Page 2 of Cherry on Top

“Then I will give you Enzo’s number and you will text him. Tell him to come home to his momma and her cooking—but most importantly, for a date with you,” she said, already decided as she whipped a piece of paper out of her purse.

Will stared at it.

She’d doodled a little heart next to the number.

“I’m sorry, Giana, really. Really sorry. But I really can’t.” How many reallys are required to convince her, Will? You think you’ve hit the magic number, yet? He tacked on another, for good measure. “Really.”

Giana shot him a look full of disappointment, and Will ignored the pulse of guilt.

“Really?”

Nope. You didn’t hit it yet.

“Really,” Will said, with emphasis.

But then that Moretti smile bloomed across her face—and she was still beautiful; honestly she didn’t look old enough to have a grown-up son, but Will wasn’t going to tell her that, because if he did, he’d have to hear just how handsome Enzo Moretti was again.

“Oh, you will change your mind someday,” she said knowingly. “He is such a delightful boy.”

“I’m sure he is,” Will said weakly. “You know, I’m just not really in the market for . . .uh . . .anything. Serious or otherwise.”

He’d made the mistake last time of telling her he wasn’t in the market for a relationship, and she’d gone on a long tangent about ‘hookups’ that could lead to more, and by the time she’d finished, he’d been bright red and something beyond embarrassed.

“I understand,” Giana said, patting him on the arm again. “You’ve got this beautiful new business. But someday . . .” There was that smile again. It was potent, Will could give her that.

And he wondered, before he could stop himself, if Enzo Moretti could smile like that, too.

“Maybe someday,” Will said firmly. “Are you sure I can’t get you something? A nice treat?”

He almost told her if she could actually get Enzo into town, he’d consider it more seriously, but if he did, Will had a feeling she’d fly to wherever Enzo was and drag him home by the hair.

She inclined her head. “A scoop of cherry pie, please, Will, darling.”

Five minutes and an ice cream dish full of his cherry pie ice cream later, she was gone, finally.

“I told you she wasn’t going to give up,” Kate said, leaning on the counter as they watched Giana’s back disappear out of the shop, the door closing behind her.

“I should’ve listened to you.” The last time Giana had come in, he’d been so sure that was the end of it. Frankly, he’d been sure the first time he’d told her no, he didn’t want her to set him up with her son, she’d give up.

But Giana was nothing if not persistent.

“You should’ve,” Kate agreed.

He turned to her, when Giana had passed by his last window, finally out of sight. “What’s the deal with Enzo Moretti?” he finally asked. He’d very specifically refused to give in to his curiosity, either in front of Giana or after she’d disappeared, because God only knew what kind of magical matchmaking powers she possessed.

Kate raised an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me Giana’s actually convinced you that you’re interested?”

“How can I be interested in a man I’ve never met, who’s apparently not been back here in almost a year?”

“Fair.” Kate considered his question as she straightened a tower of glass banana split dishes. “Well, he’s Giana’s son, of course. No dad. They moved here when he was seven. And she started the deli. You know about Luca’s family, of course.”

Will nodded. That had been one of the first bits of gossip he’d heard when he’d moved to Indigo Bay. About Luca Moretti and his whole chain of Italian restaurants on the west coast, in the Napa Valley, but how he’d moved here instead.

To marry Oliver Billings, who owned the local bakery.

Six months later, Luca had bought the deli from Giana, and she’d effectively retired, and apparently, soon after that, Enzo had left town.

“He went to San Francisco for art school, I think. Or maybe Los Angeles? Anyway, before he left town, he was kind of a hot mess.”

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