“Alta?” he asked and when I nodded, he laughed a little. “Yeah, I know her.”
My chest constricted painfully. “How?”
He shrugged. “Known her all my life.”
My eye twitched, my hands balling into tight fists along the countertop. “And what’s she to you?”
The smartass smiled. A slow, cheeky thing that encompassed his entire face, his eyes alight with the humor of his own joke. Stepping forward, he outstretched his hand.
“Mateo,” he said cheerfully. “I’m Al’s brother.”
Well, fuck me.
Silence fell over the room. That was until my idiots couldn’t hold it in any longer and the sound of muffled laughter began to float around. Shaking his hand, I glowered. He knew what he was doing and judging by the shit-eating grin on his face, he’d enjoyed it.
“Hey,” I said, clearing my throat awkwardly. It was kind of hard to hold my head high after that one.
“Hi,” he said easily. Excited eyes bounced around the surfaces of the shop before returning to me. A wary feeling washed over me by the way he was taking me in. “Soyoumust be the bad company my sister’s been keeping.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Is that what I am?”
“Apparently.” He smiled, his head shaking. “Oh, this issogood.”
My eyes narrowed. “You’re not going to go make trouble for her like that other one, are you?”
“Me?” he asked, the most insincere smirk on his face. “Never.”
I rolled my eyes and sighed. Well, that was just great. Didn’t shehave any normal family? Or did they all just have too much time on their hands and nothing better to do than cause trouble?
“Shop’s pretty cool man,” this Mateo said, his eyes filtering around the room again.
“Really?” I eyed him. “Thought you’d turn your nose up like the other one.”
He huffed a laugh that told me he knew exactly who I was talking about. The shrug he gave seemed to hide something deeper than his simple words. “Yeah well, I’m no Ox.”
Maybe I didn’t hate this guy after all. Lifting my chin I said. “You got ink?”
“A bit,” he said. “I hide most of it. Still afraid of my mom, you know?”
“Word? Where from?”
“Heard of Tore Tattoo before? He—” he stopped, his grin pulling apart again. Damn, I must’ve been making a face, not to mention the five other groans that went up around the room. “Not a fan?”
I decided not to comment. However, I did toss one of the shop’s business cards his way, not so discreetly offering, “If you ever want to add something better to the collection.”
He laughed but took the card anyway, pushing off the counter as he turned toward the door. “Thanks, I’ll think about it. See you around.”
“Hey,” I called, rounding the table to follow him out. He looked at me as I caught up to him. “Where is she? Why’d she have you drop that off instead of coming herself?”
“You don’t know?” he asked, eying me. “I thought you two were close.”
“We are, I just—” I didn’t know what to say because, were we? Sure, we’d slept together a few times. But did that mean we were together? Close? Anything special at all? I scrubbed at the back of my neck and sighed. “I just haven’t heard from her.”
He studied my awkward movements and after a while an earnestness seemed to cross his face. “She’s not feeling well.”
Minutes later I was stepping back into the shop and being welcomed by a slow clap.
“All hail the biggest idiot in Seaside,” Ryan called out grandly.
