She’d never forget the day they walked into the hospital room and Romero introduced them to Almanzo Maxim Romero. As expected, Manny had been immediately choked up.
“You named him after us?” Max asked, since Manny wasn’t even able to talk.
“Yep,” Romero said, handing the baby over to Manny, who could barely hold it together. “You two raised me like your own—”
“You were ours.” Manny had jerked his face from the baby to look at Romero. “Still are.”
“I know.” Romero smiled. “I just meant I never missed out on having a dad. I always felt luckier than most because I had two instead of just one. So me and Izzy thought it’d be an honor to name our baby after you two.”
Of course that had only made Manny a bigger mess. Isabel also remembered how later she’d overheard Manny saying, unlike the other one, this one had a better chance of not being such a momma’s boy with a name that started with the words “All” and “man.” She’d quickly axed any chance of him repeating that same comment over and over by threatening to change the baby’s name to Francis after her grandfather.
“Frances?” Manny had looked absolutely horrified. “That’s a girl’s name.”
“Not when it’s spelled with an “i” and that was my grandfather’s name, so obviously, it’s unisex.”
“All right, all right,” he said, all overwrought and animated about it. “Let’s not get crazy about this. It’s bad enough Romeo’s gonna get teased mercilessly about his name when he gets a little older. Let’s not get his underpants wedged all the way up his ass when he has to admit he has a brother named Francis.”
With another stern look, Manny promised not to make any more comments like that. Though Romero had warned her and she knew he was probably right, these boys and even Mother Theresa were in for a lifetime of this with these two. But he also assured her now that no matter what, just as he knew it growing up, no matter how much his uncles busted his balls, the one thing he’d never questioned was how much these two big lugs loved him.
The way these two fawned over her kids now was absolute proof. And that day right there in the hospital Manny said they’d be throwing this kid’s first birthday party, and they’d been talking about it ever since.
At the very least, it saved Isabel a ton of work because they insisted on getting it all together and even cleaning up afterward so Romero and Izzy could go home and put the exhausted kids to bed. This morning they’d all woken up early to play with all of Almanzo’s new toys. They’d all spent most of day here, playing and watching TV. Romero had been there the entire time while Isabel took breaks to fix them all lunch and then dinner. She’d been in the kitchen cleaning up when she noticed how quiet things got suddenly.
Isabel lifted the baby from Romero’s chest. Romero instantly opened his eyes. “Shh,” she said, bringing the baby over her shoulder and motioning to Romeo sound asleep next to Romero.
Romero lay very still at first then started making his move. As tired as the baby was, Isabel knew he’d sleep right through a diaper change, and he did. She was just putting him down in his crib when Romero walked in quietly. The second the baby was down and out of her hands, Romero hugged her from behind, leaning his chin on her shoulder, and they both stared at the baby.
“Are the other two out for the night?” she whispered.
“Sure are,” he said, still staring down at the baby. “Isn’t he perfect?”
“Yes,” she agreed with a smile. “Hard to believe such a perfect little angel could be such a handful.”
“He’s not so bad,” Romero said immediately as she knew he would.
Ever since Almanzo had been born, she’d noticed they both had avoided the topic of making any permanent decisions about closing out this chapter of their lives. Having another baby in the house had made Isabel remember how much she missed it—all the exciting firsts—and it really wasn’t as much work as she imagined having three would be. The other two were actually a big help when it came to playing with him and keeping an eye out for him. When Amanda had been the baby’s age just starting to walk around, there was no way Isabel could even use the restroom or take a shower if no one else was home. This time was different.
Amanda was such a little mother herself. She’d been helpful with Romeo, but now that she was a little older, she was an enormous help when it came to keeping an eye on both her brothers for short periods of time while Isabel used the restroom or took a speed shower.
“It’s gonna get tougher before it gets easier,” she reminded Romero. “He just started walking on his own. You know how boys are. Amanda took her time and eased into it, but Romeo was running before he fully learned to walk. Remember all the bumps and bruises on my poor baby?”
“Remember?” Romero laughed. “He just got another one today.”
Isabel turned to look at her husband, whose smile quickly flat lined. “It wasn’t so bad,” he said. “He hardly cried.”
She elbowed him playfully. “You’re supposed to call me when that happens so I can make it all better.”
“And that’s exactly why half the time I don’t,” he said immediately. “When I tell him to shake it off and that’s it nothing, he gets over it just like that. He sees Mommy coming at him with her pouty face, and he’s crying for a half hour.”
“Well, that’s what mommies are for,” she insisted with a pout. “Was it bad?”
“No, not at all.” He laughed, kissing her neck. “I’m just glad he has a brother now, who he can rough house with. He really needs that, babe. And he loves it. It just would’ve been cool if they were closer in age like when he and Amanda were little. I can tell already this one is going to be the tag along. He gets bored halfway through the movies the other two are into.” Romero laughed. “So he starts bugging them.”
“Yeah, it’s easier when they have a sibling closer in age, I guess,” she agreed. “Maybe if he had a younger one that was closer in age? That’s how it was when I was growing up. Pat and Art were always closer because they were closer in age while Gina and I, the younger two, were always closer.”
Romero didn’t say anything for a moment then seemed to take a deep breath. “So are you saying you wanna try for another one?”
“No, no, that’s not what I’m saying.”
He exhaled a bit exaggeratedly, and she turned to look at him. “Why? Did that scare you?”
“No.” He kissed her. “It excited me, actually.”
“Really?” She could feel her eyes well up and the emotion begin to suffocate her.
The concern in his eyes was instant, and he turned her around all the way to face him. “What’s wrong?”
She smiled, not sure how to say it. She’d only known for sure for a couple of hours, but this time she had no intention of keeping it from him.
“What’s wrong, baby?” he asked again, still searching her eyes.
“Nothing’s wrong.” She smiled then glanced down at her belly and back up at him.
A laugh escaped her the moment she saw it in his eyes. The moment she knew he knew and his eyes grew wider. “You’re pregnant?” he whispered, and the moment she nodded, he pulled her to him and hugged her hard. He pulled back and looked at her. “And you’re sure about this?”
Suddenly the expression in his eyes went a little hard and she knew why. After the last time, even though the plan was Almanzo was the last one, he’d made her promise that if by any chance she ever got pregnant again, she’d tell him immediately. He’d been absolutely adamant.
No surprises.
“I just found out today,” she said quickly, “a few hours ago, actually. I was waiting for the kids to go to bed. I haven’t told anybody else.”
The beautiful smile was back, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. She’d been so scared all week when she’d begun to suspect. As much as he loved the kids and insisted he could more than handle the three of them even when she took off to the market and left him with all of them, she knew how exhausting it co
uld be sometimes. She wasn’t sure if maybe he’d changed his mind and would freak out about another one.
Pulling back to look at her again, he smiled. “Another one,” he said simply.
She nodded a bit apprehensively. “Another one. Call me Fertile Myrtle.”
He laughed, cradling her face in his hands. “No, I’d rather call you perfect because you are.” He kissed her softly then looked in her eyes. “Thank you, baby,” he whispered. “Thank you for making my life so perfect.”
Note to my Wonderful Readers
To all my wonderful readers, I hope you enjoyed reading Tangled. Please take a moment to leave a review on Amazon.
Tangled is a Moreno Brother’s Holiday novella. Romero is the full-length novel of how Romero and Isabel met and fell in love. It is temporarily free for the holidays, so grab it now if you haven't read it already! For a list of all the other Moreno books and the rest of my available titles, visit my website. You can click on each individual book for purchase links to all retailers and excerpts of each title.
Books | Elizabeth Reyes
Excerpt from Felix
With every movement she made, Felix noticed something new about her, like now. Hector was right. Nothing about her popped out at you. She probably wouldn’t make your head turn at first glance, but he’d hardly call her plain. She had the kind of delicate features you had to study closely to appreciate. Like her lashes. They weren’t big and thick like the ones on the models and television personalities he was used to dating. But they were long and curved and appeared to be all natural, nothing fake. Everything about her was like that. But Hector was right about one thing. She wasn’t the type of girl he’d normally date. Ella was something else and then it hit him. That’s what it was. She was what he’d heard so much about and had never gotten it. Ella had natural beauty.
Felix stared at her for a moment, a little stunned. That’s exactly what she had. He’d noticed her flawless complexion earlier when Nellie had first introduced them. Ella tilting her head the way she did now had his eyes immediately on her neck. They followed her delicate neckline all the way down. It was just as soft, just as flawless, perfect for—
“But surely your worldly lifestyle made up for missing out on prom and homecoming, right?”
Ella’s comment pulled him out of his thoughts and thankfully so. Felix straightened out and focused on what she’d just said like he should’ve been doing the whole time.
“Yeah, but most of the stuff I’ve done I can do over and over or anytime. You only get to do prom once.” He stopped just before taking another sip of his beer, suddenly curious. “Did you go to prom?”
“Twice,” she said, smiling so playfully her eyes shined.
Felix couldn’t tell if she was teasing or being honest, but his insides were doing that thing again. “Did you really?”
“Um huh.” She nodded and sipped her beer again. “I was asked to go my sophomore year, and then I went again my senior year.”
“Touché,” he said with a smile. Of course she’d be asked more than once. To think if things had gone differently she might’ve gone with him. “You have a very sweet smile.” Once again, the words flew out before he even had a chance to think about them.
Not that he wanted it to but he sort of expected her smile to flat line in reaction to the compliment. It was what most girls did when he said something like that to them. But he was pleasantly surprised to see how poised she remained, simply raising an eyebrow and taking another sip of her beer. She never once broke eye contact—eye contact that Felix knew had gotten heavier and heavier each time. Yet he’d been powerless to back the hell off.
“Thank you,” she said when she was done swallowing the sip of beer. She glanced at Carmen, who was in the middle of telling Charlee and Drew something they were laughing about. “I need to go to the ladies’ room. Do you have to go?”
Carmen nodded, immediately standing up. Ella got up too and they excused themselves. It was only then that Felix saw Hector smirking and peering at him as he chewed on some cheesy bread.
“What?” Felix asked, reaching for a piece of bread.
“You hitting on Ella?”
“No,” Felix said, sounding more annoyed than he cared to admit that implication made him. “Can’t I say she has a nice smile without it having to mean anything else?”
Hector chuckled as the servers brought out the pizzas they’d ordered. He shook his head, reaching for a slice of pizza. “I don’t care if you are, you know. That’s Abel, not me, and I won’t say shit to him either if you don’t want me to.” He shrugged. “It’s none of my business if you’re planning on taking her back to your place or anything.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not,” Felix said, feeling a little panicked that Hector would just put it out there like that.
Had it been just the smile comment Hector had overheard, or had Felix really been that obvious? So she’d impressed him. She wouldn’t be the first girl to have done so. And this was a different kind of impressed. This was business, serious business because of the nature of why Ella was working at the gym: her brother’s girl being raped and the cancer thing in homage of her dead mother. This was nothing to be taken lightly and certainly not anything he’d undermine by using it as a means to get in her pants.
“I was gonna say you’ve been hogging her while I’m supposed to be interviewing her.” Drew smirked as she chewed her pizza happily.
“I know,” Charlee added with a playful smile. “And they were talking all low almost as if they didn’t want us to hear what they were saying.”
Hector smiled big. “I heard.”
His smug friend stuck the rest of his pizza slice in his mouth, grinning big, and Felix felt like shoving another one or two in that mouth to shut him up.
“I wasn’t”—he turned again to make sure Ella and Carmen weren’t on their way back—“hogging her okay?”
Charlee laughed. “Are we embarrassing you, Felix?”
“No!”
Hector laughed now too. “How cute,” he said in the most annoying coddling voice. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen your face get all red.”
“Shut up.” Felix refilled his beer mug. “I don’t get red.”
“Okay, your face is pink. Your ears . . .” Hector laughed again as Felix looked up at him. “Now those are red.”
Excerpt from Desert Heat
“. . . I’m working,” Bethany's voice either lowered or she walked away farther, because the rest of what she said was a mumble.
Damian started toward the door. Sleeping with her had definitely heightened what he felt for Bethany, or maybe his feelings of entitlement, because the unease he’d felt yesterday when he’d heard her tone down her relationship with him was a slow-boiling annoyance now. Had she really just told someone she was working instead of admitting where and with whom she was?
“. . . not now I can’t, but tonight for sure.”
Instead of standing there eavesdropping as he was tempted to, Damian decided to walk out into the front room, where her voice seemed to be coming from. As soon as he opened the door, he was surprised to see she wasn’t even inside. She’d stepped out onto the patio.
Even though Bethany smiled as soon as she saw him, Damian hadn’t missed how her head had jerked in his direction when he opened the door. He managed to smile back, but just barely, as he walked toward her. As much as he had every intention of not jumping to conclusions and giving her the benefit of the doubt, it was already pissing him off that she turned away and lowered her voice.
He opened the patio door, and she turned, lifting her hand for him to give her a second, then turned her back on him again. “I gotta go now, okay. Yes, tonight.”
He’d give her a second or longer if she needed it, but he wasn’t leaving, if that’s what she thought. Wrapping his arms around her waist from behind, he noticed how she stiffened.
As much as that, too, made him wonder what the hell her sister was asking about now that she couldn’
t talk about until tonight, he still tried to shake the unease and leaned in to kiss her neck. This time he was asking her straight out the second she was off the phone. No more dicking around. This close, he heard the other person on the phone, and it wasn’t her sister. It was a guy.
“Okay, tonight then. I’m really looking forward to it, Bethany.”
Damian yanked his head back.
“I am, too. Bye.” She turned to him as soon as she was off the phone.
“Who was that?”
This was another first for Damian. He’d never felt anything like what he was feeling at that moment, as he stared at her, his heart pounding as it always did when he was around her, but for an altogether different reason now. It had actually been a chore to refrain from cussing and asking her who the fuck was that on the phone. “That was Simon,” she said, as if it were nothing. That only spiked the annoyance that had already boiled over and was reaching a new height. He wouldn’t even attempt to hide what he was feeling now.
“What’s he looking forward to tonight?”
“Seeing me.” She said it so calmly, it gave him hope this was a complete misunderstanding.
Still, he fisted his hands tightly, trying to remain as calm as she was. “Seeing you?” He lifted both brows, unable to hide the anger now. “You’re gonna see him tonight?”
She nodded, touching his face softly. “What’s wrong with you?”
While her touch did calm him a little, it wasn’t nearly enough. “What do you mean what’s wrong with me? You’re gonna go see this guy tonight, and he’s looking forward to it? And so are you?” Then it hit him. “You told him you were working. Why?”
Pinching her brows together to think about it, she tilted her head. Damian took a few steps back—away from her. As cute as he normally thought it when she did that, right now he was too damn pissed to appreciate it.
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