Page 188 of Love Arranged

“Be nice to him!”

“I will be, right after I give him hell first.”

Ialmostfeel bad for Lorenzo.

Emphasis on the almost.

I come out from my room ten minutes later, dressed and ready for our meeting with the reporter, fully expecting my sister and Lorenzo to be in the middle of a conversation.

Except I find Lorenzo sitting by himself in our living room, looking down at his phone.

“Where’s Dahlia?” I ask.

He looks up but doesn’t answer my question right away. Instead he takes his time checking me out. I’ve worn this dress twice in front of him already, but he stares at me like he’s never seen it—or me—before.

Butterflies break out in my stomach, a betrayal of the worst kind given our situation. Because regardless of how good he makes me feel, we are over.

Even if he won the campaign, I wouldn’t take him back. Not when he didn’t feel like he had a good enough reason to stay before the results.

“My sister?” I ask again while he checks out my heels.

He clears his throat. “She had to go. But before she left, she said to remind you to ask me why I insist on moving away if I lose.”

I wince. “Great.” Typical Dahlia, always inserting herself into situations that I can handle myself.

“So, you told her about us?”

“Yup.” I grab my purse off the hook by the front door.

“Why?”

“She knew something was wrong, so I couldn’t exactly hide it from her anymore.”

His frown reaches his eyes. Wanting to avoid looking into them, I open the door and wait for him to exit before I lock up behind him.

“And you told her I’d leave?”

I wait to answer him until we’re in his car—some black retro sedan I don’t recognize—and away from any pesky neighbors. “Not at first. She asked me to show her the Eros app, and then she saw the last couple of messages you sent?—”

He snatches my phone straight from my hands. “You redownloaded the app?”

“Yes.”

“Interested in meeting someone else?” He types in the password, but it fails. He scowls as he tries another code and unlocks my phone.

Mother—

“Daisy’s gotcha day? Cute, but too obvious.”

“Give it back!” I reach for it, but he easily keeps my hands away while deleting the app.

“Lorenzo!” I shout.

“While I’m here…” He goes ahead and deletes the entire dating app folder I had.

“When you leave, I’ll redownload them, and you won’t be around to prevent it from happening.”

His gaze burns a path down my body. “What will the town think of you cheating on me?”