Page 37 of Contempt

She saw Renzo.

He was different, sure. Gone was the young man, and in his place was someone else who looked like him and stood like he used to. Gone was that leather jacket that he told her once he had won in a bare-knuckle boxing match. In its place was a new leather jacket full of zippers and opened so she could see the barest hint of ink peeking out at his throat. Strong features dusted with dark facial hair, and eyes so fucking expressive.

Those eyes hadn’t changed.

Even from all the way across the street, it had been his eyes that she noticed first.

Hadn’t it been him?

It had to be him.

Where had he gone?

Lucia felt like she had suddenly walked into the Twilight Zone, and absolutely nothing felt right or made sense. She knew that she probably looked like an idiot standing there on the side of the street staring across as though a ghost had just crossed her line of vision.

But that’s exactly what it felt like, too.

He was the fucking ghost.

A ghost from her past.

Sort of.

Renzo couldn’t be from her past when he had never left her mind, right? He still felt like a constant presence in her life every single day. He was never far from her thoughts. He was always in her heart, even though it felt empty, too.

God.

She couldn’t date because this man had ruined everything for her. Sex, men … love. All of it. She didn’t even try.

Her mind screamed move.

Her body didn’t.

She closed her eyes, and opened them again, looking away from the passing cab to stare across the street, only to find it was empty. Coming to visit Rose had been a last-minute decision—she kept in contact with Renzo’s younger sister just because she felt like it was the right thing to do. Sometimes, she didn’t call as often as she wanted to, and she certainly didn’t get to visit as much as she should, but Rose had never said anything one way or another.

And Diego …

That kid couldn’t wait to get on the phone with her. He could chat for hours about the most mundane things, but Lucia didn’t care. She would sit there and listen to him go on and on as long as he wanted her to listen.

She figured that since she was in the city, the least she could do was stop by. Especially as she still wasn’t sure when she was going back to Cali.

But she had not been expecting to see …

Well, had she even seen him?

It felt like her mind and heart had played a trick on her. It was as though she stepped out of that car, and saw what she wanted to see, and maybe … not what was there. Was that even possible?

Lucia didn’t know.

It felt like it.

Jesus.

But in her heart?

Her gut?

Her lungs?