I roll my eyes and walk around to the passenger side of the car.
“You don’t have to pretend your mother likes me.” I loop my arms behind her lower back. “She doesn’t pretend.”
Banner reaches up to adjust my tie unnecessarily because my tie is always on point. She just needs something to do with her hands. If we didn’t have to attend this reception, I’d give her something to do with her hands. Her mouth, too.
“But I want her to like you,” she says with the slightest pout.
I bend and drop a kiss on her lips and on my freckles.
“Do you like me?” I ask by her ear.
“I more than like you.” She turns her head to kiss my lips quickly. Too quickly for my taste. “I love you.”
“Then you’ll believe me when I say no one else’s opinion really matters, not even your mother’s.”
She nods, but a frown dents between her brows. I smooth it away with my thumb.
“I mean it, Ban. It would be great if your mom liked me the way she loves Zo, but we both know that won’t happen anytime soon.”
“Oh, also.” The frown is back. “Speaking of Zo . . .”
“Do we have to?”
“Jared, stop. He may be feeling well enough to come today.” She glances up at me through long lashes.
“Don’t even bother,” I tell her. “That batting eyelash trick doesn’t work on me.”
“I’m well aware that you are immune to my charms,” she says with a laugh, pulling out of my arms to walk ahead of me.
Her ass, though. That little sway of her rounded hips seduces me every time. The way that dress molds to the curve of her—
“Damn! You’re doing it!” I say, realizing the lashes don’t get me, but I fall for that ass every time.
She’s looking over her shoulder watching me watch her ass, mischief in her grin. I love that the woman who once asked if her ass was square feels confident enough in my love for her body exactly as she is to use that ass against me.
“You’re so easy, Foster, and you think you’re so hard.” She laughs and loops her arm through mine. “Now, like I was saying about Zo, I need you to be nice.”
I hate it when people need me to be nice because that means they know there’s a strong possibility someone will and could set me off. After the way Zo kept us apart for months and then pulled her onstage in front of the whole world with all that te amo shit, knowing about us . . .
“Maybe we’ll just avoid each other,” I offer. “There’s a lot of people here.”
“No, I need you to try.” She stops on the sidewalk leading up to the venue, her expression sobering. “You know what he means to me, and he knows what you mean to me. I want you both, at some point, to be okay with . . . each other.”
“I’ll try.” My voice is curt. I don’t mean to be, but just her saying “what he means to me” sets my teeth on edge.
“Thank you.” She huddles in closer to my side. “This is gonna be fun. It’s a really big deal. I remember my quincea?era. Such a special day for a girl.”
“That ceremony at the church was cool.”
“Yes, and now the real fun begins,” she says. “Lots of drinking. Good food. A delicious cake. Anna will have the first dance with my papa.”
“Sounds more like a wedding than a sweet . . . fifteen party.”
“It is a lot like a wedding.” She shoots me a knowing grin. “But it’s not, so don’t worry. I know how nervous weddings make single guys.”
“Weddings don’t make me nervous.” I capture her hand and bring it to my lips just as we reach the entrance. “And I’m not single.”
We share a long look, half questions, half unspoken answers, before her sister, Camilla, walks up to greet us.
“Everything is beautiful, Bannini,” Camilla says, accompanying us to the foyer. She drops her eyes to the floor and then looks at Banner directly. “Thank you for this place. Anna feels like a princess here.”
“She is a princess,” Banner replies, hugging her sister. “We’ll make sure she has all the things we never had and learns all the things we did.”
“Yeah. Still.” She gestures to the quaint villa where Anna’s reception is being held. “You didn’t have to.”
“Somos familia,” Banner says, kissing her cheek.
“And thank you for bringing this one,” Camilla says, turning a frankly admiring look my way. “I’ve been meaning to tell you that he is something else.”
“Look, Milla,” Banner says with a stiff smile. “You have one more time to look at my boyfriend like that. ?Entiendes?”
Camilla and I glance at each other for a few seconds before her laughter sputters past her lips. She pulls out a twenty-dollar bill and hands it over to me.
“You win.” She shakes her head and grins. “Jared called it.”
“Wait.” Banner swings disbelieving eyes between her sister and me. “You set me up?”
She turns narrowed eyes on me.
“You set me up?”
“Just a friendly wager to see how jealous you’d get,” I admit, pocketing the twenty. “It’s pretty bad.”
“And I suppose that twenty is for Anna’s stash, yes?” Banner asks with arms akimbo.
“Of course,” I mumble. “Most of it.”
The three of us laugh at my joke and I hand the twenty back. We make our way over to the table where there is more food than I have ever seen. A catered spread of tacos, enchiladas, barbacoa, salsa, guac, and so many dishes I’ve never seen but can’t wait to taste. I grab a couple of the biscohos, a type of wedding cookie, and even spot some bu?uelos like the ones Banner made for me in St. John.