It was official, the entire universe had it out for me.
Before I thought too much about it, I tugged on his arm (okay, his rippling bicep) and pulled him inside. I looked over at the kitchen where my sister was the last soldier standing in the Nosy AF Squad.
“Paula.” I waved her over. “Go to the closet where the dryer/washer is and get a laundry basket from the stack on the shelf. Put one of the beach towels in it.” I glanced up at Rocco, who was still standing there clutching the kitten, but at least had some color back in his cheeks. From the way he was fidgeting, it could be from embarrassment. And even if my stupid heart skipped a beat at the over-the-top adorableness unfolding, I was staying strong.
I pushed down the cooing that was practically bursting out of me, and when I opened my mouth, I was all business. “It’s so we can put the cat in there.”
“Okay.” He still sounded dazed, but at least he was responsive.
I pointed at the bundle. “Your sweatshirt will need a wash before you can wear it.” I’d be lucky if my whole apartment wasn’t flea ridden after this. I didn’t say it out loud since I’m sure my father would hear me and come give me another disapproving look.
I angled my head in the direction of the hallway leading to my room. “I have an oversized sweatshirt I wear around the house. I’ll get it for you,” I said, holding up a finger while Paula ran to my little laundry closet. “I’ll be right back.”
I walked off, trying to ignore the soothing baby sounds Rocco was making for the cat’s benefit so I didn’t melt into a puddle in my own damn living room. When I got to my bedroom, I peeked to find the Ortiz-Rodriguez clan whispering furiously, undoubtedly about this new development.
As soon as I stepped into the room, they all stopped talking at once. “Abue, I thought you gave up chisme this year.” The woman was born without the part of the brain where embarrassment happened, and just grinned when I called her on the gossiping.
“Niña, your papi was saying that was the boy you know from your computer group.”
I nodded slowly, expecting to hear something scandalous at any second. “Ay, Lita, pero que machote.”
I covered my ears with my hands and wailed, “Abuela! Please stop calling my friends studs.” I pointed a finger in my mother’s direction. “Yolanda, do something about your mother.”
She rolled her eyes like I knew better. “What am I supposed to do?” She lifted both hands in a gesture of supplication, a smile tugging at her lips. “You know how she is.”
My grandmother shrugged as she angled her head in the direction of the hallway. “Invite him for dinner, Mami. He looks lonely and he likes you.”
Without answering, I walked over to the closet where I kept my gym clothes. I pulled out the 2X Hunter College sweatshirt I wore around the house and hurried back.
I found Rocco standing in the same spot I left him, his hands by his sides and his eyes fixed on Paula—who was sitting on the couch and trying to feed the kitten. The tiny convalescent was now in a laundry basket lined with towels and licking milk out of one of my ramekins.
I handed him the sweatshirt, trying not to smile too much, because the scene was pretty cute and I wasn’t encouraging any repeats.
“Here, you must be cold. I’m going to get dressed and we can go to the vet in the Pet Mart at Highland Park. They’re open 24/7.” I gestured to my door. “My neighbor’s dog had an emergency over Labor Day and she mentioned they only closed Christmas Day.” Suddenly, it was like his eyes didn’t know where to go. He looked in the direction of my sleep shorts and then quickly moved up to the cropped sweatshirt I was wearing over my tank top.
I should’ve moved when Paula got up and went to the kitchen for more milk, but all I could do was stand there and stare him down with the same intensity he was looking at me.
He’d thrown on my sweatshirt, which fit him weird but at least covered his arms and chest. He still looked hot.
Really, really hot.
I’d never had a thing for the tall ones. I liked being able to look a person in the eye. Rocco had a few inches on me and this close to him I was at eye level with the dip at the base of this throat.
I wanted to lick it. Snake my foot around his calf and run my hands over his chest. Feel his cold skin and what I knew was probably a fast-beating heart.
He cleared his throat and the spell broke. I pointed a finger in the direction of the bedrooms.
“I’m going.” I turned around without looking back, but I didn’t miss his breathless, “I’ll be here waiting,” as I walked away.
Rocco
My entire existence had boiled down to one goal: to not stare at Julia’s ass while her family was one room away.
It was hard because her backside was truly magnificent. Like a beacon, really, and I had to cover my eyes not to suck my teeth or swat at that bounce as she walked off to change.
How was I even here?
I’d gone to the gym and overdone it as I usually did when I was in a mood. Other than a few more guys and the trainers, I’d been the only one there at 6:00 a.m., so I’d gotten all my shit done in record time. When I got back to my car, I heard a mewling coming from under a car right by mine and found the cat. Before I even knew what I was doing, I was knocking on Julia’s door on Thanksgiving morning like I had no manners.
I tried to not look mortified, now that it was sinking in just how fucking rude I’d been. She had her whole family here, for fuck’s sake, and I barged into her house at 7:00 a.m. like an oversized scrub holding a dirty cat.
I looked down at the kitten, who was now licking her privates and had one of her paws dipped in the ramekin Julia’s sister had gotten for her.
She was cute, but already looking like she was going to be a real handful, and I cringed again at how fucking imposing I was being right now. She hadn’t mentioned about them coming. I wondered if it had been a last-minute thing and that was why she hadn’t offered to hang out again.
I should’ve taken my filthy cat and gone to find a veterinarian on my phone, but instead I stayed put in her living room like a fucking leech. Blessedly, she walked back out, wearing significantly more clothes, but still looking so good I was legitimately concerned I’d embarrass myself in my basketball shorts.
“Mami, te dejo el carro.” She hiked a thumb over her shoulder and grabbed her bag. “My mom needs the car, so we have to go in yours.”
“That’s fine.” I nodded slowly, trying to not be too obvious as I assessed her clothes.
She’d put on some silver vans, black skinny jeans, and a dark red sweater. As far as outfits went, it was nothing that should’ve had me holding back from running my hands over the little bit of light brown shoulder showing where her sweater slid down. I distracted myself by picking up the cat and moved toward the door.
“You look great.” It came out before I knew it. She was bending over the cat and inspecting her eye, which looked pretty gross. She looked up and a tiny smile ghosted over her lips.
“Thanks.”
A second later, the woman who was a bit older and darker-skinned version of Julia walked out of the bedroom. “Esperate, mija. Dejame conocer a tu amigo.” Julia’s mom looked her over, like she wasn’t sure what was going on with her. “Estas tan rara.”
Without stopping to hear Julia’s response at being called weird, she came up to me, but before she spoke I greeted her in my best Spanish.
“Buenos dias, Señora Ortiz. Encantado en conocerla.” Both Julia and her mom came to a dead stop and turned to stare at me.
“Rocco. Fucking. Quinn. You can do a lot more than manage in Spanish.” Julia’s tone was full of surprise and just a little bit pissed off. And again my dick was getting ideas.
Julia’s mom sucked in her teeth at the swear word and shook her head. “Niña, por favor. Language. Hola, Rocco. I’m Yolanda. I swear we didn’t raise her to be
this rude. Your Spanish is very good.” Yolanda’s accent was so familiar, one I’d grown up hearing in Corona. It was comforting to hear it.
I looked over at Julia and winked at her before answering her mom. “Thanks. I minored in Spanish in college, and in the city there are lots of opportunities to practice. Here too.”
Yolanda’s face was glowing with approval at my gringo Spanish, while Julia glared at me.
“Sorry, Mami.” Julia looked a bit contrite as she handed me the laundry basket full of cat. Her eyes were zeroed in on me though. “How come you didn’t share the fact that you’re fluent in Spanish with us?” She didn’t have to explain, she meant the entire GEC crew. “I mean other than Dani, the rest of us speak Spanish.” I was about to say “not with me” when she pursed her lips as if she’d just realized that fact herself.
I lifted a shoulder and tried to look coy, hoping it wouldn’t come back to bite me. “Are you worried you said something mean about me?”
She shook her head and a smile tugged at her lips again. I wasn’t going to lie. Seeing her looking amused and just a little impressed by me made me feel ten feet tall.
“I haven’t said anything about your shady ass that I didn’t mean.” With that she pointed toward the door. “Let’s go before this pulgosa in the basket turns my apartment into a flea-ridden den.”
I got moving, waving at Yolanda as we headed out. “Adios, Señora Ortiz.”
Julia rolled her eyes at my ass kissing and stepped out onto the small porch in front of her place. She was on the ground floor, so my car was just on the other side of the green hedge surrounding the apartments.
“That’s me.” I pointed at the black sedan.
She rolled her eyes and walked purposefully. “I know which one is your car, Rocco. I’ll drive and you hold the kitten. That thing looks poxy and I’m not trying to get pink eye from a stray cat today.”
I tried very hard to keep a straight face, because I knew I was not supposed to find her saltiness adorable. So, I gave a terse nod and a very serious “Yes, ma’am,” and handed her my keys.
The cat in question was now curled up on the towel bed Paula made for her and not fazed by Julia’s annoyance in the slightest. She still looked pretty feeble, her little eye glued shut with yellow gunk and she was really dirty. We slid into the car and Julia set up the Google map on her phone to guide us to the vet’s office. Within moments we were on the road.
Julia looked over at me as I worriedly watched the kitten take short, fitful breaths in her sleep.
Her face softened and she shook her head, eyes on the road. “She’ll be fine. She drank all that milk Paula gave her and she seems to be sleeping okay. They’ll just need to check her out and give her the shots she needs.”
I nodded, feeling more at ease now that Julia had said the exact same thing I’d been thinking. Except her saying it calmed down all my nerves, something I’d failed to do for myself.
“I’m sorry I interrupted your time with your family. I didn’t know they were coming.”
Julia laughed at whatever she was thinking. “I didn’t either. They were in front of my apartment when I got home yesterday.” She scoffed, but the big grin on her face told me she was not unhappy about the impromptu visit.
I felt a pang of something, not regret exactly, because I didn’t want to be with my parents. But Julia’s obvious delight to have her family here touched on a sore spot that I avoided almost at all costs.
“I’m glad they came to see you.” I bit my tongue before I said something utterly ridiculous like, “I’m glad your parents give a shit about you.” That was too dramatic and I didn’t need to make it about me. She was already being nice enough to leave her family to help me with the cat.
Julia took her eyes off the road for second and gave me a concerned look. “Why do you look like someone punched you in the stomach? That cat’s going to be fine.”
I shook my head and smiled at her grumpiness. Why did everything about Julia Ortiz make me feel warm? Like the parts of me that I would never figure out on my own seemed to fall into place like puzzle pieces when she was around.
“You’re right. We’re fine.”
“Completely fine.” I knew she was just talking about the cat, but fuck, it felt like she was talking about my whole life, and for a second, I really believed her.
She dipped her eyebrows like she was still a little worried about my mental state, but she nodded and pointed at a strip mall straight ahead. “We’re almost there.”
Just then the cat let out a little mewl that sounded pretty pathetic and I was back to full alert.
“Good, because Pulga doesn’t sound too good.”
She turned her face fully toward me then, and this time she was working very hard not to laugh. “Did you just call your cat Pulga?”
I shrugged, but could feel a matching grin to hers on my own face. “You called her Pulga first.”
She was laughing now as she eased us into a spot in front of the store.
“You’re a clown,” she muttered, obviously amused by my cat-naming skills. She powered off the car and turned to look at me and the kitten in question. She waved a hand at the basket where the newly named Pulga was lifting her head like she wasn’t sure what all the ruckus was about, but she wasn’t into it.
“I called her ‘pulgosa’ because she looked like she could be carrying more than a few fleas in that fur coat. I didn’t mean for you to name the cat ‘flea.’” She sounded outraged, but her smile told a different story.
I winked and worked very hard in tamping down the flutter in my chest. “I like it. She’s small and a bit of a pest. Pulga’s the perfect name for her.”
Julia’s face did something then that I hadn’t seen before. Her brown eyes widened and her cheekbones popped. She was beaming, because of something I’d said.
It was like the warmth of every ray of the sun was radiating in my chest. I was struck speechless by what that felt like.
Before she turned to get out of the car, she patted my shoulder and tugged on Pulga’s tiny ear.
“You’re right, it fits her.”
Chapter Eighteen
Julia
This man and this filthy cat were going to be my undoing.
We walked into the vet’s with Rocco leading the way, holding the laundry basket full of feline like it was an offering from the goddess.
“Hi, my cat needs help.” He was speaking barely over a whisper, like he didn’t want to startle any other convalescent pets.
How could a man this hot be so fucking sweet?
I was trying hard to tell myself this was the same guy who could send my life and my career in a tailspin if he felt like it. But I couldn’t make it stick. This man who showed up at my door cradling a little cat like it was made of spun crystal and spoke in Spanish to my mother was hard to connect to that reality. There was way too much to digest in that newsflash, so I tried to focus on the issue at hand.
“No, I’m keeping her.” I looked up in surprise and found Rocco sending a very slighted expression at the receptionist.
“What happened?”
“She asked if we were going to send her to the ASPCA,” he said in an outraged whisper, as he clutched Pulga to his chest. Great. There went my Hunter sweatshirt too.
I was caught between swooning and rolling my eyes. When I caught a glimpse of the tech taking the information from Rocco, she looked a little addled by the man too.
Girl, get in line.
Rocco spoke to the tech again and this time it was clear he was not playing. “I want to make sure she gets the shots she needs and someone to take a look at her eye, and I will be taking her home.” He offered Pulga up for a quick inspection of the poxy eye, and then turned to me with a look that said “Can you believe they asked me that?”
I gave him a small smile and tried hard to act l
ike I wasn’t deeply in my feelings in that moment, then turned away to hide my face from him. Because what I really wanted was to get up from the bench, go to that counter, and tell the vet tech with the moony eyes to back off, because this man and his flea-ridden cat were both mine.
But because I at least succeeded in holding on to the last ounce of self-control I had left, I forced myself to stay firmly in my role of supportive friend. “She’ll be fine. They’ll take care of her.”
He didn’t look too convinced, but turned back to the woman, who had even more information to share with Rocco. I stayed by the bench, hoping to get my shit together.
I needed a talking-to ASAP.
I texted Alba, hoping she would bring me back from the ledge I’d walked onto in the last five minutes.
Julia: Are you still pretending to be asleep to get out of helping with cooking?
Alba rejected all domestic activities and gender roles with a militant zeal, so the yearly ritual of her sisters and her mom preparing a meal for the assorted males in their family was not something she willingly signed up for.
She regaled me with a string of red-faced emojis before I got an answer. While I waited I looked up and found Rocco staring at me.
“Everything okay over there?”
He nodded and pointed to the door of the examination room. “We’re about to go in. It shouldn’t take too long.”
He looked mortified, like back at my apartment. It was almost as if it would hit him by moments how extra he’d been this morning by showing up at my house. Immediately I wanted to soothe him, reassure him that everything was fine. That I was glad to be here for him.
Calm your tits Julia, he’s not your man. You don’t need to fix this, or him.
Here to Stay Page 16