Page 202 of Steamy Ever After

“Yo, where the hell did you disappear to? You don’t take off in the middle of a shift when you have a whole crew depending on you.”

Giovanni snapped, spinning around and pointing a finger right in his face. “I’m not—” His words cut off as he reeled in his fury. “Forget it.”

Finn’s eyes narrowed. “Careful, cuz.”

Giovanni shoved past him and stalked toward the benches where he’d left his cleats.

“You wanna tell me what’s going on?”

“Just another day in paradise.”

Finn grabbed his shoulder, jerking him back hard. “Enough. How about you tell me what your issue is and we start there?”

“I don’t have an issue.”

“Try again.”

His frustration spiked until the pressure burst out of him in a sigh. “Everything’s a mess. My comedy sucks. I hate climbing trees. And Erin’s run off to some town I’ve never heard of!”

Finn cocked his head. “Erin left?”

Giovanni threw up his arms. “She’s been gone for two days.”

His cousin chuckled. “Okay, well, that’s two days, Giovanni. Sometimes people need to get away.”

“It’s not like that. I know her. She’s all over the place. The other night…” He couldn’t go there. Not with Finn.

Finn read something in his eyes and said, “She puts up walls.”

“Yeah.” That was the understatement of the year.

“Do you love her?”

He looked at his cousin, wondering what answer he hoped to hear. “I’m crazy about her.”

“She’s never going to be like other girls, Giovanni.”

“I prefer her that way.” He liked having her all to himself. “I want her to have friends, but I don’t care if she doesn’t. I just want to make her happy.”

“Well, are you—making her happy?”

“I’m trying.”

Finn sighed. “You can’t take off in the middle of a shift like that.”

“I hate this job, Finn. I hate the cold weather. I hate the weight of work boots on my feet. And I hate climbing trees.”

“Then why are you here?”

“I don’t know!”

There was so much pressure from his dad to take over his portion of the family business, but he’d never be like Ryan or Finn. He just didn’t care about it the way they did.

“I’ve got four brothers,” Finn said. “Not all of them joined the family business and that’s okay. It’s not for everyone. I mean, have you ever watched Colin try to climb a tree? He’s not rescuing any stranded kittens anytime soon.”

Giovanni laughed. “He can’t be any worse than me.”

“You’re pretty rough. But you can do things that half those guys can’t do. You’re selling out seats and getting up in front of hundreds of people and making them laugh. I could never do that.”

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