The Family You Make (Sunrise Cove #1)

“Okay,” Jane said, hoping her panic wasn’t showing. She was a shit baker. “I’ll bake . . . something. I’ll get a recipe from Charlotte.”

“It’s only fair that I help,” he said on a smile.

“Are you looking for pretend date number three?”

“Yes. Just name the day and time and I’ll be there.”

She’d never brought a guy home before. Not that she had a home, but she did have Charlotte and Cat, and their opinions mattered to her. She nodded, and he smiled. Then he leaned in and kissed her, his hand sliding up her throat, his fingertips sinking into her hair, his thumb gliding along her jaw. He tasted like hopes and dreams and brownies, and she was breathless when he pulled back.

“Was that pretend too?” he asked, voice low and husky.

She had to clear her throat to talk. “Extremely pretend.”

The corner of his mouth twitched. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”





Chapter 16


Charlotte pulled up her driveway at four in the afternoon. It was the first time she’d seen daylight in . . . well, she couldn’t remember how long. She got out of her car, noticing that Mateo had at least ten cars in his driveway, and two right on top of the snow on his front lawn. A few more cars lined the street, now that she thought about it, even though there was no parking on the street allowed between November and April for snow removal.

What was going on?

She followed the sounds of wild laughter and screeching past the driveway and around the side of Mateo’s house. The snow was deeper here, and she sank into several inches as she moved, her boots making a crunching sound. Just as she rounded the corner of the house to the back, she realized all noise had stopped. In the odd and sudden silence, she cleared the corner. And then . . . whoosh!

A snowball hit her right in the face, breaking apart on impact, its momentum taking her down to her ass in the snow.

“Oh shit!”

“Oh my God!”

“Did we kill her?”

Charlotte sat up and wiped the quickly melting snow from her eyes and mouth, just as a tall shadow dropped to its knees at her side.

“Charlotte?”

She didn’t answer right away as she was spitting out some snow, so Mateo hauled her upright, holding on to her hands, and he stared down into her face, his own creased in deep concern. “Charlotte, say something.”

She looked past his broad shadows to find a whole bunch of what looked like Morenos of all ages scattered in the yard, clearly in the midst of a killer snowball fight. “Who threw it?”

Every single person pointed to Mateo.

She swiveled her head and looked at him.

He grimaced. “Look, you were tiptoeing in the back way. I thought you were my cousin Rafe. He sneaked in last time and took me down.”

She arched a brow. Or at least she thought she arched a brow, but since they were frozen, she couldn’t be sure.

“I’m so sorry,” he said quietly, stepping closer, cupping her face to tilt it up to his. “Did I hurt you?”

“Hmm,” she said noncommittally and bent under the guise of rubbing her ankle. “I think I sprained something. Do you have a first aid kit?”

“Of course.” He turned toward the house.

“Mateo?”

He turned back just as she rose upright again, patting the snow she’d just scooped up into a snowball as she did. Which she threw at him.

And nailed him.

Also in the face.

His family erupted in wild cheers.

She grinned and took a bow.

This got her an ovation.

Mateo, who hadn’t fallen to his ass, straightened—snow in his hair, dripping off his nose and sticking to the stubble on his jaw—and just looked at her.

“Mateo, can we keep her for our team?” someone called out.

“No fair,” someone else yelled. “She’s got a wicked right arm. We need her on our side!”

“Charlotte,” Mateo said and swept an arm across his yard, “meet my wild and crazy cousins. Primos, meet Dr. Charlotte Dixon. And she’s far too civilized to play with this lot.”

“I’m not that civilized,” Charlotte said. “And I want to play against you.”

Cheers broke out on one side of the yard, groans on the other side.

Mateo met her gaze, his own lit with humor but also challenge. “You sure?”

“Oh yeah.” She shrugged off her purse and computer bag. Mateo put them on his patio table and turned back to her. “You should know, there’s no rules. First one to call ‘tío’ gets a cease-fire and a loss.”

He looked a little worried for her. Cute. She turned to her team. “Let’s do this.”

It was mayhem. It was chaos. It was rough-and-tumble. Snowballs flew so hard and fast that it was a constant, unrelenting battle, and Charlotte loved every second of it.

A snowball took her beanie right off her head. When she looked up, Mateo stood there with a wicked mischievous unrepentant grin.

She mirrored his expression and quickly formed a snowball. Ducking his next hit, she came up and threw, and nailed him right between the eyes.

He wavered, but didn’t go down, so she launched herself at him, and then they were in free fall. Mateo landed flat on his back, cushioning her as she followed him down.

“Say it,” she said, laughingly holding him down, knowing that if he wanted to, he could easily have flung her off him. “Say it,” she said again, their noses nearly touching.

His hands went to her hips, his mouth curved, but definitely not saying a word.

“Say it, say it, say it,” her team of Morenos began to chant.

Charlotte wiggled a bit, realizing she was getting cold as the snow had slowly seeped into her clothing. Mateo’s hands tightened on her hips to hold her still, and suddenly his eyes had gone from amused to hot.

She stared down at him, time suddenly stopping as she gulped.

“Tío,” he said huskily.

She cocked a hand around her ear, smiling as she said, “Excuse me? I didn’t catch that.”