“I think trouble’s gonna show up whether it has an invitation or not,” I inform her.
“Nope,” she says, shaking her head with impressive confidence for someone who’s so wrong. “As long as we’re never alone together again, there’s no chance of anything going wrong.”
“That’s realistic, long-term thinking. Assuming you stay in this family you only have, what, 30 or 40 more years of avoiding being alone with him? No sweat. That’s definitely going to work.”
Mia rolls her eyes. “Whatever, it’s a perfect plan.”
“If he wants to be alone with you, he’ll just make me leave,” I point out.
“I don’t think he wants to be alone with me, I just don’t want to show up alone and tempt him.”
“Were you planning to show up naked? Because otherwise you’re just describing generally existing.”
“I’ve had moments of weakness, okay? Just let me be cautious.”
I lean across the counter, looking down at her eagerly. “Tell me more about these moments. Did he have them at the same time? I need details.”
Mia grins, shaking her head. “You’re terrible. I’ve done nothing wrong, and neither has he. I just want to keep it that way, so we need a chaperone.”
“Psh, I’m definitely going to find a reason to leave you two alone now.”
Her eyes widen as she pops back up and hands me the window cleaner. “You better not.”
“Watch me.”
“I’ll be so mad at you.”
I grin at her lame threat. “Oh, no, not anger. Whatever will I do?”
“You’ll… feel really bad because your maid of honor is totally pissed at you.”
“Eh, he’ll put you in a better mood with his mouth.”
Mia flushes about thirty shades from pink to red then buries her face in her hands. “Stop torturing me. I’m trying to be a good person, goddammit.”
“An admirable goal. I love it.”
“Then stop being such a bad influence,” she demands.
“I’m not being a bad influence. I don’t want you to cheat, I just want you to steal him back from the poacher who grabbed him in the first place and live happily ever after.”
“You have very unrealistic goals.” She misses a beat. “Why do you dislike Meg so vehemently? Meg’s my friend and she just so happens to love your brother.”
“She loves the side of my brother that’s effortless to love. You know you need to avoid being alone with him when he’s engaged to someone else, and you still want him. Maybe you have questionable taste in men, but you’re more realistic about Mateo than she is and I think you have a far better shot of keeping him happy.”
“She’s pregnant,” Mia states, like that settles it. “They’re having a baby, they’re engaged—he’s taken.”
“She had a baby with some other dude—where’s he at now?”
She stares at me for a moment, then realizing I actually don’t know, she answers, “Mateo had him killed.”
“Oh. Really?”
She shrugs. “Not over her. It was a gambling debt or something. He didn’t sound like a real catch.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter. Look at our dad, he had babies by four different women—and if Adrian would’ve been our brother, it would’ve been five. So maybe it was almost five, I don’t know. I don’t know if he actually thought Adrian was his or he just wanted to fuck with Mateo, but my point stands. Mateo’s only up to two. You can totally be lucky number three.”
“Vince would be thrilled to know you’re trying to pimp out my womb,” she says, rolling her eyes.
“Well, he doesn’t want to put anything in it,” I say, shrugging like this is a reasonable alternative. “If there’s a vacancy, it’s his fault.”
“I don’t think that’s how that works,” she tells me.
“Honestly, I love Vince, but I don’t understand why you two are still together.”
“He doesn’t want to break up. He doesn’t trust me, he obviously resents me, I think I piss him off more than anything even when I’m not doing anything wrong, but he doesn’t want to let go. I get it, ‘cause I’m not exactly begging to leave myself, but…” She shrugs, her gaze dropping. “I don’t know. I still care about him; there are just so many more issues now. He doesn’t trust me and I’m a little afraid of him, so we’re just walking on eggshells and doing the best we can.”
I scowl. “Afraid of him?”
“Not like that,” she says, shaking her head. “It’s complicated. There’s stuff you don’t know and I can’t get into it. He’s just a bit of a wild card sometimes. He’s done some things I never thought he would, and…” She trails off, shrugging. “I don’t know. I’m gonna go wait in the car or we’ll be here all night talking.”
“Wait, I want to keep fixing your love life!”
Mia rolls her eyes at me over her shoulder and heads out the front door, using her own key to lock it behind her and heading to the car.