Me: I changed my mind.
Wess: Date?
Me: Yep.
I quickly put my phone away when Amy starts talking to me. Then I spend the next hour hanging out with everyone and wondering if that’s enough time before I can head home.
“Hey.” Luca snags my attention again as I move away from a group of people. “You okay?”
“Great.” I smile up at him, but I can tell from his face he’s not buying it.
“Don’t worry about Paula.” He rolls his eyes. Why do both Luca and Lux not care for this woman? I’ll have to ask Lux later.
“Why would I?” I respond, keeping the smile tight on my face.
He shakes his head. “How about we order pizza and put some of that furniture together?” he offers, and I jump at the chance.
“That would be awesome. I’m tired of sitting on boxes.” My eyes drift back to the bench across the street, and I see Paula sitting with Cooper.
“Pizza makes everything better.” Luca puts his arm around my shoulder as he guides me out of the diner. I shout my goodbyes, but most everyone has left already.
“If it’s a supreme pizza then I might agree with you,” I say, mostly to distract myself.
He keeps his arm around me as we make the walk to my new place. It’s only four blocks, so it feels good to go on foot.
“Maybe we should get wings too,” he suggests.
“And breadsticks,” I add.
“Now we’re talking.”
I snort, and I’m thankful that I have Luca to distract me for the night. I don’t want to think about Cooper or Paula or my date with Wes. I just want to get through this knot in my stomach, and if pizza can’t do it, nothing can.
Chapter Five
Cooper
“You wouldn’t want to disappoint Mama now, would you?” Paula coos as she slides closer to me on the bench.
It’s then I see Juno and Luca coming out of the back of the diner and walking toward her place. Why the fuck does he have his arm around her?
“I’m sure if we leave now, we can still make it on time.” Paula keeps talking, but I’ve not said a word to her. Although I’m certain she doesn’t really care about what I have to say, only the optics I can provide by being on her arm around town.
“No thank you,” I say as I get up from the bench and walk to my patrol car.
“Cooper, can you give me a lift?” I hear her heels clicking behind me, and they really are impractical for this town.
“It’s against the law.” I get in my car and close the door as she starts to say something.
Maybe I should feel bad, but I’m too distracted by the sight of Juno and Luca together to think straight. Paula is a pain in my fucking ass, and she only responds to negative reinforcement. If I give her an inch there’ll be a wedding announcement in the paper tomorrow. So maybe I’m acting like a dick, but I know exactly how she operates.
Driving around to the back of the diner, I see Juno left her Jeep there. I circle back around and go a couple of blocks over so that it’s not obvious I’m stalking what they’re doing. After a few minutes I see them going in the back door of her new place, and Luca closes the door.
I’m frustrated as I turn the corner and go around the next block, trying to calm down. I need to clear my head, but this town isn’t big enough to hold my obsession with Juno. I drive away from downtown and toward the edge of the city, trying to put distance between me and my racing thoughts.
I know my brother, and I know he’d never do anything to betray me, but have I really done anything to stake my claim on her? I’ve kept her at arm's length, but it was to protect her. He loves to give me shit and tease me about going after her, but it’s all been in jest. He wouldn’t really go after her if he thought I was interested in her. Would he? Thoughts of them together flash in my mind, and I jerk the wheel to take me back toward downtown.
When I get to her parking lot, I see Joey, the pizza delivery guy in town, getting in his car and leaving. Now I’m imagining Juno and Luca all cuddled up having dinner together, and rage comes over me.
“Over my dead body,” I mumble to myself, parking the patrol car and getting out.
When I go inside, I slam the door behind me for good measure and then pound up the stairs. Her apartment door is shut this time, but I don’t bother knocking as I push it open so hard it knocks against the wall and tries to bounce back.