Page 20 of The Crush
Aarón’s eyes temporarily widen with surprise before he shoves back. “I’ll talk to her however Ifuckingplease.”
“Danny,” I warn too late. “Don’t—”
“What are you boys doing?” My mother walks right in between my brother and Daniel before they can lunge at each other, a hand on each of their chests to send them back to their corners. Nearby, both my father and Tadeo wait to see if their assistance is also necessary. Likely not if my mother is already involved.
“Aáron was being a dick, Mamá,” Gabe tells her, promptly receiving a cuff to the back of his head for his language. He rubs it off. “Danny was only sticking up for Isa.”
My mother looks Aarón’s way for confirmation, and he smiles that megawatt grin thatalwaysgets him out of trouble. “A misunderstanding.” He sticks out his hand to Daniel. “No hard feelings?”
Daniel hesitates but eventually takes it, his jaw ticking before he responds, “Right.”
If Aarón takes it as anything close to a real truce, he’s clearly taken more hits to the head than I thought.
“Probably best we call it a night,” Tadeo says, coming to stand beside Daniel. Across from him, my father does the same with Aarón, even going so far as to place a hand on my brother’s shoulder in a clear show of support. Forever his golden boy, no matter the tarnish.
“Yes,” my father agrees. “I think thatwouldbe best.”
An hour after Daniel and Tadeo leave, I’m still sitting in one of the chairs by the fire pit alone, so deep in thought that I almost don’t hear Gabe dropping down into the empty chair next to me. He passes me another beer, leaning back as he cracks one for himself.
“Good dinner,” he says, staring forward along with me.
“Wasn’t it?”
“You know, I’ve been waiting for nearly thirty years to see Aarón get his face punched in. Thought for a second I was going to get to see it tonight.”
I sigh. “Guess we’ll both have to wait a bit longer.”
A few beats of companionable silence pass before Gabe speaks again. “Maybe next time you should bring a date to dinner. Would take some of the heat off Danny.”
The hair on the back of my neck stands up. “Why does it have to be me?” I ask, attempting to keep my tone light. “One of you lot could finally bring a girl home to give me some company.”
He laughs. “Aarón and Eli are still trying to make their way through every woman within a hundred-mile radius.”
“And you?” I probe gently. In all these years, I’ve never known Gabe to be seeing anyone. Never even heard him mention someone.
“Well, you see, I’mtoomuch of a catch,” he tells me, looking over at me with a wide grin. “It’s intimidating for people.”
“Youarea catch.”
“Perhaps someday. For the right net.” He leans forward, considering me carefully. “What about you, hermanita? You found the rightnet?”
“Me?” I take a long drink. “I’m not—”
“Damn, yousuckat lying.”
“I do not! And I’m not lying,” I say quickly, apprehension expanding in my chest.
“Sure, sure, sure. Same as when we were kids and you’d get caught with your hand in Mamá’s Easter candy stash. Chocolate all over your face and still claiming you hadn’t done it. Maybe everyone else around here is far too wrapped up in their own shit to notice what’s going on but doesn’t mean I haven’t.” Gabe sinks into his chair again, head resting back. “It’s so obvious.”
I force myself to laugh, but that doesn’t sound believable either. “There’s nothing to notice.”
He stares at me, eyebrows raised, as if to say,Really? You want to play this game?
“So it’s a coincidence that all your errands are taking way longer than they should? Or that your head is clearly somewhere else most of the time? You went to the grocery store last week and forgot half the things on the list despite taking threehours.”
“They were out of a lot of things.”
“Butter? They were out ofbutter?” Gabe rolls his eyes and takes another pull of his beer. “Plus, your window squeaks.”
