She smiled and mouthed thank you, realizing he was just trying to help her out. “I’ll leave you guys to it then,” she said. “Good luck.”
Dominick’s mouth curved upward, his rosy cheeks puffing up. While Stan had a head full of white hair, Dominick was balding and kept what little hair he had short. “They need it,” he said.
“Only because you cheat!” Stan declared.
Dominick slammed his cards on the table. “Do not!”
“Here we go,” Wilson said.
Alfonso, the quiet one, crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair.
“You do, too, and one of these days I’m going to catch you,” Stan said. “You just wait and see.”
“Oooh, I’m scared. Shaking in my boots.”
“More like shaking in your Dr. Scholl’s,” Stan remarked.
“Boys…” Ella said, trying to swallow down the laugh begging to come out. “Play nice.”
“You heard the girl. Knock off your crap,” Dominick said.
“What’s wrong with you?” Stan demanded.
“I don’t know. What’s wrong with me?”
Stan shook his head. “Watch your mouth in front of a lady. Sheesh.”
“Since when is crap a bad word?” Stan eyed Dominick until Dominick let out a defeated breath. “Fine.” Dominick bowed his head, holding his arm out in front of him. “My apologies.”
“It’s okay, Dominick. My brothers have a worse mouth than you do.”
“Don’t make it right,” Stan argued, and Ella couldn’t help but laugh this time.
“Goodnight, gentleman,” she said, giving them a wave.
“Buona notte,” her grandfather said, and Ella headed up to her bedroom. She peeked in Tony’s room, but he wasn’t home. Or, most likely, he was out in his art studio in the backyard that he, Marco, and Enzo built last year. He spent most of his time there, creating and painting.
Ella didn’t like to disturb him when he was back there. He was a visionary who saw life in a canvas of colors. It was his space to free his mind and bring his art to life.
Her phone vibrated, and she looked down at the screen, another excited smile overtaking her face.
I’m thinking you should let me take you out.
A part of her wished that she’d taken him up on his offer for coffee. Her grandfather was busy with his friends; he might not even have noticed if she’d gotten home late, and even if he had, she could’ve lied and said she was at Krissy’s, her best friend’s house. But Marco would’ve questioned her, and after the way he acted over a text message, she was sure that wouldn’t have ended well.
She typed back a quick response.
Shouldn’t you be spending time with your grandfather?
Her phone vibrated a few seconds later.
I would be but he fell asleep.
Ella looked at the clock. Seven-fifteen. That was about right. If the crew downstairs wasn’t over her grandfather would have dozed off on the couch by now.
I’m getting ready to watch a movie, want to watch it with me?
He responded almost immediately.
How do you suggest we do that?
It would be so much better if they were in a dark theater together, his warm body beside her, but this would have to do. She typed back.
Easy. You watch the same movie as me.
What movie?
She skimmed through her selection, but nothing stuck out.
I haven’t decided yet.
Can I suggest one?
Sure.
Kind of in the mood for a little Free Willy.
Now her smile was stretched wide from one side to the other. She grabbed her laptop settled into bed and sent a reply.
It’s a date.
Chapter 5
The next morning, Lucas awoke to the sound of pots clanging around. He sat up in the twin bed that once belonged to his dad and ran a hand over his face. The room, he imagined, hadn’t changed much. The walls were bare except for a track medal that hung from a thumbtack. A desk sat in the far-right corner next to a window that overlooked the backyard and out to the cove.
It was weird being in a place that once belonged solely to his father. He tried to imagine his dad as a teenager, but he couldn’t see past the man in the tailored suits. Was he always a hardass or did time do that to him?
He glanced at his phone—that he fell asleep on after a late night of texting—and checked the time. He was an early riser, but four-thirty in the morning was pushing it. He stayed up texting Ella until midnight, hoping he’d be able to sleep until at least six.
Unfortunately, once he was up there was no way he was able to fall back asleep. He answered a couple of emails. Almost immediately his phone chimed and he looked down at the email from Leo, his best friend and business partner.
Why the hell are you up already? Aren’t you technically on vacation?
Before he could respond another email came through, this one from Brian, his other best friend and business partner. He didn’t realize that Leo had copied him on his reply.
That’s because he doesn’t know how to take a vacation. Seriously, and I mean this in the sincerest way, screw off. We have everything under control.
He laughed as he grabbed his t-shirt and pulled it over his head. He sent a quick reply.
Glad I’m missed.
He slipped into a pair of sweatpants and slid his phone in the pocket before he headed downstairs. He found his grandfather at the stove, cracking eggs and frying bacon.
The smell reminded him of Sunday mornings back when his mom still cooked and he and his dad could be in the same room without wanting to rip each other’s throats out. It was so long ago that the memory seemed like an alternate image his mind created. But he remembered the salty taste of the bacon and the way his mom would hum as she filled two glasses with orange juice and coffee for herself.
He pushed the memory from his mind and continued into the kitchen.
“Morning,” Lucas said as he slid onto a stool and placed his hands on the kitchen island.
Joe turned a smile on his face. “Are you a morning person, too?” he asked, eyes brightening at the question.
Lucas ran a hand over his chin before meeting Joe’s gaze that was frighteningly similar to his old man’s. “I don’t sleep much.”
“Insomniac?” Joe asked.
“Possibly.” He was never clinically diagnosed, but he had all the symptoms.
“Your grandmother was an insomniac.”
Lucas froze in place. More than his grandfather, his grandmother was never mentioned. The one time Lucas asked his father about her, he walked out of the room and it was never touched on again. There were no pictures or stories of years past, just an unexplainable void in his family history.
“I don’t even know her name,” Lucas admitted.
“Barbara. I called her Barb. Pain in my ass, but god did I love her.”
“What happened to her?”
Joe placed the spatula down and turned from the stove, meeting Lucas’ gaze before focusing his attention toward the dining room window. “She died when your father was thirteen.”
Shame rushed through Lucas for being so in the dark, and not just for his family’s history, but for the pain and suffering they’d endured because of it. The weight of tragedy they must’ve carried for years…
“I didn’t know.”
“Not surprised. He didn’t tell you about me, but he also stopped talking about his mother shortly after she passed. It was rough on him. Your father and I always had different ideas about life, and your grandmother helped keep the peace. When she died, your father pulled away from me, and no matter how hard I tried to break down his walls, they seemed to get bigger and thicker.”
“How’d she die?”
“Took her own life. Your father was the one who found her.” Joe picked up the spatula and flipped the eggs, like he was commenting on the weather.
How many years of grief did he go through
before becoming numb to it?
“Jesus.” Lucas couldn’t believe what he was learning. Now he knew the heartbreak that silenced his father and prevented Lucas from ever fully understanding him. In less than an hour, he’d learned more about his father than he’d known his whole life.
“She had mental health issues,” Joe continued. “Not something that was really talked about back then, so we kept it mostly quiet. She’d have her highs and her lows. We had thought she was doing well and then… Well, you know.”
“I’m so sorry.” Lucas was stunned to discover there was so much tragedy in his family history, and he wasn’t privy to any of it. Though, now, he could almost get why his dad would want to leave and never look back. Finding his mother’s lifeless body must’ve done a number on his psyche.
Joe didn’t say anything else, focusing all of his attention on frying the bacon. It was a heavy topic, one that clearly still weighed heavy on his grandfather’s shoulders. He had more questions, but he didn’t want to press too hard too soon.
He had time. He’d cleared his schedule for a few weeks to help Joe with his finances and to find out more about the family he never knew. There were still so many things about his father that he simply didn’t understand, but he was beginning to think all the answers were lying in the small coastal town of Willow Cove.
***
Lucas scanned the many composition notebooks that Joe kept his records in, trying to make sense of them all. The man didn’t even own a computer, and when Lucas suggested it, Joe scoffed.
There was no question about it—he was old school, and that only meant one thing for Lucas; a headache. He rubbed at his temples as his eyes glossed over the scraps of papers with IOUs written on them.
He had more IOUs than money in the bank. When Joe said he wanted Lucas to look over his financial records, Lucas never would have thought in a million years it would have been this bad.
Stacks of past due notices sat to the left of the IOUs, and if Joe didn’t come up with the money to pay some of the creditors off he was going to lose his beloved restaurant.
Lucas didn’t mind a challenge. Hell, he lived for them, but this might just prove to be one that he couldn’t win.
He shuffled some papers around, trying to get some semblance of order when he heard voices in what sounded like the start of an argument. He put the papers down and listened as the voices escalated, and Joe’s distinct tone became evident.
Lucas put his work aside and headed for the front where the commotion was coming from. The restaurant was small, consisting of only a back office and a cramped bar area with four tables against the wall. The main seating was out front at the picnic tables in front of the order window. According to Joe, the inside was only used by the locals in the colder months.
Joe’s Lobster House’s busy season was on the horizon, but Lucas feared Joe wouldn’t have enough disposable income to get up and running the way he needed to. He took out a loan to pay his employees through the winter when he should have just closed. He had no return on investment. He wasn’t just in the red; he was drowning in it.
Lucas moved through the narrow space between the tables and the bar and emerged outside into the fresh salt air. Seagulls squawked overhead, circling fishing boats that were pulling in and out of the harbor. Even with all that noise, Joe and whoever he was arguing with could be heard loud and clear.
The other man was yelling in what Lucas assumed was Italian. He spotted the duo outside Vinny’s Lobster Shack. If Lucas was a betting man, he’d wager to say the man with salt and pepper hair and a prominent nose was Vinny.
Vinny held up his fist and shook it as more words in Italian flew from his mouth. Lucas stepped between the two dueling men and held his hands out.
“Enough,” he said.
“Who the hell are you?”
“That’s my grandson, and you show him some respect.”
Vinny all but growled his rebuttal.
Lucas offered his hand to the older gentleman. Just because those two couldn’t get along didn’t mean that they couldn’t. “I’m Lucas. Mr. Moretti, I assume?”
“Why would you assume that?”
He looked up at Vinny’s Lobster Shack and back to the namesake. “Because I heard the Moretti’s own this place.”
Vinny crossed his arms over his chest and turned his nose up at Lucas’ outstretched hand.
“You shake my grandson’s hand,” Joe demanded.
“I’d rather eat sh—”
“Grandpa!” A familiar voice exclaimed.
Lucas’ head snapped up just as Ella stepped out of Vinny’s Lobster Shack. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, showcasing the beautiful features of her face—her dark brown eyes, cute button of a nose, and plump lips. She was a dangerous combination of cute and sexy that had him openly gawking.
“Ella?” he said as she approached.
Her eyes widened as she took him in. “Lucas? What are you doing here?”
Lucas tossed his thumb over his shoulder, pointing toward the Lobster House when Vinny cut in.
“You know this stronzo?”
Ella rolled her eyes then pointed toward Lucas. “Grandpa, he’s not an asshole.”
“You calling my grandson an asshole? You piece of—”
“Hey!” Lucas said, holding up his hand and cutting off Joe. He was beginning to think that Frank’s stories weren’t exaggerated at all. If anything, he downplayed the feud.
“He has no right!” Joe spat. “My grandson is a good boy. Unlike your litter of delinquents,” Joe said, and Ella flinched.
Vinny held his fist up again. “You little…”
Joe looked down at him. “Look who’s calling who little.”
“Grandpa, we should go inside.” Ella grabbed Vinny’s arm, but he shook her off.
“You go inside. Nobody calls my grandbabies delinquents and gets away with it.”
“What are you going to do? Throw down with Joe?” she asked, annoyance lacing her words.
“The only thing going down is him,” Vinny scoffed.
“You think so?” Joe demanded, and this time Ella moved between the two of them.
“You two are too damn old to be fighting. You’ll break a hip. Now you.” She pointed to Vinny. “Go inside.” Vinny went to argue, but Ella, like a radiant warrior, stood her ground. She met his disapproval with a potent stare.
Vinny swatted his hand and let out a defeated sigh. “Fine. Not worth my time anyway,” he grumbled.
“And you,” Ella said to Joe. “Go back on your side of the boardwalk.”
Joe grumbled as well but listened. His lip curled as he turned and made his way back to his restaurant.
“That was interesting,” Lucas said as he watched their grandfathers move to their respected sides. Once Joe disappeared into the Lobster House, he turned back to Ella. “I can’t believe you’re here. Small world, huh?” He never would have guessed in a million years the beautiful stranger on the bus was the granddaughter of his grandfather’s sworn enemy.
Their lives were intertwined before they’d even met.
Ella crossed her arms over her chest and wouldn’t meet his eyes. “You should be heading back to your side as well.”
“What?” Lucas asked. It was like a swift kick to the gut. He had been dreaming about seeing her again, watching her smile, listening to her laugh. “Why don’t we go grab a coffee? Or let me walk you home later.”
“That’s not a good idea.”
“Why not?”
She motioned to where the scene had just played out. “You heard all of that, didn’t you?”
“Kind of hard not to, but I don’t know what that has to do with us.”
“It has everything to do with us.”
His head flinched back slightly. “How?” he asked.
He knew when a girl wasn’t interested and when to walk away, but this was different. They’d texted all night, shared their love of black jelly beans, and flirted on that bus ride. She wou
ldn’t push him away.
“If I knew who you were…” she said, her words faltering.
“What? You wouldn’t have let me sit next to you? Shared my jelly beans with me?”
“No,” she said so matter-of-factly it made him stumble back.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“It’s the truth. Our families…there’s a lot of bad blood. So as ridiculous as it is, if I knew who you were then I never would’ve spoken to you.”
“In that case,” he said, reaching out, and using his finger to urge her to look at him. “I’m happy you didn’t know.”
Her eyes widened, so many emotions running through the dark irises that he couldn’t quite decipher what they were. Her eyebrows pulled down in the middle, and she took a deep breath before stepping back from his touch.
“I’m sorry. I have to go.” She walked away then stopped when she got to the door. She met his gaze, and he felt it in every inch of his body. “It was nice while it lasted,” she said. “Goodbye, Lucas.”
And just like that she disappeared into the restaurant, and with disappointment weighing him down, he dragged himself back to his side of the boardwalk.
Chapter 6
Ella watched through the take-out window as Lucas made his way across the wood planks. It figured. The first guy she was genuinely interested in since god knows how long, and he was completely off-limits. Of all the buses and all the people in the world and he just happened to get on hers. He could’ve gotten off that bus and went to so many other places yet here he was in Willow Cove. Joe Prescott’s grandson. If she only knew who he was…
If his story had clicked in her mind, but she honestly didn’t think Joe had any grandchildren.
The disappointment in Lucas’ blue eyes stung in a way she didn’t expect. They barely knew each other, but between the bus ride and their late-night text session, she felt like she knew him better than any guy she’d ever dated.
He was honest and didn’t hide behind lies to make himself look good. He exposed the dark secret of his family past, without hesitation. She didn’t think guys like that existed anymore and he’d renewed her faith… until today. If she’d only had asked him for his last name, they could have saved themselves the trouble.
Her Forbidden Love Match (A Willow Cove Novel, #1) Page 4
