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Rio ribbed Ares. “Brother.”
“What?” He bobbed his shoulders in annoyance. “She could have easily fixed herself a room there.”
“So, I feed you and this is how you repay me?”
The boys’ heads turned. Rio was amused. Ares’ mouth twitched but that was all I got.
I sighed and started picking my nails. “I’m the result of a one-night-stand. He almost didn’t sign the paternity papers but his mother insisted. He didn’t want anything to do with me. Still doesn’t. I doubt he’d take me in. I bet he doesn’t even remember my name.”
The table went silent. If not for my grandmother, I’d never have learned anything about being Cuban. That woman was marvelous, keeping my mom and me close. I missed her so much. Her death really took a number on me.
Luckily, it couldn’t get extremely awkward. My phone chimed. I couldn’t reach it fast enough. I picked up to a bubbly Steph.
“Hey, you!”
“Hey, there yourself.”
“Any plans tonight?” she asked.
I watched the boys at the table. Rio dipped a spoon in the pan of sauce and licked it clean while Ares watched me, hands in his pockets and a scowl on his face.
I cleared my throat. “Nope.”
“Good. What time is it?”
I checked the digital clock on the oven. “A little past seven.”
“Well, then, get your ass over here in about an hour. I’ve got some designs I need you to try on.”
I groaned. “No, Steph, no more bikinis.”
Someone coughed, and it wasn’t Rio. He was laughing around another spoonful.
“Pinky promise,” Steph assured.
Giddy to leave the whiplash that were the twins behind, I accepted her offer. “Bottle of bubbly is on me.”
Steph ended the call with a squeal. I pocketed my phone and started to pile the remnants onto a plate to store in the fridge. Rio took it from my hands before I wrapped some cling film around it.
“You go. You already cooked. Ares and I will clear the table.”
While Ares didn’t seem to agree with his brother, I smiled at the both of them and spun around, thanking them before I made my way upstairs.
“Have fun,” I heard Ares call out to his brother before he dashed up the stairs. He probably decided Rio could get the kitchen cleaned up by himself.
I paused, looking behind me to see him closing in. When he saw me stalling, he stopped, planted those stomping feet onto the stairs and sneered, “What?”
“So, uh,” I stammered while turning around, unsure about the idea that just popped in my mind. If I wanted this relationship—or whatever I should call this between us—to be civil, this might be the way to start.
Ares sighed. White knuckles curled around the banister as if he was enduring the most tiresome conversation on the planet. I bit the inside of my cheek, still contemplating whether it was stupid or brave when he took two stairs at a time and stopped three below mine. Eye-level, it’d been the first time I felt more like an equal to him, as he didn’t deliberately tower over me.
He grabbed my chin and made me look at him. It seemed he liked to do that, since he did it a lot. “Are you going to say anything or just stare at me silly?”
Stare at him silly, I could do that. It wasn’t anything that was excruciatingly difficult, since his daddy sure had offered premium sperm to their mother.
“C-can I help you take care of the snakes? I mean, not necessarily today. But when you need to feed them and stuff.”
He popped his lips from between his teeth and bunched his brows before he drily asked, “You want to help me feed Ace?”
