Page 19 of Loyalty

A dark chuckle and a hand wrapping around her back kept her from hitting the ground as well.

The spicy cologne of the man helping her up was the first thing Siena noticed about the guy. His familiar black suit was the second thing.

She stared Johnathan Marcello right in the face as he helped her to stand straight. He flashed her a smile, showing off straight, white teeth and his charm in a blink.

“Two meetings in one day, huh?” he asked

Siena wondered why her throat had gone tight again. Still, she managed to speak. “Sorry about that. I was—”

Johnathan bent down and picked up her book. He eyed the title and the cover, and handed it over with another brilliant smile. “Distracted, I think. I can see why—the guy on that cover looks like he bathed himself in body oil, or something.”

“They do say sex sells.”

That smile of Johnathan’s turned suggestive in a blink. “That it does.”

“It’s actually a book I’ve been waiting forever for,” she admitted. “My birthday is today, and the shopkeeper remembered. It’s my gift from him.”

Johnathan chuckled. “A gift, huh?”

“He’s old enough to be my grandfather.”

“Well, happy birthday.”

“Big, old twenty-five,” she half-grumbled.

Johnathan scoffed. “Old, right. You’re five years away from my thirty, and only when you get to there can you come talk to me about old.”

“Thirty isn’t old.”

And he didn’t look anything beyond twenty-six, maybe.

Johnathan shrugged. “It’s all in how you feel, I guess.”

Siena didn’t believe in shit like fate or any of that kind of nonsense. Not being a numbers girl like she was. She much preferred to see things in black and white. Reality. Written in stone, not a what-could-be kind of thing.

She wondered, however, what the odds were that she would randomly run in to Johnathan like this again. Twice. In one day.

Should she consider that a sign, or something?

Maybe she could try for a third time to see him, except without it being entirely random. More … planned.

The outspoken part of Siena’s personality came forward before she could stop it with trivial things like nerves or anxiety.

“Hey, do you have somewhere—”

Johnathan’s phone ringing loudly inside his pocket stopped Siena from asking him to dinner like she wanted. He pulled out the phone, and put it to his ear while he held up a finger for her to ask for a minute.

“Yeah, John here.” A beat of silence passed, and then Johnathan said, “All right, man. I’m on my way.”

Johnathan hung up the phone, gave Siena a wink, and shoved the device in his jacket.

“Business calls,” he told her. “Try looking up when you walk, huh? Gotta be safe, bella donna. You don’t know the kind of crazy you might run in to around here.”

With a wave, John darted out into the street, and didn’t give Siena another look.

She hadn’t gotten to ask him out.

Maybe that was the sign.