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Better than good after this past week. And he’d be great once the danger to Shelby was put behind bars.
His mom dropped the knife and reached up to palm his cheeks with both hands. “Thank you, mijo. Please know, you can talk to us anytime. You and Rey. We’re here for you always and in anything. That’s what family is for.”
The tears shimmering in her blue eyes tore at his heart. He reached up to grasp her hands and lowered them between them. “I know you are, but I also need you to understand, there are some things that…you just can’t tell the people you love.”
“You’ll get no judgment from us, Dev,” his dad said gruffly. “I would hope you know that.”
“I do, Dad, but that’s not it.” Or maybe it was a little, but not entirely. More so it was to protect them, not himself. “It’s…hard to explain. All I can really do is ask you to trust me when I tell you I’m getting the help I need.”
His dad nodded.
“And Reyes?” Mom squeezed his hands tight. “Does he talk to someone?”
Dev met his dad’s gaze, then shifted back to her with a grimace. “I don’t think so. He knows I do, but when I bring it up, he changes the subject, or tells me he’s fine.”
“Does he talk to you at all?”
“Some.”
“Mark tells me he’s up all hours of the night whenever they’re home,” Dad said quietly.
Not quite. Rey could only sleep when he kept the lights on, but like many things, that was his story to tell. Plus, Dev only knew some of the details.
He gave his mom a gentle smile. “I know it’s hard, but we gotta give him time. And I promise, I’ll keep working on him.”
More tears flooded her eyes as she nodded, and Dev pulled her in for a hug while meeting his dad’s gaze over her head. “I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you guys sooner. I’ll do better.”
His dad reached out to give his shoulder a firm squeeze. The glimmer of moisture brightening his eyes made Dev’s burn. He quickly blinked the burn away. “So…now that we got through all that, how about we get back to dinner? I heard Shelby’s stomach growling on the way over here.”
“Oh!” His mom shoved free of his arms and swiped at her cheeks as she gave Shelby a sheepish smile. “Hon, I’m so sorry.”
“I’m fine, Elena, really.”
Shelby glared at Dev, but having been on the receiving end of more than one of her authentic stare-downs, he didn’t buy the fake anger one bit. He grabbed his water glass and made his way over to where she stood while his parents turned their attention back to the food preparation.
“Satisfied?” he asked in reference to the little family therapy session she’d instigated.
She lifted her sangria for a sip while watching the cooks. “The real question is, are you?”
He glanced down when she turned her face up to his. The pride and approval in her soft, brown eyes hit him right in the chest, and his throat constricted as he nodded. “Yeah, I am. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Her soft smile drew his gaze down to a pair of lips lightly stained from the plum-colored sangria. As he stared, her breath hitched, and her tongue darted out to lick at any stray drops of the fruit-infused wine.
Holy fuck—he wanted his own taste.
When he lifted his gaze to hers, heat sizzled in the air between them, threatening to evaporate every last shred of his common sense.
The creak and thump of the oven door jolted him back to reality. He glanced over to see his mom had pulled out a full pan of empanadas to set on the stovetop, while his dad tossed the Caesar salad.
While taking a breath to try to slow his racing pulse, a light bump of his shoulder against Shelby’s sloshed the liquid in her glass. “Come on, help me set the table so we can feed that bear growling in your stomach.”
Chapter 22
Shelby lifted her arms up over her head as she rolled over, eyes still closed against the inevitable morning after Dev had trained her on more self-defense moves for over an hour after they got back from dinner with his parents.
The soreness in her muscles triggered a low groan with her yawn as she extended her hands outward.
