Her worst enemy is the one man she can't resist.
Maria Martinez thought it was a dream come true when Ritchie Perez - a sweet and sexy guy she met volunteering at a soup kitchen - took her delinquent little brother Joey under his wing. But her drea...
"So after one day of having Joey around your office, you think you know better than me what's going on with my own brother?" Her face was flushed, and Ritchie had a good idea it wasn't from the glass of wine she'd barely touched.
It wasn't turning out at all how he'd expected. Instead of a romantic dinner and a chance to get to know Maria better – maybe help her out with some insight into the problems she was having with Joey – she seemed to take everything he said as some sort of an insult on her "parenting" skills. And she wasn't even the kid's mother.
"Maria, the last thing I want to do is criticize you."
"Really?" She picked up the wine glass and took a healthy gulp, then set it down firmly on the table. Her dark eyes flashed indignantly. "Because you sure are doing a good job of it."
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"Listen. I've had some experience with kids his age."
"Have you? Well, that's nice. I live with him. I've been taking care of him myself since he was nine."
"What about your parents?" He'd assumed Maria was just helping out at home, but he was starting to realize she might be the only one involved in raising Joey.
"Dad died when I was fifteen. Our mom had it really rough after that."
"I'm sorry. What happened?"
"Massive heart attack. If there were warning signs, he never said anything. One minute he was there, and the next minute he was just...gone." She looked away from him, took another drink of her wine. When she looked back, her eyes just seemed so sad he was sorry he'd asked.
"It must have been terrible for all of you."
"I focused on my art. I graduated high school. Had a partial scholarship to Temple University in Philadelphia. The Art School there. I was so busy focusing on myself, I never noticed the changes in my brother. I let him down." There was a little crease between her eyes when she looked sad, and he had the sudden urge to kiss it away. He reached across the table and took her hand.
"Joey would have been just a little kid then. He wasn't your responsibility."
She looked up quickly, and her eyes were wet. "Joey? No, I don't mean..." She paused so long he thought she wasn't going to say anything more. Finally, she continued. "You're right, of course."
Something had closed down. Ritchie could always tell in the courtroom when a witness was holding something back, and it was no different in his personal relationships. He wondered what it was that made Maria feel so guilty for leaving her mother and her little brother and going off to college. It seemed like she was harboring serious regrets for doing something that was completely normal.
"So you went off to college," he prompted. "How did you end up back here, raising Joey?"
"My mom got cancer. She...she didn't tell me until it was pretty well advanced. Didn't want me to leave school. By the time I realized, she didn't have much time left."
