Page 121 of Love me, Maddie Mendoza

She laughed, shaking her head. “I put orange blossom essence behind my ears.”

“What?”

Maddie beamed at me. “Yeah, I thought would be whimsical for us if I smelled like oranges.” She pointed to the orange trees we were under. “I’ve been doing it forever.”

I was lost for words. “I thought it was witchcraft or something!”

Maddie laughed even more, delighted she tricked me for at least ten years. I shook my head, caught in the sight that was the woman in front of me. “Anything else that isn’t magic?”

She got serious and shook her head. “Oh no, everything else about us is pure magic.”

I grinned and opened my arms, and she fit perfectly right there. I took her chin between my fingers and tipped her head up. She licked her lips out of instinct and I loved her just a little more for that.

“I love you.” I confessed. Not the first time I told her, but she knew it was different.

“And you don’t think we are broken anymore? That we started wrong?” She challenged me.

I shook my head slowly. “Maddie, I don’t even know when we started. I know it wasn’t when we had sex, or even when we kissed the first time. We started a long time ago, and we’re not broken.”

She smiled. “You took your time to get here, huh?”

“You know I’m difficult with changes.”

Maddie chuckled, and I caught her mid-laugh. I took her bottom lip between mine and one second, she was laughing, and the next, she was closer, putting her arms around my neck.

Right under our tree after I confessed that I loved her, that kiss was special. It became bigger, and it told a longer story. My palm found her soft cheek as she buried her fingers in my hair. We drank each other with calm, savoring the kiss with the knowledge there were many others to come.

“What’s going on? He left,oh!” Mom talked from somewhere in front of the house. “Xiomara! Xiomara, come here!” Another front door opened. “They are kissing!”

I was pretty adamant about keeping my hands on Maddie, even when we heard the gasps.

“Isn’t that great?” Mom was saying. “That means they aren’t fighting anymore, right?”

Maddie’s mom clicked her tongue. “That doesn’t look like fighting to me.”

Maddie shook her head, but I caught her again, drawing a long kiss strong enough to break through her fit of giggles. I wanted everyone gone. Just me, two orange trees, and the girl next door.

Mom whisper-shouted. “Enough kissing now. What are the neighbors are going to say? Zeek. Zeek?What are the neighbors are going to say, huh?"

The house mom and dad chose for us wasn’t super special. I couldn’t understand why we moved away just to live in it.

My bedroom was big enough, and I had my own bathroom, but that didn’t impress me as much as it impressed them. I assumed it was an adult thing.

The backyard was pretty good. Dad promised to install a swing set, so that was something. But I wasn’t convinced just yet. It was just a backyard with nothing good about it and, to top it off, the most stupid tree right on the side. It was small as me, held up by a wire. It wasn’t strong and cool enough. It was like someone just put it there to fill up the space.

The neighbors had one exactly the same. As silly and skinny as ours.

I kicked it.

Stupid tree, stupid new town, stupid house.

“Hey! What are you doing?”

I turned around and the bear girl was glaring at me. She ditched the teddy bear she had under her arm. Good, she looked like a baby holding that thing. Her hair was still as wild as before, and she pushed her thick glasses up her nose with ferocity.

“I’m kicking the stupid tree.” I told her because she was dumb.

“Why would you kick a tree?” She wanted to know, coming over to our yard to straighten the frail thing.

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