On a Roll by Beth Bolden (free ebook novel .txt) 📗

thought as he took a step closer. The dark hair, with the threads of gray already beginning at the temples, and the handsome face, with the dark, intense eyes. He looked so painfully similar to someone, Sean knew he should know, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

“Excuse me?” Sean retorted. He’d been nice before, but he wasn’t sure how long he could keep up the facade.

“You stole my brother’s name,” he said bluntly, pointing first at Gabe’s truck, and then at Sean’s.

It was only then it hit Sean who this was. This was one of Gabriel’s brothers. This had to be Luca, the eldest. The one that Tate had mentioned visiting last summer, the one that made things hard for Gabriel.

Taking a second look, it was obvious. The facial structure was the same. That was Gabriel’s hair, just less shaggy, and more precisely cut, and with the gray. And that attitude? Definitely explained the gray. Also explained why the guy’s arrogance had felt so familiar. The antagonism radiating out of Luca reminded him so much of how Gabriel had used to be, back at the beginning.

He’d had to learn it from somewhere.

“I didn’t steal anyone’s name,” Sean said in a measured, surprisingly calm voice. “We both ended up with it, kind of by accident.”

Luca’s brows slammed together. “Then you should have changed yours.”

The resemblance was so staggering now, that Sean couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it right away. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Yeah, I don’t think so. And while you’re at it, maybe you should actually talk to your brother about what’s going on, because we’re dealing with this.”

“If you were dealing with it, you would have already fixed it,” Luca said inflexibly. And that, Sean thought with frustration, was really an adjective that could describe all Morettis. Even Gabriel.

“You mean I would have changed my name, right?” Sean said. “Because that’s what you’re really saying.”

“Gabriel has paperwork. He could sue you for copyright infringement. He should have sued you for copyright infringement.”

Why was Sean not surprised that the very first thing Luca had done was drag out the threat of lawyers?

He sighed. “You’re really just embarrassing yourself now. Go talk to Gabe. He’ll explain the whole thing.”

Luca looked absolutely apoplectic, and it filled Sean with a lot more satisfaction than he had any right to. “He will. He will explain the whole thing, and then we will come back here, and you will agree to change your name.”

“I don’t think you understand,” Sean said stiffly, annoyed, “I’m not changing it. We’ve talked about this.”

“With Gabriel?” Luca had the nerve to sound shocked at this.

“Yes,” Sean said.

“But if you had talked about it, then this would all be fixed.”

Sean ground his teeth together, deciding it was just about time for him to lose his temper. “Maybe you should talk to him,” Sean said, giving him a little wave that had the desired reaction of making Luca’s jaw clench visibly. “Go on! I hope you have a good brotherly talk!”

Luca looked like he wanted to say something else—well, more like he wanted to say a lot more things—but he shot Sean one more searing glare, and stormed off in the direction of Gabriel’s truck.

Maybe Sean should have felt a little bit guilty about sending Luca over to his brother, all primed for an argument, but he didn’t. It was cowardly, and he definitely should have felt ashamed, but Sean felt like he needed some space and some time to think. Things were changing between them, both as slow as molasses and so quick it felt like he’d just blinked and they were different.

If Luca wanted to go over to Gabe’s and distract him for a morning, or even for a whole day—and while he was at it, let Gabe inform him of what was really going on, then Sean wasn’t going to stand in their way.

———

“It’s the most beautiful fucking day,” Gabriel half said, half sang as he sank, wrist-deep, into an enormous bowl of meatball mixture.

“You’re absolutely disgusting,” Ren muttered.

“Yep!” Gabriel wasn’t denying it. He couldn’t. He was too happy. Maybe he hadn’t quite told Sean the whole truth, but he had a feeling that when he did, Sean wouldn’t run. He’d give Gabe one of those sweet, slightly crooked smiles, like of course Gabe had fallen in love with him and of course he’d fallen in love with Gabriel back, and tell him to get over here, so they could kiss.

Their first kiss as a real couple. The first kiss when Sean knew Gabe loved him, and Gabe knew Sean loved him in return.

He could already taste it, could feel Sean’s passion when he took him to bed that first time.

“Should I leave you alone with those meatballs?” Ren asked, raising an eyebrow. “’Cause you keep mixing them that way much longer and they’re going to get jealous of Sean.”

Maybe he had been kneading the mixture a bit suggestively. Gabe shot his cousin a sheepish look. “Maybe Sean should be jealous of them.”

“You have a real problem,” Ren announced as Gabe removed his hands and went over to the sink to wash.

“Actually I’ve got the opposite of a problem,” Gabe said. “Sean’s crazy about me, and we both know, despite your insistence that it’s a mistake, that I’m crazy about him.”

“No,” Ren said firmly, “you have a real problem.”

“I really don’t,” Gabriel argued, certain to his core that Ren could only be talking about his epic love with Sean. He finished scrubbing his hands, and flipped the water off, grabbing a paper towel before turning to find the meatball scoop.

They had a ton of meatballs to bake off today, even more because he needed to send Ren over with a bunch for their new Thai wrap.

But before he could find the scoop in the clutter of tools scattered across the counter, he saw Ren’s face out of the corner of his eye.

He was staring out the front window. At the real problem, rapidly