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Leo shifted on his feet. “Because she was there for a thank-you dinner, not to get hit on by someone who’d flirt with an inanimate object if it looked at him sideways.”
“Nah.” Marcos shook his head at Leo. “You were looking at her like you wanted to eat her. Varo’s a flirt, but you know he’s harmless.”
“You seemed close enough when you were dancing,” their father agreed.
Leo sputtered. “It’s salsa! Was I supposed to leave room pa Jesucristo?”
“What exactly happened when you had to stay overnight?” Antonio asked. “I can’t imagine your broke ass could afford a separate hotel room.”
“There was a pull-out couch.” Technically, it wasn’t a lie. There had been a pull-out bed. Leo just hadn’t used it or even made it far enough to see what it looked like pulled out.
Alvaro scoffed. “Did you also pull out?”
“Niños respeten,” their father warned with a raise of his eyebrows at Alvaro. Alvaro just stared at his younger brother with smug satisfaction while Leo floundered for a response.
No, I very much stayed in, came to mind, along with and it was the best night of my life.
“No,” he opted for the simpler version, hoping his family would take it as a declaration that he hadn’t hooked up with Piper. Leo knew his father was under no illusions that his children didn’t have premarital sex, and given that Lucia had given birth to Antonio six months after the honeymoon, Mateo didn’t exactly have room to talk. It wasn’t necessary to lie about it, but this time, more than all the other times Leo had slept with someone, it felt personal. He didn’t kiss and tell, so he wasn’t sure why his brothers were so adamant that he spill his deep, dark secrets.
“So, you won’t mind if I do give it a shot, then?” Alvaro asked.
“She’s not your type,” Leo said. He was playing right into his brother’s hand, but he couldn’t help it. If Alvaro and Piper started dating, he’d pull his own hair out.
“What’s it to you if she is or isn’t my type?”
“Varo’s type is everyone.” Marcos laughed. “You gotta come up with a better excuse, Leo.”
“Fine,” Leo huffed. “I mind.”
“Why?” Alvaro pried further. He clearly already knew the answer but wanted to hear it straight from Leo’s mouth.
“We…” Leo looked away. He didn’t even know what the answer was. The hotel was supposed to be a one-time thing. It was supposed to relieve the sexual tension indefinitely. Instead, he was thinking about Piper more than he ever had, and not just about the way she moved under the sheets, but the way she had cried on the porch. How desperately those tears had made him want to hold her. The way it felt to have her in his arms laughing and smiling at him as they danced. Her real smile. He had cataloged her freckles and the delicious shade of pink her cheeks turned when she blushed. The way her lips felt and tasted sliding over his. Frankly, he was both terrified that the hotel room might actually be the last time he would get to kiss her and terrified that he didn’t want it to be the last time. And so, Leo listed off all the other reasons he shouldn’t be interested in Piper Hartrick like it would solve the heart palpitations in his chest when he thought about her.
“Mira, we fight constantly. We disagree on so many things that I don’t see how it would ever work. She lets people walk all over her under the guise of being nice, and I can’t stand it. Half the time when she walks into a room she’s putting on some sort of perfectionist act, yet I seem to be the only person she doesn’t mind openly hating. Not to mention, I’ll be leaving for film school in LA after graduation, and she has a business to take over in Merrick. We don’t want the same things. I’ve never seen her date anyone who wants a family, and you all know that’s what I want eventually, so it doesn’t matter if I like her. It doesn’t matter what happened in the hotel room, because she and I? There is no way I can come out of that unscathed. So, no, Varo. You can’t ask her out, because she’s mine. And no, I won’t ask her out because she’ll never be mine,” Leo bit off.
His brothers and his dad were all staring at him open-mouthed like he had just told them he’d been abducted by aliens and commanded to build Devil’s Tower out of mashed potatoes. Close Encounters of the Third Kind aside, he was done with any and all conversation regarding Piper, so he fisted his hands in his gloves and held them up. “Now, which one of you do I get to take my anger out on before I lose my damn mind?”
Alvaro stepped forward, raising one wrapped hand to volunteer. “This should be good.”
Sweat dripped down Leo’s face as he panted and dropped his hands to his knees. The only one who had given him a run for his money all morning had been his father. Leo could punch harder, but his dad’s technical capabilities far outreached his own. The years of experience and almost daily training his father had on him compared to Leo’s sporadic sessions in his room with one punching bag showed. Offense had always been Leo’s strong suit—he was quick on his feet to spot the perfect time his opponents opened themselves up to take a hit. Given that his father was an extremely defensive boxer and, along with Floyd Mayweather, believed in the longevity of not getting hit at all, it felt nearly impossible to get a punch in. Leo still managed to get a few good hits in, but there was a clear winner when they called it quits, and it wasn’t him.
“Finally!” Antonio shouted from the sidelines. “I think he’s worn out.”
If Leo wanted to, he could blame his clear loss on his exhaustion from going several rounds with all three of his brothers prior to his father, but it wasn’t the truth. He was exhausted, but his skill level was inferior, and he knew it. And despite being tired, he still wanted to keep going. He couldn’t rest for fear of thinking. Thinking led to thoughts of Piper, and he couldn’t take any more of the torment.
“Who’s next?” he called out, taking off his mitts to adjust the sweat-soaked wraps on his hands. His brothers and his father all stared at him like he was insane. “Varo?”
“You already beat me once.” Alvaro shook his head, and his usual playful expression sobered. “I promise I’m not actually interested in Piper. I just wanted you to admit you are.”
Leo ignored him. “Marcos?”
“Uh, I told Harper I’d bring her lunch in a bit. I’m trying out a new recipe, so I gotta head out.”
Marcos was a line chef at a local local restaurant, gunning for the main chef position. It seemed like a valid enough excuse to Leo, but the mention of Harper only reminded him that in two hours he was meeting Piper at Harper’s coffee shop, Roaster’s Republic, before they started their road trip back to Fletcher. He knew she had chosen that location specifically because he had said he’d never been inside before. When she suggested it, he tried to argue again on the front that he couldn’t afford a six-dollar coffee, and Piper had waved him off, reminding him that she needed coffee and she’d buy him one to shut him up for at least part of the drive. It was just a way for her to buy him that coffee he’d never had. They both knew it, but she’d delivered it in a way that made it sound like he was doing her a favor by accepting the freebie. The thoughtfulness of it all had his stomach somersaulting again, and that pissed him off.
Leo locked eyes with Antonio, still searching for an opponent. Antonio shook his head. “I gotta get home. Saanvi’s not feeling so hot.”
“Yo me encargo.” Leo’s father gave all his brothers a short nod toward the locker room, giving them the go-ahead to leave. The way he’d said it sounded more like he was going to “take care of” Leo than take the next round. Once all three of his brothers had slinked off to the showers, his father turned toward him slowly, face calm and unreadable. “Siéntate.” He pointed to a bench off to the side. Leo hesitated before he let out a puff of air through his nose and stomped over to the bench.
