Chapter 13

Lou blinked. “What?” Despite having mentioned Joey the last time everyone had gathered, he’d thought they would have forgotten her by now. Lou had lots of girlfriends. No biggie.

“Stella.” His grandma pointed to his smirking sister, drinking lemonade next to Lucia farther down the table. “She tells us all about how you are sick in the heart for this woman.”

Lou glared at his sneaky sister. “No, Abuela. Joey is nice, but—”

“Are you embarrassed of us? Is that it?”

He shook his head. “Of course not, I just—”

“So why isn’t she here? We should be looking her over, seeing if she is good enough to go out with my handsome grandson.” She handed a bowl of chilaquiles to Guadalupe, then everyone followed, passing the food around.

Lucia cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone. “And good enough for my wonderful brother,” she said loudly. Like he couldn’t hear her from where he sat. Jesus, what a pain.

“My Guapo,” Maria said, batting her eyelashes at him. “Whom I love sooo much.”

“Laying it on a bit thick, eh?” he grumbled.

“And my lovely nephew,” Tía Guadalupe had to say. She nudged Javier. “Right, Son?”

Lou smirked at his cousin, the poor kid. “Yeah, J. Listen to Tía Guadalupe.”

J. grimaced and gave Lou a pained shrug. “Ah, sure, Mama. Whatever you say.”

Lou drew on his patience as he scooped beans and rice onto his plate before passing the bowls. “Look, if I bring her here, you’ll scare her away. Besides, we’re new. Sure, everything now is fun and exciting. But that stuff fades. You know how it is. We’ll go our separate ways in a while. We’ll probably stay friends, but that’s it.”

What he couldn’t say was that she’d been different from the beginning. And friendship had never been the end-all he wanted from her. What he did want he couldn’t quantify, not yet.

“Bring her to meet me then,” his mother said. “Just me. I won’t scare her off.”

“Well, I’ll see,” was all he’d commit to, though he had no intention of bringing Joey to meet anyone. Or did he?

To his chagrin, the thought of having his family close, and Joey closer, tempted him. She would fit in with a Wednesday night Cortez meal. She had a sweetness to her that would call to his mother’s, grandmother’s, and aunts’ protective instincts. Plus, Joey was kind. Rosie would take to her right off, he knew. And Rosie could be particular when it came to friendships.

And why the hell am I trying to fit Joey into my family? He wanted to pull his hair out, especially when they stared at him pushing the food around on his plate. At his grandmother’s raised brow, he lied. “I ate earlier.” He hadn’t eaten since the banana Del had forced on him midmorning.

“Hmm.” Abuela grinned at him. She whispered something to Guadalupe that had the older woman laughing her head off, which got his mother involved, then Lucia. The group talked about him in low whispers, as if he couldn’t see them pointing, staring, and laughing at him.

“I’m right here,” he growled.

Rosie giggled.

Near enough to hear them, J. grimaced and said to Lou, “You don’t want to know.”

Lou sighed. “Why me?”

Dinner passed swiftly enough, mostly with the ladies making fun of him and teasing Javier about a new girl at school. Feeling for the boy, he took the fourteen-year-old aside after dinner, and they went out to look at Guadalupe’s car.

“The engine keeps pinging, and Mama’s filling up the tank too much. I think maybe the timing is off,” J. said.

“Could be.” Not bad for the little mechanic-in-training. “Want to come down to the garage with me next week to work on it?”

J. lit up. “Yeah, man. That’d be cool, primo.”

“Not guapo? Just primo?” Frankly, Lou preferred handsome over the pedestrian cousin.

J. gagged. “You ain’t that pretty to me.”

Lou grinned. “You trying to talk smack, J.? Man, ain’t you cute.”

“Shit. You might be big, but me and my boys could tear you up if we wanted to. Not that I’d let them, since you’re family and all,” J. teased.

At mention of his “boys,” Lou knew the time had come for a little talk. He stared J. down.

J. flushed. “Kidding, man. Geez, Lou. Take a joke, why don’t you.”

“Yeah? I think you’re funny. Until I hear you’re hanging with some bad-news guys.” He’d had a quick discussion with Guadalupe earlier when she’d cornered him on his way out of the bathroom. “Stay away from Paul Lasko and Diego Suarez.”

J. blinked. “How do you know about them?” He groaned. “Mama told you.”

“You think those punks own your high school?” Lou snorted. “Try again. They work for Toto.”

“That’s what they said, but I doubt it.”

“Don’t. Toto has a hand in a lot of schools. And I know for a fact anyone who associates or talks about associating with him is in for a world of hurt. Right now, the Righteous are ready to move on his house.”

“No way.” A white-power gang had it in for the Mexican stronghold on drugs in the city schools around their area. “Dang.”

“So if your friends think they can run shit for Toto and talk big about it? Those two are headed for trouble. Especially because word has it the feds are soon going to be up Toto’s ass right after they put the Righteous away. You don’t want to be near any of it when it goes down.”

J. frowned. “How do you know all this?” He gasped. “You a narc?”

“Please.” Lou laughed at the thought of ever cooperating with the cops. Not that he didn’t respect the law, but you only lived so long as people trusted you. And in his line of work—completely legal now, of course—a lot of his customers tended to have strained relationships with the law. “I have a lot of friends, and I work on a lot of cars, the kind with rich owners. Not all of them got rich from stock options on Wall Street. These businessmen, they hear things. You get me?”

J. nodded, looking relieved.

“So keep your distance from Lasko and Suarez.”

“I hear you.” J. was a smart kid. He’d do the right thing.

Or Lou would hand him his balls one by one, yank him out of that school, and straight-up send him to the military academy his aunt had been thinking about.

J. kicked a rock around. “I’ll stay away, but… They might not like it.”

“You have any problems at all, you mention my name. Then you tell them anyone who fucks with you fucks with the guy working on Mantego’s wheels. And that unlucky guy is gonna have to answer to me first, Mantego second.”

J. swallowed. “No problem.”

Mantego ran the streets in many parts of Seattle. He’d been rumored to have been involved in the House, where Sam used to do his illegal fights before the place had been shut down. Mantego owned a bunch of clubs around town, and he policed his own. Even the cops gave the gunrunner a wide berth. Personally, Lou had no problem with the guy. He was funny and had a head for numbers. Lou liked him.

Lou grabbed J. close and shook him. “You mess around with those assholes, and I’ll be forced to take action. The kind that gets you jail time. Think about this: I go, who takes care of all our women? You?”

J. paled.

“That’s right. We have responsibilities to our family. Family is first. Family is everything. Not some punk drug-dealer wannabes. Keep your nose clean, and the only thing we have to talk about are the car and your new girlfriend. What’s her name again?”

J. flushed. “Angela. But she’s not my girlfriend yet.”

Lou studied his cousin, seeing the same good looks that kept his entire family in trouble with the opposite sex. And in his cousin Salome’s case, the same sex. “Nah, you got this. Remember to be charming, not just good-looking, and you’ll do fine.”

“I’m a stud.” J. laughed. “So hard being so sexy, eh, Guapo?”

“Shut it, little man.” He shoved the kid in a playful way, satisfied Javier would be okay.

“Hey, at least I’m honest. You think you’re seriously hiding anything from the family? They all know about the flower chick and—”

“Her name is Joey.”

“—that you’re in love with her. Stella told them.” J. burst into gales of laughter as Lou tickled and mock-wrestled him before dragging him back to the house in a headlock. “Help, Mama,” J. said, half laughing, half semistrangling on Lou’s biceps. “Primo is being mean to me.”

Guadalupe and Lou’s mother ignored him. His grandmother rolled her eyes. “Eh. Boys.”

Stella sighed. “Poor J. We should help him.”

“I’m not dealing with all that,” Carla said and stepped back, munching on chips.

Rosie barreled into them and dragged J. away. “I’ll save you, Guapo.”

“There’s my favorite sister.” He shot his other sisters dirty looks.

J. stared at her. “Save him? I’m the one getting beaten up.”

“Yeah, but if you hurt Guapo, the flower lady might not come over, and I really want to meet her. Lou’s in love.”

J. laughed at Lou’s expression. So did the others.

Lou glared. “Stella…”

“Hey, I’m single and pinning all my hopes on you. I need to see a real relationship succeed before I’m scarred for life.” She sounded way too smug to be sad, to his way of thinking. “Besides, I like her. I told everyone about her.”

Lou groaned.

“Yep, everyone.” She held up her phone. “Even Sam, while you were outside with Javier.”

“J.,” the boy corrected.

Stella ignored him. “Sam and I are friends, and I thought he’d want to know how to help you if you suddenly blew it with Joey. He thanked me for being concerned.”

Lou covered his eyes and wished for the ground to swallow him. “Hell.”

* * *

“My life is not in a good place right now,” Lou admitted to Joey Thursday night after she settled on his couch and made herself comfortable.

“Oh? What’s wrong?”

“The guys are giving me a lot of grief about you. The flower chick.”

“The flower chick? I have a title?”

“Yeah. If you hadn’t spent so much time blowing me off for months before Del’s wedding, I wouldn’t be in this predicament and… Are you laughing at me?”

Joey’s wide grin reflected the mirth in her big brown eyes. She didn’t even try to hide it. Such a different person than the shy, contained woman who’d hidden behind the flower counter two and a half weeks ago. “Sorry. That’s terrible.”

He sat next to her and grabbed a deck of cards from the coffee table. “You sound distinctly insincere.”

She laughed. His heart did somersaults. The sight of those bright-white teeth and those full lips curled in a smile hitting him harder than a right hook to the jaw.

“Poor Lou.”

“You know, the more smack talk before the game, the harder I trounce you after.” He saw her pulse jump in her throat and knew a sense of satisfaction that he wasn’t the only one affected by being together.

“You be nice, Lou Cortez,” she warned and took the cards from him, shuffling like a professional dealer. “I’m just a poor flower girl trying to get by. And that’s not easy dealing with your type.” She pointed right at him. “You have no idea how difficult it was for me to walk into the garage and deal with Del for her wedding. And having to go by you guys was scary.”

“So you’ve said before.” He smiled.

“Don’t look so smug.”

“Well, you deserve it. You had me doubting myself, and one thing I’m good at it is being me. Lou Cortez, The Man.” He pounded his chest.

“You’re so deluded.”

“You’re so fuckin’ sexy,” he said right back and leaned close to steal a kiss. The warmth the kiss generated drove him crazy, because the sparks trailed from his mouth, down his chest, and centered in his cock. “Man, I always just want you closer. Under me.”

She blushed. “Lou.” Yet the hand that pressed against his chest curled to keep him close. “I thought we were going to play gin, then dinner, then fun?”

“Well, there’s no real order to it. We can do whatever we want.” And right now, he wanted her spread open while he sampled from his own perfect appetizer. “You have to be in at eight tomorrow, right?”

She sucked in a breath when he trailed a finger over her collarbone. “Um, nine. But I can’t stay too late. I need to be back home by eleven.”

He frowned. “Eleven? Why?” She stiffened, so he relented. His questions could keep for now. “Fine, fine. Relax. I’ll let you go by ten-thirty. That’s another three hours away though. Time for us to reschedule a few things.” He felt uncomfortably hard. “You hungry?”

As if she’d read his mind, she glanced down and stared at his groin. “For what, exactly?”

He groaned. “I think we need to talk.”

* * *

Joey’s gaze flashed back up to Lou’s face, and she felt her cheeks heat. “Oh my gosh. I can’t believe I hinted…that.”

He grinned. Oh wow, he was too handsome for words. His eyes seemed almost to glow when he looked at her. Such a strong jaw, those lips, those darkly lashed eyes. He was like a model, complete with a bodybuilder’s frame. So what was he doing with her again?

She couldn’t help glancing back at his prominent erection, remembering how big he could get. Goodness, but she felt way too hot sitting so close to the man.

“Oh yeah. Definitely past time we had The Talk.”

“The Talk?”

He nodded. “The one we should have had at the very beginning of all this. So here it is. I haven’t been with a woman in months. I always practice safe sex, and my last doctor’s visit, back in February, was good to go. A clean bill of health. I want to be with you again, and I’m fine wearing condoms. Now you.”

He waited, and she wondered that in all her years, she’d never had such a frank conversation about sex before. Or that, for once, she hadn’t had to instigate the embarrassing discussion. Yet it bothered her that she hadn’t brought it up before now. What was wrong with her? One look into Lou’s big brown eyes and she lost her sense?

He cleared his throat.

“Oh. Right. The Talk.” She blew out a breath. “Well, I also practice safe sex.” No question about that—now. “I haven’t had a boyfriend in over a year, and my last physical checked out okay.”

Lou frowned. “A year?”

She shrugged, uncomfortable that she probably now appeared as pathetic as she’d felt for so long. Lou had made her forget for a while that she wasn’t exactly a diamond in the rough. More like a shiny pebble in a fast-moving stream, brushing by and over her. “I’ve been really busy with work and trying to get enough funds to move out of my house. It takes a lot of time and money. And I paid for myself to go through school, you know.”

He watched her, his eyes wide.

“What?”

“Well, one, we can take shy off the table. Because you’re no longer shy with me, more like confrontational—and I love it.” He grinned. “And two, I wasn’t aware I was dealing with a self-made woman. You don’t talk about yourself much.”

“Oh. Not much to tell, really.”

“I disagree.” Lou looked her over and smiled. “Beautiful, intelligent, and ambitious. So you put yourself through school?”

“Yes. I had to balance work and family and a full-time job. It wasn’t easy.” Especially when said family had been undergoing potty training at the same time. “I did it on my own with a little help from my parents. But not much.”

That first year, her parents had done their best to distance themselves, forcing her to do everything on her own. Except her mother would sneak in to her room to handle the baby. More for her grandson than to help Joey. A not-so-subtle form of punishment Joey would never forget. Sure, her parents had been there to help her, but on their terms and without much sympathy for a young girl who’d made a mistake. She would never treat Brandon that way. Not ever.

“Hey, you okay?” Lou asked and reached for her hand. “You looked pretty sad there, cariña. What’s the matter?”

She shook off feelings that didn’t belong here. Lou had never treated her like she didn’t matter or know her own mind. “Just family stuff. Sometimes I can’t help thinking about it.”

He rubbed his fingers over her knuckles. “I know what you mean.” He paused. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Your parents. They helped you, but not a lot, you said?”

“No, they helped a lot, I guess. But on their terms. I know I should be grateful they never kicked me out onto the street.” Yet she still felt so much anger when it came to them. “It sounds like you’re pretty close to your family.” At his nod, she continued. “We were a tight group when I was growing up. Or rather, my mom and I were. Dad was always working. Still is, to be honest. But he loves me.” I think. “Then, well, some stuff happened. I did something I shouldn’t have, but it all worked out in the end.” She loved Brandon. Period. “But for a long time, they never let me forget it. Punishing me for something that, yeah, was my fault. But I was so young when it happened.”

He snorted. “You’re young now, so I can’t imagine how old you were when you messed up. How old are you, anyway?”

“Twenty-four. Almost twenty-five.”

He blinked. “Yeah? I mean, you look it. But you seem so much older.”

“How old are you?” She’d put him at late twenties.

“Thirty-five.”

She stared. “Seriously? You’re an old man.”

He grimaced, and she laughed, feeling lighter having unburdened herself. She hadn’t told him about Brandon yet. Her baby boy belonged to her and her alone. Though she liked Lou, a lot, she didn’t know if she could trust him with her most precious joy.

“I feel old sometimes,” he admitted, still holding her hand. She’d scooted closer so he wasn’t stretching her arm so much. When he grinned, she realized he’d intended to get her nearer.

“Nice move.”

“I’ve got more.” He waggled his brows but didn’t let her go. The connection felt more than physical as he spoke, as if by holding her and sharing himself, he was entwining a ribbon of trust around them. “I pretty much grew up taking care of my sisters. And my mama kept adding to the family, not always with the same man.” He sighed. “I love her, my mama. She’s a beautiful woman. Just like all my sisters.”

“Just like you.”

To her delight, a tinge of red lit his cheeks. “Yeah, well, we’re a handsome family. Makes it a real pain in the ass to keep everyone together and out of the hands of men who should know better. My mama, she’s got such a big heart, so much kindness inside.” He looked at Joey. “Not to be all weird about it, but you remind me of her in a lot of ways.”

“That’s nice.”

He shrugged. “It’s true. But my mama, she’s too nice. She has five girls by three men. My father was an asshole. Good for nothing but taking advantage of a sweet woman.” He shook his head. “Mama is pretty, and men like her. A little flattery, and she’d give them whatever they wanted.”

Joey wanted to duck her head. She had a lot more in common with Lou’s mom than he might think. But I learned from it, she told herself.

“I don’t want you to think my mom’s bad or anything, she’s just too kind-hearted. Which explains why a lot of the discipline in our family comes from me. I was five when Lucia was born. Carla came three years after that, Maria a year later. Then Stella and Rosie. Rosie’s eight.” He groaned. “If my mama would just go gray and start wrinkling up, lose some teeth, get a walker, I’d be spared more stress.”

She laughed with him. “So all girls. Didn’t you have any male relatives to help out?”

“I learned a lot from my abuelo, my grandfather. But he died when I was little, and my uncles were never that much interested in our family. They had too much to take care of with their own. So I pretty much helped raise all my sisters. I love them, but they’re a handful.”

“I’ll bet.” She could see Lou as a family man, a decent soul overcoming heartache, doling out love and a sense of home. “You’ll be a great father someday.” A man like that would understand her having a son. She saw the empathy, the care, and wanted to trust him. He’d offered himself, opening up like that. She wanted to do the same. Yet something held her back.

“Yeah, well, I don’t plan to have any kids. I’m done raising them,” he said bluntly, his hold on her hand tight before he realized he’d gripped her too hard. He let her go. “I just want to be the happy uncle with a great ride, a woman by my side, and fun in the future. Nothing heavy, nothing too serious.”

The way he looked at her told her he meant the warning for her.

She chuckled to ease the hurt. And why should she feel any pain because of what he said? Not like she’d imagined them as a couple or anything long-term. Just friends who make each other feel good, right?

“Don’t worry about me,” she said. “I’m not into hearts and flowers—well, flowers maybe.” He grinned with her. “I like being independent. And I have too much to do with my life to settle down now.”

So why did her confession feel like a fat big lie? Why had she rested even the tiniest hope that she and Lou might blossom into something fuller? Because he respected family, cared for those needing help, and had been the first man ever to see to her pleasure before his own? Yes, she’d allowed their sexual intimacy to create a false sense of emotional intimacy. That had to be it.

“Man, that brain is going and going. I can tell.” He tugged her closer. “So why do you have to leave at eleven?”

The question came out of nowhere, no segue or anything. She just blinked at him, having no other excuse than a need to get her little boy from Becky, her sitter for the night.

Lou frowned. “Joey, is there someone else?”

Not like you mean. “No.”

He clearly didn’t buy her denial, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he cupped her face and kissed her.

The kiss cleared all the cobwebs from her mind and stirred the fires she’d barely banked. Desire rose swift and sure, and she found herself clinging to his broad shoulders as he drew her into his arms. So much larger than her, Lou surrounded her with muscle and with a firmness growing solidly larger under her as they kissed.

He muttered words she didn’t understand, gripped her hair, and held her in place while he kissed the sense out of her. His lips, his tongue and teeth, he used every part of his mouth to force her body to surrender. And she loved it.

With one kiss, he’d turned her into a shivery mass of need.

“Tell me what you want, amor,” he murmured against her throat. “Are you hungry, baby? You want something to eat right now? I got dinner waiting for you. Something sweet for dessert too.” He ground her against him and groaned. “Or did you want something else?”

She wanted to explore her carnality, the desire to make him feel what she had the last time they’d been together. She’d fantasized about it, because she’d heard and seen the act but had never actually done it. It seemed to give the woman power, pleasing her man.

Lou pulled back and stared into her eyes, his dark and full of need.

“I’m hungry, Lou.” She ran a finger over his lips. “For something special. Something only you can give me.”

The flare of desire made his eyes darker, and she knew what she wanted.

“I want to kiss you the way you kissed me before.”

“Where?” he growled. “Tell me.”

Instead she showed him by reaching between them and grazing the bulge between his legs. “Here. I want to kiss you here.”