I take Talia’s bag and throw my arm over her shoulders as I lead her to my car and pull open the door. It swings backward, and Talia rolls her eyes at me as she climbs inside. I slam the door and rush around to my side before I climb behind the wheel.
“Work was amazing today. All my patients will leave this place soon.”
“That’s great.”
Talia continues to gush about work as I steer the car towards Belladonna, the restaurant my mother and her sister own.
When I signed my first multimillion-dollar major league contract, the first thing I did was pay my ma’s mortgage.
The second? I remodeled our family restaurant and bought the building it’s in, preventing anyone from raising the rent in the future. I also own a few other pieces of real estate around Los Angeles, but I keep that on the low.
When I went to college on a baseball scholarship, I took advantage. I majored in economics and business management. I’m not just a dumb jock. But I like it when people underestimate me.
Talia and I keep up the chat as I weave in and out of traffic, pulling into the parking lot of the restaurant in no time.
Once a month, my mom and aunt take the night off to have family dinner and leave their most trusted employees to run the dining room and kitchen in their absence. It’s been a tradition they’ve kept since we were kids.
“My babies.” My mom, Caterina Romero, greets us at the door. She hugs each of us tightly, lingering a little longer on me, before she ushers us to our table. Ma is a beautiful woman with stormy-gray eyes and jet-black hair. Traits my sister and I share with her.
I throw my arm over Ma’s shoulders. “Hey, Ma.”
“I’m so happy it’s just the two of you here,” she croons.
Talia’s smile falls at Ma’s little dig at Cam’s absence as we take our seats. The forlorn look on my sister’s face rubs me the wrong way. I get the sense that Ma isn’t trying hard enough to like Talia’s fiancé, but she needs to try harder.
As flashbacks of all the times I badmouthed Cam to Ma come to mind, a wave of guilt washes over me. I’m to blame for my mother’s indifference towards my sister’s future husband. After spending time with him and getting to know him better, I’ve had the chance to change my opinion on him, but Ma hasn’t spent time getting to know Cam like I have.
I glance over at Talia, who’s sitting with her shoulders curved in and a crestfallen look in her eyes. Every time Ma overlooks Cam, I can see how it hurts Talia. Cam adores my sister and, like I did, Ma needs to get over the past and on board with Talia and Cam being together.
“Cam’s on his way,” I announce, frowning at my mother as she takes the seat beside me. No better time than to facilitate change than now.
“Oh, isn’t that nice?” My mother looks everywhere but at Talia as she twists a napkin in her fingers.
Is she still mad at Talia for spending the holidays with Cam and his family, or is there more to the story here?
Talia mouths,Thank you,as she watches the door for her man.
Fucking hell. Will it be like this if I meet a woman I care about and bring her home? Ma goes on about having grandkids, but if this is how she behaves, any woman in her right mind should run away.
My brain conjures up a vision of the gorgeous woman with chestnut hair standing outside the hospital. The way her amber eyes gleamed. Fuck.
Who was she?
Zia Rose bursts into the room with a platter of food, chasing my fantasies of the dream girl with attitude away.
“Nipote!”Nephew. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?” Zia looks around the table as my three cousins—Valentina, Isabella, and Sofia—follow behind her with more platters of food. “Where’s Cam?”
Talia’s smile returns. “He’ll be here soon. He needed to pick something up before dinner.”
“Good. I made enough to feed an army.” I’ve never loved my aunt more for asking about Cam. She’s been an amazing second mother to me and Talia.
After my piece-of-shit father left, Zia Rose and her girls moved in and have been with us ever since. The women in my life are everything to me. I will go to the ends of the earth to protect them. Even stand up to my mother if she doesn’t knock off this hostility shit with Cam.
Fuck.
Guess it’s up to me to make a better effort to make Cam feel a part of the family.
three
