Page 40 of Bossy Ex's Brother

I was relieved and a little sad about that.

Lorenzo was the only man I could say that I felt a strong affection for, something that I thought could have been love. His leaving hurt me and all, but now there was no pain at his reappearance. There wasn’t much joy either, apart from being glad he was alive. It was like that feeling one gets when one sees an old friend…a combination of nostalgia and affection.

But no love.

“Where have you been?” I asked as he beamed down at me. “You just disappeared one day.”

He looked away, regret lining his features. “I know. I’m sorry about that. But I can’t explain much about it, about why I had to leave or where I’ve been. At least not until I’m done with the job.”

“You got a job?” He was still a college student when we dated. “Doing what?”

He shook his head. “I can’t talk about that right now either.”

“So, is there anything you can tell me?’ I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

He ran a scanning eye over my face. “I can tell you that you’re even more beautiful than I remembered.”

I laughed. “Nice try, smooth operator.”

He smiled, but he didn’t say anything else, seeming to just watch me for a while. I eventually grew uncomfortable with the regard and shifted my feet.

It shook him out of his reverie.

“So,” he asked me. “What have you been up to?”

“You know. The usual. Taking care of the zoo that is my family and working.”

“You still working at The Republik?” he asked the question carefully.

“Ugh, no, thank God. Don’t even remind me.” I cocked my head curiously before I offered the news. “Actually, funnily enough, I work for your brother now. I’m the floor manager for his clubs.”

Lorenzo’s expression immediately changed. The smile disappeared from his face, and a shadow fell on his gaze.

“Luca?” he gasped. “You’re working for Luca?”

“Yup,” I said, wondering what the reason for his reaction was. “You sound like you don’t like that very much.”

He shook his head and swore, startling me a little bit. Lorenzo never swore back when we dated. It was one of the things I liked about him, how much of a gentleman he was.

He sent me an apologetic look, and I shrugged. To be honest, between the club employees, the patrons, and his brother, I’d grown pretty much immune to any kind of dirty language. I wasn’t about to clutch my pearls over it, either.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” he said then. “You working for my brother.”

“Why not?” I asked, raising a brow at Lorenzo.

He tinkered on it in his head for a while, but just as he opened his mouth to answer, a beep interrupted him.

He instantly brought the phone up to his ear and said, “Yes.”

He frowned even deeper at whatever he heard, then nodded sharply before hanging up.

“I gotta go,” he said, then slipped a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to me. “Here’s my number. You can call it whenever you want to reach me.”

I took the paper hesitantly, and he hurriedly climbed back on his bike, picking up his helmet from the backseat. He glanced at me for a long time before he put it back on.

“I’m so happy I got to see you again today, Jane,” he said.

“Same here,” I responded, and he zoomed off just as quickly as he appeared.

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