Page 84 of A Dish Best Served Hot

“I’m sorry,” Lola said to his parents while digging in her purse. “I’ve been waiting for this call. There’s an emergency situation with El Hogar that I’ve been waiting to get more information on.”

Sure enough, he saw Yara’s name and picture on the phone when Lola pulled it out. She shot him a look. “Go ahead,” he told her.

“Are you sure?” Lola asked.

“Of course,” Saint replied. He knew that if Yara was calling it was because Lola was needed and he knew that being there for the kids was more important than chitchatting with his family. There would be time for Lola to get to know them.

She looked at his parents. “It was nice to meet you both. Hopefully we can talk more soon.” She turned to Abuelo and Tío Rico. “It was nice to see you.”

The elders said goodbye and wished her well.

Saint put a hand on Lola’s arm to prevent her from scurrying away. “I’ll walk you out.” He linked their hands and started making their way to the distillery doors.

“Damn it,” Lola said as soon as they were outside. “I was hoping to talk to your parents about more than my incarcerated family members before getting called away.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Saint told her. “We’ll set something up with them for another time. Just go do what you’ve got to do.”

Lola gave him a big grateful smile. “You’re the best.” She went up on her toes to give him a quick kiss. “I’m glad we thought to bring my car. Are you sure you’ll be able to get home?”

Saint nodded. “I have over thirty family members here. Rosie and I will be fine.” He gave her another quick kiss. “Keep me updated, okay?”

Lola started walking backward. “Of course.” She blew him a kiss, spun around, and hurried to the front of the building where she’d parked.

Saint sighed and made his way back inside. When he reached his parents it was to see that the small group had been joined by none other than Tío Luís and Eva.

He hadn’t seen his tío for over a week. They were hardly ever in the office at the same time now that Saint was on-site at the Raven Realty project. Saint examined him closely, trying to see if he was showing any signs of his RA flaring up, but his uncle was beaming. It was clear by his megawatt smile and the way he kept using the arm around her shoulder to squeeze Eva into his side that he was ecstatic to have his oldest daughter there.

“Saint, mira quién llegó,” he said as soon as he saw Saint approaching.

Eva smiled, her teeth practically blinding him. “Saint, it’s good to see you. I’m glad you’re safe and home.”

Saint gave her a hug. “I’m glad you’re home too.” He had been on tour when she’d left for New York twelve years earlier, so it had been weird to come home on leave to find her and Tía Carmen gone, and even stranger to be seeing her again now for the first time in over a decade.

“Tell them about your secret project,” Tío Luis urged her.

“If I tell everyone then it will no longer be a secret and I can get sued,” Eva said with a playful smile.

“You should tell your mom that because she’s already telling people about it. By the time she’s done, the whole neighborhood will know,” Mami said.

Saint had never attended one of Eva’s shows, but she had to be a great actress, because she didn’t even blink at the snark in Mami’s tone. “She’s just excited for me. Working with Chord Bailón is a big deal.”

Saint frowned. Where did he know that name from?

“Chord Bailón?” his cousin Lucy said in an overly loud voice as she joined the group with her wife, Liza. “As in the sexiest member of the Barrio Brothers?”

“The sexiestlivingmember maybe,” Liza added, “but everyone knows Erik was the sexiest.”

Oh right. Now Saint remembered who they were. In the early 2000s they’d been one of the hottest boy bands until one of their members died tragically. After that they’d broken up and the remaining members had either gone solo or disappeared.

“I shouldn’t have said anything,” Eva said. “His involvement is a total secret. Please, please don’t say anything to anyone outside of the family. If word gets out, he may change his mind about basing the show here.”

“Of course, we’ll keep it in the family, prima. That’s what we do.” Lucy turned to him. “Hey, I ran into your new girlfriend outside. She said something about a housing emergency and a possible protest.”

“What?” Tío Rico exclaimed.

Everyone looked at Saint.

He cleared his throat. “Well, since El Hogar closed they’ve done their best to keep up with the displaced teens, but it turns out that two of them were staying in a tent city. There was an altercation with neighbors and police last night.”

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