Sid licked his lips. “Told you it was good.”
“I believed you.”
“And now?”
Dante kissed Sid one last time, then stood. “Now I can’t stop thinking about it, so I need to go before I keep you up all night.”
Sid could think of worse reasons to lose sleep, but he let Dante go, and that night slept alone, dreaming of the next time he had Dante naked and willing in his bed.
16
Dante clutched the phone, half-convinced it was a sick joke and the line would be dead. “Yeah?”
“He found you then?” Paolo Cilberto grunted back. “The fuck did you go? The moon?”
“The greenhouse, actually.”
“So, it’s true. You really have turned into Monty Don?”
“Nah, that’s Sid, not me. I don’t know shit.”
“Sid. He’s your... what? Manager?”
“Something like that.” That was one version of events. Dante didn’t feel like explaining the rest to his brother’s fiery boyfriend. “Sorry I didn’t have my phone. I wasn’t expecting you to call.”
Paolo sighed. “I’m sorry it’s been a while. It took me that long to convince Luis you weren’t playing me.”
“Maybe I am.”
“Doubt it. All I have that you want is Luis, and I know you’re too clever to think you can get to him through me.”
Dante couldn’t deny it, but as accurate as Paolo’s theory was, it was a world away from what Dante needed from him. “I’m not as clever as you think. If I was, I wouldn’t need your help with something so fucking simple.”
“What is it? Unless it’s something illegal, in which case you can fuck all the way off and stay there.”
Dante rolled his eyes. “I have to cook something with pasta and I don’t know how. You’re the pasta king, right? Every Sunday in your grandad’s place?”
A beat of silence bloomed. Then Paolo let out a startled laugh. “That’s what you needed my help with?”
“Um, yeah.” Dante rubbed the back of his neck, glad, for once, that Sid was somewhere else. “I was going to ask the women in the staff kitchen, but they might tell Sid, and they don’t really like me, so...”
“I don’t like you.”
“Yeah, but you like feeding people. It’s what you do to make up for shouting at everyone. Luis told me when he came to see me.”
“That was years ago when you were first sentenced.”
“Have you changed that much?”
Paolo snorted. “No, but maybe you have if this is really all you want from me. I take it you’re cooking for Sid? That’s why you don’t want him to know you haven’t got a fucking clue what you’re doing?”
“Something like that.”
“He didn’t like me taking the piss out of you.”
Dante arched a brow. “How could you tell?”
“By that deep northern growl. It’s nice that you’re friends.”