Page 80 of The Challenger

I throw my arm around her. “I’m proud of you. That took guts.”

“I probably don’t say this enough, but I’m proud of you, Hermano. You got cajones. You’ve always gone for it.” Her voice becomes softer as she meets my eyes. “Maybe you even inspired me.”

“Carmelita, bowing down to big brother.” I smile. “It’s about time.”

She scoffs and untangles herself from my arm. “Uh,nobowing down here, so sorry. I believeyouoweme. Carmelita, your sister, vouched for Flynn six ways to Sunday with Mama. You think she got where she is all by herself?”

I scrub her kneecap with my hand. Such a brat, but I love her. She’s going to do great things, my sister. She follows my gaze skyward, and we stare silently into the starless cosmos. I inhale deeply and can smell spring in the air.

New beginnings.

“I have a ways to go before Mama’s fully on board, but thank you,” I say. “I’m nothing without Flynn.”

She shrugs.“I could have told you that.”

I laugh and kiss her cheek. Not everything is changing. “Fuck you.”

ChapterThirty-One

FLYNN

My Santa Cruzhomecoming fills me with dread, but it’s less jarring than I imagined. I’m amazed at how little my childhood home has changed. Cori’s collection of garden gnomes still stands guard in the front garden bed. A painting of mine from fifth grade hangs by the hall closet, the red and blue streaks fading with age and convincing no one of artistic greatness. Every piece of furniture in my old bedroom stands where it once was, and Cori wrings her hands as I take it all in.

“We planned to change this into a guest room but never got around to it,” she explains, almost apologizing for maintaining a shrine to her daughter.

“It’s fine,” I say, blinking away the tears that have been more on than off.

The fourteen-year gap shrunk somewhat during our drive from San Francisco. And we navigated beyond weather and traffic talk to more emotionally charged topics during dinner in town at a trendy cafe. But the most piercing memories hit me hard in the kitchen.

Cori sets the kettle on for tea and excuses herself to the bathroom and thank God she does. I’m suddenly eighteen again, morning sun threading through the trees in the backyard while Cori and Edgar talk outside on the back porch. All the things I wish could change bear down on me with an almost suffocating weight. The arguments that should never have happened, words of forgiveness left unspoken, and the shifting sands of time I can never reshape. I steady myself on the kitchen island, and just when I think my heart cannot wrench another time, Chavez calls. He had texted earlier saying things went fine with Earl, but when he shares the startling truth, it feels like the floor gives way beneath me.

“Are you kidding me?” I pace around the kitchen, a madwoman unleashed. “You should have told me earlier."

“You would have had a heart attack reading that shit in a text,” he says in defense.

“I’mstillhaving one. Jesus. How do you feel?”

“I dunno. Relieved?" He sounds at peace with it, but no one walks away from having a gun barrel pressed on their heart without a lingering lick of horror.“How are things going there?” he asks, diverting me.

I make my way to the bay window, resting one knee on the bench framed within it to stop my leg from trembling. “Okay.”

“Is it weird for you?”

“A little,” I admit. “It’s like trying to squeeze into a pair of jeans from high school. Everything is familiar but nothing fits exactly the same.”

He sighs. “I wish I was there with you. I miss you."

“I miss you, too. How is your mother?”

He chuckles, knowing damn well the subtext to that question. “Halfway there,” he says. “I suggested dinner at their place when you get back. It will be four against one. Me, Carmen, Papa and you wearing her down.”

“Approval by coercion?” I snort a laugh. “Awesome.”

“Listen,” he says, bristling. “If I gotta suck it up and let Brandon Dixler help my ass, you can deal with Mama.”

He chuckles, knowing damn well the subtext to that question. “Halfway there,” he says. “I suggested dinner at their place when you get back. It will be four against one. Me, Carmen, Papa and you wearing her down.”

“Approval by coercion?” I snort a laugh. “Awesome.”

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