Page 62 of Take the Blame (Seaside Mergers #3)

So they didn’t know about us after all. The momentary disappointment I felt about that was silly. Of course they didn’t. Why would they when I was nothing more than a cling-on that threw himself at her ?

I shook it off and shrugged as casually as I could. “I mean, we work together, but we’re friends also…” I trailed off lamely.

“Uh-huh,” she nodded slowly, but I could see her mouth the word “ work ” to the girl beside her. Whatever that meant.

The two girls excused themselves and disappeared down some stairs and I felt someone watching me. I lifted my eyes only to be assaulted by black orbs glaring my way.

Jesus , all I did was shake her hand. Possessive much? I gave the older brother a quick wink anyway, because I thought it would stir him up, which it did as he turned on his heel and walked away with a scowl.

My fun was cut short by the brown that replaced him in his wake.

Alta had just raised up from grabbing something out the oven.

Two green oven mitts decorated her hands, and she was still biting on that lip as her doe eyes took me in with a sort of confusion I didn’t like, a serious look still adorning her face.

Because I couldn’t not talk to her when she looked so distressed, I took a step toward her. But Alta was suddenly distracted by a woman chatting animated by her side and she turned away.

I sighed. Family stuff, I guess. Stuff I had no business being a part of. I got it.

Being around so much family gave me hives. Being around a family as loving and happy-go-lucky as this one was threatening to put me into full anaphylactic shock.

Watching as Clay joked around with his brothers, not only the big one but the uptight looking one too, was hard enough.

Seeing him poke fun at his mom and dad plunged the knife in deeper, not to mention the way he was constantly going back and forth with his sister.

I could tell they were close, and it was ugly of me to be jealous of that, but I couldn’t shake it.

And all the while I couldn’t get away from the suffocating envy of Clay’s seemingly perfect family, she was avoiding me.

I could see her navigating the party, happily bouncing between aunts and uncles, greeting newcomers with hugs and smiles, and handling drinks whenever she could. Yet whenever those eyes fell on me, she disappeared.

I was resigned to the other once again. I’d fought so hard to become something to her. What had I done to be pushed just outside the door?

I realized now that I was stupid to think a little bit of her would ever be enough. That if I just had a taste of that brightness she gave to everyone else I’d be able to walk away when she eventually had enough of sharing it with me.

But what could I even say? We hadn’t agreed on giving our feelings in the arrangement. Only ourselves. Our bodies. And she was drawing her line in the sand. I had to respect it.

I wasn’t so lucky as to be needed for anything to prepare for dinner.

Everyone told me to go enjoy the gathering and have fun.

But what everyone didn’t understand was that none of this was fun for me.

Standing around watching the demonstration of things I couldn’t have.

Wondering if the best thing to enter my life even wanted me there in the same way I did.

Yeah, no. Not fun.

I’d rather sit alone at home with my store-bought meatloaf and too salty sides.

But I would feel rude ducking out now, especially after having met the woman that could be none other than the Fernandez’s mother.

Sweet and sassy was the woman who had been eyeing me from around corners since I first walked in.

And I see where her kids got their personality from.

When she spied me looking at her, she’d turned right on her heel and came up to introduce herself.

Martina Fernandez was a force to be reckoned with as she asked me straight out, “You like my girl?”

“Um?” I looked around myself for help of any kind, but she was smart. Cornering me where there were no other witnesses around .

“My Alta. You like her, yes?” she went on. “I see you watching her in every room.”

I cleared my throat. Welp, there was no one else around anyway. I might as well not lie to her mother of all people. “Yes. Very much so.”

She hummed, her eyes spearing me as she looked me over. Then she smiled. “She likes you too. I see her watching you just as much. I’ll save you a seat next to her at dinner.”

And that was it. Geez, these people were weird.

Later, I never felt more relieved to hear the simultaneous call for me than I did when I heard Clay and the broody brother’s voices.

“Montez.” Clay called, while Oaxaca gave an oh-so-warm, “Engineer.”

“Yeah?” I answered to both.

“We need some help.”

Following the two downstairs, I was led around the bend of the den-like lower level of the house and around a corner to a kitchenette. It was occupied by a disaster of a mess and two girls with frowns on their faces.

“Where’s the fire?” I asked, looking around warily. It looked like somebody stole something from those two.

“Nowhere,” a deep voice said as Clay’s younger brother rose from looking inside a little tabletop convection oven. “That’s the problem. Thing’s busted. They said you might be able to help.”

My chest loosened, relief brushing through me. Finally, something to do that wasn’t sitting around watching others be happy. And it was an easy one. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Keeps glitching. I tried to reset the system but nothing’s catching. I think it’s a hardware issue.”

“Can’t you just use the regular oven?”

Amused eyes danced over to the girls huddled together with their arms folded and their faces turned down. “Apparently it’s not the same. ”

“Alright,” I said, rounding the table. “I can take a look.”

With tools already laid out on the table, I picked up one skinny enough to pop the back face of the oven off.

A collective gasp rose as I got to work taking it apart but I ignored it.

It would go back together, they didn’t need to worry.

Minutes later, I had the circuit board slid out of its protective covering and turned over so I could see the wiring clearly.

One wire in particular looked mangy and frayed.

I tapped it before looking up to Connor. “It’s glitching on startup?”

He nodded and mirrored the motion. “Got any electrical tape?”

It was Ox who supplied it this time, handing it over with scissors as well.

In a few seconds I had the wire covered and laid down and in even more minutes, I was securing the machine back together.

After popping the last part back into place with the butt of the small screwdriver, I handed it over to the girls. “Give her a try.”

They did, and I was unsurprised that it worked.

It was only a temporary fix. They’d need to buy a new machine soon if the wires were fraying.

I told her that too, assuring her that it was no big deal when she thanked me for the tenth time in ten seconds.

It had given me something to do other than obsess over what the hurt look in Alta’s eye meant, though it was something that just brought back memories of my childhood working alongside my sister.

The watchful eyes of someone brought my gaze to Clay’s brother, just the one I’d been meaning to talk to. “You like computers and stuff, right?”

He grunted.

“So does my sister,” I tried. “You two would get along.”

He frowned, another grunt leaving his throat before he looked at me a little downtrodden. “Sorry I couldn’t trace your number.”

“All good man.” I tapped a fist to his shoulder.

A man of not so many words, he nodded and disappeared promptly. Leaving me to meet the eyes of the girl I’d only seen in passing all day once again from across the room.

She was staring at me, her eyes curious and active as they moved all around the scene. When she saw me looking, she tilted her chin, her eyes slit into clear apprehension. But all too soon, she was disappearing again.

And damn was I getting tired of watching her walk away from me.

By the time dinner rolled around, my hands were sweating and my feet twitching with the urge to just get up and leave. The only thing keeping me there was the terrifying fact that I knew where I wanted to go. I knew what being around these families was urging me to want.

My own.

And that was something I still wasn’t ready to face, not with a ten-foot pole.

Instead, I just took my seat at the table, my place right beside Alta just as Martina promised.

The table was so long; it resembled ones TV shows always featured.

The food was set up like a real life feast, and just as everyone was sitting down, a beautiful girl dressed in white was bringing out a turkey the size of a baby ostrich…

or at least I assumed so since I’d never seen a baby ostrich before.

She’d changed. Dressed casually before, now she was clad in a long dress that hugged her body in a snug fit.

The white sweater-like material looked soft as a cloud and covered almost every part of her body aside from her shoulders, which the garment cascaded off of, showing off her bare skin.

It reminded me of when she came to my house looking like a marshmallow.

I felt my heart soften toward her at the memory.

An angel, my girl, through and through. And literally handling that bird like a pro as she carried it in on steady hands and carefully set it down at the far end of the table.

I found myself rising half up off my chair when she first emerged with the thing covering half her body but quickly found my seat again when I saw she had everything under control. Just like always.

From the looks of the activity down there, I might be the only one to think so, though.

“ Cuchillo ?” Alta asked, looking around the table for something. When she found it, she held up a large carving knife and smiled sheepishly at the table as she announced. “ Aqui .”