Page 54 of Falling for Mr. October

Of course, neither event is even ticketed, but it’s not worth saying so.

Giovanni glances at me with a raised brow, and when I shrug, he says, “Okay, we’ll be at both of those.”

There’s a gleam in Rhett’s eyes as he continues. “Then there’s the Gallagher corn maze race the following weekend.”

“Will I have to challenge the winner to a duel in the unlikely event it’s someone other than me?” Giovanni asks mildly. “Or maybe to an apple pie bake-off?”

Rhett practically glows. “That’s what’s next. The Saturday afterward, we’re hosting the annual Apple Ridge apple pie bake-off at my family orchard. Anyone can enter.”

“No,” Giovanni says. “We’ll host it here at Evergreens & Apples.”

“But—”

Giovanni releases me. I gape at him, speechless, but his gaze is fixed on Rhett as he takes a step toward him, crowding him. “Let’s be honest with each other, Mr. Mayor. You’re only here because you know people are interested in my presence in Apple Ridge. And I’m only listening to you because you’re the asshole who took my girlfriend’s family farm off the town website. You’re going to put it back up, obviously, and we’ll show up at your events with smiles on our faces and let you take photos. But the apple pie bake-off will be here, on Bianca’s family farm, and if you ever fuck with this family again, you’re going to regret it. Do we understand each other?”

“Are you threatening me?” Rhett asks.

Giovanni gives him an incredulous look. “Well, yes.”

“You can’t threaten me. I’m⁠—”

“I don’t know what you’re about to say, but I couldn’t care less.” Giovanni takes a step forward. “Your money doesn’t matter to me, and it certainly doesn’t matter that you’re the mayor of a town with a population lower than the enrollment of most city high schools.”

Rhett immediately takes a step back.

“The only reason I’m concerning myself with you at all is that you’ve made life more difficult for the Murphys,” Giovanni continues. “So you’re going to leave now, and if you get the farm back up on the town website and quit the legal stalling on your aunt’s will, Bianca and I will be at your scarecrow contest. We’ll play nice and let people take photos and eat shitty s’mores and wind our way through corn stalks. I’ll even tell someone with a straight face that I can think of nothing better than to spend my fall at a bunch of tourist trap events. But the apple pie event will be here, at her farm, and everyone’s going to be talking about it.”

“But it’s always at the Gallagher farm.”

“Not this year,” Giovanni says with a note of finality.

He’s magnificent, and in that moment I feel no better than the thirsty women posting comments about him online. Everything inside of me wants to touch him. To kiss him. To own a piece of his charisma.

“I’ll have to talk to my mother about that…and Aunt Kitty’s will.”

“Aren’t you the mayor?” Giovanni asks. “I hadn’t realized you reported to your mother.”

Rhett looks beyond pissed, but he pulls on an invisible mask, his expression once again breezy. “Of course. I meant I’ll talk to her as a courtesy.”

“You do that.”

Rhett studies him through narrowed eyes before saying, “But I won’t let you win the bake-off. The Gallaghers always win, and this year will be no exception.”

“You mean you won every year until I came to town,” Giovanni says without hesitation.

Rhett’s jaw tightens. “I have a condition of my own. I want you to do an interview with a major news outlet. You need to rave about Apple Ridge.”

Giovanni’s grin is all teeth. “Anything for you, Mr. Mayor. Now, get the fuck out of here, will you?”

Nonna Francesca’s voice filters through the vent: “Yes, you go now, young man. We have much planning to do.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

GIOVANNI

The jackass jumps about two feet when my grandmother speaks through the vent, eyeing the wall like he thinks the house is haunted by the ghosts of Italians past. Then he does the wise thing and takes off as if his ass just caught fire.

No doubt, the nonnas are about to storm into the room, but Bianca shuts the door behind him and turns toward me.