7. Lucia

Isa had been silent for long enough that Lucia was beginning to get worried. “Isa? Did you hear what I said?”

A garbled noise came from the other side of her phone. “What! He what? That piece of shit almost kissed you?”

Lucia didn’t know how to explain that she wasn’t sure she was upset about it. She also wasn’t certain he had actually almost kissed her. It seemed more like he’d been toying with her.

“Well, it was more like he leaned forward to close-speak with me, you know? I’m not positive that he wanted to kiss me. I mean, the guy hates me and thinks I’m working with his greatest nemesis.”

“Close-speak?” Isa asked incredulously. “Why don’t you seem as upset about this as I am? And why aren’t you emphasizing how much you hate him?”

Lucia blew out a sigh. “I don’t know, I’ve been working with him a lot recently. He’s definitely rough around the edges, but…”

“Oh, don’t tell me. Don’t you dare tell me you wanted him to kiss you. Lucia Moretti, don’t you tell me that.”

Isa took her silence as an answer.

“Puta! I can’t believe you. What’s changed?”

“Nothing’s changed! It’s not like I like him, but you have to admit he’s hot as hell. He was in my space, and I couldn’t think, and yeah…I guess I would’ve been okay with it.”

Isa groaned, but then seemed to think for a second. “Well, maybe you’ll get a better lay outta him than you did Max.”

Lucia set her glass of wine down on the counter, shocked. “I’m not gonna sleep with him, Isa. It was just a momentary lapse in judgment. Again, I must remind you that he hates me.”

“So, the only reason you won’t get laid is because he hates you?”

“No!”

“Mm-hmm. Well, just saying, it doesn’t sound like he hates you.”

Lucia finished her glass, needing the burn.

“Lu, have you talked to your dad since you moved?”

Lucia regretted finishing her wine. She should’ve waited.

“No.”

She loved her father. She really did. But she wasn’t ready to hear his optimistic take on her failed engagement. And he would absolutely have one.

The man had been cheated on and abandoned, left to care for an eight-year-old daughter on his own. Her mother had left them because she couldn’t handle being a mother, because having a child hadn’t fit her lifestyle. She’d thrown years of marriage into the trash to go do who knows what. Despite that, her father had managed to continue giving his heart away, getting back up and dusting himself off after every heartbreak. Her whole life, she’d watched him get hurt over women who didn’t deserve him.

She’d promised herself she wouldn’t be like him, and then she’d met Max and had thought that maybe she’d been wrong. But Max Clark had proven her right, right, right, and now she was an absolute fool, following in her father’s footsteps. So, no, she hadn’t spoken to her father.

“Lu, the longer you wait, the worse it might be. And you never know what he’ll say.” When Lucia didn’t respond, Isa continued. “He’s the only family you have—besides me, obviously. Don’t push him away.”

Lucia sighed, knowing Isa was right. “I’ll call him this week. I promise.”

“Okay, Abby’s giving me that ‘get off the phone’ look, so I’ve gotta go. But you owe me details about sexy Colton Beaumont.”

“Now he’s sexy?”

“I’ll say anything to get you laid. Goodnight, osita. Kisses.”

Lucia huffed a laugh before responding, “Kisses.”

She ignored the glass on the counter and grabbed the bottle of wine instead, tucking herself under a blanket on her couch and turning on The Bachelor. Maybe scripted, pretend love would make her feel better.

The hair on the back of Lucia’s neck rose, and she remembered Colton’s warning from a week earlier. Despite finally pulling her car door open, throwing herself inside, and locking the doors, the panic didn’t subside. It took her a couple of minutes, but she finally realized why.

Her car wouldn’t start. She was alone—she hoped—in the Sabers’ parking garage, and her car wouldn’t start. She weighed her options, wondering if it would be better for her to sleep in her car for the night than to call a rideshare. Just as she’d decided that was her best option, a knock on her window startled her. She let out a shriek, jumping out of her seat before searching for her pepper spray.

“Moretti, open the damn door.”

Lucia breathed a sigh of relief, thankful it was only Colton. She cracked the door a little.

“Yes?”

“Get out.”

She stuck her chin out defiantly. “Stop. Telling. Me. What. To. Do.” Just for good measure, she added, “Asshole.”

“What did I tell you about staying here so late? Why don’t you listen to anything?” He looked like he was ready to throw her over his shoulder and walk over to the car she’d been too scared to even notice. She really hadn’t done a good job of casing her surroundings.

“There’s only so much work I can do from my house without my equipment.”

“Get out.”

“Can’t you just give me a jump?”

His jaw ticked, but he didn’t respond. She opened the door and folded herself out of the car slowly, deliberately making him wait. If he was going to boss her around, she would do everything in her power to make it harder for him.

She followed behind him, astounded when he opened the passenger-side door of his Ferrari.

“Why the hell do you care anyway?”

“I’d rather my personal sports analyst not get murdered during the season.” His jaw was clenched. He seemed oddly stressed.

“Wow, you’re so kind. I’ll be sure to only dangle myself in front of the Charleston murderers once the season is over.”

He apparently didn’t find that funny, his face stoic as he pulled out of the parking lot.

“Guide me to your house.” He nodded toward his phone, which was held up by a magnet connected to the air vents.

She picked it up, pointing it at him so he could enter his password.

“It’s one-one-zero-seven.”

Lucia nearly dropped the phone. Max hadn’t ever given her his password. She was so shocked that she just listened to him, typing in the password and then her address before placing the phone back.

They sat in tense silence until Lucia couldn’t take it anymore. “How much did you see?”

“Of you jumping into your car like you were being chased by a man wielding a chainsaw? Pretty much all of it. I had just gotten into my car when you came out of the elevator.”

She closed her eyes, dreading her next words. “Well, thank you. I’m not gonna apologize, because I didn’t do anything wrong. But thank you for saving me from sleeping in my car.”

He didn’t respond, didn’t even nod, just flicked on his blinker as he turned onto a residential street.

Just when she thought they would stay silent for the rest of the ride, he said, “I worry about my little sister every day. I don’t know if she’d ever tell me if something happened, or if, god fucking forbid, something has already happened, but I worry about her being outside at night every single day.”

Lucia tried not to melt at his confession. Once again, he’d surprised her. She twirled her ring around her middle finger, not sure how to respond. She looked out at the beautiful mansions with manicured lawns, cursing herself for investing all of her money instead of spending it on the finer things in life. Like an NFL player’s old house.

A few minutes later, when they’d moved away from the player mansions, Colton pulled in front of her new house. She wondered for a moment what he thought of it, brushing some invisible dust off her skirt awkwardly. He stopped the car, got out, and walked over to her side.

Why was he being so…chivalrous? What happened to the annoying, hard-headed Colton she couldn’t stand?

She locked eyes with him as she stepped out of the car, nearly teetering on her heels as his eyes slid to the bottom of her skirt and then down her legs. He started to reach out like he was going to offer her his hand, but she was nearly standing already, and he seemed to think better of it, stuffing his hand into the pocket of those damn gray sweatpants she hated that she loved.

The moment was broken when a flash went off. Lucia spun around, eyes narrowing as she tried to decipher the shape in the shadows before them. Another flash.

“Ignore it,” Colton whispered gruffly. Her stomach flipped. At what? She wasn’t sure. “We passed my house on the way here. They must’ve been waiting and followed us. I’ll have some of my people work on keeping those off the internet.”

The media made her jumpy, and she didn’t like the idea of them taking pictures of her, but she could hardly focus on that with Colton beside her. Colton shut the car door behind her, a hand on her lower back, ushering her toward her front door as she located her keys in her purse.

“Oh, you don’t have to walk me. It’s just right there.”

“Shut up, Moretti. We’re already halfway there.”

He was right. It only took them a few strides to reach the three steps that led to her little stoop. She pulled her keys out and pushed them into the doorknob as another flash went off behind them. She really hoped the pictures were just of Colton, but the sinking in her stomach made her think otherwise.

Before twisting the doorknob, she turned to look at him again, flushing when she realized his eyes were already on her. “Thank you again.”

His eyes searched her face for a second before he responded, “Goodnight, Moretti.”

She turned the knob, went inside, and shut the door. She rested her forehead on it as she locked it, closing her eyes and cursing her damn car.