Page 14 of A Dish Best Served Hot

“It’s a studio not a closet.” And she did have a bedroom. Sort of.

“Same thing. Besides, I lived here first. Let him leave.”

She could tell by his tone that that was all he was going to say on the matter. Benny was nothing if not stubborn.

“Fine,” she said. “Then you’ll stay and do your volunteering with Papo Vega. Whatever you want.” She reached for his hand and put it on her arm. “Let me walk you back to your room so you can rest.”

Considering his mood, she thought for sure that Benny was going to tell her to go away. Imagine her surprise when he patted her hand and said, “Okay.”

They slid past Maria and Saint through the door. Lola kept her attention on Benny even though she could feel Saint’s eyes on her.

As soon as they rounded the corner her grandfather said, “While we walk you can tell me why that boy was looking at you like he’d seen a resurrected Jesus.”

Lola snorted and took a page out of Benny’s book. “Mind your business.”

4

Saint trudged through the construction office in a fog. It was the state he’d been in since he’d first entered the conference room and saw Lola freaking León standing there. She’d been the last person on earth he’d expected to see. With her dark eyes igniting sparks of fire in him it was almost as if they’d stepped right back in time.

Except nothing else about her resembled the girl who’d simply disappeared from his life. Gone was the choppy haircut with chunky blond highlights and a thick curtain of bangs that she’d used to distract from the freckles on her face. A cut and color job he’d watched her do herself after sneaking into her bedroom window while her grandfather slept in his recliner in the living room a few feet down the hall. The baggy cargo pants and T-shirts she’d used to hide what she called her “Buddha belly and badonkadonk” had also been completely absent.

In place of that girl desperately wanting to be taken seriously was a confident woman with her wavy dark hair pulled back away from her freckled face and her bombshell curves on prominent display in formfitting workout clothes.

And just like that sixteen-year-old girl had, the thirty-four-year-old woman absolutely knocked Saint on his ass. Because with Lola León it wasn’t just about her looks. It was about her “Fuck you. I’ll do what I want” energy. From the moment he saw her sitting in the office waiting to talk to the principal after getting kicked out of class again, he’d been absolutely fascinated. He’d never met someone so wholly themselves but also completely hidden. He’d wanted to get to know all about her. The real her. Then he’d wanted everything with her, but life had other plans in store for them both.

A letter. She’d sent him a letter.

He still didn’t know how he felt about that. A part of him was relieved that she’d thought about him and had wanted him to know she was safe, but then he thought about the torture he went through when his brother Cristian had told him she was gone and no one knew where. He’d wanted to leave basic training and go home to find her, but he couldn’t and that had made everything all the worse.

By the time he’d finished training and had been given two weeks of leave, there had already been rumors that she’d gone into hiding or witness protection or something. Saint had even visited Benny with his brothers to offer their help in looking for her. Benny hadn’t said one damn thing about Lola being safe, but neither had he seemed distraught. Saint had let that give him some hope. He’d gone on to Afghanistan and did his duty, but in the darkest moments of the night, when he’d been the most terrified, he’d thought about her and wondered if he was being just as naively hopeful about her as he had been about war.

“Saint,” Tío Luís called from his office, shaking Saint out of his fog. “Come in here for a moment.”

Saint walked into his uncle’s office and was about to make his way to the chair in front of the desk when his Tío added, “Close the door.”

Saint’s eyebrow went up. That certainly was not like Tío Luís, whose entire leadership style began with having an open door policy. He thought briefly back to Alex’s suspicions from earlier in the day, but quickly dismissed them. He was close to Tío Luís, but they weren’t in the habit of talking about their personal lives. Probably because neither of them had one, but still. If by some miracle Tío Luís was seeing someone, he wouldn’t be calling Saint into his office to chat about it.

Once the door was closed and Saint was settled in the chair in front of him, Tío Luís began. “I just got off the phone with our new client.”

Saint stayed quiet because that was hardly news. Cruz and Sons (an ironic name if ever there was one) was constantly getting new clients.

His tío continued, “This is a high paying job. But I need the team we have to keep our other projects going, so we’ll have to hire on a new crew for this.” He paused. “I want you to lead it.”

Saint blinked. “Me?” Tío Luís was always the lead on their bigger jobs. “What about Alex? Or Gabi?” But Gabi, like Saint, preferred to stay in the background. She was an amazing engineer and capable of creating beautiful designs, but she wasn’t the type to rally a bunch of rowdy men.

“As much as I would love to put one of my girls in charge, it wouldn’t work for this job.”

“Alex is young, but she’s capable.”

“She won’t do it,” Tío stated.

“You asked her already?”

“No, but I know she won’t.”

That had all of Saint’s red flags waving. “Why not?”

Tío used his thumb and index finger to squeeze and massage the bridge of his nose. Then he opened his eyes and looked Saint right in his. “I’m not going to lie to you. This is not the kind of job we usually go for. It’s a full renovation of the old building on Evergreen Avenue. The homeless shelter. We are going to turn it into studios and condos.”

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