Page 34 of One Step After Another

He never used it.

Didn’t have the time to wait.

The stupid thing had a timer and everything to make coffee and have it hot and ready by the time he woke up. That would, of course, take time to learn how to program it, and he had little to no interest in wasting precious hours on that.

“Instant,” Luca said, heading for the cupboard where he kept the coffee. “Two sugars, right?”

“A half of a teaspoon, actually.”

That had him glancing over his shoulder. Sitting on the stool at the end of the island, Zeke raised his brows and smiled slightly at the unspoken question from his son.

“Sugars were high six months ago at my check-up,” Zeke murmured, folding his hands together on the kitchen island. “I needed to cut back.”

Something else he hadn’t known. He also hadn’t asked. The tinge of guilt dancing at the edge of his mind made Luca face the cupboards and focus on making coffee instead of delving into something that he wasn’t ready to deal with.

Not yet, anyway.

“Your mother wanted me to make you an offer,” Zeke said when Luca pushed a steaming cup of coffee across the island. “If you’re interested in hearing it.”

“An offer for what?”

“You go back to school, finish your law degree, and we pay—”

“I don’t need you to pay for anything. I have money.”

Not the trust fund promised by his parents once he turned twenty-six and had a clear direction in his life, but still ... he did have money. His current job didn’t pay in pity or thanks.

“Not to mention,” Luca added when his father frowned, “I don’t have time to go back to school. And I’m thirty years old; I don’t want to go back and finish the degree. I haven’t wanted to fuck with that mess since I quit a few years ago.”

Zeke hummed under his breath. “Right around the same time you began chasing invisible things, son. When you decided the family business wasn’t—”

“Did you come here this morning to have another fight with me about my career? Or the fact I’m not doing what you want me to do? Because we’ve gone over this, Dad, and if it hasn’t been obvious enough leading up to now, I don’t care what you think.”

“It’s not too late, Luca.”

“What?”

“You’re right, you’re thirty. It’s not too late to get back into the business. Pledge to la famiglia, work hard for the next couple of years, prove your worth and get your button. Make yourself a nice spot next to Nazio as his father begins the process of trading seats with his son. Wasn’t that what you wanted? What changed?”

Once upon a time, yes.

But life wasn’t a fairy tale.

Growing up, all he wanted more than anything was to be Nazio’s right-hand man in everything. Life, business, and anything that came up in between. Shit, the guy even married his sister. One of Luca’s first memories was running through the forested path that connected their childhood homes with Naz. They had always had one another’s backs.

That hadn’t changed.

He still picked up any call Naz made. Never hesitated to say yes when his friend needed something. He would be loyal to the Donati name and business until the very end. Nothing had changed in that regard.

Luca was also doing what he was doing now because of his love for his friend. Because who else was going to get the answers Naz needed?

“Is that happening?” Luca asked.

“Nazio taking over?”

He only shrugged.

Zeke smiled thinly. “It is. Soon. It’s something that takes time which is why—”