The Holy Ghost - M.E. Clayton Page 0,8

he be waited on by you.”

What?

My brows furrowed. “Is it Edmond?”

Mona shook her head. “No, it’s not. But I gotta tell you, girl, if you don’t serve him, I sure as hell will,” she replied. “The man is tall, dark, handsome, and more.”

My stomach dipped as I froze in the middle of untying my apron. “What?”

Moan fanned herself in true dramatic fashion. “The man is gorgeous, Frankie. Dark hair and black fucking eyes. I mean, have you ever seen someone with black eyes? They’re fucking stunning.”

My heart stopped in resignation.

I’ve only seen two men in my life whose gazes were as black as evil, and that was Luca and Giovanni Benetti. Even Luca’s two younger brothers, Leo and Sal, didn’t have the Giovanni Benetti black eyes. Only Luca. Leo and Sal had their mother’s eyes, mossy green. And while they looked like Benettis through and through, Luca was the only one who resembled his father one hundred percent.

“He’s insisting on me?”

“Yeah. I told him you were going on break, and he said that was perfect. Which made no sense,” she replied, confused a bit.

If I had any doubt it was Luca before, I didn’t now. The only question was what was he doing here?

I took off my apron to lessen the odds of us being interrupted. I told my tables I was on break, but if they saw me out there in my apron, they might believe I was still in service-mode.

I plastered on a fake smile. “Okay. Thanks, Mona.”

As I went to walk past her, she grabbed me by my shoulders. “No, seriously, Frankie. Find out if that man is single and, if so, put in a good word for me. Good Lord,” she praised.

“Sure thing, Mona.” Not. Even if Luca were single, I wouldn’t do that to Mona. I wouldn’t sign her up for a life that I knew she couldn’t mold herself to fit into.

As soon as I stepped out from the kitchens, I saw him. He was sitting at a booth, his back up against the wall, his eyes scanning the restaurant. He made sure to choose a booth with no window and made sure it was one that gave him the perfect view of the entire place and the people in it.

Some things never change.

He didn’t smile or stand up or anything as I walked towards the booth. That black gaze Mona had fallen in love with stayed glued to mine until I sat down on the opposite side of the booth. It’s been six years, and the beautiful boy I once shared so many secrets with had grown up to be a heartbreakingly gorgeous man.

Luca’s hair was still black as coal, short on the sides, but long enough everywhere else that it’d be no problem for some lucky girl to run her fingers through it. His brows were just as dark, thick, and arched. His eyes were so black, you couldn’t see where the color began, and where the pupil ended. Gone was any softness that once marked him as a boy. Now his face was all hard angles and a strong jaw. He looked like he was carved from stone. And I knew without a doubt his body was in prime condition underneath that expensive suit he was wearing. All the Benetti men were as conditioned as soldiers in their prime. Luca Benetti was six-foot-two-inches of pure, unstoppable muscle.

As a boy, Luca had been beautiful.

As a man, he was breathtaking.

“What are you doing here?”

Luca leaned in and placed his forearms on the table, clasping his hands together. He didn’t quite smirk, but there was something in his expression. “Is that your way of telling me you haven’t missed me?”

I almost cried.

I almost cried because I did miss my friend. I missed him terribly. That’s the thing about running away. Your memories and emotions go with you, so it ends up just becoming geography.

I cleared my throat of the emotions that threatened to take over. “What are you doing here, Luca?” I repeated. I didn’t want to talk about how much I missed him. I’d lose it for sure if I did.

This time he did smirk.

Then he straightened his imposing frame and pinned me with that dark gaze he uses to cripple people with. “Massimo has cancer,” he said, his voice betraying nothing. He might as well have been talking about the weather. But that didn’t bother me. I knew Luca felt, and I knew he felt deeply.

I, however, hadn’t been able to master