A Santini's Heart (The Santinis Book 10) Read Free Page A

caller ID, she made a face. She loved her parents, but they tended to wallow on this date, especially her mother. She had no choice, so she answered.
    “Hey, Mom.”
    “Tia, sweetie, how’re you doing today?”
    “Okay. It was a long day, but I’ve been promised red meat.” She paused and waited for her mother to talk. When she didn’t say anything, Tia went on. “How are you doing today?”
    “Fine. Both of us have been fine.”
    Her parents had been born and raised in Arizona, but her father had a lot of family in Mexico and South America. His business had been pulling them down there more and more, so her parents had relocated. They had tried to talk her into it too, but she would never leave this place. Arizona was her home.
    “I don’t know why you couldn’t come down here.”
    She loved her mother, but she knew how to lay the guilt on. “I told you. Carlos had to be out of town for a wedding; although, he did come back yesterday because of…the anniversary.”
    She hated calling it that, but that is exactly what it was. Something so evil and horrible should never be associated with something good like an anniversary.
    “Good. I’m glad you’re not alone. I’m sorry we won’t be there for the benefit.”
    Damn, she forgot about that. Thanks to Marcella Santini, they were having a benefit to help the ranch. The running of the ranch was covered, but they wanted to create scholarships for people who couldn’t afford extensive equine therapy. It wasn’t cheap, and it wasn’t covered by insurance.
    “It’s no problem, Mom. I wish you could make it, but I understand.”
    She really didn’t, but it was best not to bring that up. There was no way to win a fight with Rachel Mendoza. She had been raised in a large Irish-American family, the oldest of six, and had always known how to win an argument. And besides, Tia was too tired today.
    “Well, I guess I should let you go eat. I just wanted to check on you.”
    “Okay. Love you, Mom.”
    “Love you, Tia Marie.”
    She clicked her phone off and closed her eyes. It took her a few moments before she felt steady enough to face the world again. She opened her eyes and saw the shimmer of tears. She blinked, forcing herself not to think about Adrian right at that moment. The need to just let the tears fall almost overwhelmed her. Every muscle in her body seemed to be screaming. She’d been up for over twelve hours, and most of it had been filled with hard work. Add in the depression that hit her today, and she was definitely in need of a good hard cry.
    She could not fall apart. Not right now. That was for the bathtub, wine, and cake time she had scheduled later. She had only cried in front of Carlos once, and she would not do it again. She grabbed her clothes out of the guest room, then walked to the bathroom. After stripping out of her clothes, Tia started the shower and stepped under the hot water.
    Her sore muscles screamed at first, but then they relaxed under the soothing heat. Grabbing the bar of soap and a washrag, she lathered it up. The musky, masculine scent filled the air around her. Oh, damn, it was his soap. The one she smelled on him day in and day out. And now she would smell of it—like him. It was bad enough she’d been having a lot of dreams about him lately. This was not going to help.
    Knowing that a steak was waiting for her, she tried to pretend that the scent didn’t bother her at all. She would just think about it later. When she was in her bed alone.
    She really did need some help.

CHAPTER TWO
    C arlos turned the steaks over , then took another quick sip of his longneck. The day had started off cool, but it had certainly warmed up fast. Still, he would take the dry heat of Arizona over humidity any day of the week. How his brother and their cousin handled Hawaii all the time was beyond him, but he assumed since they married local women, they planned on staying there. Santinis believed in family, and that went hand and hand with