Trusting My Brothers

Chapter 35

He pulls back a little and looks me in my eyes. I can see that his green eyes are more emerald with hints of golden flakes in them. He leans in and next thing I know, his lips are on mine.

I couldn't believe what was happening right now. I've day dreamed about us kissing but never would I have thought that it would become reality.

After getting over my initial shock, I kiss him back, closing my eyes. My hands moved to grasp his hair whereas his went around my waist, pulling me closer. The kiss was slow and gentle, like we were trying to memorize the feeling of the others lips. His were so soft and I couldn't get enough of them. I pulled his hair in the heat of the moment, causing him to groan and kiss me harder.

He eventually breaks the kiss, placing his forehead against mine. My heart was beating so fast that I was almost sure that he could hear it. But I didn't care if he could or not. All I could think about was I just had my first kiss with Cole Rivera.

Keeping one arm around my waist, he moves his other hand to my face to cup my cheek. He moves his thumb to stroke my bottom lip, parting my lips slightly. We both were breathing heavily but neither of us have moved apart nor spoken yet.

Losing track of time and remembering that my brothers were still inside, I pull away from him. "I-I have to go." I say, also realizing I should have never let this happen. Yet I can't bring myself to regret it.

"Wait, we have to talk about this. You can't just kiss and run." Cole said. I would have laughed if it wasn't for the severity of the situation.

"Look, I really do have to go. Give me your phone, I'll put my number in so we can talk, later." I say. So much for trying to put distance between us. I don't think I'm ready to lose him again and that kiss just reinforced that I really do care to much about him.

He hands me his phone and I input my number before handing it back. Quickly saying bye, I rush back into the cafe. My brothers look straight at me and I know I'm going to be in big trouble. Without saying anything, we go to the car and start driving, which is when it starts.

"Where the hell did you go? I know we said it was okay but you were gone for ten minutes and weren't picking up your phone. Do you understand how worried we were?" Enzo said.

"I know and I'm really sorry." I seem to be apologizing a lot today.

"Who was the guy you pulled out of the shop? You are not as sneaky as you think." Savio asked, glaring at me.

I decided to be partly honest. "He is someone I know from school. He has been acting weird for the past few days and I wanted to see if he was okay."

"And what is his name?" asked Nic in a deadly calm voice.

"Nope, not going to tell you. I know you guys will try to do a background check on him."

"How about first name only? There is not a lot we can go from there." Enzo said, trying to coax the name out of me.

Trying to think of a fake name, I say, "Collin. His name is Collin." 

They all raise their eyebrows, letting me know that they know I'm lying. To be honest, they probably know who the person really was.

The next thing that Savio said just reinforced that. "It was Cole, wasn't it?"

Giving up on lying, I nod. "We told you that it is too dangerous for you to be hanging out with him." 

"I haven't hung out with him since you told me not to. But you guys haven't seen him at school and seen how awful he looks. I'm not going to sit around and watch him get worse every day. He really needs a friend right now." I defended.

A moment passes before Enzo speaks up. "Did you figure out what was wrong with him?"

"Yeah. His father is pressuring him a lot right now about the business and he hasn't been getting a lot of sleep."

"Okay. How about this? As long as he doesn't find out who you are, I will let you be there for him as a friend." He stresses the last word.

"Deal. You guys are very weird. You know that, right? One second you are saying to stay away from him, and the next, you are saying it is okay."

Savio smirked at me. "You know we can still take back what we said, right?" 

"Never mind, thank you for allowing us to be friends." I said quickly, causing my brothers to laugh.

One we get home, I see that none of my younger older brothers are up yet. My eldest brothers, unfortunately, had to handle some emergency. I'm really in the mood to work out again, but I also want a better relationship with my other brothers. So I decide to go wake up Matteo to see if he will work out with me. This could honestly go either way, especially since he isn't a morning person, but I can only hope for the best.

Going up stairs and finding his bedroom, I knock on the door. I hear a mumbled, "Mhm," from the inside of the room and take my chance in going in. Once I walk in, I see Matteo laying face flat on the be.

Trying to be nice since I did wake him up, I say, "Good morning Matteo."

He turns his head my way and squints his eyes a little. "Liliana? What are you doing?"

"Well, first of all, sorry for waking you. And second of all, I wanted to know if you want to work out with me."

"What time is it?" he said while yawning.

I pull out my phone and say, "It's 10. Now, will you work out with me?"

"Why not work out with one of our brothers that are already up?"

"Because, I want to work out with you. And since our brothers had to go handle something upstairs. Now, yes or no." It's literally such a simple question.

"Fine, give me five minutes to get ready and I'll meet you in the gym." 

I say okay and get changed as well. I put on a sports bra with a long-sleeved crop top over it and leggings. I head to the gym, where Matteo was already waiting in a pair of basketball shorts and fitted casual shirt.

"Okay. What do you usually do first so I know where to go?" he asked.

"I usually run first and then move on to weights. Then after that, we can spar."

"Sounds good." And with that, we get started. I ran for about thirty minutes and lifted weights for a while. 

After we both get done with our own thing, we started to spar. At the end, I swipe his legs, causing him to fall on his back. I just laughed, which led to him telling me to shut up, making me laugh louder. He grabs my arm and pulls me down beside him and laughs at me.

"Well, it looks like you two are getting along." I turn to where the voice came from and see Savio smiling.

"Oh shut it." I say, still smiling, while getting up. I walk past Savio to go to the kitchen. They both follow behind me and I reach into the refrigerator to grab two water bottles, throwing one to Matteo.

"Well, I'm going to go shower. See you guys later." I said after drinking about half of the bottle and walk to my room.

Once I get done showering, I put on the outfit I was wearing earlier. Grabbing my phone, I see I have a text from an unknown number.

Unknown: Hey, It's Cole.

Me: Hey, how are you?

Cole: I'm good. Do you have time to talk now?

Me: Yeah.

It's not like I could have said, "No I don't want to talk about that kiss." Hopefully this conversation won't be too awkward.