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...
Ritchie grinned back at Joey and slowed the car, parking on the street in front of his parents' modest home. It wasn't the house he'd grown up in. A few years ago, he and his sisters had finally convinced their parents to move into a nicer section of town. But it didn't matter what house it was – walking through the front door still meant going home. And the neighborhood was a lot like the one he'd grown up in. Before drugs and gangs had driven away the small businesses that once flourished, driven away the working class families who'd taken pride in their neighborhood.
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He glanced over at Maria, sitting stiffly beside him. She'd resisted when he first invited them for Thanksgiving dinner with his family, but since her brother had made it clear he didn't want her showing up at the prison with Joey in tow, she'd given in. He'd played the 'Joey card' and he wasn't ashamed to admit it. Besides, it would be good for the kid to soak up some of the loud, crazy comfort his large family dished out on holidays along with the turkey and the sweet potato casserole and way too many pies. But the truth was, he'd wanted her to see where he came from.
The front door burst open and assorted nieces and nephews spilled out onto the porch.
He was out of the car and around the other side before Maria had gotten out, and helped her out with the plate of cookies she'd baked. Cutout cookies, shaped like turkeys, and decorated with colorful icing and sprinkles. A family tradition she'd carried on for Joey and that he'd insisted she bring along today.
"I should have baked a pie," Maria said, looking down at the homemade cookies that Joey had helped decorate.
"Don't be ridiculous," Ritchie said. "They're going to love these."
"I shouldn't have come." She'd gone from being stiff to looking like a bird that wanted to take flight.
"Well, I'm glad you did," he said, and whatever Maria was going to say in response was cut off as his mother hurried down the porch steps, wiping her hands on her apron.
"So these are the two you've been keeping from us," she said. "Hello Joey, welcome." She put her hands on his shoulders, bent down slightly, and kissed him on both cheeks.
"Go on in the house now with my grandbabies," she said, laughing as the younger kids grabbed onto his arm and pulled him along, Ritchie's five-year-old nephew tugging on Joey's pants leg, asking him if he knew how to play Mario Kart.
"You must be Maria," his mother beamed. "Ritchie! Take that plate of food for her so I can say hello."
"It's just some cookies, Mrs. Perez –"
"Please, call me Giana," she said, giving Maria a hug and kissing her on the cheeks as soon as Ritchie took the plate out of Maria's hands. "Or Mama G."
Mama G? It looked like Maria had already passed some kind of unspoken test. His sister Rosalie had been practically engaged to her husband, Eduardo before their mom had invited him to do the same.
