I don’t need the company, and Enzo being here is just plain weird.We haven’t had much to do with the Italian Knights, until recently, and up until a year ago we never spoke to them much, despite all of us being in the same office space.Things are a bit better now that there’s been a spate of meals and get-togethers with them and us, but Enzo has always been the quiet one.Him and Matteo, they’re hard to read, though I appreciate that Matteo helped me so quickly and without hesitation when I needed him.
“There’s just something I want to fix,” I say, vaguely.
“Then fix it.”
He raises his glass to mine and I touch it.“Not so easy to fix.”
Enzo lifts an eyebrow.“Money fixes most things.”
While that’s mostly true, I’m not so sure.This is a very delicate situation and I don’t want to mess things up.I have a sneaky suspicion that Maya doesn’t want to see me again, hence my dilemma.
Enzo and I sit in silence because I’m not in the mood for making conversation, and he mostly never is.
“I’ve never seen you like this before,” he says finally.
“That’s because you’ve only seen me at Knight family dinners mostly, and we’re all uptight, eager to get out of there,” I remark.
“I never thought you were eager to get out of there.You’re father’s favorite, that’s what Rio said.”
“Dad’s always been good to me.”
Enzo shrugs.We never really talk about how life was for them, but I always assumed he liked the dinners.
“I like being there in Dad’s penthouse.It’s the closest thing we have to a family home.”
“But it’s not a family home,” Enzo pushes back.“It’s a cold, metallic, windowed apartment.”
“Still … it’s the closest thing we’ve got to a family home especially now that we don’t have the Knight Estate anymore.”
“Sounds like a really fancy schmancy place.”
“It was.”
I get lost again in memories from my past.When Mom was there, then later when Maya and her mom were there.It was a different time in my life.
“Look at you,” Enzo says softly.“You look lost.I was standing outside watching you.”
My eyes fly wide open.This sounds creepy.“For how long?”
“Not long, Relax.I left work was heading home, when I saw you hunched over, so I thought I’d check in on you.”
I’m touched by his concern, but he needn’t have bothered.“I’m okay,” I tell him.
“You look like a troubled man.I thought maybe if I came in, I could listen.We’re all lonely, us Knights, in one way or another.”
“Lonely?”I ask.“You mean ever since Jett, Dex, and Rio hooked up with their partners?”
“I wouldn’t call it hooking up.They seem very happy.”
I shrug.
“Doesn’t matter how much money we have,” Enzo continues, “because every fool knows that money doesn’t make you happy.”
He sounds much older than his ...how old is he now?I’m the youngest of my set of brothers, and he’s the youngest of his, but I have a feeling he’s younger than me.Yet he talks with the wisdom of a fifty-year-old.
“We could be a lot worse,” I remark.
“Maybe.For the types of problems we have, there aren’t many people we can talk to about them.”He turns to me.“You’re a Knight.You’ve got resources and influence.If something’s bothering you, I don’t understand why you can’t just fix it.”
