Page 71 of The Crush
Wait, if I’m wearing this, what is she wearing?
My door slams shut behind me as I step out into the hallway and knock on the bathroom door.
“Just a sec!” she shouts through the door. “I’m not ready yet.”
“What are you dressed as?” I shout back.
She laughs before answering, “Two minutes!”
My hand flexes for the door handle, but I force myself to walk away before I can go barging in out of an abundance of anticipation. When I walk to the kitchen instead, I immediately come face-to-face with Gabe, into the food again while dressed all in black, wearing a deep V-neck shirt and a black leather jacket.
“Who are you supposed to be?” I ask, disappointed when I glance back down the hall to see that Isabel still hasn’t made an appearance.
“Hold on,” Gabe tells me, putting on a pair of thin black sunglasses from his pocket. “Life, uh…finds a way.”
When I only stare at him in return, Gabe rolls his eyes and asks, “Jurassic Park? Seriously? Nothing?Well, what about you? Where’s your costume?”
“I’m wearing it.Smokey and the Bandit?”
Now it’s Gabe’s turn to look confused. “Smokey? As in the forest fire bear?”
“No.Not the fucking bear.”
My dad chooses that moment to intervene, coming in from the back patio and frowning as he looks between the two of us. “Not that you boys don’t look nice, but I thought Isa was making you dress up for Halloween.”
“We are dressed up. Some of us better than others,” Gabe says, still giving my costume a skeptical look out of the corner of his eye. “Where’s your costume, Tadeo? What are you supposed to be?”
“An old man,” he says, dropping into a kitchen chair. “But I don’t have time.”
The sound of the bathroom door opening and closing draws my attention back to the hallway, and I immediately take a step back to see before stopping in my tracks.
“Fuck,” I mutter as Isabel saunters toward me, her hair curled back into big waves and her outfit a simple dark-blue button-up that she’s tucked intopainted-onblue jeans. By the time she draws up next to me, I have to remind myself that both my dad and Gabe are currently no more than ten feet away.
“Wait,” Gabe says, sounding as if he’s been deeply wronged. “Didyounot dress up?”
“She dressed up,” I say quietly, still not taking my eyes off her as she smiles up at me. No doubt she knowspreciselywhat I’m thinking, how much Ireallywant to go back to bed.
“Mr. Bandit,” she says silkily.
I swallow. Hard. “Miss Frog.”
“Wait, hold on.” She grins, temporarily dropping the act and reaching up to undo one more button on my shirt. “There, now you’re perfect.”
I catch her hands while they’re still against my chest, looking down at her with so much affection it hurts.
“Jesus, amazing that anything gets done around here with you two…mooningover each other all the time,” Gabe mutters, walking past Isabel and me and heading for the front door. “I still have no fucking clue what either of you are dressed up as, but I guess as long as you’re happy.”
He opens the door and looks out through the screen, first left then right. “No trick-or-treaters yet, but the night is young.”
“Maybe their parents swore them off,” I quip but regret it immediately when I see the disappointed look on Isabel’s face. “I’m only kidding, bonita. I’m sure some will come.”
“They will,” Gabe agrees easily, pushing the screen door open and taking a small book of matches out of his pocket so he can light his ornate jack-o’-lanterns now decorating the porch. “Kids don’t care about gossip. Not when candy is on the line.”
Fifty-Six
Isabel
Gabe is right.
