Page 11 of Cherry on Top

Had he not realized what he was doing?

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” the guy said.

“You better believe it,” Will said. His temper was maybe a little shorter than it might’ve been otherwise, but he was exhausted, and this asshole was defacing his building. The idea of having to come back here in the morning and not only find another employee and train them but figure out how to open even more hours, on top of scrubbing that paint off his building for the second fucking time, unwound all his niceness.

“What I mean,” the guy said more gently, “is that the town’s hired me to paint this wall. It’s my job.”

“Excuse me?”

The guy gave a short, humorless laugh. “I’m supposed to be here, painting your wall. I was checking some of my paints, seeing how the brick absorbed them, because sometimes brick’s been sealed and I need to scrub it off first, before re-sealing it after the mural’s done.”

Something teased the back of Will’s mind. “The mural?”

“Now it’s your turn to look confused,” the guy said. “I told you, there’s been a big misunderstanding. I’m—”

“Enzo Moretti. You’re Enzo Moretti.” Will could see it now. The hair. The eyes. The handsome face, echoes of Giana and Luca and all those fabulous Moretti genes. He wasn’t as built as Luca, shoulders narrower, but Will hadn’t missed the hint of muscle under his clothes.

Kate was right; he was hot.

“That’s me,” Enzo said. Not sounding particularly pleased that it had taken Will all this time to catch up. “And you own this building?”

Will nodded sharply. “I sure do. And I didn’t give permission for anyone to paint it, even the town’s most famous son.”

Only one thought was echoing through his head, repeating over and over. If this is Enzo Moretti, he sure doesn’t need his mom’s help getting dates.

That particular realization made him a little stupid, and more than a little slow.

“Well, at least you’ve heard of me.” Enzo cracked a smile.

“Oh, I’ve heard of you.” Will considered telling him how Giana had practically thrown him at Will, over and over again, but he didn’t, because he was still stuck on the fact that apparently they’d hired Enzo Moretti to paint his building and yet nobody had fucking asked him.

“Great.” Enzo shifted from one foot to the other. “So, we’re all good then?”

“Just like that? We’re all good then? No, you’re not painting my building. In fact, you’re going to take the paint you’ve already smeared all over my wall and remove it.”

Enzo gaped at him. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“No,” Will said.

He thought Enzo might take more than a moment to recover from his clear shock, but no, he recovered almost instantly. The guy was not only hot, he was quick.

“You do realize that people are clamoring for me to paint their buildings in all fifty states, right? That I agreed to do this as a favor? That I’m even waiving my fifty-thousand-dollar fee?”

The man made that much for every mural he did? Will might’ve been impressed, but he was too annoyed.

“I don’t care if you’re going to paint my wall in solid freaking gold,” he said. “It’s my wall and I worked hard to make it look that good and you’re not ruining it.”

“Ruining it?” Enzo’s voice edged upwards, dangerously. His eyes flashed and he crossed his arms over his chest, and maybe he wasn’t quite as broad as Will, but it was a damn fine look, all the same.

Yep, he was definitely even hotter when he was mad.

That doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if he’s appealing, he’s kind of an egotistical jerk. Looks or not, maybe his mom really does have to pimp him out to get dates.

“You’re cleaning this up. Tonight. Or tomorrow. Take your pick.” Will turned around and with that threat hanging in the air, marched back to sanity. Fumbled for his keys, but unlocked the front door to Cherry’s and locked it behind him.

Knew he was trembling with fury. The freaking audacity of that guy.

To act like Will shouldn’t be mad that nobody had even asked him. To act like he was doing Will a favor by painting a wall he didn’t even want painted!

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