Page 93 of The Holiday Hate-Off
He grins at me. “It’s been a minute since you’ve thought you could conquer the world. Maybe it’s Lucy who has kept you anchored to earth. She’s good at chipping away at your ego.”
Lucy.
Shit. I shouldn’t have left her like that, but I’d needed to get this down on paper. I’d needed the ideas to flow out and give me peace. But I plan on making it up to her this evening at the trap tree lighting.
“How’d she seem when you left?”
“Are you ready to tell me what’s going on between you two?” he asks, lifting his eyebrows. “This goes beyond that dumb hate-off game of yours. We all saw you together at The Sweetest Thing.”
“The only reason I took my shirt off was to cover for you,” I say. “And I threw it to her because she backed me into it. It’s part of our…thing.”
“Good, then you won’t mind if I ask her out. She’s very sexy, you know. Something about all of that curly hair. I can just imagine?—”
I’m holding a fistful of his shirt before I’m even aware of having reached for it, growling, “You’ll shut your mouth if you know what’s good for you.”
He grins, and I know I walked right into his trap.
“Yeah, fine,” I admit, releasing his shirt. “Maybe I’m interested in her. This has all been kind of…” I search for the right word and land on, “fun. But she’s looking for a nice guy like Hudson.”
“Which is why you sabotaged her date with him,” he says with amusement.
“Yeah, fine. I did that. I haven’t been acting rationally with Lucy.”
“No, which is why I know you genuinely like her.”
Sighing, I pull the note out of my pocket and slump onto the couch with it. “I’m gonna read this.”
“Yup. Changing the subject.” He pauses, giving me a good, hard stare. “But you’re not as smooth as you used to be, Enzo. She’s got you rattled. Rachelleneverhad you rattled. Not even when she dumped you so she could spend the weekend gettingmassages and terrorizing the staff at The Haven. You were pissed off, but you weren’t unsettled.”
I rest the note card on my chest. “What do you want from me? Why do you suddenly care about my love life?”
“Nonna’s not the only one who’d like you to stay, you know.”
It feels like he just punched me in the chest, or maybe put a shackle around my wrist. The old longing to leave—to go just like our mother did—wraps around me.
“I’ll stay as long as I’m needed.”
“We don’tneedyou,” he says, which is another punch. “Whatever idea you have, I’m sure it’s fucking genius, and I’m equally sure it’ll work. But we don’tneedyou. Nico and I aren’t kids anymore, Enzo. We can take care of ourselves and the business. We would have figured it out if you hadn’t come home.”
“I never said I thought you needed me,” I say. “It’s not like I quit my job to come here. It wasn’t some big sacrifice for the family. Like I said…I was ready to leave and the timing was right.”
“Why were you suddenly ready to leave?”
I don’t know why it’s so hard to admit to my little brother that I fucked up. That I’m fallible. That I took a swing and missed. I was hoping my boss wouldn’t call my bluff—that he’d say, yeah, Enzo, you’re right, itwouldbe fucked up to lay those people off right before Christmas, and I’m not going to lose you, so we won’t do it.
Instead, I was the one who lost out.
Worse, I let my damned pride get in the way of collecting severance pay.
The one thing I am proud of is the thirty-five-page document I sent tohisboss a couple of days ago, explaining how the situation could be addressed differently, without eliminating jobs right before the holidays. It’ll probably be thrown away,but I’m proud of myself for going through with it. For listening to Dancing Queen’s good advice.
I rub my forehead. “I had a disagreement with my boss.”
He claps his hands. “Ah, we’re getting closer to the truth. Finally! Honestly, getting personal information from you is harder than pulling taffy.”
I blow out an annoyed breath. “As if you’d know.”
“So you had a disagreement with the guy. What about? Did you call him a lazy piece of shit too?” I roll my eyes, because, yes, I did call my brother that last week. When he suggested calling in one of the kids to clean up after a tourist broke a huge glass bottle of lemonade and it spilled all over the floor.
