I close my eyes. I’m not doing the best job, but I need to be the best. Luca needs me. Enzo too.
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
Enzo
Axel’s building is all glass and steel, the kind of place where people pay extra for a view and nobody knows their neighbors’ names. I hold Luca tighter. “He lives in a bachelor pad.”
Sofia winces. “At least it won’t have lead paint. Which floor is he on?”
“Fifteen.”
Sofia pulls my suitcase. “Ready?”
I carry Luca and his suitcase. “I already miss the hotel.”
“You checked out of the hotel.”
“Well…” I shift my legs.
“You didn’t check out of the hotel?”
“Not completely! We got adjoining rooms! I’m not going to give up that placement.”
“Maybe it will be okay.”
“Nothing is going to be okay again.”
She doesn’t correct me.
Even though Axel had knocked up Gaby, she was looking forward to having a child. She had a two-bedroom cottage in Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles, and she’d spent so much timechoosing wallpaper and buying toys and doing everything to prepare for Luca’s arrival.
A security guard in a suit nicer than anything I owned in college waves us toward the elevators. My heart is in my throat. The elevator is mirrored on three sides, which means I get to watch myself look terrified from multiple angles. I look like a man about to face a firing squad. A firing squad in a very well-lit, aesthetically pleasing environment.
A woman in a fur coat steps in after us, trailing perfume. Her gaze lands on Luca, and she presses herself against the marble wall like he’s contagious.
Okay, not everyone likes children.
Doesn’t mean this is a harbinger or anything.
But my heart races anyway. Maybe Luca notices my unease, because in the next moment, he opens his mouth and screams.
The woman’s frown deepens.
“Sorry,” I say. “He does that.”
“Of course, he does that,” the woman says. “He’s a child.”
Relief moves through me. This immaculately dressed woman understands.
“Which is why,” the woman says, “children do not belong in apartments.”
The elevator pings.
I stare at the woman, shocked.
“Your floor, I presume?” the woman asks. “Unless your little human pressed the button.”
