Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83394 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83394 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
The scent of spices permeated the air. Mexican music played softly in the background, but Angel turned it off as Maria said hello.
“You didn’t have to turn it off,” Jojo told him, but Angel waved off the concern.
“It’s all good.”
Maria said, “I’m so glad you guys could come. We’ve been trying to get this guy to hang out with us for years.” She swatted Joey’s arm playfully.
“It’s not you, it’s me,” Jojo said, and everyone laughed.
We’d brought them a bottle of wine as a gift. Maria thanked us and led us to the kitchen.
I took in the incredible amount of food arranged on the counters. “Holy shit. It’s your birthday, and you made all this?”
“Angel did most of it. I helped. I like to cook. We’ve been working on the tamales—my favorite. There’s enchiladas and Angel’s putting the carne asada on the grill soon.”
Angel grabbed us all beers, before leading us to the backyard, as the weather was still perfect.
We drank beer and talked. Angel and Jojo rambled about cars, and I realized he not only enjoyed working on them now, he knew a lot about them. He wanted an old Camaro to work on. It made me smile, trying to fit together the puzzle that was the boy I knew compared to the man he was now. Before, he only cared about space. I couldn’t imagine young Jojo having a favorite car he dreamed about fixing up.
Eventually, Angel got started on the carne asada. Maria turned on music and dragged me out of my chair. “I’m gonna teach you how to dance.”
“Who says I don’t know how to dance already?” I teased.
“Not like this.”
She was right, of course. I didn’t know what it was called, but it was some kind of Mexican dancing. She moved quickly, had her arms in the air, making sweeping movements. She grabbed me and shook me. “Loosen up.”
“I’m loose!” I replied, which made Jojo laugh behind me. “If I gotta be out here, then you do too.” I tried to drag him out, but he dug his heels in. It wasn’t like the bar where we all danced together. I lasted about two minutes before Maria let me go. No way could I pull off any of what she was doing without making a fool of myself.
“They don’t know what they’re doing, baby,” she said to Angel. “Come and dance with me.”
He went easily, and Jojo and I watched them, laughing and cheering them on. As beautiful as they were together, I was envious too. I wanted to be like that all the time, like we were at the bar.
A little while later we ate together. It was probably the best meal I ever had, everything homemade and delicious.
“So what time should I be here every night for dinner?” I teased.
“Seriously, we’re shit in the kitchen,” Joey added.
“Hey, fucker. I’m not that bad.”
“Oh, no. I didn’t mean you. Just me.” Joey put his hands on my ears. “He’s not the best either,” he joked. We laughed because it was fucking perfect.
The whole night had been, much like our night out with Mouse and Romeo.
“You know,” I said to him on the way home, “when we do this, when we put ourselves out there, things always seem to go better than we thought.”
He looked over at me from the driver’s seat and smiled. “Funny. I was thinking the same thing.”
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Joey
The weather turned cold quickly in the mountains, and the forecast predicted snow in Big Bear for Christmas. Mouse decided we should take our snow trip sooner rather than later, and surprisingly, there was no argument from me or Gage. We both wanted to try and reclaim the magic from our cabin adventure what felt like a lifetime ago.
I kept telling myself this could be our life now. That there was no one to tear us apart or try and hurt us, but even though logically I knew that was true, it was still hard to believe. Logic and emotions weren’t always in sync. But then, Gage had pushed me away once, and this quiet voice inside me, one I wasn’t proud of, kept insisting he could do it again.
Mouse and Romeo picked us up early in the morning on Christmas Eve. They had an SUV that could easily fit all of us, so we figured it made more sense to go together. Plus, their vehicle would do better on the roads than either mine or Gage’s.
When we got in, Olivia was kicking and clapping in her car seat. She was latched in the middle, so I sat to her left, Gage to her right.
“Good morning, beautiful.” Gage nuzzled her cheek, and I couldn’t help watching him. He was good with her. I’d never seen Gage with a baby when we were kids.
“I can’t wait until she’s older. We can spoil her and buy her treats and then send her home with Mouse and Romeo,” I said as we started to drive.