Page 18 of Hot Momosa

Leo

The party continued around me,but I couldn’t get my mind off Dahlia.

Long ago, a psychology professor told me that it took great insight or great pain for people to change. Which had Dahlia suffered to turn her into someone who would lie about a sick child?

While I hadn’t seen Dahlia in a little over a year, we’d been fixtures in each other’s lives for ten times as long. We’d met as college freshman. I’d known her during her sorority phase, her rebel without a clue phase, and her sexual exploration phase. I’d held her when some jackass broke her heart, when she’d failed chemistry, and when she peed on the stick that told us we were going to have a baby.

Insight and pain aside, I fucking knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t lie without a damned good reason—it killed me to know her damned good reason was to get away from me.

Maggie plopped down in the patio chair beside me. “Are you okay?”

“I’m so far from okay, I’m not even on the same continent.” I finished my beer and set the bottle on the deck.

“I apologize for giving you a hard time earlier.” She gave me a sly smile that told me she wasn’t all that sorry.

“Make it up to me by telling me what’s really going on with Dahlia.”

She closed her eyes and dipped her chin. “You know I can’t betray her confidence. It’s girl-law.”

“The female version of the bro-code. I get it, but this is different. I’m worried about her. She wasn’t herself tonight.” I needed a better argument than my hurt feelings if I expected Maggie to spill it. “If the paparazzi’s freaking her out, we can handle them. Pops has connections.”

“Papa Joe’s connections can’t help this time.” She drew a breath as if to say more, but shook her head and sighed. “All you can do is let her know you care.”

“What the hell, Mags?” I glanced around to make sure Gabe hadn’t heard me raise my voice to his wife. “I need to know if something serious is going on.”

“You two haven’t seen each other in quite a while. Give her a chance to learn to trust you again.”

Her words hit me in the solar plexus. “She doesn’t trust me?”

“You hurt her.” Maggie stood and forced a smile. “It’s not like you can pretend the last year didn’t happen.”

I wanted to tell her Dahlia wasn’t the only one who’d been hurt. I wanted to argue that we had the kind of friendship that time couldn’t touch. I wanted to believe everything would finally work out, the stars would align and Dahlia and I would finally be together, but I couldn’t bullshit her or myself.

I have my work cut out for me.

“You’re right.” I grinned because I’d been raised to believe that men didn’t cry. “Put in a good word for me, will ya?”

“Of course.” She kissed my cheek. “While we’re on the subject of neglected relationships…”

Neglected relationships? Is that what I’d done? Abandoned Dahlia because of my pride?

Maggie lowered her voice. “Spend some time with your brother. Gabe misses you.”

“Are you trying to pawn your husband off on me?” I chuckled because what else could I do? She was right. I’d avoided Gabe because I was fucking jealous.

As if he knew we were talking about him, Gabe walked over and slung his arm around her shoulders. “It’s about time we call it a day. The kids are tired and cranky.”

“Sure. Give me a minute to say goodnight to your mom.” She glanced at me, bugged her eyes, and nodded toward my brother before walking away.

I took the hint. “We should take the boat out one day this week.”

He smirked. “Let me guess—my wife set up a play date for the two of us.”

“Something like that.” I pushed to my feet. “But it’s overdue. Marco and Dante are in town for another week. I’ll set something up with them and Enzo. It’s been too long since we all hung out.”

“Sounds good.” He gave me a half-hug and slapped my back harder than necessary.

I’d planned to wait for Stuart to return from dropping off Dahlia, but the kiddos weren’t the only ones who were tired and cranky. Besides, I intended to take Maggie’s advice and work on rebuilding Dahlia’s trust. Which made pumping the guy for information counterproductive.

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