Page 72 of Tripped By Love
“Tía…it’s important,” Jonas said, frustration filling his face.
Maliyah lifted her cane, waved it around the room at the rest of us, and then put it back down before saying, “This is important, Jonas. The humans in your life who are in front of your face, caring about you on a daily basis.”
“But?”
“You can have it back after dinner,” she said firmly.
He looked like he was going to lose his shit, and I sent him a glare that he saw and looked away from. He grunted out an unhappy, “Fine.”
We spent the next two hours working in the kitchen with Maria Carmen, assembling enough tamales to feed a small army. Because it really would be a small army who appeared on her doorstep once the extended family heard there was a gathering going on at her house. There didn’t have to be an official invite. There didn’t even have to be a reason for the crowd to assemble. Us being there and Maria Carmen having made tamales would be reason enough.
Cassidy laughed and joked with both Maria Carmen and Maliyah, the stress and worry of earlier hiding away. I was grateful to both women for giving her something I hadn’t been able to give her in the last few weeks?a respite from the burdens on her shoulders.
The door started opening at four o’clock. People drifted in carrying dishes with them, and the noise got louder, the music almost disappearing under the thunder of the voices talking. People shouted across the room to each other, laughing and arguing with a friendly banter. Maria Carmen’s home was always this way. Smiles. Joy. Family.
People greeted Jonas and me the same way they greeted all the others that came in. Warm claps on the back or pats on the shoulder. Teases and taunts that made Jonas and me both turn red and only increased the ribbing they gave us. We’d always been welcome here.
I was standing in a corner of the kitchen with a plate full of food that had all been homemade when Cassidy joined me with her own plate just as full. I shot the plate a grin, raising my eyebrow. “You better hope you have room for all that. Maria Carmen has only one rule: if you dish it, you eat it.”
Cassidy smirked. “I may go back for seconds.”
I laughed. There was nowhere to sit because the tables and chairs inside and out were full of bodies, so we both ate on our feet. My plate was empty before I even really realized I’d downed it, and to my surprise, Cassidy had kept pace with me. I took our empty plates and tossed them before returning to her. Our arms were almost touching, the awareness drifting between us again, coating me with a heat like a shot of tequila.
“It’s amazing,” Cassidy said, eyes drifting around the room.
“It really is.”
She looked up at me. “Brady would kill you if he knew you were skipping out on this to be with him almost every holiday. Your family must miss you.”
It brought the lump back to my throat that had risen when Maliyah had said that I loved Cassidy and that she loved me too. I thought back to all the times I’d signed up to stay with Brady and his family over the years during the holidays. I’d gone home with him to Grand Orchard even before he’d moved there permanently to be with Tristan.
My reasoning had always been clear. Brady had needed me—or rather, he’d needed someone. I’d wanted the married guys on our detail to be with their partners. I’d wanted Trevor to be with his mother and his sister who counted on him in the absence of their dad, and I’d known that Maliyah and Jonas had this?a family so large that one body missing would hardly be noticed. But as I looked down into Cassidy’s golden eyes, I also knew a truth that I’d never admitted to myself. I’d wanted to see her. To be near her. She may have only been eighteen the first time we’d met, but over the years, I’d watched her become this vibrant, strong, independent woman who’d captivated me. She’d faced every single thing life had thrown at her with a fiery determination that awed me.
“I guess…” I swallowed hard. “I guess I went where I needed to be.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You aren’t the only one who can protect Brady.”
I shook my head. “That’s not what I meant.” A little frown appeared between her brows again that I tried to rub away with my thumb just like I had earlier at the airport. “I meant…that’s whereIneeded to be.”
It took her a minute to understand what I meant.
“Wh-what?”
My fingers found hers, twining them together. “You don’t need me to explain it.” My voice was deep, full of emotions.
“I...I just…” She stumbled over her words like she often stumbled over steps, and it frustrated her just as it did when she fell. “You can’t possibly mean you were there for me.”
“Why not?”
She laughed softly. “Marco, until two years ago, you’d hardly spoken ten words to me.”
I chuckled and shrugged, bringing her hands up to my mouth and kissing the back in a move that was so unlike me, especially when I was in the middle of a crowd, in front of people who knew me, that it surprised even me. “I don’t think it was a conscious thing, Angel. It just happened. Souls drawn to souls.”
Maria Carmen’s shithead of a Chihuahua bounded through the room, having been let in because someone hadn’t shut the slider, and he ran into Cassidy’s legs, causing her to wobble. I placed my hands around her waist and drew her up close against me. My heart was pounding a furious pace. One that hers returned. I could see it in the flutter of the pulse at her neck and the way the gauzy tank she wore rose and fell as if being blown by a breeze.
Her eyes fell to my lips before finding mine again. “Your words are beautiful, Marco. You need to use them more.”
“Yeah?” I asked. “I’ve always preferred action to words.”
