Page 71 of Tripped By Love
He looked away with a bashful, careless shrug.
Maliyah looked behind us, and I moved sideways to tug Cassidy forward. Maliyah looked her over from head to toe, and her face broke into a huge smile. “Well, aren’t you just a beautiful sight. I have you to thank for keeping my boys so well fed, I hear.”
Cassidy turned pink. “Well…I do like to cook.”
Maliyah laughed and stuck a hand out. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Cassidy.”
Cassidy shook her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, too. I’ve heard so much about you that it’s like meeting a legend.”
Maliyah looked surprised. “My boys have been talking about me? That doesn’t sound like either of them.”
Maria Carmen chuckled. “Maybe we can move the inquisition into the house, ‘Li, instead of on the street.”
We followed the older women inside. Music was playing in the background. Latin pop songs that seemed as much a part of Maria Carmen’s home as the brightly colored walls and teak wood that she decorated with. She’d once told me that if she couldn’t be at the beach in Playa del Carmen, then she’d bring it to her, and that was exactly what it looked like. As if you could step outside the back door and find the bright blue of the ocean hitting a sandy shore.
The place smelled like chilis, and when we entered the kitchen, there was a tamale assembly line laid out on the counter. Maria Carmen normally only made them for holidays because they were so much work. I wondered if it was because we were there or because we’d brought a guest that had her breaking out the masa and husks.
When I looked over at Cassidy, her eyes lit up seeing the ingredients. “I’ve always wanted to make tamales, but I was afraid I’d screw it up.”
Maria Carmen beamed. “You’ve come to the right place. No one makes tamales like me.”
“Way to be humble, Car,” Maliyah teased.
Maria Carmen shrugged. “It’s the truth. You know it as well as I do.” She turned back to Cassidy. “There are two secrets to making tamales. One is in the masa itself, and the other is in how you cook them. Most people cook them too long, and they end up dried hunks of dust. Come on, I’ll show you.”
She waved at Cassidy to join her in the kitchen, and Cassidy’s eyes grew. “You’d tell me your secrets?”
Maria Carmen laughed. “There are no secrets. It really is all in the execution. If you succeed at it, I’ll be ecstatic because none of my children have perfected it. Someone needs to carry on the tradition.”
“You don’t even know me,” Cassidy said quietly.
Maria Carmen winked at her, shot an eye at me, and then said in a conspiratorial whisper that wasn’t a whisper, “That boy has never brought a woman home. I kind of think you’re family now.”
I could feel the flush that littered my cheeks and was pleased to see it covered Cassidy’s also. Our eyes met, awareness drifting between us even though we were separated by an entire kitchen and three other bodies. Family. God, it hurt to think of Cassidy that way as much as I wanted it to be true—for her and Chevelle to be mine forever.
I pushed the thought away as quickly as it hit me.
Maria Carmen pulled Cassidy toward the counter, rambling as they washed their hands, and started work on the tamales. Maliyah stood next to me, watching while Jonas continued to pass his thumbs over his phone screen.
“You love her,” Maliyah said so softly I had to tilt my head to hear her.
I looked down at her in surprise. Love. I couldn’t even admit to myself how deeply I wanted Cassidy O’Neil, let alone bring up the word love. The only truths I knew were that I wanted her in every way it was possible to want someone and that the emotions she evoked in me were stronger and more uncontrollable than any I’d ever had.
She chuckled quietly. “Didn’t realize it? It’s written all over you.”
She looked at Cassidy again, the joy and wonder on Cassidy’s face as she learned about the art of tamale making from Maria Carmen. “She loves you, too. Even if neither of you has said it.”
That stabbed me in the stomach, twisting my gut and my heart until I wasn’t sure I could breathe.
“Don’t panic,” Maliyah said. “But also don’t screw it up by doing something insanely Marco-like by thinking she deserves someone better. There is no one better,mijo. You are the best kind of man there is.”
Her voice was filled with emotions, making a lump appear in my throat.
“It’s wrong,” I choked out at first. “She’s my boss’s sister. She’s…” I couldn’t even begin to verbalize what Cassidy was. She was a true angel. Not perfect, and I didn’t have her sitting on some goddamn pedestal, but she was heaven-sent.
“She’s perfect for you,” Maliyah said as if I’d spoken the words aloud.
She didn’t give me a chance to respond. Instead, she turned to Jonas, and in a move faster than he or I expected, she swiped his phone and tucked it into her pocket. “You’ve lived on that thing for a month I bet. Marco would never tell you to stop. Now, you’re here with me, and you will give me your undivided attention for the next couple hours at least.”
