Page 17 of Fighting

“What do you want me to do with all these suits?” Lee shouts in the background.

“Improve your style? When you aren’t painting and Nerd Alert isn’t studying, why don’t you get dressed up and take her out? I can give you a list of the best restaurants around the city.”

“Thanks, but no thanks. We aren’t all multi-millionaires,my dude. We’re going to be eating ketchup sandwiches while looking out at the park through these two-story windows.” He saysmy dudemockingly, and laughs silently. I love his ‘little brother’ stuff.

“No, we’re not,” my sister chides.

“She giving you the same look our mom does when she’s annoyed?” I tease.

“You mean the glare and shake of her head, followed by an eye roll? Yes, she—” He yelps, and the sound is followed by a squeal, then a giggle from her.

I roll my own eyes. “I’m still here, guys. Can you keep the honeymoon antics to a minimum for a moment?”

I’m met with muffled sounds, followed by a second of silence. When the noises resume, Stef sounds closer, like she’s talking directly into the device.

“Anything new going on with you?” she asks, her footsteps clicking against the wood floors.

I groan. “First, please promise me you brought your own sheets.”

She barks out a laugh. “Yes, we will use our own bedding, manchild.”

“Wonderful, next… have you heard from Nessa lately? She’s supposed to be here soon?—”

“Hope you brought your own sheets to my house, Mateo,” my sister says, throwing my words back at me.

“Har-har. Yes, I also have a new mattress being delivered this week.”

“No,” she whines.

There’s no stopping my laughter. She had to be expecting me to make upgrades.

“If you really hate it, I’ll keep it. Don’t worry.” I shrug like she can see me.

My grandparents busted their asses to get to America, and I’m continuing the momentum, working hard to give my family nice things. It’s that simple.

“So back to me.” I flop down on her sitcom sofa and snag the remote. Once SportsCenter is playing on mute, I rest my socked feet on the coffee table and lean back. “Have you talked to Nessa?”

“Nope, why?” Her voice laced with hesitation.

“She hasn’t told you that she’s my girlfriend?”

She huffs a breath like I’m the world’s biggest idiot—as usual.

“Stef, I want her to see that I’ve changed. I’m over picking up random women at bars. Have been since your wedding.”

“Wow. You’ve been celibate for a whole… three months?” she says, mocking me.

“What counts as ‘celibate’? Like, only sex, or are we talking kissing?—”

Stef cries, “I take it back. TMI. Don’t tell me.”

With a sigh, I rough a hand down my face.Be sincere, dude.“I tried, hoping I’d get over her. But I couldn’t close. I missed Nessa.”

She lets out a longaw, and I have to question if I’m actually virtuous. It would be an amazing upset against that asshole Caleb to win the property bid and the girl.

“I want to start my own firm, and why not begin with the property on the north side of town? There isn’t any stopping the expansion. We have a housing shortage, but we don’t need to go with big, splashy, overpriced cookie-cutter houses to make things nice. Plus, Peacock Springs is my home—I’d rather the land be developed by a local than a nepotism-fueled manchild, wouldn’t you?”

“You’d rather it be developed by a manchild fueled by chicken adobo from his mommy, huh?” she teases.

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