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Chapter Four
“Is she all right?”
The question was asked with an expressionless voice, but Samantha was not fooled. Her nephew cared more than he wanted to let on, and the fact that he was hiding it was very interesting.
“She’s in my room changing.” She was deliberately vague.
Leandro’s lips tightened. “But did she seem okay?”It was possible that he had allowed himself to be carried away a little too much earlier, he admitted to himself reluctantly. But in his defense, it had truly not been deliberate in any way. He had not sought to make her embarrassed, and yet somehow it happened anyway.
Samantha asked, “Why don’t you check on her?”
Leandro shrugged. He would prefer to be dead than admit to anyone he did not want to risk being alone with Roberta Granger again. She angered him so easily, and yet she just as easily aroused him. It did not make sense how a girl like her could make him feel so much when she clearly thought he was a first-class asshole.
“Have you changed your mind about her then?” This was from Derek, which had his mother looking at him with interest and his cousin scowling.
He dug his hands into his pants’ pockets. “Yes. I’ve changed my mind about her,” he said finally. No matter how much he lusted after the waspish woman, Leandro knew that the smartest thing to do was to leave things be.
Yesterday’s kiss had been phenomenal, but tonight’s kiss had been...revealing.
It told him one simple truth: Roberta Granger was the type of girl who would only sleep with a guy she thought herself in love with. If he made her his fake girlfriend, it would only end with pain, and there would be nothing fake about it.
“People will draw the wrong conclusions if you don’t go after her,” Samantha said quietly. She knew she was being unfair, deliberately making her nephew feel guilty about his actions. But she told herself the ends justified the means. It was clear that Leandro and Bobby had a connection, and it was just as clear that Leandro – for whatever reason – was determined not to do anything about it.
I hope you can find him a girl who will make him realize that one doesn’t have to be perfect to be loved,Elena Christopoulos had told Samantha in her call last night.Leandro has been badly shaken by his father’s heart attack, and he blames himself for it. He hasn’t told me anything but I know he is going to do something drastic, something that he thinks a perfect son would do.
If there was someone least perfect for Leandro, then that would be the outspoken and snarky Roberta, Samantha thought. And that was what perversely made the girl perfect for him at the same time.
“She’ll get over it.”
“Some other girls may, but Bobby won’t.”
Derek’s words had Leandro looking at his cousin sharply.
“I’m not in a position to say anything, but she had a rather bad time of it in high school. It’s made her more vulnerable than she seems to...gossip.”
“It has to do with a boy, doesn’t it?”
Derek didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. Leandro was already walking away.
****
