Page 46 of Contempt

“Shitty luck for you, then, I suppose.”

Maybe.

Renzo grinned. “You know, I still owe you a punch in the mouth for that shit in San Francisco five years ago.”

John cleared his throat. “But not tonight, huh?”

He sighed. “No, but someday.”

That was a promise.

He liked to keep those.

“I don’t doubt it, Ren,” John murmured. “I’ve been waiting for it, honestly.”

Good.

He liked when people saw him coming.

EIGHT

“Miss, your breakfast …” The server slid the plate of waffles in front of Lucia, and offered her a bright smile. “Enjoy.”

“Grazie.”

The girl gave her a nod. “If there’s anything else I can do, don’t hesitate to let me know.”

“Will do.”

Once the server was gone, Lucia went back to her breakfast. Usually, she would take her meals right in her hotel room, but this morning, she decided to try something different. Her short stay in New York had turned into three weeks, now. Not something she had expected, but … well, she wasn’t ready to leave.

Plus, her father wasn’t quite finished his treatments. Almost, though, which was one good thing. Nonetheless, she wasn’t ready to head back to Cali until she thought it was the right time. Lucia didn’t have any idea when the right time was, but she knew it wasn’t now.

Add in the Renzo thing a week earlier, and … yeah.

Maybe she kept looking over her shoulder, expecting him to be standing there again. Watching her, but unmoving like a statue. Yet, with eyes still so expressive and full of a soul she hadn’t felt in far too long.

She wanted to find him standing there.

He wasn’t.

Lucia wasn’t ready to give up, though.

Taking a sip of the orange juice in the crystal glass next to her plate of food, Lucia’s gaze drifted to her cell phone on the table just as it started to buzz with a text. She quickly picked it up, and unlocked the screen to see what the text said.

It was her mom.

Your father sent a driver to the hotel whenever you’re ready, Jordyn had wrote.

Lucia smiled. Thanks, she wrote back.

I love you, quickly came the next message.

You too, Ma, she typed, ending the conversation.

Her mother wasn’t going to say it, sure, but Jordyn was ecstatic that Lucia was making an effort where her father was concerned. It was all her mother wanted. Lucia wasn’t willing to explain to her mother that, no, she hadn’t exactly forgiven her father, but she was putting it aside for the moment.

It was something she would come back to later, and then she and Lucian could hash out everything that had happened in the past.