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“Piper,” Leo snapped. His entire family swiveled their heads away from their separate conversations. Piper shrunk, folding her arms over her chest, her obvious tell that she was now uncomfortable. “I—sorry.” Leo swallowed, dividing his eye contact between Antonio and Saanvi. “You should definitely take her advice and pay her for it. She’s helping with the set design for the musical. I’ve seen her work, and she’s really good. And you,” his gaze landed on Piper, who had a dazed expression on her face. “I know you’re capable of standing up for yourself, so stop selling yourself short. It’s irritating.”
Piper dropped her fork onto her plate with a clank and glared at him. “I was being nice, Leo. Not that you would know what that’s like.”
“Damn,” Marcos whispered, trying to hold back a laugh. “I think you’ve met your match, Leo.”
Then, because his family was ruthless, they all hopped on the Piper train and ganged up on him.
“Yeah, Leo, lighten up! You’re such a sourpuss.” Mariana grinned.
“You know, if you keep frowning like that, your face is going to stay that way permanently,” Alvaro warned in his best fatherly tone.
“What he needs is a woman to keep him in line.” Abuelita pointed a bony finger in the air.
“He is capable of smiling, I swear.” Leo’s mother looked right past him to Piper, who was cackling at everyone’s antics. Lucia then turned to Leo. “Where did I fail you? Did you not receive enough attention as a baby?”
“I dropped him once,” Mateo offered.
Lucia shook her head. “No, that was Alvaro.”
“So that’s why I failed that one class,” Alvaro cut in and then winked at Piper.
The fork Leo was gripping hard enough to bend dug into his palm. “No, it’s because you didn’t study and you were too busy screwing around with whoever you were seeing at the time.” It might have been in poor taste for Leo to bring up Alvaro’s propensity to bounce around from relationship to relationship, but he wanted to take an ax to his brother’s flirtation and chop it off at the knees. Alvaro wasn’t good enough for Piper. No one was, but Alvaro especially, because Leo couldn’t stomach the idea of his brother touching someone who was his, even if Piper had only been his for one night.
The teasing atmosphere at the table died off with Leo’s biting remark, and Alvaro looked pissed. “Do you need help taking that stick out of your ass?” he asked.
“¡Se calman o los calmo!” Their mother snapped her fingers and jabbed one at Alvaro.
“You two can have it out in the ring tomorrow, but for now, you will apologize to our guest for being so rude.” Leo’s father was calm, but Leo could easily see the fury written behind his eyes as he flicked his gaze between Leo and Alvaro.
“Sorry.” Alvaro’s apology to Piper was less than enthusiastic, with a sidelong glance at Leo for getting him into the mess in the first place.
Out of all his siblings, Leo sparred with Alvaro the most. They had shared a room for seventeen years. They were also complete opposites. Alvaro was charismatic, made friends with everyone, and wore bright colors. Leo had a select few friends and preferred black. Despite all of that, Alvaro was still the person Leo confided in the most, so when his brother looked his way, Leo took a deep breath and set his hand on the back of Piper’s chair. It was the most truth he could offer at that moment. He had no idea what this thing was with Piper, and she still frustrated him to no end, but there was something magnetic about the way his body wanted to touch her. Something ferocious about the jealousy that gnawed at his insides when someone much more in line with Piper’s characteristics also noticed how beautiful she was.
Alvaro gave him an almost imperceivable nod, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly. Leo turned to Piper next. She was shyly folding her napkin into a perfect triangle and not looking at him.
“Hey,” Leo murmured and tucked a finger under her chin so she’d meet his gaze. Her eyes were large pools of blue he wanted to drown in, and guilt clawed up his chest for making dinner so uncomfortable for her. “I’m sorry for being a,” he paused for a second and opted for appropriate phrasing in front of his parents, “jerk.” Realizing that his fingers were still propped under her chin, he quickly dropped them and avoided every single one of his family members’ gazes.
“It’s fine.” Piper traded her discomfort for the fake smile she always wore, and Leo’s stomach dropped. Unless it was on stage, he fucking hated that smile.
“I’m gonna use the restroom,” Leo announced, yanking his chair back from the table. His entire family watched him with rapt attention, mouths all slightly parted except Abuelita. She sat in her wheelchair at the other end of the table with a knowing smirk as Leo stomped off toward the bathroom.
Thirty-Four
PIPER
Soon after Leo abandoned Piper at the table, the Diaz family started to clean up dinner. They were adamant that she not lift a finger to help, so she sat with her hands in her lap, stewing over her dispute with Leo. She wished she were allowed to help with the cleanup just so she would have something to do to stop her unraveling thoughts. Leo’s abrupt exit seemed to be more of an excuse to get away from her than anything else, and she couldn’t place whether he was rethinking holding his hand to her face or if he was pissed about her reaction to his apology.
Instead of doing anything productive, Piper did what she did best and overthought everything. What was bothering her most was not Leo’s apology—that seemed genuine enough—it was that he had been right in the first place, even if he had said it in his usual bark. She had taken a budding opportunity to create and do something she loved and snuffed out the embers. Interior design was not just her hobby, and yet, she had acted like it was some side gig she wasn’t good at or capable of. If she kept this up, none of her employees would ever respect her. She had the talent, she knew she did, but she found herself always trying her best to make sure no one knew about it.
A thump against the table beside Piper had her looking up from her fidgeting hands. Isabel’s wheelchair had hit one of the legs of the table, rattling the dirty dishes still atop it. She offered Piper a warm smile.
“You’d think after the last three years of wheeling myself around I would know how to use it.” Isabel wheeled back a bit from where the tire had connected with the table.
“Well, I’ve had my legs for twenty-one years, and that doesn’t stop me from running into every coffee table I can find.” Piper chuckled.
Isabel’s strong laugh surprised Piper, though it shouldn’t have, considering how strong Isabel’s personality was. When her laughter died down, she yanked out the chair Leo had been sitting earlier in to make space for her wheelchair and pulled up beside Piper. “What are you thinking about over here?” Isabel asked. Her accent was thick, and her voice had a motherly tone to it.
“Is it that obvious?” Piper sighed and ran a hand through her hair, tactfully avoiding eye contact.
