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

Luca was here.

“Well, shit,” Gabriel said.

“I said you had a real problem.” Ren shook his head. “Like you and Sean could ever constitute a real problem. On the other hand . . .”

“Luca is a massive pain in the ass?”

“A massive pain in your ass,” Ren said with a succinct nod. “I think I’m gonna take my break now, if you don’t mind.”

“Hey, wait,” Gabriel called out, but Ren had already shed his apron and was vanishing out the back door.

Just in time for Luca to stop in front of the truck, and eye him through the front window. He looked pissed—okay, he usually looked a bit pissed, but he looked way more pissed than normal. And it occurred to Gabriel then that the last time Luca had graced them with his presence had been last summer. Before the food truck lot had opened. Which meant that he’d never met Sean, and he’d never seen his truck. The truck that had the exact same fucking name as Gabriel’s.

Knowing how Luca felt about intellectual property—it was nearing a fanaticism with him, he’d once camped out in a neighboring restaurant’s dining room, arguing for hours that they had stolen Nonna’s red sauce recipe.

Having tasted both, Gabriel had been pretty sure they had too, but the only one who had really, truly cared was Luca.

He had probably seen Sean’s truck, and now he was going to lose his shit.

Gabriel sighed, and pulled his apron off. So much for a really good day.

By the time he made it around the truck to stand face to face with Luca, it was clear that he had already lost his shit.

His jaw was tight, his arms crossed over his chest, wearing one of those ridiculously tight t-shirts that showed off the biceps and pectorals that he’d worked so hard for. Personally, Gabriel thought he looked stupid, showing off like that, but that was Luca for you. Always in your face. Never surrendering.

Gabriel had told Sean that he’d left Napa and the family businesses because it had felt like he was lost in the midst of so many people who all wanted to tell him what he should do, but mostly, he’d left because of Luca.

Luca didn’t want to just interfere in that friendly, familial way that so many of his brothers and sisters and various family members did. He wanted to tell Gabriel what to do, and exactly how to do it.

“Gabriel,” Luca said, inclining his head a fraction. A hug was out of the question; they were much more likely to start brawling than embracing. Gabe wasn’t proud of how bad the relationship with his brother had gotten, but he also refused to take any responsibility for it. If Luca wanted them to be friends, then he’d need to be a lot less Luca-like.

It seemed, from the way he’d shown up today, without announcing he was coming, that kind of change was not forthcoming.

“Luca,” Gabe responded tightly. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

“I wanted to surprise you,” Luca said.

Except they both knew that Luca showing up, out of the blue, was hardly a good surprise. It was much more likely that he’d decided not to tell Gabriel because he hadn’t wanted to be talked out of coming.

“We’re busy this week,” Gabe said, which was not a lie, because they were busy every week.

“I’m only here for the day,” Luca said. “And I’m glad I came, because this”—he thrust out a hand, gesturing in the direction of Sean’s truck—“is what I’ve found.”

Gabriel did not even try to explain, because the explanation wasn’t something that Luca would ever accept.

Luca had come out on his eighteenth birthday, almost belligerently, like he’d halfway expected the family to kick him out, even though he’d spent the prior eighteen years being an absolutely model Italian son. But even after that, Gabe had never heard even a whiff of him dating anyone. Luca was too contained to fall in love. He would drive whoever he fell in love with absolutely insane within the first week.

And none of that would even matter anyway, because Luca would never make time for a relationship in the first place. He’d dedicated his whole life to running the family restaurants. He worked from dawn to midnight, nearly every day, without a single complaint, acting like that was normal.

Gabe knew he could never comprehend him putting business aside, or not changing the name because he’d been afraid of losing Sean.

“You’re not even going to try to explain this?” Luca challenged, the edge of his steely tone growing impossibly harder. “I cannot believe you have let this go, for at least six months.”

“Two years,” Gabriel said, because the problem was that he’d always enjoyed waving the red flag in front of Luca’s face. Maybe that might be why they didn’t get along. That was definitely why Ren had seen his brother and then run. He’d grown up with them; he knew the kind of damage they inflicted on each other.

“Two years?” Luca stared at him in disbelief. “Are you insane?”

“It’s not a big deal,” Gabriel said, even though it was impossible now to downplay it. It had been impossible from the moment Luca had spotted Sean’s truck. “We’re working it out.”

“That was what he said,” Luca said. “But I couldn’t believe you would be that stupid to not immediately take action to deal with the situation. To deal with him.”

“I did take action. I threw a meatball at him.”

Luca stared at him, unbelievably stunned into at least a momentary silence. “You threw a meatball at him. What are you? Ten years old? This is a business, Gabriel, which I have tried very hard to remind you of, over and over again. You have to take it seriously. Morettis don’t play around.”

Whenever Luca said that—and he said it often—Gabriel wanted to punch him in the face. They were not all the same. Just because they had the same last name did not make them identical. He was not, thank God, the