Page 72 of Cherry on Top

“Oh, hey, you two are here. I didn’t realize,” Luca said, giving the pair of them one of his nicer smiles.

“If you’d believe it, they didn’t even come in together,” Rocco said dryly.

“I’d believe it,” Giana said loyally.

“Well, I gotta take off actually,” Luca said. “I’m at the deli this morning.”

Oliver gave his husband a soft smile as he leaned in, brushing a quick kiss across his mouth. “See you later, honey,” he said.

Next to Will, Giana made a sweet cooing noise.

After Luca had left, the door shutting behind him, Rocco turned to Will. “What can I get for you?”

Will ordered his coffee and a muffin as Enzo stood next to him, talking to his mom and sipping his own coffee.

When Rocco handed him his own, there was no reason to stick around. And in fact, he couldn’t, not really.

“Hey, I got to take off, too. I’ve got a long list of prep to do today,” he told Enzo.

“Oh, okay,” Enzo said. “I’m gonna stick around a bit longer. Talk to Oliver about something. But I’m sure I’ll see you later.”

Will nodded and turned to leave, but before he could, Giana made an affronted squawk.

“That’s all?” she said. “Luca kissed his partner.”

“Maybe Will’s not into PDA,” Enzo said, frowning.

“That sure didn’t seem to be the case last night,” Giana said knowingly.

Great. Will went bright red again. Naturally, Joy had told Giana about all that.

“I . . .uh . . .” Will stammered, and then he chanced a look at Enzo.

He might be dressed in his oldest work clothes, hair frizzing in the humidity already, a speck of milk foam on his upper lip, but he’d never looked more kissable than he did right now.

So Will just did it. Leaned in. Brushed a kiss across Enzo’s mouth, and before he could overthink or freak out or even worse, see Enzo’s expression, turned and walked out.

He could hear Giana behind him, sounding excited and probably counting down the days before one of them was going to get down on one knee, but he didn’t have to be there for it.

Five minutes later, he unlocked the front door of Cherry’s, but didn’t bother to re-lock it behind him. Kate would be along soon, and they’d be open in a few hours anyway. Besides, if anyone came by wanting ice cream at nine in the morning, Will wasn’t going to turn them away.

But even as he got out ingredients for brownies and cookies, he was thinking about the kiss.

Wishing he’d stuck around. Not only to see Enzo’s face, but to kiss him a lot more. Because he’d probably never get the chance again, and that particular fact sucked.

Even a single brush of his lips against Enzo’s had lit him up inside in a way he couldn’t remember a kiss ever doing before.

We could have something special. If he lived here. If he didn’t feel the opposite way I do about this town.

He was midway through mixing up his brownie batter when he heard footsteps. Assuming it was Kate, he called out, “Back here, in the prep kitchen!”

“You kissed me.”

Will looked up in surprise.

It was definitely not Kate standing there, breathing hard, like Enzo had actually jogged over from Sweetie Pie’s in the morning heat.

“I did.” There was nothing else Will could do but own it.

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