Page 39 of Love or Leave

"A friend of your brother's?"

Cara nodded. "Yeah, they've known each other since they were young."

"So, is he… like a brother to you?"

Cara snorted and immediately regretted it.

"Uh, I haven't known him as long," she said, trying to recover.

But it was futile. Antonio was as much as a brother to her as Mars was a moon of Earth. But given that Jalen looked nervous and seemed to grasp that there was something else between them, on her side at least, she shook her head and tried again.

"We're just friends," she said.

Jalen nodded but stayed silent.

Cara started fidgeting again.

"Okay!" the waiter said as he came to a stop next to their booth. "I have the cabbage roll sandwich for you," he said, placing a loaded plate down in front of Jalen. "And a maple bacon burger, just how you like it, from Luis, for you,” he said, placing the plate in front of Cara. “Enjoy."

They both said thanks, and the waiter turned and walked off. Cara almost wanted to ask him to pull up a chair and stay.

Silence fell upon them again, but at least this time there was food to distract her and give her a buffer to think of better directions to steer the conversation toward.

"So, what did you think of the concert?"

He launched into a funny story about his friend Paul buying fake tickets from three different scammers before getting legit ones, and she forced herself to forget about Antonio sitting justacross the room. She relaxed into the comfy booth, and picked up her burger, and gave all her attention to Jalen.

ten

"Idon't like him."

Antonio internally screamed in agreement but remained completely silent as Max glared across the room, picking apart Jalen. A waiter came by and dropped some menus in the center of the table, but no one reached for them. They already knew the menu front and back.

"You don't even know him," Ethan said, gesturing across the way to Jer behind the bar. He held up four fingers and Jer got to work with a nod.

"I don't need to know him," Max said. "I'm an excellent judge of character."

Adam burst out into laughter. "You thought Willow was a criminal."

"So I was wrong once," he said, finally breaking his glare and turning his attention to Antonio. "How do you know him?"

He'd known the questioning would come as soon as Jalen recognized him, so he'd already prepared a plausible explanation and rehearsed it in his head several times.

It had helped distract him from how pretty Cara looked and how annoyed he'd been at the surge of jealousy that flooded his system as soon as he saw them together.

"He was a patient."

Ethan was the first to turn to him, brows bunched as if staring at a puzzle that wasn't fitting together. "Shouldn't he know you as Dr. Santori?"

"Normally, yes, but these were special circumstances I can't discuss under doctor-patient confidentiality."

Ethan winced, and Adam threw up his hands.

"Don't tell him that," Adam said with a dramatic flick of his wrist toward Max. "His imagination will take over and Cara will never be allowed to date the kid."

Even better, Antonio thought to himself.

He forced a neutral expression on this face, even though he wanted to smile, as Jer delivered their beers and left.

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