Page 18 of Sleeping with the Frenemy
“Don’t even start, Abuela,” Sofi butt in.
Leo noticed Abuelo Papo perk up, but he was too busy watching Sofi giving her grandmother the stare down to pay much attention. He wondered what that was about.
“What?” Doña Fina said with forced breeziness. “A man who is tall, handsome, can sing, and play the guitar? There are worse husbands to have.”
“Abuela, listen to me closely when I say that I would rather be buried alive in an underwater tomb.”
“Ay que exagerada eres,” Doña Fina told Sofi with a huff.
“Besides, Leo isn’t the marrying kind,” she told her abuela. “He’s a guy you have a good time with for a very short time at best, and a fuckboy at worst.”
Ouch. “Meanwhile, Sofi is a she-demon who will rip a guy’s heart out of his chest with her bare hands and eat it if he’s stupid enough to go anywhere near her.”
“Thank you,” Sofi said.
He could tell she was only being partially facetious. He rolled his eyes.
“What’s a fuckboy?” Mami asked suddenly. He’d forgotten she was even there. “Is that like a Game Boy?”
“Go ahead, Leo. Tell Mami what a fuckboy is.”
He looked at Kamilah, who was watching everything go down with her own amused yet scandalized look. Little sisters were the worst. There was no way he was getting into that right now, especially not with his mom.
“That means that he likes to sleep around, but doesn’t take any of them seriously,” Abuelo Papo pointed out helpfully.
Leo dropped his head into his hand. Who the fuck kept teaching his old-ass grandpa current slang? People in their eighties were not supposed to be that in the know.
“Ay, Leo,” his mom said with enough disappointment to make Leo want to drop his head farther. “You need to stop playing games and find yourself the right woman to marry.”
Leo had found her a long time ago, but she didn’t want him. He wasn’t going to tell his mom that though, so instead he said, “But, Mami, how can I know which one is the right one unless I try a bunch out first?”
“Cochino.” She smacked him on the arm. It was something she’d done more times than either one of them could remember, but none of those times had been after his injury. They’d definitely never been after he’d already overworked the shit out of that injured arm.
Leo sucked in a pained breath as what felt like a burning electric shock radiated from his neck to the tips of his fingers and back again. His other hand immediately came up to try to rub the pain away, but it only sent more burning through his nerves. “Fuck!” He bent forward, screwing his eyes up tight.
“Oh my God, Leo,” his mom exclaimed.
He felt the very lightest brush of her hand and jerked away. “Don’t touch me,” he grit out through his clenched teeth.
“Ven. Let’s give him a minute,” Abuelo Papo said.
Leo didn’t have to look up to know that he was shooing everyone away.
A hand landed on his good shoulder lightly. “There’s a chair right behind you. Sit down.” It was Liam’s voice.
Leo plopped down into the seat. He was grateful that Liam was already familiar with how the pain made Leo’s legs feel weak sometimes. It had happened plenty of times when Leo was helping him around the distillery, especially at the beginning. Leo did his best to take deep breaths. He tried to focus and breathe through the pain, which was already lessening, thank God.
A few seconds later he opened his eyes and raised his head, immediately locking eyes on Sofi, who had her hands clenched at her sides like she was doing her best not to reach for him.
The worst though was the look in her eyes. She looked at him with pity.
Leo tore his eyes from hers and looked for his mom. He knew she felt terrible and indeed when he found her standing a few feet away it was clear.
She was staring at him with the most heartbreaking look of guilt and pain on her face. “I’m so sorry,” she cried, tears streamed down her face.
He stood and reached his good hand out for her.
She lurched forward, her hand meeting his although she didn’t come any closer.
