Page 11 of Saving His Sunshine

“Hi.” Charlie beams at him.

Alessandro grins at her. “Hey, Charlie. I’m Alessandro.” His gaze shifts to Gemma. “That must make you Gemma?”

What the heck? How has he already learned all of their names?

“Yep.” Gemma waves at him, smiling brightly as she slaps more paint on the wall. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Finally, huh?” he murmurs to me, his voice pitched low. “You’ve been talking about me, haven’t you?”

“What? No.” I scowl daggers at him, which only makes him laugh again. And gosh darn it, that laugh is perfect. So is his stupid, perfect face. “We’re busy. You should leave. We can talk later.”

“Can’t. Sorry.” He smirks at me, those dimples popping out as he throws my words from last night back at me. “I have plans later.”

Plans? What plans?

Before I can ask, Don abruptly sets down his wrench, hauling himself to his feet. Alessandro glances that way as if noticing him for the first time.

“How bad is it?” I ask, worrying my bottom lip between my teeth when I see the disgruntled look on Don’s face.

"Not bad,” he grunts, his silver hair shining under the overhead lights. His dark gaze skirts over Alessandro. “Just gotta run and grab some things to finish up here. Back in a few." He hurries out without a backward glance.

“Another family member?” Alessandro asks.

“Landlord,” I mutter, shrugging off his abrupt exit as I begrudgingly introduce Alessandro to my brothers-in-law, hoping for at least a few invasive questions. To my shock, he gets none. In fact, they all seem to know him already.

“You need help with that?” he asks, setting the box down and strolling in their direction.

“Where were you when we were carrying the motherfucker in fifteen minutes ago?” Bronx growls.

“No kidding.” Xavier scowls at the sparkly countertop. “Who knew glitter and Formica weighed so goddamn much?”

“Porcelain,” I sniff. “It’s porcelain.”

“Right.” Xavier shakes his head, grinning. “My bad. Who knew glitter and porcelain weighed so goddamn much?”

I stick my tongue out at him, earning a chuckle from Alessandro.

“Help me bolt this bitch down, will you?” Colter says to him.

Alessandro immediately stoops to help. I watch the four of them in amazement as Colter and Alessandro work together to bolt the countertop to the frame while Bronx and Xavier hold it in place. They joke around like they’re long-lost war buddies or something.

Gemma steps up beside me, her green eyes sparkling with mischief. "You look so annoyed,” she whispers.

“I am not annoyed,” I huff and then scowl. “Why is it when you and Bronx got together, everyone wanted to beat Bronx up, but everyone is all buddy, buddy with Alessandro?”

“You can’t beat up a town hero, Heidi,” she says, laughing quietly. “Everyone loves Alessandro. Remember Leia’s story about that firefighter a couple of weeks ago?”

I narrow my eyes, thinking back, and then my brows shoot up. She was in Granite Hills covering the wildfire when an elderly woman got trapped by the flames. One of the Silver Spoon Fallsfirefighters and a fire dog went after her. They got her out, but the dog got trapped.

“That was Alessandro and Rivin?” I whisper to Gemma.

“Yep,” she says. “That was your man. He almost died trying to save his dog.”

A pang of admiration mixed with regret jolts through me. His department had to carry him out because he was so out of it after saving the dog. And I basically called him a terrible pet dad.

I study his profile, noting the tiny laugh lines around his mouth, the strength in his broad shoulders. He's a walking contradiction—cocky and infuriating one moment, selfless and heroic the next.

And I’m a jerk...or whatever comes after jerk. I was a total crazy person last night, and he just let me basically yell at him.

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