Page 15 of Cherry on Top

The cardboard was slippery and cold against his hand, but Enzo didn’t open it yet. “What do you mean?” he asked Oliver.

“He’s gorgeous,” Oliver said, words muffled by ice cream. “Don’t tell me you didn’t notice while he was about to have you hauled off for vandalism and you got all up in your ego about it?”

“I noticed,” Enzo huffed.

“Right. Well. Think of why your mother might’ve neglected to inform both of you of your soon-to-be-cozy circumstances.”

Enzo groaned. “She’s trying to pair me up with Will.”

“From the moment she met him. She’s been salivating at the possibility of big, built blond grandchildren,” Luca said with a dark chuckle.

“I didn’t think I needed to explain how babies work to you, Luca,” Rocco inserted with a teasing glance towards Oliver.

“You know what I mean,” Luca said, waving away his cousin’s joke. “She wants Will for you, and you for Will. That’s the best guess I’ve got why she didn’t tell you. Why she didn’t tell Will? No idea.”

“Kate mentioned she’d been in a few times to the ice cream parlor, talking about Enzo to Will. Who, of course, had no idea what the fuck to make of her pushiness. She was probably worried he’d move out of town if he realized what she’d done. Or maybe she was thinking she’d spring you on him like a gift, or something.”

“Or something,” Enzo said morosely. “She was really doing that?”

“You can’t be that surprised,” Luca said. He gestured towards the softening cardboard in his hand. “Eat your ice cream. It’ll make you feel better.”

“I don’t know that it will.” He was not only annoyed now, he was embarrassed.

“Will’s ice cream solves all problems,” Rocco promised.

Enzo almost said, if it was anyone but Will’s ice cream, it might, but he opened the container anyway and dug his spoon in.

The ice cream looked normal, like ice cream did. Under the strings of lights crisscrossing the patio, it shone a beautiful pale yellow, with bright red streaks through it. The cherries, Enzo assumed.

But when he put that first spoonful in his mouth, he understood that everything he’d ever believed about ice cream was wrong.

That had been flavored skim milk, with emphasis on skim, and not on flavor.

This was what ice cream really was. Deep and rich, with the fattiness of the butter and the cream on his tongue. It was sweet, but not too sweet, but also shockingly nutty, the sweet-sour of the cherry brickle breaking up the richness.

Enzo might’ve moaned.

“See?” Rocco said knowingly.

“Damn,” Enzo said. “I might marry him for this ice cream.”

Rocco laughed. “Don’t you dare let Auntie hear you say that.”

“Remember when you brought me that bittersweet chocolate with Valencia orange peel home?” Luca’s voice went wistful. “And then you insisted I share it?”

“Even after I’d eaten half a pint of coconut macaron? Oh, I remember it.”

“It’s less than ten minutes’ walk from Cherry’s to your house. How did you eat half a pint of ice cream?” Enzo asked. Though he was beginning to comprehend the magic of Will’s ice cream.

“If you’d ever eaten the coconut macaron, you’d understand,” Oliver said.

“What I still don’t understand is why I’m supposed to share mine, but you have your own?” Luca joked.

Oliver shot Enzo a conspiratorial glance. “That’s marriage for you. What’s his is mine. And what’s mine is mine.”

Luca made a frustrated noise, but Enzo thought that even if that was actually true of their marriage, he had a feeling Luca would still commit to it one hundred out of one hundred times.

“And everyone’s surprised why I’m not eager to settle down.” Enzo believed Luca and Oliver were meant for each other, but that didn’t mean he wanted that kind of life-changing love for himself. He was very happy with his life now, thank you very much.

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