“Bullshit.”
Mateo’s head whipped up. “Uncle Leo!”
“Sorry, kid,” Leo called before turning back to his sisters. “But that’s…crapand you know it.”
Vanessa downed a spork full of whipped squash before answering, “Jessie, Cece, do you remember what Leo was like after that blanquita rica was done with him?”
Cecilia’s lips pursed like she’d tasted something bad. “I sure do, Vani. The worddestroyedcomes to mind.”
“Devastated,” Jessie added. “The pits of despair.”
“Come on, I wasn’t—”
“Despair, Leo,” Vanessa said firmly. “And we never,everwant you to have to go through that again. So when Mom told us you were working with that woman, we knew what we had to do.”
Leo scrubbed his hands down his face. “Has it escaped your notice that I’m an adult man?”
“Never! You’re our muñeco,” Cece crooned as she pinched his cheek.
He batted her hand away. “I’m not your little doll.”
His middle sister smiled and turned back to her squash, leaving his oldest sister to pick up the argument.
“We just wanted to remind Fea that you’ve got people looking out for you,” Vanessa said.
Cece sniffed. “Fea? More like gordita.”
“Hey.” Leo’s voice cracked above the cacophony of the food tents, and everyone at the table froze. “None of that shit.”
The tips of his ears burned at his outburst, but no way was he letting anyone in his family criticize Faith’s appearance. Bad enough that they’d been calling her ugly without her realizing it. This, he wouldn’t tolerate.
“She. Looks. Gorgeous.” He enunciated every word with precision, glaring at each of them in turn as he did.
The kids quickly lost interest in the adult drama and turned back to their ice cream, but all three sisters were looking at him with a mix of concern and confusion on their faces.
Jessie was the first one to recover. “I hate to say it, but Leo’s right. That girl is thick in the best possible way now.”
Never had he been so grateful that he and Jessie had extremely similar taste in women.
“You know I liked her back in the day,” she told him. “But I’ll personally jab my heel into her neck if she hurts you again.”
She calmly sipped her beer, leaving Leo to shake his head. “You guys got meaner while I was overseas.”
“The world got meaner.” Cece shrugged. “We adapted.”
“Well, Faith didn’t get meaner, so back off.”
Vanessa leaned forward, eyes narrowed. “Wait, are you two back together?”
Did a rushed, fully clothed fuck in a semipublic place count?
“No,” he snapped.
“Good,” she snapped back. “Don’t forget the way she used you.”
As if he ever had. As if he could.
“This is temporary,” he said. “William’s moving to Beaucoeur to take over for me at BUILD, and I’ll be back behind the desk at Digham. We’ll barely see each other after that.”
