Page 108 of Burn for You

“She’s good for you,” Caio says, his gaze must have followed mine.

I shove my hands in my pockets, turning back around to face them. “Yeah,” I say. “I think she is.”

Heath holds my gaze. “Are you good for her?”

I frown. I didn’t expect that question, but I shouldn’t be surprised. Heath has always got May’s best interest at heart, and until now all he’s seen me be is an asshole to her.

I look back over to where she sits with the girls. Her face lights up as she laughs at something Marina said. “I hope so.”

chapter thirty-eight

RAFAEL

I siton one of the rustic wooden stools that sits under May’s kitchen island. She shunned me to this spot after I got too ’in her face’ as she makes dinner on the other side of the kitchen.

I cringe as she adds a bit more pepper into the pot than I would. My leg is bouncing up and down on the footrest of this stool. I can’t take it anymore.

May’s head whips around as she hears my stool move against the floor.

“Nope.” She points her wooden spoon at me. “No way. Do I need to lock you in the bedroom?”

“Only if you’re coming with me.”

She rolls her eyes, and I grab her by the waist, pulling her into me. “Excuse me! I have a meal to continue if you didn’t notice.”

“I don’t know about that. It looks a bit too far gone.”

She squeals as she tries to escape my grasp, but I don’t give her an inch. “It is not too far gone. You have your family recipes, and I have mine. Trust me.”

I just raise my brows at her. “Oh yeah? How many times have you made it?”

She looks anywhere but my eyes as she says, “More than once…for sure.”

“Oh, that’s really convincing.” I reach for the spoon, but she’s holding it just out of reach.

Her eyes snap to the front door. “Marisol!”

I let go and turn around to see my sister…or not. She’s not here. I turn back around, and May is standing over the cooktop.

“Gotcha.”

My heart rate slows. We invited Marisol to have dinner here tonight, but she’s not due for at least another hour. I don’t know why I’m so nervous. She’s my sister, for god's sake. It’s only that I haven’t seen her in two years, let alone heard from her. When she left, it was like she dropped off the face of the earth. Well, from my life anyway. For everyone else, that’s when she appeared, becoming a famous model almost overnight. Her fans probably know more about her than I do at this point, and it stings to think about that. That she never even tried to contact me, like I wasn’t her brother anymore. We were the only family each other had left, and then she just vanished.

“Hey.” May rests a hand on my arm. “You can stir the stew if it means that much to you.” She holds the spoon out to me.

That pulls a laugh out of me. I’m sure she knows that I’m not standing here stewing about her stew, but she effortlessly knows how to pull me out of my head. I snatch the spoon from her grip. “Let me taste this thing.”

“But it’s not done.” She tries to grab the spoon back from me as I walk over to the pot. “No, wait, I take it back. You’re not allowed.”

“I’m gonna have to try it eventually, you know, when you serve it up for dinner.”

When I’m just about at the stovetop, May bumps her hip into mine, sending me stumbling across the small kitchen. I let out a laugh in pure shock as she snatches the wooden spoon right from my hand and goes to stand in front of the cooktop. “Did you just hip bump me out of the way?”

“Uh-huh,” she says, not lifting her eyes to mine, but I can see the little smirk on her face.

“Oh, you think you’re strong, do you?” Her smirk widens as her cheeks redden, but she still won’t look at me.

I reach out and pull on the top of her shorts, easily yanking her away from the food. She squeals and I bend down, wrapping my arms around her legs and throwing her over my shoulder.

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