Page 51 of A Dish Best Served Hot

“My bad.” She began removing her Rosalyn Marie Inc. outfit. “I just can’t believe this keeps happening. It ticks me off.”

“I mean, really?” Avery added. “Who does that?”

“Sells a homeless shelter for profit or kicks their kid out for being queer?” Matteo asked as he also took off his high-fashion ensemble. “Because the answer to both is assholes.”

“Language,” Saint reminded them.

“Have you talked to my dad about this?” Alex asked Saint, who froze.

Luckily Alex didn’t seem to actually want a response, because she turned her attention to Lola. “We’ve been trying to help out area businesses with free or really cheap labor. This is way bigger than anything we’ve done yet, but I think my dad would like the idea of helping out.”

Lola looked at Saint, who was staring back at her straight-faced, but Lola could see the panic in his eyes. He wanted to change the subject. “Once we have more of a plan, I’m sure Saint will talk to him about it.”

“I will. Don’t worry about it. You’re supposed to be focusing on finishing up the school year anyway. Ds do not get degrees.”

Alex narrowed her eyes at him.

Avery laughed. “Look at Saint throwing out zingers for his new lady friend.” She waggled her eyebrows.

“Oh, I’m not—”

“Old lady friend,” Saint interrupted her to say.

Lola’s jaw dropped. Did he really just say that?

Saint seemed to realize what he’d said. “Notoldlike age old. I meant that we went to high school together.”

“Y’all dated in high school?” Matteo asked.

“No,” Lola said at the same time Saint said, “Yes.”

Lola glowered at him. Seriously? He’d spent months keeping their relationship a secret from his family back then and now he was just telling everyone about it?

The cousins pounced on the potential gossip.

“So what is it, yes or no?”

Saint, the big dummy, finally kept his mouth shut, but it was too late. The cat was out of the bag so to speak. “We did,” Lola admitted.

“For real?”

Alex leaned forward, resting her forearms on the counter. “How serious was it?”

When neither Lola nor Saint answered, three pairs of eyebrows went up.

“Oh, so it was that serious,” Avery concluded.

Matteo shook his head. “And here I thought innocent, good boy, Saint was a virgin until marriage.”

Much cackling ensued.

“Okay, enough,” Saint demanded. “Get it together or go home.”

“Noooo! Don’t kick us out,” Avery cried. “We want pizza.”

“Yes. All we have upstairs are two packs of ramen noodles and condiments we got from takeout.”

Matteo slumped over the island. “We’re wasting away!”

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