A Santini's Heart (The Santinis Book 10) by Melissa Schroeder Page B

talks about her all the time.”
    “She does?”
    “Yeah. She says how she admires her, blah blah.”
    “You do know she was my trainer, right?”
    There was another beat of silence. “You mean when you made it out to the ranch the first time?”
    “Yeah. I thought you knew.”
    “No, man. I knew you had a female trainer, but I didn’t know her name was Tia. You weren’t really talking to any of us much in those days.”
    That just showed how dark those days had been. Being twins, Brando and Carlos had always been close. If they hadn’t been able to talk because of the job, they made sure to text as often as possible. Carlos still remembered ignoring more than one message from his twin, and he still felt guilty about it years later.
    “Is there some reason you can’t be involved with her?” Brando asked.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Like a client-trainer thingy?”
    “She’s not my trainer anymore.”
    Then he heard the snort and realized Brando was just screwing with him.
    “Oh, fuck off, Brando.”
    “Did you kiss mom with that mouth?”
    “Hm.”
    “What?”
    “Tia said something like that to me a few days ago.”
    Brando chuckled. “Sounds like she would fit right in with the Santinis.”
    “Don’t start on me. It’s bad enough Mom played hardball tonight with Tia, but I know Dad suspected something when he showed up.”
    “Oh? Do tell.”
    Shit. He hadn’t meant to reveal that little tidbit. “Nothing.”
    “Come on. Don’t make me call Dad.”
    “He won’t tell you crap.”
    “Oh, but Elena can get him to tell her anything.”
    Dammit, that was true. Being the only girl in the family, Elena had a special connection with their father. He hated to use clichés, but his sister had their father wrapped around her finger. And if she really wanted to know something, there was a chance his father would tell her.
    “So, you can let me know, or you can let me go through Elena. If Elena knows, so does everyone else.”
    That was true. She had a pretty big mouth. Add in Dante, her twin, and her husband, JT, who was Anthony’s best friend, and it would make its way through the family. Hell, it would probably make it to the English side of the Santinis before he heard about it.
    “Mom and Dad showed up for dinner. I forgot they were coming.”
    “Please tell me you two were naked and there’s video of Mom’s reaction.”
    “I don’t know why you don’t leave the Marines and start up a stand-up career. You’re so damned funny.”
    “Come on.”
    “We weren’t naked, but I didn’t have my shirt on. Because it was hot.”
    There was silence.
    “Shut up. I had it off before Tia showed up.”
    “So, you were waiting for her.”
    He didn’t respond to that. “Anyway, I know it was pretty obvious to Dad what had been going on.”
    “And just what was that?”
    He opened his mouth to blast his brother, but he heard his sister-in-law in the background.
    “Who are you talking to?”
    “Carlos,” Brando said.
    There was a sound of a struggle, then his sister-in-law was on the phone. “Hey, Carlos.”
    “Kaitlin. How are you feeling?”
    “I’d feel better if my husband hadn’t been so danged loud and let me sleep. I will point out he insisted that I take this nap.”
    “You can never trust him. Believe me.”
    “Is he giving you problems?” she asked. Kaitlin understood brothers. She had five of them.
    “No, I was not,” Brando said from the background.
    Carlos smiled. “He was being mean to me.”
    “Brando Santini. You should be ashamed of yourself. What was he being mean about?”
    “He was needling me about my single status.”
    “Now that you mention it, I do have a really good friend who should be back soon.”
    “Let me guess, the blonde with brown eyes. The one who was your maid of honor?”
    “Yes.”
    He snorted. “Yeah, no. I don’t poach.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I was under the impression that Aeden and your friend hooked up.”
    “Hmm. Then, what about