THIN ICE |BOOK I |BWWM|

•ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 24, ᴘᴀʀᴛ II•

•SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA•

Julia's POV

With a glass of wine to hold us over until dinner, Matías and I roamed the spacious hallways. They were much different than what I was used to. There was a sense of haven that painted the walls and the house was much quieter than the Maniscalco house. There was always someone laughing and yelling- oh sorry, "just talking loudly".

"It's really quiet here." I sipped.

"Heh, yeah. Don't get used to it."

One room we explored was filled to the brim with photographs- on the walls, in albums, tucked away in crates. It reminded me of me and my mom's photo collection.

As I sipped my red beverage, I noticed a couple of frames. One with a young Catalina and Matías slathered in what looked like Nickelodeon slime, another with Matìas and two other boys holding up laser tag guns, and another showing a brown skin woman in a floral dress and Matias hands cupping her cheeks.

"Is this Veronica?" I held up the picture gently.

Matías sauntered over, sliding the frame from my curious fingers.

"Yeah, that was right after we got married." His tone shifted into neutral as he set the picture down.

"You two look really happy, I'm almost jealous babe."

Matías wrapped his arms around my waist from behind, "I'd be jealous too. I mean, I'm such a great catch."

"Whoa there buckaroo. I ain't say all that."

My smile stretched from ear to ear as I swiveled and stood on my tip toes against his chest—going 90%

"Thinking it maybe?" His teeth teetered over his bottom lip as his eyes delved into mine.

"Maybe."

He smirked and filled the remaining 10%, exchanging a delicate kiss as he cradled my head allowing the cartilage of my ear to rest between his thumb and forefinger.

"Ah! Matías!," —someone let a distressed shriek from the doorway—"How could you? I thought you loved me!"

A young man with dark brown curly hair that stood about the same height as Matìas rushed over to us, smacking Matìas on the cheek.

It wasn't hard enough to hurt him, but it was heard.

I jumped back, my eyes confused about who to look at first as Matías reached for me before grabbing the man's hand.

"You play entirely too much Sebastian."

Sebastian?

Ohh, his cousin!

Matías shoved Sebastian back with his arm and guided me closer.

Sebastian was dressed better than me. His broad shoulders were draped in a loose fitting multicolored silk button down that he'd decided was best left open, simple black slacks, and a rose gold Cuban link chain that screamed I don't speak broke.

Matías introduced us; and Sebastian, or Seb as I was told to call him, threw me a two-fingered salute.

Something had gone wrong with Emilio's car possibly hitting Matìas' and they wanted him to come see about it.

"I'll be back, scusami." Matías pecked my cheek and zoomed out of the room, leaving me with Sebastian.

"Aren't you going with him?" I pointed to the door.