Chapter 672

Jesse grabs another taco off the table, clearly not having as much of a problem with appetite as I am having. "All right, Tones, spill."

Tony sighs, and begins again. "I spent hours in that club cleaning up after Luca, collecting his shitty tips. So, imagine my surprise a few weeks ago when he shows up next to you outside my meeting with your parents and introduces himself for the first time. As if we've never met. Although it's not like I should be surprised – he never said a word to me or spared me a second glance.”

"But you..." I frown, trying to remember that moment when Tony and Luca met. "You didn't say you knew him - you said something about it being a big morning for meeting celebrities. Or something like that. And then said it was nice to meet him."

"Yeah," Tony says with a shrug. "What was I supposed to do, be like, 'Remember me? I served you a thousand gin-and-tonics and watched you use the same lines on about a thousand different girls all summer?' Plus, his mate's parents were in the room behind me," he shrugs. "I wasn't going to pick a fight."noveldrama

"Just saved that," Jesse says, grinning at him. "For a later time."

"Nah, I don't need to pick a fight with Luca Grant," Tony says, settling back against the chair. "That guy's going to dig his own grave."

I frown at Tony, not fully sure I like where this is going.

Ben glances anxiously at me. "All right, Tony, lets pick up the pace," he murmurs, snapping his fingers a bit. "What are the details Ari needs to know. This isn't...the nicest conversation for her to listen to."

"You're right, I'm sorry," Tony says, glancing at Ben and then looking back at me. "What I'm trying to get at, Ari, is that Luca knows girls. I don't think he's deliberately a jerk, but I think he has a type - and that type is nice, pretty, sensitive girls from good families who have been raised to have empathy and believe the best in people. Those were the ones he was drawn to - the ones he kept bringing around. And then who he ruthlessly manipulated into letting him behave however the hell he wanted, which was never considerate of their wants and needs."

"So imagine his luck," Jesse murmurs, turning his eyes to me. "When the Goddess blesses him with the nicest, most sensitive and empathetic girl in town."

"Guys, you're all going too far," I say,

my lips turning down as I give the three of them each a dirty look. "There's nothing wrong with liking nice girls - and I'm not going to hold his previous dating habits against him What he did before he met me is Luca's business - and he's made a lot of progress as a person since we met!"

"That's all true," Ben says, pursing his lips consideringly. "Luca's past is past."

"But it isn't past, is it?" Tony says, turning to me. "What's all this bullshit he's pulling, Ari? Not coming to dinner tonight when we all know it's not because he's all sleepy. And that thing, in Newtown, with those three girls?"

He turns his head at me and I flush, not liking how right he is. But is that manipulation? Or...is Luca just dealing with his own emotions?

"Wait, what thing in Newtown?" Jesse asks, sitting up straighter. "What happened."

I sigh and turn to my cousin, briefly summarizing the story of Luca getting distracted by three fans while he should have been watching me, waiting to see if I needed him. How Tony stepped in instead, when Luca had his eyes elsewhere.

"Ohhh fuck," Jesse says, quite still on his chair. "Rafe is going to flip - Jackson's going to tear his head off -"

"They are not!" I snarl, leaning forward to glare at my cousin. "Because you are not going to tell them! No one is - square of secrecy!" I dart one finger around in a square that encompasses all of us.

"Is that really how you want it to be, though, Ari?" Ben asks, looking again at me with a bit of sorrow. "That you have to just not tell your brother and your other mate about Luca's actions to keep the peace? Shouldn't Luca just behave better so that you can be transparent?"

“He's trying, all right?" I growl, glaring around at them. “He made a mistake! It could have happened to anyone!"

"No, that's what he wants you to think," Tony snaps in return, looking at me hard again. I gape at him, a little appalled that he's stepping in so hard. Look, Ariel," he says,

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leaning forward to me, again said, "I'm trying to be mean to you it just kills me to see you continually defending him when he's not being very nice to you in return. Like his job that night in the bar was to keep you safe and he allowed himself to be distracted by those girls."