Page 81 of Cherry on Top

Normally Enzo would’ve liked the bothering. Not today, probably, but any other day.

He craned his neck back and took in his work from the morning—well, it was clearly past morning, but his work of the last few hours. There was the cliff, perhaps bigger and with a hair more dramatic flair than real life, and Eliza’s figure on top of it, her hair swirling around her.

But it was her face that caught him and held him. Her expression.

The naked yearning and the undeniable love written across it. It was more than just hope, because Eliza hadn’t just hoped that Nathaniel would return to her. She’d believed.

He’d intended to capture as much as he could in her look as she stared out across the water.

Taking another swallow of warm water, Enzo decided he’d accomplished what he’d set out to do. But he couldn’t deny, either, that this growing thing with Will and all his growing feelings had given him new perspective. He’d poured those into every brushstroke, wanting it to be good not only for him and for the town, but for Will. This was Will’s building, his own legacy that he was creating, one delicious sundae and milkshake at a time, and Enzo wanted to do it justice.

Give him something concrete, when Enzo wasn’t here. A reminder that he was more than just his parents’ lackey.

Evidence that he was Will, and someone out there cared about him very much. The kind of way Eliza had cared about Nathaniel.

Except she was in love with him.

Enzo’s fingers slipped on the bottle’s condensation and he nearly dropped it.

He told himself it was just a figure of speech. It was just a way he’d used to connect to the story he was telling.

But the thought followed him anyway, down the street, to the deli.

Rocco was leaning against the front counter, a small laptop in front of him. He glanced up when the bell on the front door rang and Enzo walked in.

Above him was the menu board Enzo had painted when he was only nineteen. An art collector had come in last year and offered Giana and Luca twenty thousand dollars for it, and his mom had just laughed at him.

He’d felt a puff of undeniable pride at that. Both at the offer, and the rejection.

“Hey,” Rocco said as he approached. “You look . . .” His gaze swept up and down Enzo’s form. “You been working all day?”

Enzo glanced down at himself. Not just his tank, but his skin was generously flecked with paint and now that he was in the air-conditioning, he could feel just how damp with sweat he was. Well, there was something to be said for the fact this was his family’s deli. They weren’t exactly going to refuse him service. Maybe it was good he’d avoided Cherry’s. Of course, it wasn’t like Will had seemed particularly averse to the way he got when he was working.

“Yeah,” he said. “And I’m starving.”

“Whatcha want?” Rocco asked.

Enzo ordered. A big Italian chopped salad and a meatball sandwich.

“I’ve got one of Luca’s Gatorades in the walk-in in the back,” Rocco said. “You want me to steal it for you?”

“You think he’d mind?”

Rocco shot him a frank look. “No. Not if he saw you like this.”

“Like what?” Enzo frowned.

But instead of answering, Rocco just stepped through the doorway to the back and a few moments later, he returned, carrying a neon green bottle of Gatorade. He handed it over and gave Enzo another one of those frank looks, along with a wave that indicated he should go to the dining room.

“Go wash up and sit down. I’ll bring it out to you.”

Enzo sighed. “Fine.”

And okay, yes, now that he’d stopped painting and wasn’t under the burning hot sun, the exhaustion was hitting him—along with a bit of shakiness that he had a feeling was low blood sugar.

He’d only grabbed a coffee and a danish on his way out of the Inn this morning and that really wasn’t enough for the kind of work he’d put in today.

Of course when he’d headed to the mural this morning, he hadn’t known that he’d do this much work. He’d had a loose plan to work on Eliza, but he hadn’t really anticipated nearly finishing with her. There’d be some final details, but that would be at the end, when he’d go over the entire mural.

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