A little sore, but a lot rested.

He threw some of his work clothes—a worn-out pair of loose shorts, and a paint-stained tank that had once been white—and ducked into his mom's house, the back door open, before he headed out to Will's building.

And sure enough, there was his mother, enjoying her coffee at her little nook table.

"Oh, Enzo, I didn't expect to see you this morning," she exclaimed as she looked up.

Enzo knew his way around his mom's kitchen as well as anyone's and grabbed coffee and popped a bagel in the toaster.

"Why not?" he questioned innocently.

"Well, you and Will had that very romantic date yesterday. Thought maybe he might've crashed here last night. Or maybe you spent the night at his room in the Inn?"

"Mom," Enzo said, leaning against the counter and crossing his arms over his chest, "you need to stop."

"Stop what?" She sounded so baffled, so innocent, he almost believed it.

"Stop trying to push Will and me together."

"Why?" Her eyes were wide and surprised. "You two are so cute together, just like I knew you'd be."

"Mom," Enzo chided. Took a long sip of coffee. "Even if I liked him like that—"

"Enzo," she interrupted, "I wasn't born yesterday. I heard about you two flirting the other night at Cherry's. And then earlier, at Oliver's. You two aren't being very subtle. I'm just trying to help your relationship along. There's no law against that."

Enzo opened his mouth and snapped it shut again. There was no reasoning with her, especially not when she'd already decided they were in a relationship. Maybe Will was right, and the only way to convince her to stop was to convince her all this was unnecessary.

Enzo took a deep breath. Ignored his bagel that just popped up in the toaster. "Mom, it doesn't need help. It's . . .uh . . .already going just fine."

He wasn't stupid, despite popular belief. He knew what he was saying and what he wasn't saying and also how his mother would undeniably take it.

"Oh, oh ," Giana exclaimed, looking happy enough that she might burst.

"If you keep interfering, you might screw it up," Enzo cautioned, shoving that hot burst of guilt down hard. He shouldn't be feeling it, but he was anyway. He wasn't lying to her, but apparently that didn't matter to his conscience.

"I definitely do not want that. Neither of us do," she agreed. "I knew the moment I met him he'd be perfect for you. And right here in Indigo Bay!"

"What a coincidence," Enzo said dryly, turning to get his bagel because he wasn't sure he could keep a straight face much longer.

"The very best kind." Giana clapped her hands. "Are you going out again, soon? And not to his back room, with you sweaty and disheveled, Enzo, darling. He needs to see you at your best. You are very handsome. I'm sure he agrees."

"So handsome you have to work hard to get me a date?" Enzo decided it was a positive development that he could at least joke about this now. Maybe Will had been right, and this had been the way to do this to begin with. After all, he genuinely liked the guy. How hard would it be to spend some extra time with him while he was here?

Not that hard.

Or really fucking hard.

"You know it was for you," Giana reminded him after he'd buttered his bagel and sat across from her. "I just want you to be happy."

"I know I keep saying this, but I am ," he said.

"Well, you are now ," Giana agreed, smiling.

Ugh. Enzo had never felt a kinship more viscerally than he did right now. Was this what women felt like, when they were constantly reduced to and defined by their relationship status?

"What are your plans today?" she asked. Enzo already knew she was forcibly returning the subject to the question he hadn't answered yet. When is your next date with Will? When will you get married? How about that picket fence? And babies? Those big blond babies I want so badly?

Maybe it was unfair since she hadn't specifically mentioned marriage and children—that had been Luca as, Enzo hoped, a joke— but he had a feeling it was only a matter of time.

"I'm working, Mom," he said.

She made a frustrated noise as he sipped his coffee and ate his bagel. "I mean, your plans with Will ."

"I know I'm working, and he's working." He flashed her a conciliatory grin. "But good news, we'll almost certainly see each other, as we'll be basically in the same place."

She relaxed then. "Oh, right. Yes, of course. Well, I trust that you know how to treat a man right."

Enzo made a face and told himself she was not referring to his disaster of a date with Oliver, years before this.

"I do," he countered and decided he was done with this assumption once and for all. He didn't know when Will's next free evening was, but he intended to take him out, very publicly , and make sure the whole town was aware of what a goddamn brilliant date-r he was now. That he was a catch. That men actually liked him.

Will likes you.

Well, he'd better, because Enzo intended to romance the hell out of him, in front of everyone.

"Of course you do," Giana said. She gave him a small proud smile, and he couldn't deny the delight in her eyes as she gazed at him. It made it hard for him to be too angry or frustrated with her. "You're a fine man, Enzo. I don't know how you managed it, because I'm afraid I was not the mother you needed, for far too long, but you did it. All by yourself."

"Oh, I think you had something to do with it," Enzo said softly. It was the truth, and he was handsomely rewarded for it with another of her beaming smiles.

"Thank you," she said. "For being understanding even when you didn't want to be."

"It was always just us, against the world," Enzo reminded her.

It had always been hard to be angry with her when she'd been loved and then abandoned, almost certainly in death, by Enzo's father. They'd never found his body and Enzo had a feeling they never would, if his mom's stories about his profession and associates were true.

It hadn't been fair that the world had been cruel and left her saddled with a child and no way of making a living. He knew it had been harder on her than she'd ever let on.

"Always," she agreed, and this time he didn't see the shadow of bitterness, the fleeting sadness he usually saw cross her face whenever the past came up.

Maybe she'd finally made her peace with it. Enzo hoped so.

He pulled out his sketches from his back pocket as he finished his bagel and his coffee.

"Oh," his mother said, inhaling sharply as she leaned over the table, "is that the mural?"

Enzo nodded.

"It's . . ." She glanced up, meeting his eyes. "It's stunning, darling. You're so talented."

"Thanks, Mom. Don't you think you might be a bit biased?" He shaded in a corner. He'd been toying with the idea of adding a frame around the main image, almost like he was bringing Joy's story to life.

"I'm not," she said, rising and grabbing his empty plate and cup. "All those people who clamor for your work prove that I'm not. And doesn't Will love it, too?" she asked archly.

"He likes it fine," Enzo said.

She raised an eyebrow. "I think his feelings are a bit stronger than fine ."

"Maybe," Enzo said. He wasn't usually this modest, but there was something special—something private—about the way Will had looked when he'd first seen Enzo's drawings. Something that eclipsed the faux dating arrangement he'd suggested.

Something real .

"I'm sure he's wild about it." His mother patted him on the arm. "Just like he's wild about you."

Will shaded his eyes and looked up at the wall of his building, wishing he'd brought his sunglasses outside because it was nearly noon and unbelievably bright, the sun bearing down on them with ferocity.

Enzo was a dozen feet up, brush moving with casual flicks—while the lines developing underneath it were the opposite of haphazard.

He could see the beginnings of a cliff and a woman's figure, blooming onto the wall in stark white lines.

"Hey," he called up to Enzo.

Enzo glanced down. "Just a second," he said. He drew a handful of additional lines and then he was climbing down.

"Is that safe?" Will asked.

Enzo raised an eyebrow, pulling his silver aviator sunglasses off and tucking them into the worn neckline of his paint-splattered tank top. He'd pulled his hair back today, a sweat-soaked bandana holding it in place.

"If it was taller, I'd wear a safety harness," Enzo explained. "This is too low for me to bother." He flashed Will one of those Moretti grins. "You worried about me?"

Yes. "I don't want my insurance to skyrocket because you broke your legs outside my building," Will said instead.

"Pragmatic. I like it."

"It's coming along." Will shaded his eyes again, glancing up at the wall.

"This is just the first sketch. To get an idea of how the design fills the space. It'll all get covered, eventually."

"Makes sense," Will said, nodding as his eyes traced every line Enzo had painted today.

Will didn't want to be fascinated by Enzo's artistic process, but he was. Undeniably. All morning he'd been almost unbearably tempted to step outside, to check on Enzo's progress, to see exactly what he was doing, but he'd forced himself to stay inside and to work his way down his to-do list.

As a reward for finishing the last of his prep work for the day, he'd finally let himself come outside and check on Enzo's progress.

Kate had given him a hard time as he'd walked out, because okay, yes, first he'd checked his hair and his face in the employee bathroom before he'd ducked outside, but he'd been working all morning on ice cream mixes, and had even baked a few batches of brownies and cookies, so he'd wanted to make sure he wasn't covered in chocolate—or worse.

"I had a client freak out once because she thought I was going to paint the whole thing in white," Enzo said, wiping his face with his forearm. "We had a good laugh over that one."

"I wouldn't expect you could freestyle paint this whole thing, or even want to," Will said.

"Oh, I could ," Enzo boasted, but his eyes were glimmering with amusement. They were almost mocha colored in the bright light, not the deep, dark chocolate brown he often fantasized about. That he'd imagined just this morning, as he'd mixed the rich chocolate batter for his brownies.

Will chuckled. "Maybe don't try it on my wall, though."

"Don't worry. I'm gonna paint you something beautiful."

Will had never doubted it. Okay, yes, he had. But only when he'd been convinced Enzo was a vandal who only wanted to cover his building with graffiti.

"I know," he said.

"I talked to my mom this morning," Enzo said. "When's your next evening off?"

For a moment, Will didn't quite grasp why he was asking. Or what his day off had to do with Enzo talking to his mom.

And then he realized.

"The conversation didn't go well, then?"

Enzo shook his head. "She's basically already convinced. You're right, the path of least resistance is to just go along with it. So, when are we gonna have our big date?"

Will's eyebrows raised. "Who says I even want a big date?"

"If we're doing this, we're doing it right. No questions. No half-measures."

That didn't really surprise Will much. Enzo was a Moretti, after all. They were kinda notorious for going all-in.

Look at Luca, moving to Indigo Bay and changing his whole life when he'd fallen in love with Oliver.

"Alright. In two days. You gonna be ready for it that quickly?"

Enzo laughed. "Oh, baby, I'm ready right now."

"Baby, huh? Fake date me for five minutes and I'm already baby ."

Enzo looked intrigued. "You want me to call you something else? Some other kind of cute pet name?"

"Honey? Cutie? Darling?" Will grinned. "How about Daddy?"

Enzo rolled his eyes, but he was smiling.

"Then you'd have to explain to my mother what that means," Enzo said. "We'll put a pin in this. Maybe that can be one of our discussions on our date. What charming nickname I'm going to murmur in your ear."

Will had been the one to suggest this plan, but he could admit now that he hadn't thought it through as much as he should've.

Because Enzo would want to commit to this—he'd said he did, just now, in case there was any question—and that was going to mean playing it up in public. There would absolutely be cute pet names and Enzo dipping his head low, murmuring into his ear in that deliciously melodic voice. Then he'd flutter those lethally gorgeous eyes in Will's direction and expect Will to melt like his highest quality chocolate.

Well. That wasn't going to be a problem. Melting would be the least of his worries.

"Works for me," Will said. "Explain to me again how you screwed things up with Oliver."

"By being totally the wrong guy for him. And also being an arrogant asshole," Enzo joked, the self-deprecating light in his eyes proving that if that had been true at any point, it wasn't any longer.

Enzo Moretti had grown up.

Very, very well, if Will had any say.

"I'm kinda thinking," Enzo continued, before Will could come up with something to say that wasn't, I don't believe it, it's impossible to believe something so ludicrous , "that maybe dating you is gonna redeem me in the eyes of the town."

"Oh?" It was the most—the best— Will could get out and that was saying something. Fake Boyfriend Enzo flustered him even more than Regular Enzo. He didn't know whether to be delighted or horrified by this.

"All anyone believes I'm capable of is one terrible date with Oliver, eight years ago, and then sulking about it afterwards. I'd like to prove I'm better than that."

"Fair," Will said. Still wanted to tell Enzo that he thought it was preposterous that anyone looked at the Enzo of today and still thought about that sullen kid.

Preposterous for anyone to think he couldn't get anyone he wanted, if he set his mind to it.

Including me .

Will pushed the thought away. This was just to get Giana off their backs. It wasn't serious. It couldn't be serious, because in five or six weeks, Enzo would leave Indigo Bay and he wouldn't be back anytime soon. Considering that Will had just opened a business here, there wasn't a future there.

"So something in this for both of us," Enzo said.

Will nodded. "So Wednesday night?"

"Yep. Be prepared to be knocked off your feet by all the pretend romance."

Maybe the way to go about it was to make it so over-the-top there was no way for Will to want it for real. No way for Will to mistake it for something real.

"I'll be ready," Will told him. Took a step closer, then another. Pretended his heart didn't beat a little faster at the nearness of him. The sharp sweat tang of him. He was hot and gorgeous. And in the eyes of everyone else, his .

"Good," Enzo said. But he didn't step back.

"This is where I'm gonna make sure you don't stand me up," Will said, lowering his voice and his head, tilting it down so he could graze his lips just over Enzo's damp temple. Reaching out, he steadied him, digging his fingertips into the taut muscle of his waist.

"Not a single chance of that," Enzo murmured.

"No," Will agreed. He knew he should move back, move away, but he didn't want to. Enzo fit against him even better than he'd imagined, in those hazy, muggy dreams he kept pretending he wasn't having. No way Enzo slid through them, teasingly delectable, everything Will wanted to take a bite out of.

It was Enzo who moved back, clearing his throat.

"Well, I was thinking we'd go to Rudy's. Get a nice public steak. Canoodle a bit."

Will was gonna have to brace himself for that second part.

"Works for me," Will said.

"I can't believe I'm asking this," Enzo said, rubbing his neck, shooting him a sheepish glare, "but where are you staying? Are you renting?"

Will winced. "Worse than that. Well, don't tell Joy that, because her hospitality is spectacular, but I'm renting a room in the Sweetheart Inn. I keep telling myself I'm gonna find a place and move my stuff out here, but we keep getting busier."

"Oh, but you know what that means?" Enzo sounded delighted.

"No?"

"It means I can pick you up very publicly ." Enzo rubbed his hands together, clearly excited about this development.

This had been Will's idea—his apparently very stupid idea—but he asked anyway, "Are you sure?"

"Oh yeah," Enzo said. "I know I said it before, but get ready. Nobody romances like an Italian, and no Italian romances like a Moretti."

"I'm looking forward to it," Will said weakly. Not entirely sure that he was.

"Good." Enzo nodded.

"I . . .uh . . .have to get back to work," Will said, and Enzo nodded absently, his attention either on romancing or on the mural, his gaze sweeping over the wall already.

"See you later," Enzo said.

When Will walked back into Cherry's, his face was flushed and his heart beating a million miles a minute. Not only because it was hot as Hades outside, either.

"You look dazed," Kate said.

"I'm . . ." I'm thinking I might have underestimated how this was going to be.

"Enzo Moretti's pretty potent, I guess," Kate teased.

"He's something," Will said. He didn't really want to lie to Kate, but this was his real reaction to the man, so it was hardly like he was pretending otherwise.

"Giana must be over the moon," Kate said.

Will leaned against the cold ice cream case and waited for it to cool him down. It didn't really work, which said everything. "We're going on a date Wednesday night," he said.

Kate looked shocked, which was surprising, considering what she'd just said—and probably how enthralled Will had looked when he'd walked back in just now.

"Seriously?"

"You said it yourself. He's pretty potent."

"And famously not an actual inhabitant of this town," Kate said.

Will had not anticipated this very logical argument.

"Neither was Luca, before he moved here," he suggested.

Kate shot him a look. "That was different. He'd never lived here before. He didn't have a chance to hate the nosy gossips, the way you can never escape every stupid shit move you've ever pulled, and the stifling narrowness of the expectations."

It was Will's turn to be surprised. "I didn't know you disliked it here that much." All of the above was true of any small town, including Indigo Bay, and he'd known that when he moved here. Small towns were a Johnson's specialty, and he'd grown up in them. He'd learned there were downsides, like anywhere, but he didn't want to live in some big, impersonal city. He wanted to know the little kids who came in for ice cream cones, and their parents, too.

Kate waved a hand. "Oh, I don't . I'm a realist, though. And all of that? Is all stuff I've heard Enzo say, about a thousand times. He couldn't wait to get out of here. As soon as Giana reluctantly let him go, he was gone ."

"I know that," Will said.

"Then what are you doing with him?" Kate's tone turned concerned. "He's gonna break your heart."

"Maybe it's not about the heart. Maybe it's just . . .he's a really, really hot guy, and it's been a while for me," Will said. Honestly, that was probably more of a convincing argument than the Luca one.

He should've started with: I'd just like to get this guy underneath me. And over me. And in me. ASAP .

Kate would get that.

She laughed, all her concern melting away. "Okay, fair. You deserve it, boss."

"I do," Will agreed, grabbing a water bottle from the fridge under the counter and taking a long drink. He needed to cool down, not keep thinking about Enzo in bed.

"Giana's gonna hold out hope that you've got a magic cock, you know?"

Will choked on the water.

"What?" he said, coughing.

Kate gave him a hearty slap on the back and a very knowing grin. "She's totally gonna hold out hope that your magic cock makes Enzo decide he likes Indigo Bay well enough, as long as you're in it."

"I guess," Will said.

This fake dating thing had been going on officially for twenty-three minutes so far, and already Will had regretted agreeing too many times to count.

How would he feel on Wednesday night?

But as a harried mom with four children walked in to Cherry's, the tinkling doorbell singing and Kate moving to the counter to help them, Will knew he'd agree to do it again, no matter how hard it was.