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

Chapter 10

10

Leo woke to a tongue licking his face. Unfortunately, that tongue did not belong to the woman next to him, but to the wiggly puppy on his chest. He opened his eyes and discovered that he was basically nose to nose with Dumpy—he didn’t care what Sofi said, it was a good name. He pushed the dog off his chest. “How did you even get up here?” he whispered. The bed was too tall for him to have jumped up, which meant that Sofi had to have lifted him onto the bed. Leo smiled. As much as she tried to pretend otherwise, she was such a softy.

He looked over at her curled up on her side with her hands tucked under her cheek like a little girl. She must’ve gotten hot at some point, because she’d kicked off the thick white comforter and beige knit blanket. Her long, silky brown limbs were revealed almost to excess by her dark gold satin and lace sleep shorts and button-up top combo—reminding him why he called her bombón. She was like the chocolate-covered caramels he used to steal from any box of truffles he found around the apartment growing up. She was his secret pleasure, one he didn’t feel the least bit guilty enjoying whenever he could. Even if it was just looking at her, like he was now.

On the bed Sofi yawned and turned on her back to stretch.

Distractedly, Leo watched her muscles flex and contract. It reminded him of the way she’d move during sex; her chest bowed off the bed, her toes curling, arms and head thrown back. He could watch it all day and never get bored.

A second later she was once again knocked out, her mouth open and everything. There was a depression in the blanket by her waist where Dumpy had obviously snuggled up.

The last thing he remembered after he’d come so hard he’d saw fucking stars was snuggling up to a quiet Sofi. It wasn’t totally abnormal for her to be quiet. She was frequently lost in her own thoughts. What worried him were the thoughts that had probably run through her brain after. He knew her well enough to know that she’d been overanalyzing what they’d done. She’d most likely woken up, gotten dressed, put the puppy on the bed, and then lay there freaking out until she fell back to sleep. Leo was surprised that she hadn’t woken him up and sent him on his way the moment her eyes had opened. Actually no he wasn’t. If there was one thing he’d learned last night it was that she cared about him a lot more than she wanted to admit.

It started with her bringing him that uterus-shaped heating pad and ended with her shedding tears as she looked at the scars left by his brush with death. For the first time in over a year, Leo had hope. She’d told him that she’d wanted to come back just to see him. She’d told him that she’d been terrified to lose him forever. That meant that a part of her still wanted him whether she was willing to admit it or not. He might not be able to do the things he used to do, but he hadn’t lost her. If he had anything to do with it, he never would.

Dumpy whined, drawing Leo’s attention away from his thoughts and watching Sofi sleep. Right. He probably had to go to the bathroom. Leo slid off the bed and lifted the puppy into his arms. He was a solid boy, even if he wasn’t full-grown. He carried him to his bedroom and placed him on the floor. “Behave yourself while I get dressed,” he told Dumpy. “I’ll be pissed as hell if you mess up another pair of my shoes.” Leo grabbed his clothes and rushed to put them on. He did not like the way Dumpy was sniffing the floor in agitation. He grabbed his keys from the nightstand, his phone, and wallet. Then he remembered that the dog didn’t have a leash. He needed a rope or something. He thought about the fluffy purple robe he’d seen hanging on the back of her bedroom door. He tiptoed back into Sofi’s room and slipped the belt from the loops. This would just have to be Dumpy’s makeshift leash. Sofi would forgive him. He picked the dog back up, hoping that it would prevent him from peeing before they made it outside, and rushed out the door.

As soon as they were out the back door, Leo raced to the first spot of green he found, which happened to be a bush at the mouth of the alleyway. The second he put Dumpy down, he took care of business. “That was a close one,” he said to the dog relieving himself for an inordinate amount of time. “But you did good, buddy.” Dumpy wagged his tail. “Come on, let’s go find us all some breakfast.” He slipped the robe belt loop over the dog’s head, just in case he decided to book it.

He felt like an idiot walking a dog with a robe belt leash on and the people who saw him looked at him like such, but Leo did his best to ignore the stares and pointing. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and saw missed calls from multiple family members. Shit. He’d forgotten that he was supposed to be up early to help set up at the park. He was in big trouble. He didn’t want to listen to his parents ream him out so early in the morning. Leo called Saint first instead.

“Where the fuck are you? You were supposed to be here two hours ago, you weren’t answering your phone, and we couldn’t find you. All we found was garbage you were supposed to throw out strewn all over the alley you were already almost killed in,” his brother growled upon answering.

Uh-oh. If Saint was dropping an f-bomb and performing monologues, things were bad.

Leo immediately began apologizing. “I’m sorry. I got busy and then I forgot.”

Silence.

Okay, so he was still pissed.

Leo continued to explain himself. “Sofi and I found this dog by the dumpster. We couldn’t just leave it there, so we brought it to the apartment. But you know how Sofi is, so I had to take care of it. I’m actually walking it right now looking like a jackass because I had to MacGyver a leash out of the belt from her robe. I’ll send you a picture, if you don’t believe me.”

A long-suffering sigh.

That was more the norm.

“So what’s the plan with this dog?” Saint asked.

“We’re going to take him to animal control in a bit. Why? Do you want him?”

“Hell no,” Saint said. “I have enough on my plate. You better not even mention the possibility of a pet to Rosie either or I’ll sic Lola on you.”

“Damn. That’s just plain cold-blooded.” Leo liked Lola even though she had the tendency to bitch him out. He needed it most of the time, his mouth ran away from him a lot, but sometimes she did the most when he was just playing around.

“You better call Mami and Papi. They were about to force Cristian to file a missing persons report.”

Leo winced. He could only imagine the earful he was about to receive from his parents. “Uh. My phone is at like one percent. I forgot to charge it, but I don’t want them to worry. Can you tell them for me?” he asked.

“Leo...” Saint sighed. “I thought you were over being this flakey.”

Ouch. That hurt.

“Look, just tell everyone that I’ll be there as soon as I can. The—” Leo clicked the end button. His screen showed thirty percent battery life, but Saint didn’t need to know that. He’d already left everything including the recipes he wanted to try prepped for Liam, so it wasn’t like they couldn’t get started without him. Therefore, Leo only felt a little bit guilty when he turned off his phone and continued to the coffee shop at the next corner. There he ordered two cold brews, his with three pumps of caramel and hers with nothing because she was weird like that, and three breakfast sandwiches: one for him, one for her, and one for Dumpy, who was already drooling everywhere. The server was nice enough to throw in a big bowl of water and a few of their homemade dog treats. He and Dumpy sat on the patio enjoying their breakfast before heading back home.

“There you are,” Sofi said when they entered the apartment. “I was starting to get worried he’d run off again or something.” She was already dressed in a pair of high-waisted light blue jean shorts and an off-the-shoulder crop top that was designed to look like the Puerto Rican flag with one blue sleeve that went into a blue triangle on her side and a white star over her nipple. The other side was the three red stripes interspersed with two white stripes. “I was about to go look for you.” She stood in the kitchen with her hand on the counter sliding her foot into a high-heeled sandal also made to look like the Puerto Rican flag.

Leo wiped at his mouth to make sure he wasn’t drooling as much as the dog had when he’d spotted the breakfast sandwich. “We stopped to grab some breakfast.” He placed Sofi’s coffee and the bag with her sandwich in it on the island. “Then Dumpy decided that he had to sniff absolutely everything on the way back.”

She gave him a look as she slid on her other shoe. “Stop calling him that.” She straightened and adjusted her blouse so the neckline sat higher on her chest. “Let me grab my purse and then we can go.” Her long hair was slicked back into a low bun at the base of her neck leaving her gorgeous face front and center. Her baby hairs were laid perfectly and she had on huge gold hoops that had the word Boricua written across them. She had on multiple gold necklaces, one with her name, one with a Puerto Rico medallion, and the other with an outline of the island. Her lips were painted a blood red and her skin shimmered.

Leo fought the urge to walk up to her and kiss her silly. “Are you going to eat your breakfast?”

She eyed the bag and coffee. “I’ll bring it with.” Apparently, the walls had come back up, because she was acting like nothing had happened last night. She waltzed off, two Puerto Rican flags on her back pockets, and came back a moment later with a Puerto Rican flag mini backpack and the towel he’d used on Dumpy last night. “I hope you know that we’re taking your car because that dog will not be getting hair all over my back seat.”

About twenty minutes later they were finally on their way, Sofi sat in the passenger seat with Dumpy on her lap because he’d freaked out and refused to get in the back seat. Now Dumpy was cuddled up to Sofi’s chest with his head thrown over her shoulder just like a baby. It was cute as hell.

Leo knew by the way that she kept petting him from head to tail, like a mom comforting her child, that this trip to animal control was going to be a huge waste of time. There was no way that they were leaving the dog there. Still, he decided it couldn’t hurt to give things a little push. “This place looks cold and sad,” he said when they pulled up.

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Sofi replied.

The inside looked even worse. “It’s like a DMV or something.”

“Shh.” She hushed him because the worker had just stepped up to the desk from a back room.

With her ’90s mom haircut à la Meg Ryan and wide smile, the older lady looked nice enough he supposed. “Can I help you?”

“Hi, we found this dog last night.” Sofi motioned to Leo standing there holding Dumpy in his arms while the big baby looked around in terror. “We wanted to bring him in just in case someone was looking for him.”

“Okay. Can I ask, did you happen to find him near Humboldt Park?”

Sofi and Leo shared a look.

“Yes,” Sofi replied. “Right off Division Street.”

“How do you know that?” Leo asked. “Besides this Boricua Bratz Doll.” He used his thumb to point to his side.

Sofi smacked his arm lightly.

The woman smiled, but it fell quickly. “There was a bust there a few nights ago. The police found thirty-four dogs of various ages. Apparently there was dogfighting happening on top of the other illegal stuff. This guy looks just like a few other puppies that were brought in. They said they weren’t sure they got them all.”

Leo tightened his hold on Dumpy. “Dogfighting? People still do that?”

“Sadly, yes.”

“Sick fucks,” Sofi growled. She looked at Leo. “That has to be why he has all those scratches and scars.”

“Probably,” Leo agreed. He looked at the worker. “Were the other dogs that look like him messed up too?”

She nodded. “They usually start training them more intensely at this age. They have older ones fight younger ones for rewards. The vet put this specific litter at about four months old.”

Sofi waved her hand as if waving away the negativity. “We don’t even know if he’s part of that litter. Can you check him for a microchip first, before we go all doom and gloom?”

“Of course. Let me grab the scanner.” She spun on her heel and left.

“What are we going to do if he doesn’t have a chip?” Leo asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You heard her. They got in over thirty dogs just from that bust not to mention the other ones already here. These places are already underfunded and short-staffed.”

The woman walked back in before Sofi answered. “Okay, put him right here.” She patted the counter. “Hopefully, I’m wrong and this guy has a chip with some current owner information.”

Leo stepped forward and placed Dumpy on the counter. The poor guy immediately began trembling. His ears went down and his tail tucked all the way under his body.

“It’s okay, big boy,” the woman crooned. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

A whine escaped him as soon as the scanner brushed over the back of his neck and shoulder blades.

Before Leo could, Sofi’s hand reached out and cradled Dumpy’s face. He tried to get up and leap to her. Luckily the worker was done.

“As I thought, nothing,” she said. “If he does have owners, which I very much doubt given the situation, they didn’t chip him.”

“Now what?” Leo asked.

“We’ll still take him of course,” she said. “It’s a full house here, but we are reaching out to area rescues to see if they can help us out.”

“So he’ll be adopted?” Sofi asked, cuddling Dumpy to her chest the best she could even though he was the size of her torso.

“We’ll do our best but pit bulls are still a hard sell for a lot of potential adopters in Chicago due to the breed restrictions a lot of buildings have in place. Especially when they come from this background. Puppies are more likely to be adopted, but as soon as they get to around three months and don’t look like puppy puppies anymore, people are less likely to adopt them.” She held her arms out for him, but Sofi turned away.

Sofi stared at Dumpy, a frown on her face. Leo could tell that she was struggling with what she wanted to do and what they both knew she was going to do. There was no way in hell she was going to leave him there now. Not the Sofi he knew. “Fuck,” she whispered. “Why do you have to look so damn sad?” she asked him. “I can’t leave you here now.”

Leo smiled wide.

Sofi turned the worker. “I’m going to keep him.”

The woman bit her lip to hide her own smile. “Are you sure?”

Sofi nodded. “Yes, he deserves a home and if one can’t be guaranteed here, then I’ll give it to him.”

“I think that’s a great plan,” she said.

“So do I have to do anything? Fill out paperwork or something?”

The worker shook her head. “Since you never actually surrendered him, he’s not in our system. There’s no fees or paperwork.” She reached under the desk and pulled out a booklet. “However, you may want to take a look at this to figure out the next steps, the first of which should definitely be a visit to the vet for vaccinations and a checkup. None of the other dogs tested positive for heartworms, but you never know.” She leaned forward. “There are coupons for a free first visit in the folder. Tell them that Carol at CACC sent you.” She winked.

Leo reached for the folder.

Sofi smiled. “Thank you, Carol.”

“You’re more than welcome. Thank you for having a big heart.”

They exited the building, Leo smiling wide the whole time. He opened his mouth.

“Shut up, Leo,” Sofi said before any sound even escaped. “I can already hear your smug, I knew you were going to keep him as soon as you let him on your bed .” She mimicked his voice. “Well, good for you. I’ll buy you a cookie right after we go to the pet store.” She took off through the parking lot toward his car. “And don’t be too fucking cocky,” she threw over her shoulder. “He’s now half yours which means you’re going to take care of him when I’m at work.”

Leo kept his mouth shut and followed her. He wasn’t the smartest guy, but he knew to quit while he was ahead.