Page 16 of Lorenzo & Lily

Marcello tensed. “Lorenzo, I didn’t–”

Lorenzo held up a hand. “Not the point of this discussion. What I want to know is why there are three of you here.”

“Alex is on his way, too,” Nate said, and Lorenzo barely held back a curse; he’d forgotten about Alex.

“Fucking fantastic. Then why will there be four of you here to handle something that hasn’t happened yet?”

Marcello, Nate, and Eddie all glanced at each other before they turned back to him, and Nate shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “We just want to be here to help you if you need it.”

“I don’t. There. Non-problem solved. Go back to Valentia.”

Eddie crossed his arms over his chest. “We’re not leaving.”

“Why?”

“We just told you,” Nate said.

“No, you just gave me some bullshit story. Why. Are. You. Here?”

A heavy silence filled the room, exasperation and anger emanating from Lorenzo.

Nate’s voice was quiet when he spoke. “We wanted to check on you. You were…uncomfortable during the wedding.”

That was a fucking understatement. His father had decreed any son of his who’d served was to wear their full dress uniforms for Alex’s wedding. To say putting on the uniform on again had triggered some memories was putting it mildly, but he’d managed his anger. He hadn’t broken down or broken apart. He’d kept his shit.

Not that he got any credit for that from his family. Of course, most of them probably didn’t realize the effort it had taken to hold it together. He wished they had.

He also knew, however, that some wishes never came true.

“The wedding was almost three months ago. It’s a little late to check on me now.”

Marcello continued his even stare. “You haven’t spent a lot of time in Valentia since the wedding.”

Lorenzo felt a pang in his chest about that. He did miss them, and his father, but he’d needed some space. “I spent weeks there while Papa recovered, then I went to visit Arianna and our new niece. Since leaving Valentia, I video chat Mama and Papa almost daily, and all of you and our sisters certainly bother me on a regular basis. I don’t need to be there in person to care about them or you. Besides, I had things to see to here.”

Eddie uncrossed his arms, and leaned against a credenza along the wall. “What’s more important than family?”

Not one fucking thing. His mind wandered to his little Lily. “The threat of a dock strike isn’t new. I’ve been keeping tabs on it for months. Not only that, my soldiers needed me.”

“You’re not in the army anymore,” Marcello said just as Rio entered with a tray of coffee and his protein shake.

“Rio, am I still in the army?”

Rio didn’t glance at Lorenzo or his brothers, but poured everyone coffee as he answered, “Yes, Captain.”

Marcello’s brows furrowed. “Rio, you do realize that both you and Lorenzo were discharged?”

Rio handed Marcello a cup and met his eyes. “You never leave the army, Sir, even if you’ve been discharged. It’s a way of life that’s engrained in you, that lingers long past once your service is done. There’s a reason you’ll find so many men and women at the MARC awake at four in the morning, or even earlier, because they’re used to rising then for calisthenics.”

Goddamn but Rio was a good man. Rio handed Lorenzo his own cup and set the protein shake nearby. Lorenzo gave him a nod, and Rio gave a small smile before he left, closing the door behind him.

Nate ran a finger over the rim of his cup. “Do you think he heard our discussion?”

“Since he’s not deaf and Eddie left the door open, I’d say that’s true.”

Marcello set his cup on the desk. “He must have superhuman hearing if he heard us all the way down the hall.”

Lorenzo took a slug of his shake, then shook the glass slightly to mix the contents some more. “Something to learn about Rio: he already had the coffee brewing and my shake all but mixed before I ever stepped foot in this wing of the castle. He was waiting outside for the appropriate moment.”

---