Lucky 13 (Deadlines & Diamonds) Read Free Page B

her gracefully aging face.
    “Enrique, mijo . What a surprise.” She hurried around the counter and wrapped him in a tight squeeze. “Are you hungry? I’ve got some of your favorite carne asada . I can—”
    “Is Eddie around?”
    Her black brows drew toget her. “I haven’t seen him. Is he… are you—”
    “He asked me to meet him for lunch.”
    Curses in Spanish coat ed the air around them. She stomped her foot and continued to lay her tongue to south-of-the-border profanity as she paced. Breath raced from her lungs. S weat beaded on her forehead. Ricky worried about her when she let her temper spike. She circled the counter and took a long draw on a glass of water.
    Still breathing hard , but calmer, she came to stand in front of him , hands on thin hips . “You don’t have to take his crap, Enrique . My crap, you take. His, you don’t.”
    Theoretically, she wasn’ t saying anything new. She’d been offering him the same mantra for years. Hear ing the advice and putting it into practice were two different things.
    Just then the bell dinged , announcing a visitor. Ricky didn’t have to turn around to see who’d come in, Mama’s grunt and sharp pointed finger, said it all.
    “ Kitchen , now,” she told Eddie then turned on her heel, marching through the swingi ng doors . 
    Eddie glared as he walked past him and into the back. Ricky didn’t stick around to hear the hushed, heated difference of opinion about to erupt. He went to the very back corner of the d iner and sli d o nto the bench that was Eddie ’s favorite.
    Ricky slid his finger over the aged Formica and smiled when he found the rough patch where he’d had to buff out his initials. He’d been eight. Eddie had been twenty… and furious!
    “Long time, no see, handsome.”
    Ricky smiled and glanced up into the face belonging to the husky, made-for-sex voice. “Hey, how you been?”
    “Good.” Teresa Sanchez had been his first kiss, his first girlfriend. Hell, she’d been his first at a lot of things. The neighborhood had them married before they’d hit puberty.
    Things changed.
    “I’m real good.” She wiped her palms on the tiny white apron covering her shorty- shorts. “ You heard I got divorced.”
    “I did hear something like that.” He pretended to care . “Congratulations?”
    “He was a ningún buen hijo de tu puta madre . ” She shrugged. “ We’re better off without him.”
    Ricky couldn’t agree more. The guy had always been a “no good sonofabitch”, but Teresa made her choice. He suspected now , looking back, that she’d done it on purpose. She must have known Ricky hadn’t seen her in his future. All he could see was baseball diamonds and dollar signs. He didn’t have time for an overemotional girl with attachment issues.
    She held her arm s wide. “Get on up here and give me a proper hello.”
    He slid out to give her a hug. She grabbed on tight, giggling like an obsessed child. “It’s been too damn long, Ricky.” She whipped the rag off her shoulder and smacked him with it. “You too good for us now?”
    “Never.”
    “Get us a couple of waters, Teresa.” Eddie ’s eyes spark ed with the disgust in his tone. “Then will you check on Mama? She’s in the kitchen.”
    “What’d you do this time, Eddie ?”
    Eddie rolled his eyes and snorted his dismissal.
    Ricky waited until Teresa pushed through the swinging doors before glaring at his brother. “I’d like to know the answer to that myself.”
    “We got other things to talk about.” Eddie rapped his knuckles against the table to bring Ricky’s attention back from the kitchen doors. “You still got problems keeping your mind on the task at hand.”
    “And you still got problems being an ass.”
    Eddie tipped his head like he had water in his ears and was trying to clear it out. “What’d you just say to me?”
    Ricky leaned forward, linking his knuckles to keep from pummeling his older, out-of-shape brother. “You beckoned. I came.