Page 142 of Love Arranged

“Were you expecting me to have some sort of reaction?” I ask, amused by the vein pulsing in Richard’s cheek.

His brows pull together, forming a confused crease between them. “You know?”

“Did I ruin your surprise just now? Do you want a redo so you can have your big moment?”

He gapes like a dying fish. “You really don’t care?”

“It’smyring on her finger, so why should I?”

“Fuck, man. I wouldn’t be caught dead with a woman who fucked someone else to get back at me. I don’t care how great she is in bed.”

Lily sucks in a sharp breath, and I see red. She teeters on her heels from how quickly I release her and storm over to Richard.

He shrinks into himself as I get closer, only to flinch when I yank on his lapels and force him to stand as tall as his five-foot-nine frame allows.

My hand curls into a tight fist by my side, but I resist the call for bloodlust, choosing to fight with my words.

“Listen here, Dick,” I whisper, so low Lily can’t hear me. “Talk about Lily like that again— Scratch that. If you so much as look or speak to her—even to saypleaseorthank you—I’ll reach out to thoseconnectionsyour family loves to gossip about.”

“W-what?” The word is broken up by his stammer.

I grin. “You know how the saying goes: Every lie has a little bit of truth to it.”

“Are you…threatening to send themafiaafter me?”

I pick a piece of invisible lint off his shoulder. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

He exhales slowly, right before I rip his false sense of security away.

“I’mpromisingto, should you so much as take a breath within a hundred feet of my future wife again.”

All the color drains from his face.

I exert an admirable amount of self-control as I step away from him and head back to Lily, who is staring at us with brows that reach toward her hairline.

Richard storms off toward the church. Once he is no longer in our direct line of sight, Lily slumps against the passenger door.

“If he bothers you again, tell me.”

She tilts her head back farther, her brown eyes looking more golden underneath the morning sun. “You can’t protect me from him forever.”

“Watch me.”

37

LORENZO

Good thing I have endless time to earn Mrs. Muñoz’s forgiveness because she might be polite and accept the panna cotta I made early this morning as an apology for last night, but she has officially thrown her walls back up.

If I thought she was jumpy when I first met her, she’s a whole new level of skittish, with her quickly escaping any room I walk into.

Not wanting to cause her any more stress, I ask her to have a word in private.

Mrs. Muñoz surprises me by going outside, and I follow her down an overgrown path that leads straight to Lily’s favorite place. She hasn’t told me why she adores the fountain so much, nor has she shared why her secret garden has been neglected, but I’ll be sure to ask her about it now that the fountain is operationalagain.

Rosa takes a seat on the weathered bench. I keep a small but respectful amount of space between us, but we might as well be seated a mile apart from one another.

I decide to lead the conversation so she doesn’t feel any pressure to. “So, about last night…”