Page 4 of Nocturnal Sins
Pop yanked me from my recollection when he said, “Sometimes you’re too much like me for your own good, Santana.”
“How’s that?” I smiled, tossing a dishtowel over my shoulder.
“You want instant gratification. You want things fast and you want them your way.”
“Can’t argue with that,” I nodded. Our words fell to silence when the doors to the restaurant opened. In walked sunshine and blue fucking skies. My face lit up at the sight of Sammie.
A warm smile slid across her face when our eyes met. She was still pretty as ever even though it was clear that she filled out a little more while I was in school. My eyes swept the restaurant to see if any motherfuckers were looking at her in ways they shouldn’t have been.
I really wished she hadn’t worn her cheerleading uniform. She was a feast of sights for hungry men. For predators who had no problem trying to bed a seventeen-year-old.
Sammie was a fucking vision though. She was a portrait of dusky amber skin, thick strands of butterscotch brushed up high in a swishing ponytail, and olive green eyes that had me helplessly wrapped around her pinky. My little sister was my biggest and only weakness. It had been that way since she was a baby.
“Santana!” She squeaked like she wasn’t in my bed bugging the fuck out of me this morning with a million questions.
“What’s up, Sammie?” She catapulted into my arms knocking the dishtowel to the floor.
“Damn, I must be chopped liver,” Pop chuckled and held his arms out. Pink dusted Samira’s cheeks as she hugged him.
“Sorry. I just never get to see my brother anymore. It’s like he’s a freaking celebrity.” I snorted at her use of the wordfreaking. Sammie cursed like a grown ass man and maybe that was my fault but hearing her try to hide it always made me burst at the seams with laughter.
“So, are we having a big family dinner?” Sammie tossed one slender arm around my shoulders and the other around Pop. “Mom would have wanted it that way,” she pinned both of us with a green stare. We couldn’t say no to her.
That was her superpower. She could make anyone agree with her. She had cunning unlike anything I’d ever seen in my life. One look into those big eyes and everyone submitted.
“You cooking?” Pop chided, nudging her ribs with his elbow. I saw a few guys staring at the way Sammie’s pleated white skirt slid up her thighs while her arms around me and Pop’s high, broad shoulders. Anger forced my jaw muscles shut. I clenched my teeth together until a dull throb pulsed through my neck.
Being Samira’s big brother meant I was constantly fighting off assholes that didn’t know how to keep their hands or their eyes to themselves. Her gaze was on me like hot coals the second she felt me stiffen. She knew my temper well.
“Behave, Santana,” she sang in my ear. She let go of Pop and hung her arms around my neck.
“You need to put on some goddamn clothes.” I used my body to shield her from view but the guy in the corner couldn’t keep his fucking eyes to himself. He tossed his papers in the trash and smiled as he walked past Sammie. He smiled like a goddamn wolf and it took everything in me not to shove him out of the door.
“Santana, we got orders coming in.” Marco, the other cook in the kitchen only kind of pulled my attention from the asshole in the corner.
“Go,” Pop grumbled once he noticed my disposition darkening like storm clouds. I stalked back to the kitchen and behind me I heard the shuffling of feet. I slowed in my stride and waited for what I knew was Sammie to catch up.
“I was serious about having a big family dinner,” she said. A smile brightened her face and I felt a chunk of anger dissolve from my bones. “I can make refried beans, tamales, and yellow rice.” Her grin widened and her red nails danced up and down my shoulders. I rubbed my stomach thinking about all the food she was mentioning. I hadn’t had a good home cooked meal in a while.
“Okay. We can do it. You better make it like Mom did too.” Even the thought of my mother made my chest so heavy I thought I might suffocate. I had to focus on something else…anythingelse. I pulled a deep breath in through my nose and let my eyes fall shut for a second.
I smelled garlic and tomatillos in the air along with the spice of peppers being chopped on the counter by Marco. I opened my eyes again and looked down at the chicken in front of me on the grill top.
“I miss her too,” Samira said. Still, nobody missed her the way I did. The second that thought crept into the shadows of my mind, I banished it. My sister missed Mom just as much as I did.
She was the only mother Sammie knew. Her own mom abandoned her and Pop in the hospital when she was only a couple days old. To be totally honest, I never knew Sammie wasn’t my blood sister until I was a teenager. Most of my memories started with her and ended with her.
“I know you do, Sammie,” I said, clearing my throat. “Hey, do me a favor?” I lifted an eyebrow at her and she nodded, her tawny ponytail bouncing up and down. “Go shopping for the food for dinner and when you do, put some fucking clothes on. I don’t want to murder half of Rhode Island because you can’t keep your little ass covered up.” The chicken breasts on the grill sizzled when I flipped them over. Metal clanged against metal when I chopped the meat with my spatula.
Sammie’s laughter tore through the hissing and chopping sounds in the air and it caught hold of me, forcing a chuckle out. “Santana, shut the hell up. I can wear what I want. I’m about to turn eighteen.” She spun in a little circle and her skirt flared out in a fan of white.
I grunted in response and shook my head. I pulled the chicken off the grill and set it on a platter then handed it off to Marco. He wasn’t paying attention to me though because he was busy staring at Sammie with a smirk.
“Hey,” I snapped my fingers and he jerked his eyes to mine. He offered me a weak smile that made me want to shove a few choice words down his throat. “Do me a favor, Marco, and keep your fucking eyes to yourself.”
“I didn’t mean any harm. Sam knows she’s beautiful though. I barely get to see her back here she’s always out front talking to everyone else but me,” he said.
“Stop it, Marco. I say hi to you whenever I come in,” she reasoned.
