Page 59 of Chasing You

“Yeah, they’ve got a big gym there that can host all of the audience.”

Makes sense. “Well, that makes it easier for me, it’s on my way to Rome.”

A small frown pulls his dark brows together. “Where have you been staying, anyway?”

“The Lost and Found.”

“Oh, have you been to Scrabble night yet?” he asks.

“Nah, not yet.”

“Oh, you have to go. It’s insane. You think it’ll be this lame night with a bunch of old ladies,” he shakes his head. “But you will get your ass handed to you on a silver spoon, at least I did.”

I chuckle. “You were staying there?”

“I only just moved out, you’ve probably got my old room.”

“Top floor, blue and yellow stained window?” I ask.

“Pale blue quilt that is softer than heaven?”

“That’s the one,” I laugh. “Why were you staying there? Don’t you have a place here?”

He runs a hand through his dark hair as we turn a corner. “No, actually my parents had a place here when I was a kid, and when they moved away, they passed it down to me so I’d have a place to stay. But when I eventually moved away to Sorrento to start my business, I sold it. So The Lost and Found has been home for the last nine months.”

“Wow,” I say. “That’s a lot of Scrabble nights.”

He chuckles a laugh. “Oh yeah, it’s like a secret weapon how good I am at Scrabble now.”

I smile. “How come you moved back?”

He stops in front of a dark brick building, opening the door for me to walk in first, as if prolonging his decision of whether he wants to say something or not.

When I walk in, I see the boxing ring that takes up the majority of the space, with other gym equipment dotted around the floor. Machines that I don’t use and don’t know how to.

“I had a kind of thing happen at work,” he says vaguely, his eyes focused on nothing at all. “And it, uh…just made me second-guess if that was the best thing I could be doing for myself right now. So I came home to kind of figure that out, I guess.”

“Like an incident?” I pry carefully as we move further into the space.

He fiddles with the hem of his shirt. “Yeah, I guess you could call it that.”

“Right,” I nod, not wanting to poke any further into his business. “So where are you staying now?”

That vacant look in his eyes disappears as he says, “Rafael’s old place. Now that he and May are shacked up in her cottage, it left his place vacant for a squatter like me to move in.”

“That must be a step up from thin walls and creaky floorboards at the B&B.”

He raises his brows. “Having an entire kitchen to myself is a luxury I had forgotten existed. I do miss that quilt though.”

“I’m sure we could ask Donna to make you one for your place,” I say.

He turns to face me. “She makes those?”

“Yeah.”

“No shit. There is nothing that woman can’t do,” he says with wonder in his eyes.

“Well, I heard she’s single if you’re that enraptured by her.”

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