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“Ah, man, I totally should have knocked.”
“Winnie.” Carmen groaned and slapped her forehead. “Your timing is excellent, as always.”
“What’s wrong?” a second voice, much lower and gruffer asked.
At the sound of the second voice, Carmen scrambled up, pushing me off of her, and then realizing I was about to roll onto the floor, she grabbed for me and came with. Now we were wedged between the couch and the coffee table, looking even more incriminating than before.
“Get him out of here,” Carmen hissed.
But it was no use. A shadow loomed over us. A heavily muscled, irritated shadow, draped in flannel. His belt buckle was half the size of my head. “Get off my sister.”
Ah, Eddie. I was bound to meet him at one point or another. Getting up was a harder matter, as there was nowhere to put my knees, and I didn’t want to leverage myself up with an elbow to Carmen’s rib. Beneath me, Carmen began to giggle, which was not helping matters.
“Would you mind dragging the coffee table over a few feet?” I asked.
“Gladly.” Eddie pulled it way farther away than necessary, making a grinding squeal noise. I had a feeling he was restraining himself from doing the same thing to my limbs.
I got up from the floor and helped Carmen to her feet, and then we both sat on the couch.
“Thanks for interrupting the best kiss of my life,” Carmen said with a huff. “Now can you both leave?”
Eddie crossed his arms and stared at me, his eyebrows drawing together. “You look familiar.”
“He’s got one of those faces,” Carmen said quickly.
“Pá said he was a friend of yours.”
“He is.”
“Then why were you two making out?”
Carmen stood and stalked to her brother. She was so much smaller and softer in every way, but she stuck her finger in his chest, and he looked rightly intimidated. “I am twenty-six years old. Get out of my house and stop asking questions. And seriously, knock next time.”
“I texted, saying I was on my way. And then I called and left a message.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“I don’t think she was in any position to answer her phone, dude.” Winnie walked past all of us and headed into the pantry. She had on the same style boots as Eddie, but with a very different effect. Being half his size and wearing hot pink argyle socks to the knees tended to do that.
“My phone’s on silent,” Carmen said with a sigh. “But like I said, calling first is not a replacement for knocking.”
Eddie was back to staring at me. “Is he…? Is that Zac?”
Carmen turned and glanced at me with panic in her eyes, and that’s when I knew this situation was so much worse than bad timing.
Eddie’s face flushed an angry red, seeing the confirmation in our faces. “You made her so sad. She had so much confidence before you ditched her like she was nothing. What is wrong with you? How dare you come back here and mess around with her? I don’t care if you are twenty-six, Carm. Not him. Nothim.”
“Out, Eddie,” Carmen warned, pushing on his chest while he continued pointing at me.
“I’ll leave if he leaves.”
Carmen glared up at her brother. “My place, my rules.”
“No, I’ll go,” I offered. The last thing I wanted to do was drive a wedge between Carmen and her family. Her brother obviously loved her very much. “You stay, Eddie. I’ll call you later, Carmen.”
I retrieved my jacket and jogged out to my truck, jumping in before Eddie got it in his head to follow me out here. Yes, I feared getting my face pounded by someone bigger and angrier than me, but I feared what that would do to Carmen even more, and the last thing I wanted was to cause her an ounce more pain than I’d obviously already brought to her life.
Chapter 33 - Carmen
