Antonio glanced at him and frowned at the endearment and then squinted. “Son of a bitch. Cutter? You have no business here.”
Cassie stuck her index finger in her uncle’s face as his wife tried to shush him. Cassie whispered, “Stop it. I’m no longer seventeen, and neither is he, and whatever you have to say about him being here is unnecessary. I’m a grown woman, damn it.”
Taken aback, Antonio pulled back from her finger in his face and looked between the two of them. “Fine. What do we do about your dad?”
Cassie shrugged. “Take him home. There’s a limit to how many flaming batons I can juggle. Make an appointment for him with his doctor. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to check on Mom. You should go home, too, Uncle Antonio. The wind is gusty today, and you know how it makes your ears hurt.”
Her aunt whapped Antonio on the chest. “See? I told you it was too windy to be getting out today. You should’ve listened to me but nooooo! You had to do the bidding of your brother, the pendejo!”
Antonio looked between his wife and Cassie and then a slight grin tipped up one corner of his stern mouth. “You’re a bad influence on the women in this family, Cassandra.”
Cassie snorted and quirked an eyebrow at him. “Maybe the Villalobos women have finally had enough of macho, pigheaded Villalobos men, hmm? If you take him home and make a doctor’s appointment, I’ll check in with you later. But, Uncle Antonio, you know I can’t take him in. I won’t be treated like I was when I was growing up. Not ever again. We may need to talk about assisted living.”
Antonio grunted, and Samson watched him walk away. It seemed nothing had changed. The Villalobos men still ruled the family.
Cassie turned to him and pressed her face against his chest and whispered. “I felt so good, so contented when I woke up with you and Ivan this morning. Now it’s all ruined.”
Samson stroked her cheek and then wrapped his arms around her. “Not ruined. Not by a long shot. No one is running me off, or keeping us from seeing each other this time. And you have two men to rely on who couldn’t care less what the men in your family think about them.”
Her eyes were misty as she gazed up at him. “Even if it means my mother comes to live with me?”
He caressed her chin. “I recall your mom being a pleasant person to be around. Provided she’s doing all right with the gambling problem, I don’t see why she would be a problem, as long as she’s okay with seeing me and Ivan on a regular basis at your house.”
“A regular basis, huh?”
“Regular like all the time. Like a family.” She blinked up at him like a deer caught in the headlights, and he chuckled. “What? Did you think once we finally got together we’d keep it casual? I don’t do casual, Cassie, any more than I think you do.”
One of the other female family members approached and got her attention, and he remembered this was hardly the time or place for that conversation, but soon. Soon.
Chapter Fifteen
Cassie took a couple of slow, deep breaths, letting them out and reaching for calm as she walked back into her mother’s hospital room. Emma was sitting on the side of the bed, taking Delicia’s blood pressure.
Her mom looked at ease with Doctor Emma, which was just one more reason to appreciate her doctor friend.
Her mom had suffered with anxiety issues since before returning home from her time in the state penitentiary. She was the same warm caring woman she’d always been, but certain situations set her anxiety off so easily. Like the confrontation Cassie had narrowly averted from entering the room.
“What was all the noise outside, mi hija?”
“Oh, just some visitors who were arguing about something,” she said as she sat and took her mother’s other hand.
“Mi hija, I could hear your father and one of his brother’s voices. I’d know his imperious tone anywhere,” she said, a faraway look in her eyes. Her lips pressed together, she looked down at Cassie’s hand grasping hers and patted it. “He thinks I would ever go back to him?”
Not even bothering to deny it, Cassie said, “We’ll work it all out, Mami. Don’t worry.”
Her mother gazed at her with the same mahogany brown eyes she saw when she looked in the mirror, only Delicia’s were hooded and lined with age. “He can’t tell me what to do anymore. Let him rage and shoot off his mouth all he wants.”
Emma smiled at her words and glanced at Cassie and whispered, “Your mom’s a badass. That’s the official diagnosis.”
They chuckled softly, and then Cassie turned to the doctor. “What were the lab results?”