Page 179 of Love Arranged

Lorenzo walks toward her, keeping the leash wrapped tightly around his wrist in case Angel thinks it’s a good idea to knock Joanne and her walker over.

Joanne squints at Lorenzo. “Wait a minute. You’re that guy on the TV.”

Lenny squints. “Who?”

“He’s running for mayor,” she clarifies.

His gaze flickers over Lorenzo’s dark hair. “You don’t look like a Ludlow.”

“Because I’m not.” His jaw clenches.

“Thank God. The oldest one is a real twat. He used to run over my flower beds all the time, so I ended up slashing his tires once.”

Lorenzolaughs, and the sound makes my chest twinge.

How am I going to survive another two months of this?I ask myself, fighting the urge to distance myself from Lorenzo and the uncontrollable responses he draws from me.

“And who are you?” Joanne asks me while Angel licks her hand.

“Lily. His fiancée.”

“Oh!” Her entire face lights up. “You two will make the most beautiful babies.”

Lorenzo wheezes, and my mouth falls open while Lenny looks like this is a typical Saturday.

“Don’t mind her,” he says. “She says that to every couple she sees, often without asking if they want children.”

“Do not!”

He turnsto us. “Watch. She’s going to ask you fifty different questions about your relationship next.”

“Lenny! Don’t be dramatic.”

“Twenty?”

“I’ll start with one.” Joanne huffs. “What did you think when you first met Lily?”

“Here we go,” Lenny grumbles.

I expect Lorenzo to come up with a generic answer, but he surprises me when he says straight to my face, “At first I didn’t want to like her, so I looked for reasons not to. She was bubbly and funny, and honestly, I never even told her this”—Joannesqueals—“but I found her to be intimidating. She knew what she wanted and she was completely and utterly unapologetic about it, and I feared that quality as much as I admired it.”

Joanne’s eyes go wide, and she’s not the only one because consider me speechless.

Lorenzo doesn’t take his eyes off me. “I had a set number of goals for my life, and most of them up until I met Lily were self-serving, but once I met her, she had this way of making me think about a future that was bigger than myself or this town. And slowly, little by little, the future she painted for herself… Well, I couldn’t imagine anyone else standing beside her in that picture butme.”

I wish his words were true, but each one of his actions lately tells me they’re nothing but alie.

48

LORENZO

Lily and I spend the rest of our Saturday taking Angel around the assisted-living facility. There is one nurse working who is particularly interested in her, so we stay a little longer so Angel can spend time with her after her shift.

By the time we leave, I’m exhausted, and Lily appears to be feeling the same given the way her eyes droop.

“I’ll take you home.” I shuffle her toward my car.

She scans the lot. “Wait. Where’s my car?”