Page 86 of Privilege

“I have to go,” Renzo said, turning while pulling on Diego’s hand at the same time. “I don’t have time to stand here and talk about this stupid shit. Not today.”

“Ren, wait,” Lucia called at his back.

“Lucia, you have a job to do inside. Please, go back to doing—”

“Fuck you, I quit. And you can let my father know it, too.”

Renzo was a good thirty feet down the street before Lucia finally caught up with him. He was a lot of things in those moments—feeling a lot of shit that he really didn’t want to deal with. But above all else, he just felt fucking defeated and pissed.

“Where am I gonna go, Ren?” Diego asked, peering up at him.

Lucia grabbed him by his wrist at the same time, tugging hard enough to make him stop and swing to face her. “I’m sorry.”

That was the first thing she wanted to say?

Renzo didn’t know why.

“It’s not your fault, but I really don’t have time today. I need to get Diego a place to stay for the day, and then let the woman know who’s going to watch him for the night and tomorrow where she can pick him up later. So, I’ll call you when I get a minute, okay? Go back to the shelter, Lucia. They love you there. You like working there. Don’t quit for—”

“No,” she murmured. “Absolutely not.”

He blinked.

She just stood firm.

Then, she glanced down at Diego who looked like he was three seconds away from bursting into tears. “What if I took him? Like, for the whole time. You could just … pick him up from me. I can text you where I’ll be staying because I am not going home. Not if that means I have to see my father.”

“I don’t need you to do shit, Lucia,” Renzo muttered.

Pride was a bitch.

So was defeat.

She smiled just a little. That sweet, soft smile he loved so fucking much. The same one she graced him with when he woke up with her beside him. Fuck, he loved that goddamn smile.

He loved a lot of things about Lucia.

He was pretty sure he loved her, too.

“I didn’t ask if you needed me to do something for you,” she replied, “I asked if I could take him.”

Renzo sighed, and scrubbed a hand down his face. This really wasn’t his day, and he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. “Listen, you can’t take him back to my apartment. Carmen showed up, and I don’t trust him to be there with her when I’m not. You know what I mean?”

Lucia nodded. “I wasn’t planning on going there anyway. I was thinking … a hotel, actually.”

Diego peered up at his older brother. “Can I go with Lucia, can I, Ren?”

He didn’t have a choice but to say yes.

Not that it mattered.

There wasn’t anyone else he would trust his brother with like he could with Lucia. It wasn’t anything specific that she did, or anything particular about her that made him feel that way—it was everything she did and all the things she was put together.

“All right,” Renzo said. He let go of his brother’s hand, and Diego darted to Lucia, grabbing her outstretched fingers tightly with his own. “I’ll call you when I get a minute.”

He moved forward, and caught Lucia’s lips with his own in a kiss that set his fucking soul on fire. He couldn’t linger, even though he felt the curve of her mouth against his, and the way she answered his kiss with a teasing flick of her tongue … but damn, he wished he could stay.

He just didn’t have the time.