Breaking Through

Chapter 3

3

Gui

“So?” I asked Gabi as she stepped back inside from the balcony and dropped her phone on a side table. “How is she?”

“She says she’s okay,” my sister said.

She frowned at me, probably wondering why the sudden interest in Hilary. Truth be told, the interest was old, very old, probably born the first time I laid eyes on her—one afternoon at the club, before Leo and Hannah started dating. Back then, she was only sixteen, almost five years younger than I was. Too young. However, my brain took notice of how beautiful she looked, but I did my best to ignore it then.

With the passing of the years, it was harder and harder to ignore how lovely she looked. Just when I thought she couldn’t get more beautiful, I saw her again and she took my breath away.

What happened to Hilary and Hannah had been f****d up. Sometimes, I wished I had been there with Leo, so I could have beaten the life out of Eric. That guy didn’t deserve to live. At least, Hannah recovered from it, but Hilary hadn’t. Well, she did seem better the last couple of months. She started coming to our dinners and get-togethers, though she didn’t talk much, and whenever we decided to go to a bar or club, she bailed on us.

After last night though, I was not only interested but also worried about Hilary. She had been shaking like crazy when she left. I almost followed her to make sure she wouldn’t get into an accident, but I discarded that idea because it was too much. Yes, I had been interested in her for over three years now, but that was all it would be. Just interest. I would never act on it. She deserved better than me. Besides, I had never seen her with a guy, not even before the incident with Eric. Sometimes I wondered if she was going to become a nun, or if she liked men at all.

Which didn’t matter, because I shouldn’t care about any of it.

Gabi went to the kitchen, where Bia was checking on our lunch, and Iris talked about dresses from across the kitchen island. I had no idea when or how Bia had learned to cook, but some of her dishes were just too freaking good. Like the lasagna in the oven.

While we waited, I joined Leo, Ri, Pedro, and Garrett in the living room and played video games.

“I saw you talking with Paula last night,” Ri said, his eyes on the screen.

“You know her?” I asked, taking the joystick from Pedro. He was f*****g terrible at this game. I didn’t know why he still tried playing it.

“Iris knows her from college. Apparently, she’s friends with Megan.”

Megan was one of Hannah’s oldest friends from the polo club. Though they weren’t best friends anymore, they kept in touch.

“She crashed the party, then?” Leo asked.

“I guess Megan brought her,” Ri said. “Anyway, did you hook up with her?”

“Nope,” I said.

Ri paused the game. “Say that again?”

Garrett chuckled. “A hot girl was all over you, and you didn’t go for it? That’s a first.” A spatula flew in front of my face and landed on Garrett’s shoulder. “Ouch!”

“That serves you right,” Bia said from the kitchen.

We all laughed. Bia was too f*****g jealous. Even when we were talking about girls for me, she paid attention to what Garrett said.

“Yeah, well, I was going to, but—” I cut myself off. What the f**k? I almost spilled the beans about Hilary. One, I wouldn’t tell them what happened last night. Hilary probably didn’t want anyone to know. Two, if I told them I had blown Paula off to go help Hilary, they would be on to me. They would know I liked her.

“But?” Leo asked.

I frowned. “Just play the f*****g game.”

Worse than talking about Paula was remembering how Reese flirted with Hilary last night. When I saw him smiling at her, I wanted to punch his teeth right out of his mouth.

“Uh, someone is touchy today,” Pedro teased. I threw him a glare. “What the hell?” he muttered.

The guys teased me some more, saying Paula had turned me down in the end, or that I couldn’t get it up. Yeah, right. Inside, I was fuming and ready to punch them all, but for Hilary’s sake, I held my ground and gritted my teeth.

Ri tsked. “If it had been me.”

Thankfully, the conversation shifted to Ri and his love life. It took him a while to bounce back from the damage Joana had inflicted on him, and on our family, but I couldn’t say it was for the best. While I was known for having a few affairs, Ri was known for having many. He had even moved out, to his own apartment on another building two blocks from here, so he could have his own bachelor pad.

Nevertheless, I was still fuming during lunch. I needed to blow off some steam, but playing violent video games wasn’t doing the trick anymore.

When we were finished, I was the first to jump up from the table. “How about we go to the ranch and race our monster trucks?”

The guys all agreed, and then Bia, Gabi, and Iris announced they would join us for the game. Ten minutes later, we were driving to the ranch.