The front door opened abruptly. “Down boy.” Hector pulled away from Charlee and turned to a slightly amused-looking Abel at the door. “Mom’s watching.”

Hector glanced back at the window near the far side of the porch and winced, remembering they were visible from the kitchen. Turning back to Charlee, he saw she was already bright red. “Don’t worry about it. If she saw the whole thing, she knows that was all me.”

“Yeah, no shit.” Abel took the dish from Hector and smiled at Charlee. “Hi, Charlee.”

Charlee barely nodded, smiling through her redness. “Hi,” she said softly.

Stepping back to let them in, Abel chuckled. “She’s been waiting, dude, asking me all kinds of questions like just how serious you are, and then you put on that little show—nice.”

Hector went straight to the kitchen to get it over with. The second they walked in, his mom gave him a scolding look, but it immediately disappeared when she turned to Charlee and brought her hands to her mouth, smiling. “Ay, que linda!” She held her arms open to her, and Charlee glanced at him cautiously before stepping forward and accepting his mother’s overly zealous hug.

“This is Charlee, Mom.” Hector said in an effort to end the suffocating hug. “Charlee, in case there was any doubt, that’s my mom.”

His mom pulled away to look at Charlee, and instantly, her hands were on Charlee’s hair. “So pretty. No wonder this boy is acting so crazy. He does have manners. I promise you.” She lifted that eyebrow at Hector again then brought her attention to the next most important thing about Charlee—her food. “What is this you brought?”

Abel caught Hector’s attention and motioned for him to follow him out back. Hector shook his head. He didn’t want to leave Charlee to fend for herself with his mom, but his mother noticed and waved Hector off. “Go on. She’ll be fine in here with me.” Charlee gave him a wide-eyed smile, but, otherwise, she seemed fine.

“I’ll be back,” he said in as reassuringly as he could.

He walked out, following Abel. Doña Benitez, the older lady that lived in the back house and her daughter and grandkids were already out there, setting up the serving table. He greeted them all as he followed Abel to the grill. “Dude, mom’s gonna be all over your ass the moment she gets you alone.”

“It was just a kiss,” Hector rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, one that had you moaning.” Abel laughed flipping over the carne asada.

If it were anyone else but his mom who’d seen, Hector might be laughing too. “Did she hear me?”

“I don’t know, but I sure as hell did.” Abel frowned when of the smaller pieces of meat fell in the grill. “Damn it,” he adjusted the other pieces. “Listen, I’m supposed to be having that talk with you.”

“Again?” Hector plopped down on the patio chair next to the grill. Now he could laugh. “What? Does she think this is my first time?”

Abel gave him that knowing look. “No, but she does have a point. You haven’t been in any trouble or fights outside the ring in a long time. I saw you at the party the night of your fight. You had that ready-to-murder look on your face when she was dancing with that other guy. Don’t even get me started on your flagrant broadcast to the entire gym that she was off limits. Are you sure you’re ready to handle being this hung up on a girl?”

Hector frowned. “That was just Nestor, and, of course, I can handle it.”

Abel turned to him, staring at him for a moment. “First of all, you did pick a nice one. I’ll give you that. I never would’ve made you out to be into redheads, but she’s beautiful, and that little body of hers,” Abel whistled, flipping over the meat on the grill as he swayed his hips. “Dayum!”

The thought of Abel checking Charlee out so closely and what might be going through his head as he swayed those damn hips pissed Hector off. “Is there a point to this shit?” He squeezed the arm of his chair, glaring at his brother.

Instead of Abel smirking like Hector thought he would, his brother turned to him now, looking anything but amused. “My point is she’s a head turner. Get used to it. You’re gonna need to handle your reaction to it better than you have so far.” Flipping the meat one last time, Abel closed the lid on the grill. He turned back to Hector, who was now feeling a little stupid that he’d walked right into that one. “You’re not a minor anymore, little brother. Those fists of yours are lethal, but you can’t go around unloading them like you always have in the past. The shit’s real now. You can get your ass thrown in jail. And just now, doing what you did out there, knowing mom’s just inside, already you’re not thinking straight when you’re with this girl.”

“That’s not true,” Hector said, feeling annoyed that Abel would blame anything on Charlee. But he hated to admit Abel was right about one thing: Hector hadn’t even slept with Charlee yet, and already he’d felt ready to murder for her more than once.

Abel shook his head. “Whatever, dude. Just the fact that you actually brought her home to mom speaks volumes about what this girl’s doing to you already. You know me. I’m usually with you about mom worrying too much. But I gotta tell you this makes me nervous. You’re a loose cannon as it is when you snap, and something tells me you’ll snap for this girl in a heartbeat.” Abel looked at him very seriously now. “I need you to promise me that you’re gonna stop and think before reacting, no matter what the situation is. There’s only so much I can do for you. You snap bad enough, no amount of money is gonna get you off.”