Broken Desires (17 page)

“Been a while huh big bro?”

Daniel smelled cigarettes and booze on him and fought a sneer. No way did he want him near Sofia, or his life, not even for a visit. “Sure has.”

“I figured he could stay in the spare bedroom,” Sofia
chirped like joyful bird. “We needed a handyman, a delivery boy, and a dishwasher at the bakery, and guess what? He can do
all
that.” couldn’t stop his jaw from trembled from holding his mouth shut and his body still. “And of course you have your
brother!”

Daniel laughed to keep from doing something else very bad. Like curse. He
had his brother. And that was the epitome of her little therapy, right there. Daniel had been very obliging in her shade tree doctoring whims because he thought it was the sweetest damn thing ever. Even funny. But fuck, this was
not funny
and not sweet.

Daniel
went to Sofia and bear hugged her when he saw another
who are you and what did you do with my fiancé
shadow cross her face. “Baby, thank you. You are an angel.” And she fucking was. He hugged her long, getting lost in the smell of her for a moment, pressing a kiss into her hair.

“Daniel,” she whispered.

He gritted his teeth at the first inconvenience and set Sofia down. He snuck a glance at Seth and froze. The bastard was eyeing Sofia’s body.

Fuck that shit.
Daniel vowed right then to figure a way to get rid of him. Get him a life of his own away from them. Something that seemed like he cared.

“And
another great thing about this too is, you now have a best man,” Sofia added, ecstatic for him. “And he can be Dara’s chaperone.”

A light bulb of salvation
lit up his mind. Dara. What had Sofia said about her? There was no problem she wouldn’t tackle when it came to Sofia? Relief trickled in as he considered. He could talk to her, she would help get rid of him once he explained his problem.

But God help him if that fucker crossed the line until then.