Sleeping with the Frenemy (Vega Family Love Stories #3)

Chapter 4

4

Leo stepped out of the gym, freshly showered, and immediately began to sweat all over again. The bright sun was blocked by the plethora of trees lining the side streets, but that hardly mattered. Fucking summer in the city.

Okay fine. He loved summer in Chicago. He was just in a pissy mood because his workout hadn’t gone to plan. He’d tried to do some tire flips and just about started crying when he felt that first lightning strike hit his arm. He’d immediately stopped and moved on to working out his legs and core instead. But even then, his shoulder was bouncing between shooting pain and a pins and needles sensation. Now his arm muscles were cramping. He just wanted to go home and crawl in an ice bath, but unfortunately he’d told his mom that he’d pick Abuelo Papo up from Casa del Sol. He’d also promised Kamilah that he’d perform at El Coquí. He prayed he wouldn’t have to let her down, but his fingers weren’t exactly cooperating with his brain at the moment. Hopefully, everything would calm down by the time he got there.

He made his way to Casa del Sol and parked so he could go in and pick up his grandpa. He walked into the lobby, waved at Teresa—one of the front desk attendants—and dapped fists with Yendriel, the young security guard.

“Qué lo qué,” said the dark-skinned Dominican man with the perfect fade.

“Na’, mi pana. Just coming to get my abuelo.”

“He’s still at dinner,” Teresa said. She was one of Abuelo Papo’s favorite staff members and he was frequently hanging out with her at the front desk, so if anyone knew it would be her.

Leo looked at his watch. Dinner? It was barely 5:30 p.m. “Why would he go to dinner if he knows I’m picking him up?”

“To give the staff a hard time,” Teresa said. “He was really mad about breakfast this morning. He had a whole tirade about how giving them cereal was just lazy and if they were going to be lazy the least they could do was give them something other than Raisin Bran.”

Leo shook his head. His abuelo was worse than the strictest food critic. “Oh damn. Let me go get him before he ends up kicked out of the cafeteria again.”

Teresa smiled. “I don’t blame you. He and Benny have been going at it all day, so I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them ends up wearing dinner.”

Sure enough when Leo walked into the cafeteria he found Abuelo and his sometimes nemesis Benicio León in each other’s faces.

“You stole my bread roll!” Benny was yelling at Abuelo.

Abuelo Papo laughed. “Tú de verdad que si eres más loco que una cabra.” He gestured to his empty plate. “You can see that I don’t have your stupid roll.”

“You ate it already!”

“Now I know you’re lying, because there is no way in hell I’d ever put one of those rocks in my mouth!”

“Abuelo,” Leo said before things got too heated. “What are you doing? We have plans at El Coquí.”

His abuelo turned to face him, a wide smile breaking out on his face. “Oh good. You’re here. Let’s go.” He began making his way toward Leo.

“Wait a minute! What about my bread?” Benny yelled after him.

Abuelo Papo waved a hand in the air like he couldn’t even be bothered to respond with words. He brushed past Leo as he exited the cafeteria.

Leo took one last look at an irate Benny before turning to follow. “What did you really do with his bread?” he asked Abuelo once they were out of earshot.

Abuelo looked at him, his light green eyes bright with mischief. “Me lo comí.”

Leo had to laugh because of course Abuelo Papo ate it even though he made a huge stink about not having it. Leo had done the same thing to his siblings plenty of times. Everyone said that he and his grandfather were scarily alike and he guessed it was true. They were both musical, mischief-making smart-asses with the same light green eyes. Leo could only hope that when he was in his eighties he was running everyone around him ragged with his constant shenanigans. “You really are life goals, Abuelo.”

Abuelo puffed out his chest. “I know.” He blew a kiss at Teresa and waved to Yendriel as they exited the building.

During the short car ride to El Coquí they harmonized to Héctor Lavoe.

“I heard Sofi is back in town and she and Kamilah finally made up,” Abuelo said conversationally.

“Yep.” Leo did not want to talk about Sofi. He’d spent the last week doing his best to pretend like she was still overseas, to not even think about her. He couldn’t believe that she’d just shown up out of nowhere like nothing had ever happened. And to reach out to Kamilah first, of all people. He knew exactly what that meant. She’d chosen his sister over him, again. Well, Leo was sick of waiting around for her to decide that he was worth giving a real chance to. She’d made it clear that she’d only ever wanted him for his body. Years ago that hadn’t bothered him, he’d been willing to play along. Things were different now. He was about to be thirty-three years old and he was essentially back at the beginning of adulthood. He wasn’t going to do the same shit he’d done in the past. He didn’t have time for that. He had two goals: make the new Kane Distillery Tasting Room a success and pass the Chicago Fire Department physical exam so he could be back on platoon duty. Neither one of those things involved playing will they–won’t they games with Sofi.

And yet the second he and Abuelo Papo walked through the door to El Coquí his eyes found her sitting at the island-shaped table by the kitchen doors. She had an old woman sitting on one side of her and Mami on the other while Kamilah and Liam sat snuggled up across from her.

“?Mira quien es!” Abuelo Papo shouted in excitement. “Miss Humboldt Park, it’s so good to see you. The neighborhood hasn’t been the same without your beautiful face.”

Sofi leaned in to give Abuelo a quick hug and kiss on the cheek. “Bendiciones, Don Papo.”

“Don Papo ni que Don Papo,” he huffed, giving her another hug and then holding her shoulders when she pulled back. “You’ve called me abuelo since you were seventeen years old. There’s no reason to change that now.”

Meanwhile Leo walked up to his mom and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Bendiciones, Ma.”

“Hola, guapo.” His mom pulled him into a surprisingly strong hug. “Te quiero tanto, mi bebé,” she said while peppering his face with kisses. She’d been doing this since the moment she’d seen him in the hospital. Leo let her because, well, it was nice to be loved on by his mother. Dudes who pretended otherwise were liars.

Kamilah pulled away from Liam but intertwined their fingers. “Hey,” she said with semifake offense. “I’m the baby here. Not him.”

Leo threw his good arm over Mami’s shoulders. “Aww, princesita. Feeling jealous?”

His sister stuck her nose in the air. “Considering the only womanly love you get lately is from your mother? I think I’m good.” She gave Liam’s hand a squeeze.

Well, damn. She didn’t have to put his business all out there like that. Especially not in front of Sofi.

Luckily Sofi didn’t seem to be paying them any attention. Instead she was introducing the older woman to Abuelo. “This is my abuela,” she told him.

“I thought she died a few years ago,” Leo burst out. He remembered holding Sofi while she cried when she found out.

She barely looked at him. “Not that abuela, obviously. This is my mom’s mom.”

“Oh, this is Miss Puerto Rico,” Leo surmised.

“Miss Puerto Rico?” Abuelo Papo’s voice was high with excitement.

“Yes,” Sofi told him. “My abuela Fina was Miss Puerto Rico in the ’60s.” At her side, Sofi’s grandmother preened.

Abuelo Papo tugged on the front of his light blue guayabera and ran a hand over his short hair. “I knew Sofi’s grandmother had to be beautiful, but I didn’t know she’d be famous too,” he told her in Spanish.

Sofi’s abuela tittered and fluttered her lashes, the old flirt. “Oh, that was a long time ago.” She held out a hand for Abuelo to take, but she held it palm down like a queen waiting for a subject to bow over. “I’m just Josefina Santana now.”

Abuelo Papo grabbed her hand and bowed over it like a gentleman of old. “Mucho gusto. Soy Ricardo Vega, pero todos me dicen Papo.”

Josefina tittered again. “I’m not calling a grown man Papo, but it’s nice to meet you.” She turned her body slightly to the side, popped out a hip, elongated her spine, and tilted her chin just so. She was a tiny little thing. Probably only a few inches over five feet, but she stood like she was a Titan. He’d seen Sofi do that same thing many times. Many may overlook the similarities between Afro-Latina Sofi and her white European–looking grandmother but those people hadn’t spent as much time studying Sofi’s face as Leo had. Sofi had the same high cheekbones, pointed chin, and perfectly arched brows as her grandmother. Not to mention the mile-long lashes and ever-present spark in their dark brown eyes.

“I’m Leo,” he said. “It’s nice to meet you, Do?a Josefina.” He leaned forward and gave her a peck on the cheek like he’d been taught to do.

She waved him off. “Digame Fina.”

He wasn’t sure why, but he felt like he was being tested. “I couldn’t disrespect you by calling you anything other than Do?a,” he told her in Spanish.

He must’ve passed because she gave him a bright smile. “At home the young ones would call me Do?a Fina.”

“Ya veo porque te dicen ‘Fina’,” Papo murmured before dropping a quick peck on the hand he still held.

Leo let out a choked sound from behind him and Abuelo turned to give Leo a dirty look.

Leo had seen Abuelo Papo charm everyone he came in contact with, but he’d never ever seen him flirt. He’d especially never heard his grandfather call a woman “fine.” He was equal parts scandalized and amused.

“I don’t know why you’re laughing,” Sofi said. “His pickup lines are as cheesy as yours.”

Both Leo and Abuelo Papo shot her matching looks of offense.

“The hell they are,” Leo said at the same time Abuelo Papo denied flirting.

“Just because I give a beautiful woman a compliment it doesn’t mean I’m trying to pick her up.”

Abuela Fina gave Sofi a look. “No seas vulgar.”

“I don’t use pickup lines,” Leo decreed. “I don’t need them.”

Sofi’s abuela Fina examined Leo. “With that face and those eyes? I believe you.”

“Except he inevitably ruins the illusion by opening his mouth,” Sofi said.

“Now, Sofi. We both know that my voice only makes things better.” He was referring to the voice he used when they were in bed—the one that never failed to rev her engine—but their grandparents didn’t know that. It was enough that she knew. And she did, if the scowl she shot him was any indication.

His abuelo obviously thought Leo was talking about his singing voice, because he told Sofi’s abuela, “He got that voice from me, you know. I used to be the best singer in Humboldt Park.”

“No me digas,” she purred. “So you’re both singers?”

“I’m retired,” Abuelo Papo said.

“But that doesn’t stop him from singing all day long despite no one asking,” Leo muttered.

Abuelo shrugged, completely unconcerned. “If you don’t want me to sing when you play songs I know on the guitar, then you need to do it yourself.”

“You play the guitar too?” Sofi’s grandmother asked him.

“A little,” he said.

Her eyes lit. “?Y eres soltero?”

“Don’t even start, Abuela,” Sofi butt in.

Leo noticed Abuelo Papo perk up, but he was too busy watching Sofi giving her grandmother the stare down to pay much attention. He wondered what that was about.

“What?” Do?a Fina said with forced breeziness. “A man who is tall, handsome, can sing, and play the guitar? There are worse husbands to have.”

“Abuela, listen to me closely when I say that I would rather be buried alive in an underwater tomb.”

“Ay que exagerada eres,” Do?a Fina told Sofi with a huff.

“Besides, Leo isn’t the marrying kind,” she told her abuela. “He’s a guy you have a good time with for a very short time at best, and a fuckboy at worst.”

Ouch. “Meanwhile, Sofi is a she-demon who will rip a guy’s heart out of his chest with her bare hands and eat it if he’s stupid enough to go anywhere near her.”

“Thank you,” Sofi said.

He could tell she was only being partially facetious. He rolled his eyes.

“What’s a fuckboy?” Mami asked suddenly. He’d forgotten she was even there. “Is that like a Game Boy?”

“Go ahead, Leo. Tell Mami what a fuckboy is.”

He looked at Kamilah, who was watching everything go down with her own amused yet scandalized look. Little sisters were the worst. There was no way he was getting into that right now, especially not with his mom.

“That means that he likes to sleep around, but doesn’t take any of them seriously,” Abuelo Papo pointed out helpfully.

Leo dropped his head into his hand. Who the fuck kept teaching his old-ass grandpa current slang? People in their eighties were not supposed to be that in the know.

“Ay, Leo,” his mom said with enough disappointment to make Leo want to drop his head farther. “You need to stop playing games and find yourself the right woman to marry.”

Leo had found her a long time ago, but she didn’t want him. He wasn’t going to tell his mom that though, so instead he said, “But, Mami, how can I know which one is the right one unless I try a bunch out first?”

“Cochino.” She smacked him on the arm. It was something she’d done more times than either one of them could remember, but none of those times had been after his injury. They’d definitely never been after he’d already overworked the shit out of that injured arm.

Leo sucked in a pained breath as what felt like a burning electric shock radiated from his neck to the tips of his fingers and back again. His other hand immediately came up to try to rub the pain away, but it only sent more burning through his nerves. “Fuck!” He bent forward, screwing his eyes up tight.

“Oh my God, Leo,” his mom exclaimed.

He felt the very lightest brush of her hand and jerked away. “Don’t touch me,” he grit out through his clenched teeth.

“Ven. Let’s give him a minute,” Abuelo Papo said.

Leo didn’t have to look up to know that he was shooing everyone away.

A hand landed on his good shoulder lightly. “There’s a chair right behind you. Sit down.” It was Liam’s voice.

Leo plopped down into the seat. He was grateful that Liam was already familiar with how the pain made Leo’s legs feel weak sometimes. It had happened plenty of times when Leo was helping him around the distillery, especially at the beginning. Leo did his best to take deep breaths. He tried to focus and breathe through the pain, which was already lessening, thank God.

A few seconds later he opened his eyes and raised his head, immediately locking eyes on Sofi, who had her hands clenched at her sides like she was doing her best not to reach for him.

The worst though was the look in her eyes. She looked at him with pity.

Leo tore his eyes from hers and looked for his mom. He knew she felt terrible and indeed when he found her standing a few feet away it was clear.

She was staring at him with the most heartbreaking look of guilt and pain on her face. “I’m so sorry,” she cried, tears streamed down her face.

He stood and reached his good hand out for her.

She lurched forward, her hand meeting his although she didn’t come any closer.

He tugged her to his good side and dropped a kiss on her head when she buried her face in his chest. “It’s okay, Mami.”

“I’m a terrible mother,” she sobbed in Spanish. “I can’t believe I hurt you like that.”

“No,” he told her. “You’re the best mother. That was my fault. I went to the gym and did too much. It was already hurting.”

She tipped her head up and looked at him. Everyone wanted to talk about how much like Abuelo Papo he was, but Leo knew that he looked a bunch like his mom. They had the same shaped eyes, nose, and mouth. It was why he and Kamilah also looked tons alike whereas their older brother, Saint, looked like their dad and the twins were a mix of both parents. “Are you supposed to be going to the gym?” she asked, jumping right back into Mom mode. “Did you clear it with your physical therapist first?”

“Of course.” Leo did his best not to look like the liar he was. The truth was that he had...to a point. What he hadn’t discussed was how he would be training to retake the CFD physical exam. He knew his body wasn’t ready yet and she was always telling him not to rush the process. But he knew himself better than she did and if he didn’t push himself, he would end up depressed again. He’d done his best to accept the changes in his body and in his life. He’d tried to tell himself that he was happy behind his desk in the CFD office, making drinks for the bar, and making music, but the truth was that he wouldn’t be happy again until he was back actively firefighting. Only, no one in his family knew that was his plan. He didn’t want any of them to know until he’d passed the Physical Ability Test or PAT. He couldn’t bear disappointing them again, so he told his mom the same thing he told himself in the mirror every morning. “It’s okay, Mami. Everything is going to be okay.” He shot a pleading look at Kamilah and she understood what he needed right away, because sometimes his sister was awesome.

“Mami, Sofi is going to have to leave soon I’m sure, so let’s finish talking about the reception.”

“Yes,” Sofi agreed. “I have an early and full day tomorrow, so I can’t stay much longer.”

Leo jumped back in. “I’m sure you don’t want to just sit there listening to wedding planning,” he said to Do?a Fina while giving his mom a gentle nudge in Kamilah’s direction. “Have you seen the distillery yet?”

“I have not,” she said.

“Great,” Abuelo Papo said before Leo could. “Come with us. We’ll show you.” He held out his elbow and she slipped her hand through the crook. “Did you know that it belonged to my best friend, Killian?” he said to her as he began leading her to the doorway that connected the two businesses.

Leo followed and together they showed Do?a Fina everything they’d done to the distillery.

“One of these days you will have to play the guitar for me,” she told Leo. “I miss hearing it. My husband used to play, you know.”

Leo hadn’t known that. “Sofi never mentioned that.”

“That was before she was born. When we were young, but then he got in a bad fight in his twenties. It ruined his hand. He couldn’t play after that, but he did sing. Not very well, but well enough.”

Leo winced. He understood that all too well. He’d struggled to regain his dexterity after his injury. He could finally get all his fingers to move when he wanted them to, but it wasn’t a smooth or graceful movement. His stupid fucking ulnar nerve was basically still shit. His radial and median nerves were mostly okay, so they picked up some of the slack. However, his fingers had the tendency to tremble like a bowl of Jell-O if he did too much.

Abuelo chimed in. “We’ll sing for you. We sing together all the time.”

“Really?” Do?a Fina asked with a flutter of lashes. “That’s so impressive.”

Abuelo Papo looked ready to fall to his knees and Leo bit back a grin.

Sofi’s grandma was a flirt just like her granddaughter. But where Do?a Fina’s flirting was all old-timey coquette, Sofi’s was daring and in your face. Do?a Fina coaxed attention. Sofi demanded it.

“Do you know any boleros?” she asked.

Leo smiled. “Boleros were the first kind of music I ever sang. They were my abuela’s favorite.”

Abuelo nodded. “Especially Daniel Santos and Julio Jaramillo.” The Puerto Rican singer and composer Daniel Santos had sung one of his abuela’s favorite songs, “Lamento Borincano.” While Julio Jaramillo, the prolific Ecuadorian singer, was well-known all over Latin America.

“Oh yes. Do one of their songs.”

Leo already knew which of the songs he wanted to sing. It was actually from both the famed singers and it was one Leo had been singing a lot lately since it was about both loving and hating someone. Leo opened his mouth and began singing the first verse. He knew that Abuelo Papo would catch on by the time he got to the chorus. “Te odio y te quiero,” they sang together in perfect harmony and then Leo enumerated all the reasons why he loved and hated her from the inferno in his chest to the way she was responsible for both his hours of bitterness and also the ones of honeyed sweetness.

Abuelo picked up the verse at the part where the other man sang about how he’d like to move on, but he can’t. Abuelo’s version of the chorus was a bit softer and more sad whereas Leo’s was more forceful and angry. No surprise there.

They sang the chorus again then concluded with a bit of a flourish.

He looked up and found Do?a Fina staring at him in a way he did not like. She was looking at him like he was the second half of a map she’d been missing.

“I’m going to help you win back my granddaughter,” she told him in Spanish.

Leo almost fell out of his chair. “What?” He shot a panicked look in Abuelo’s direction and found him staring at Leo with a delighted smile on his face.

“Don’t lie on my account,” Abuelo said. “I’ve known about it for a while.”

What could he say to that? There was no way he could pull his normal bait and switch with them. He respected them too much. “How?” he asked. “How did you know?”

Abuelo shrugged. “Rosie told me all about the argument you two had and I put it together.”

Ugh. Rosie, his six-year-old niece. “That little backstabber.”

“Don’t blame her. She didn’t know what she was sharing. Besides, I bribed her.”

Of course, he did. His bribe had probably been better than Leo’s. You get what you paid for and he got five dollars’ worth of silence. “I knew I should’ve bought her the video game instead of the coloring book,” Leo muttered.

“I’m her favorite abuelo. She would’ve told me anyway.”

“Back to my granddaughter,” Do?a Fina interrupted.

Since the jig was up, Leo decided to be honest. “We do have a past, but Sofi’s been done with me for a year and seven months.”

Do?a Fina tilted her head. “What about you? Are you done with her?”

Leo rubbed a hand over his face. He beat back the immediate urge to lie and considered her question seriously. He would love to say yes, he was done with Sofi, but he knew that was more wishful thinking than truth. He honestly didn’t think there was anything she could do that would make him truly done. Hell, she’d basically told him to fuck off and then disappeared for a year and a half and he still felt a pull to her. “I should be,” he told Do?a Fina with complete honesty. “I was shot last year.”

“Dios mio.”

“I could’ve died. There was a moment I thought I was going to.”

“Ay bendito.”

“It made me realize that I needed to grow up. I need to stop playing around and actually do something with my life.”

“Claro,” both old people said at the same time.

“But Sofi doesn’t want that. She’d rather continue to play the same game we’ve been playing since we were kids.” Leo shook his head. “I can’t do that anymore. I’m sick of the making up and breaking up. I’m sick of the hiding and sneaking around.”

Abuelo Papo nodded.

“But you want to be with her,” Do?a pressed. “Quieres un futuro con mi negrita.”

Leo paused again, considering her declaration, because it had not been a question. She’d said it like she already knew the answer. If anyone had said those words to him a year ago, Leo would’ve denied it with everything in his body. He’d been just as into the game as Sofi had. He’d thought the back and forth was exciting and, as someone who dreaded boredom like others feared death, he’d chased that excitement. He’d been just as prone as Sofi to do something to cause a fight. He’d thought the constant fighting was just another demonstration of their passion.

Then he’d been shot and had faced death in a way he’d never had before. He’d realized that what they’d allowed themselves to have was not only toxic but a complete waste of both of their time. Leo refused to waste his time because he finally knew just how precious it was. He’d come out of that experience determined to make his life look exactly how he wanted it to be. He was ready to do whatever he had to do to make it happen, hence his dedication to training, helping his family however he could, and making himself the type of man he really wanted to be. And where does Sofi fit into that? Are you willing to work just as hard for a real chance with her?

As if he could read Leo’s mind, Abuelo Papo jumped in. “The question isn’t whether or not you want her.” He waved a hand at Leo. “I think we all know that you do. The question is, what are you willing to do to get her?” Abuelo Papo said. “Because a woman like her will take a lot of work and even more sacrifice.”

“But she’s worth it,” Leo told him, surprising himself with the decision he’d apparently come to. “Sofi is literally the most difficult person I’ve ever met in my entire life. Most days she makes me want to pull out my own hair. But I’ve never been able to envision a future without her and I’m sick of trying. I just want her to see our future too.”

Do?a Fina released a huge smile. One that made her look more like her granddaughter than ever. “I was hoping you’d say that.” She shuffled forward in her chair. “If you let me, I can help you get what you want.”

“Me too,” Abuelo jumped in to say. “You already know that I’m good at it.”

That was true. Abuelo Papo had proven that he was willing to lie, cheat, and manipulate in order to help his beloved grandkids win over their significant others. First, he and Killian had blackmailed Kamilah and Liam into faking a relationship that led to them finally realizing their feelings for each other. Now the two were as close as two people could be and making it official with a wedding. Then Abuelo Papo had skillfully maneuvered Saint, Leo’s serious and stubborn oldest brother, into spending time with the equally determined Lola León by starting a prank war with her grandfather. He’d pushed them together in any way he could and eventually they both figured out how to bend enough to make their relationship work. Now they were happily making a life together with little Rosie, Saint’s daughter. But could he do the same for Leo and Sofi?

Was there too much history between him and Sofi for either one of them to get over? Sure they’d never done anything truly terrible to each other, but there had been so many little hurts. Death by a thousand cuts people called it. Was there any way Leo could revive their relationship even with the help of the two people in front of him? Worse, was that even what Sofi wanted? Leo wanted to believe that deep down it was, but he wasn’t positive especially not after she’d been away so long. If he’d changed in the last year because of his experiences, it only made sense that she had too. Maybe this new Sofi wanted him even less than the old Sofi. Was he willing to risk the little bit of peace he’d gained in order to find out?

It shocked him to realize that he was. He was willing to risk it all if it meant even the smallest possibility of gaining a future with Sofi. Leo had always been a gambling man and a bit of an adrenaline junkie, but nothing compared to the feeling he felt now. He was standing at the edge of a cliff with an old parachute on his back, ready to jump. He would jump no matter what. The only thing to see now was whether the parachute would open when he needed it to or if his luck would finally run out and he’d end up smashed on the rocks below.

Leo gulped. “Okay,” he told his new teammates. “Let’s do it.”