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It was almost seven at night. No way had she just gotten dressed. Which could only mean one thing.
She was late because she was with a man.
That was a new development.
I didn’t remember the last time any of us saw Sofia with a man. She was too busy with her work.
Though, now that I thought about it, when I’d gone to grab a new blade head for my razor this morning, there hadn’t been any backups.
That was the kind of shit the guys in the Family paid Sofia to handle. Keeping our houses stocked. Knowing what we needed before we did. A house manager, of sorts.
I’d never gone for something and not found extras waiting for me.
But now that I thought about it, I’d run out of coffee earlier in the week too. And the lawn guy had sent me a text saying the cash wasn’t in the box like usual.
That was another thing Smush handled.
Was she slacking on work because she was spending more time with a man?
On the one hand, as someone who wanted to find someone as well, I was happy for her.
As her brother, though, I wanted to know who the fuck was. And why he thought he deserved to be anywhere near her.
“Did Ma notice?” Lucky asked.
“Nah. The girls were too quick. Via distracted Mom with one of your crotch goblins. And Elisa told her, so she could go and straighten herself out.”
“No one has mentioned Smush with someone?” Lucky asked.
“Even Elisa seemed surprised,” Milo said.
We all stood there for a moment. Silent. Lost in our thoughts.
Back when our sisters were young, this shit was easy. We tracked down anyone who thought they could put their hands on Sofia or Elisa, and we let them know that we’d chop those fucking hands off if they hurt them.
But we weren’t all teenagers anymore.
We couldn’t go around threatening to chop body parts off of random men.
Or could we? Milo’s gaze seemed to ask.
“We gotta at least figure out who he is,” Lucky reasoned. “From a respectable distance,” he added as Smush glared at us from out the window.
We all knew her temper.
And didn’t want to suffer for it.
So, yeah, from a distance.
The door opened, and out she came, buttons aligned perfectly, no sign of indecency, save for the flour handprint on her chest that she reached up to try to pat away.
“I have your razors, coffee, and toothpaste,” she said, looking at me. “I fell behind this week,” she admitted, and I knew it pained her to do so when she prided herself so much on how much she could juggle without ever dropping a ball.
“No worries,” I said, though I was suddenly worried that I hadn’t noticed that there was no extra toothpaste.
“What kept you so late?” Lucky asked, knowing he was poking, and bracing himself for blowback. But as the eldest, he felt he had to at least poke a little.
“Work,” she said.
