She hesitated, searching again for the right words. She’d let him shut down the topic of his inner battles last time. Maybe now it was time to press a little—gently. “It might feel better to get it out, to talk about what happened.”
He gazed at the ceiling rather than at her face. “There’s not much to say. We were dismantling some IEDs on a road into this little village, a strategic spot to catch troops passing through. We thought we’d cleared them all…” He swallowed. “I’d gone ahead a ways, so I was mostly out of the blast radius. The others weren’t. Enfield died. Morton lost his legs.”
“I’m sorry,” Tara repeated.
Luis glanced at her. “You were wrong. It doesn’t get better by talking about it. Not at all.”
She nodded slowly. “I understand. It’s just something you have to live with, and it’s hard.” She pressed a kiss to his chest, right over his heart, and laid her head down again. There was nothing more to say.
The drone of a TV in the apartment above and voices and music coming from the one next door were the only sounds to disturb the silence. Tara lazily thought about peeling herself off him and cleaning up, maybe moving from the living room carpet to the comfort of her bed, but she was too relaxed to stir.
“Hey, you remember that kid who went to our school, Donnie Baker?” The question rumbled into her ear.
“Donnie Baker with the bad acne who thought he was a comedian? Sure. He was a few years older than me and Graci, but I remember him. He kind of stood out. Why?”
“I ran into him over there. You wouldn’t believe how he looks now. No more zits. What you might call a real hottie. But still goofy as hell.”
“I can’t imagine that guy in the military. I was in his English class the day he got kicked out for pulling a prank on Ms. Matherson.”
“I remember hearing about that. He superglued everything onto her desk, the drawers shut, and the chair to the floor.”
Tara laughed. “God, watching her fight with her desk was priceless. I’ve never laughed so hard in my life. Whenever I need to tap a funny memory for a part I’m playing, that’s my go-to scene.”
Luis chuckled, a warm, comfortable sound that eased the ache she felt on his behalf. He stirred and gently pushed her off him. “Maybe we could lie someplace more comfortable than the floor.”
Tara scrambled to her feet and padded into the bathroom. When she was finished, Luis took a turn while she went to the kitchen to see if there was anything she could offer him to eat. She laid several takeout containers on the counter, and when Luis joined her in the kitchen, they stood naked, side by side, heaping plates with odd combinations of Chinese, Mexican, and Italian foods.
While the food microwaved, Tara stared at Luis’s body. She loved the casual way he moved naked around her apartment. Since she wasn’t one for modesty herself, she appreciated that he felt comfortable in his own skin. The sight of his thickly muscled, stocky body started a new tingle of desire stirring inside her. She had to stop gawking at him, or they’d never get a chance to eat.
Luis stood at the kitchen counter and forked up a steaming bite of rice. “Hey, Graci said you were going to fly out to California with Corinne. What happened with that?’
“Well, for one, I’m in this play, so I can’t just go. And two, I can’t afford to take time off work now and again in a few weeks for Bree’s wedding.”
“Graci said she thought you were going to look for work out there.”
Tara raised an eyebrow. “Do you and Graci talk about me a lot?”
“No.” He chewed and swallowed. “I asked about you, and that’s what she said.”
Which suggested he’d been thinking about her these past days as much as she’d been thinking about him. A little flicker of pleasure filled her at the knowledge.
“So, you’re going to be checking out LA and possibly moving there,” he stated rather than asked.
“Whoa. Cart. Horse. I’m just going for Bree’s wedding. I don’t have plans to move anywhere. Not right now.”
“You could, though. What’s stopping you?” He polished off the leftovers and rinsed the plate to add it to her collection in the sink.
What was stopping her? She loved her hometown, loved the many connections she’d made here, old school friends and theater friends and new friends like Dre. She didn’t love the work she did, but it was all right. Anyway, how many people could say they were jazzed every single day about their work?
Tara picked at her moo shu pork and watched Luis begin to fill the sink with soapy water and wash her dishes.
Now she had a new reason for not wanting to leave Cinci. But talk about putting the cart before the horse. There was no reason for her to even include him in her pros and cons columns for staying or leaving. She and Luis had made no kind of commitment.
“So, you really think I’m a coward if I don’t give it a try?” she asked him point-blank.
He glanced at her over one bare shoulder. “I don’t know. What do you think?”
“I think”—she left her half-filled plate and stalked across the kitchen toward him—“that I don’t want to think about it right now. And leave those dishes to soak.”
She wrapped her arms around him and laid her head between his shoulder blades. His skin was so warm, it baked her cheek. She nuzzled that smooth, tanned skin, kissing up and down his backbone until he abandoned the dishes and turned toward her.
“Come on.” She took his wet hand and led him to her bedroom.
***
They took it much slower this time. The urgent rush of earlier had eased, and there was time to play and experiment. Tara learned all the places on his body that made Luis groan, and he touched her everywhere until she writhed.
He took her from behind this time. Tara loved the feeling of his body curved around her back, and the deeper penetration from that angle. He rubbed her clit while he pounded into her, and very soon both of them bucked against each other as they came.
Afterward, they lay entwined on her bed, sweaty and warm, cocooned together in a mass of tangled sheets. Tara drew a deep breath and let it go slowly. She could so get used to this. Being with Luis held all the excitement of something brand-new coupled with the comfortable ease of sharing the experience with a good friend. She could far too easily fall for him, but Tara plus Love had equaled disaster in the past.
She shifted uneasily and pounded her pillow into a new shape.
“You want me to go?” Luis asked, his voice gravelly with sleep.
“No. This is good. Stay.” Already she was eager to wake up with him in the morning, and that wasn’t a good sign.
He grasped her shoulder and turned her toward him so he could see her face. “Hey, listen. I don’t know where this is going, but I’m not going to keep pretending that I don’t want to see you again.”
“Good. Neither am I.” She stared into his warm brown eyes and her doubts melted a little more. “It doesn’t have to be a big deal. We can give this a try and see how it goes.”
“We’ll take it day by day. Keep it casual for now.” He slid his hand down her arm and entwined his fingers with hers.
“Right. No big commitment or anything,” she agreed, relieved that Luis was on the same page. “If either of us wants to end it, no harm no foul and no feelings hurt. We’ll still be friends no matter what.”
He nodded. “We were friends first. That’s what really matters.”
She moved closer, snuggling against him. “I’m glad we talked this out. Now there’s just one more thing we have to figure out.”
“What’s that?” His thumb rubbed in enticing circles on her wrist.
Tara hummed in her throat and shifted restlessly. “If we’re seeing each other, we can’t keep it a secret from Graci. How are we going to tell her? Will she be happy for us? Annoyed? Angry? I don’t know how she’s going to feel about me hooking up with one of her brothers.”
Luis lifted her hand and studied their interlaced fingers, then he brought Tara’s han
d to his mouth and kissed it. “Why would she care? It’s none of her business.”
“Except it sort of is. She’s your family, my best friend. It’s going to matter to her.” She drew her hand away from his and rested her palm on his hard chest. “If it upsets her, if she hates the idea, then this ends. My friendship with Graci comes first.”
He frowned and clicked his tongue. “The horse is already out of the barn. She’ll have to deal with it, because I don’t plan to give up too easily. It’s one thing if you or I want out, but damned if I’m going to let my little sister dictate my love life.”
Already things were getting complicated. She should’ve known that “casual” with Luis couldn’t really be that simple. Not when there were other people involved.
“Anyway,” he said, “no reason to worry about it now. We’ll tell Graci and see what her reaction is.”
Tara nodded. “One step at a time.” She slid her arm around him and moved closer to press a kiss to his lips. She let her worries and concerns drain away like dirty dishwater. In this moment, everything was exactly how she’d always fantasized it would be. Even better. The solid reality of Luis in her bed, his scent, the taste of his skin, and his strong arms holding her close were so much better than any daydream she’d ever had. For now, they were perfect together, and that was enough.
Chapter Eight
“Bree, I need your opinion on something as an outsider.” Tara lounged on her couch with a lap full of ice cream, staring at the muted TV where a table of women was interviewing a Hollywood star. She had Bree on speakerphone, leaving both hands free for the ice cream.
“Oh nice, I move away for a half-dozen years, and suddenly I’m an outsider.”
“I mean, as someone who doesn’t live in the same city as me and who might have a little more perspective.”
“On what? Tell me.” Bree’s enthusiasm practically bubbled out of the phone.
“First, you have to promise to keep this to yourself, for now at least. And I don’t mean the way you kept that secret I told you in seventh grade about Johnny Watson.”
“Please! Give me some credit. I’m not twelve anymore. If you tell me something in confidence, I won’t tell a soul.”
“Not even one of our friends?”
“Ooh, which one. What’s the dirt? Is this something about Corinne and the married guy? Because I’ve had an earful of that since she got here and I don’t think she likes him as much as she claims she does. Sounds like he’s got all the women at work panting after him and it’s like a contest to see who gets him. Corinne does love to win. But she doesn’t really know the man, does she? She couldn’t tell me one real thing about who he is.”
“Where is Corinne?” Tara cut off Bree’s babble. “Is she nearby? Because you can not say anything to Corinne. She might tell Graci.”
“Corinne’s at the convention center managing her event.” Bree breathed an aha as she thought she’d caught on. “Oh, so this is about Graci and her new guy. What’s his name again? Neal.”
Tara plunked her spoon down in the empty bowl. “No, it’s not about Graci and Neal. It’s about me and Luis.”
Silence followed for a moment as Bree tried to make sense of her statement. “Graci’s brother Luis? What about him? Graci said he’s back from Afghanistan. Does he have PTSD? Is he all messed up? You guys used to be good friends. Did he share something with you he hasn’t told his family and now you don’t know what to do about it?”
“No!” Tara interrupted the flow of questions. “I mean, yes, he is working through some issues, but that’s not what I want to talk about.”
“What is it, then?”
“We hooked up.” Tara let that rest for a moment, then added, “Actually, we more than hooked up. We’re seeing each other, and I don’t know exactly how to tell Graci. I don’t know if she’s going to have a problem with it, if it will mess up our friendship somehow, or if she’ll think it’s no big deal. I’m nervous because once it’s out there, I can’t unsay it. How do you think she’ll react?”
“You and Luis. Wow! I never would’ve called that one.” Bree paused. “No. Actually, I can see that. You guys were always like a comedy team when you were around each other. You had a rhythm. I just never saw Luis as anything other than Graci’s older brother, but obviously you did.”
“I had a crush on him when we were teenagers that I never told any of you guys about,” Tara admitted. “But then I shelved it and didn’t think of it again until recently. This sort of flared up out of nowhere. We thought it was a one-time thing, but then…”
“It became a series of one-time things,” Bree supplied. “I’ve been there. That’s pretty much how Tony and my relationship happened. He was this annoying guy I butted heads with, then it exploded into sex, and next thing you know, we were in an actual relationship. Now we’re getting married—if we can work out this situation with the venue. You don’t even want to know. Did you ever think you’d see the day when I’d be worrying over wedding plans?”
The truth was none of them had ever perceived Bree as the settle-down type, but Tara tactfully changed the subject. “Well, I don’t know that I’d call this a relationship, but it’s something, and I can’t keep it a secret from Graci.”
“Then tell her. She loves you. She’ll be happy you and Luis are making each other happy. Especially because right now that girl is so head over heels for Neal she wants the whole world to be as in love as she is. It’ll be fine,” Bree promised.
“Thanks,” Tara said. Actually, Bree hadn’t told her anything she wasn’t already thinking, but it was nice to talk to someone she could count on to bolster her confidence and not judge. “I’m seeing her this afternoon. I want to clear the air so I can stop fretting over it.”
***
Tara got a ride with Leah, one of the other waitresses, to pick up her car from Hugo’s garage. The prospect of having wheels again was almost as exciting as the chance to see Luis. It might only be for a minute or two, but apparently she’d reached the “I crave every opportunity to clap eyes on you” stage of her crush on him. As she walked into the building, her pulse quickened.
The receptionist at the counter ran her credit card and handed Tara her keys. “It’s parked in the back lot.”
“Thanks. Um, I’d like to go in the garage and talk to Luis a second.”
The woman frowned. “Only the mechanics are allowed in the garage. Insurance reasons.”
“I’m a friend of the family.”
“I can page him to the front, if you want to wait in one of those chairs.” She pointed to a row of vintage molded plastic seats in a row underneath the window.
Tara sat in an orange, tailbone-numbing chair and set her purse beside her. She pulled out her phone to see if Graci had responded to her text about getting together later. No answer yet.
“Tara! What a coincidence.” Graci’s voice snapped Tara’s head up to find her friend coming out of Hugo’s office. “I was just picking up something Hugo bought for Mom’s party. You’re coming, right?”
Tara rose to hug her. “Sure. Wouldn’t miss it. Have you checked your phone recently? I’ve been trying to reach you.”
“Left it at home recharging. What’s up?”
“I, uh, need to talk to you about something.”
“Uh-oh. That’s your worried face. What’s wrong?” Graci’s smile dimmed a little.
“Nothing. That is, nothing bad. It’s something good. At least I think it’s good. I hope you do too. But I don’t want to talk about it here. I thought we could go for coffee later this afternoon. Or right now, as soon as I get my car, if you’re not busy. Do you have time?”
“I’m supposed to meet Neal for lunch, but this sounds serious. I can postpone—”
“Hi, Tara. Thought I heard your voice out here.” Hugo, a larger, lumpier version of his brother, emerged from his office. “How’s it going?”
Too many Ramirezes. She’d only wanted to see Luis for a few seconds, and now everything se
emed to be converging at once as she spotted Luis entering from the garage.
He came toward her with a smile on his face. “You summoned me?”
“I just wanted to thank you for fixing my car.” She tried to warn him with her eyes not to tip off his siblings about their new relationship. She wasn’t ready, not until she’d had a chance to talk privately with Graci and make sure everything would be okay.
“No problem.” He came up beside Graci and peeked into the bag she held in one arm. “What you got there?”
“Decorations for Mom’s party this weekend. Don’t forget you’re on paper goods, and that includes plastic tablecloths.”
“I have your list. It’s very detailed,” Luis teased. “I know the brands, the colors, the exact weight of the paper plates you want. I won’t screw up.”
“I’d feel a lot better if you’d get the stuff to me the day before.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“Yes, but I need time to get organized.” His sister looked as if she’d prefer to be in control of her own checklist. It was the Graci way. Lists made her feel secure.
“We should have hired caterers and a hall,” Hugo chimed in. “It’s her sixtieth. A cobbled-together potluck in the backyard comes across as cheap.”
“To who?” Luis folded his arms and regarded his brother. “Our friends and relatives will be just fine with it. Who do you need to impress, Hugo?”
“I don’t want people to think we’re too poor to put on a good spread. It projects a bad image for my business for one thing. Besides, it might rain.”
Tara exchanged a look with Graci. The brothers sounded exactly as they had when they were kids fighting about a video game or a girl. Habit as much as anything influenced the way they interacted.
“Your mom will appreciate this more,” Tara intervened. “She loves her backyard, and she likes things kept simple. I’ll help you set up, Graci.”
“Me too,” Luis said. “I’d better get back to work. I’m in the middle of replacing a radiator.”
And then, without any warning, he stepped over to Tara and gave her a hard kiss on the mouth, not lingering but definitely staking a claim. “See you later.”
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