True Love Waits

Nonchalantly, Matthew dished food into his bowl from the other platters and bowls on the table. "There were no photos," he said stubbornly. "You must be seeing things." Everyone at the table was silent for a moment.

Debbie tried to ease the tension and chided the man in the seat of honor. "This is your fault. Everyone has secrets. Why did you have to reveal it to everyone? If I were Matthew, I'd pound you to a pulp." Carlos snorted, "I know you would, but do you think he'd try that? He doesn't have the stones for it."

Matthew tried to ignore his taunt.

Debbie rolled her eyes at Carlos. "So if this ends up in a fight, whose side will you take? Mine or your dad's?" she asked her son.

"You're not gonna fight," Matthew answered calmly. He had never seen his father so much as shoot his mother a stern look, but his mother was always pretty emotional. Still, Carlos always kept his cool and never argued with her, no matter how bad she got.

Matthew couldn't blame his dad. If he managed to marry a woman like that, he would be just as stoic. It would save a lot of headaches in the future. Because in his eyes, girls like his mother were the cutest. "So? Let's say we do?" Debbie wouldn't give up and asked again.

With a cunning smile, Matthew looked at Carlos, who was dishing up food for Evelyn. "I'll help Dad," he replied.

His answer surprised everyone at the table, including Carlos.

"Why?" Debbie asked gloomily. It didn't make sense.

After swallowing the food in his mouth, Matthew replied slowly, "We were taught that in school."

"You teachers told you to help your dad?" Debbie was confused.

"No." Father and son looked at each other. With a stony face, Matthew replied, "My teachers told us to protect the weak." "Bwahaha..." Terilynn was the first to laugh out loud.

Then Debbie lost it too, and finally even Evelyn smiled from ear to ear.

Only Carlos was staring at his son coldly. Matthew, however, acted as if he hadn't seen a thing, and continued eating dinner.

He was happy. Finally, he got a dig in. His father was an unrepentant bully, and had it coming for a long time.

his daughters, "Girls, listen to me. As sisters, you owe it to your brother to beat him up every day. It's a character-building exercise,

the past, Terilynn thought

her head hastily. "Dad, hadn't you heard? Matthew has been practicing free fighting for a while. You know,

"Blue belt, red stripe."

his body was all corded muscle, visible beneath that silky skin. His clothes camouflaged that quite nicely. His son didn't look

probably be a match for many cage fighters too. I'd get creamed fighting

you know taekwondo,

I stopped. Don't laugh. Hey, Erica started earlier than I did, and quit pretty quick. Uncle Wesley caught her skipping classes and taught her a lesson.

others fell silent; they couldn't imagine the

a kid, but she took

a kid anymore. Last year, she signed up for classes. Uncle Wesley never knew

shook her head helplessly. "Wesley is such a

from a father's past life. In Carlos' case, yes, it was true. But not in

this one. Tough guy

"Why be sorry for him? Most little girls are naughty. Terilynn was the

words. Looking seriously at him, she said, "That's nothing. Erica's way worse than I ever was. She practically has 'bad girl' tattooed

dirty face popped into Matthew's mind. "Yeah, I know,"

Y City. I guess she's really

it up, she'll have a new nickname. I don't think

have a point. I've been calling her 'Angel' lately.

good nickname, but she'd probably had it with nicknames

Carlos called Evelyn

"Hey, Dad, what's up?"

designers are hard at work, and everything's going well. I'll pick up your grandma next month." He beamed at her. "Don't worry about this. You got this. The only thing is you'll need to give a

Evelyn had never