Page 10 of Shy Girl
Charlotte folded her arms across her chest and lifted her dark eyebrows. “Abuelasays you haven’t seen her in three months.”
A forced breath came out of me. “I know. I’m busy.”
She ticked up a familiar, judgmental eyebrow. “Too busy for your family?”
“No.”
Her glare deepened. “If you haven’tseenher, then clearly—”
“Are you here as her servant?”
She threw her hands in the air. “We all are! It’s in the family contract.”
I held up two hands. “Okay. Okay. Too busy, no. I just . . . I haven’t been around much anywhere but work and . . .”
The wordsI don’t want to see herdied on my lips.
“She cares about you.”
“She chased me with a rolling pin!”
Her lips pressed together in a poor attempt not to laugh, but it bubbled out of her anyway. Then she sobered when I glared. Her ice queen eyes softened. “Sorry. That was a bit strong. I just . . . we miss you. It feels like you’re avoiding us.”
I am.
Truth laced her words, which made me feel worse, because I certainly wasn’t being forthcoming. Yes, I had coffee with one of my cousins most Fridays in a casual bid to avoid the massive Sunday dinner my family had every week. My plan seemed sound. Disappearing off the radar from the family would really incurabuela’s wrath, so I didn’t entirelyleave. With my occasional check-ins,abuelacould get second-hand information and, for a few weeks, I could act like I wasn’t running away.
Clearly, it wasn’t working.
The breaking apart of whatever Victoria and I had sent me into a tailspin months ago. At the same time,Abuelawent on a mission to get me married. After setting me up with three dates that utterly failed, she'd chased me out of her house with a rolling pin. I ran like a dog with his tail between his legs and avoided returning as much as possible.
Oblivious to our conversation, as heated as it must seem, Dagny shuffled around behind the counter and drew my attention again. Even though she did nothing, I couldn’t help but look at her. Like a dog to a bone, however, Charlotte returned to her original topic. Of all my cousins, she had always been the most persistent. The fault here was mine. Should have asked Xiomara back.
“So, why haven’t you come?” she asked.
My shoulders slumped as I sighed. “My best friend is getting married and he asked me to be the best man. Plus I've been doing sixty hour weeks with the drug issues that have been surfacing. And I didn't want to get another lecture on settling down to marriage and babies.”
“Which friend?”
“Grady.”
She frowned. “Dang. I liked him the most, and you always seemed closest to him. But what does he have to do with the family?”
I sighed. “If I show up toabuela’sbirthday party without a girlfriend or even ahopeof a girlfriend, she's going to attack again.”
Char didn't disagree. Ourabuelawas a loving woman most of the time. She muttered curse words at us in Spanish, threatened us with a wooden spoon if we didn’t behave, and sent us home with bellies stuffed full of rice, tortillas, and beans. The only time she didn’t forgive us our stupidity was on her birthday.
Practically a religious day, she gathered all of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren like a mother hen. All forty of us cluttered their tiny little farm and celebratedabuela’slife for a full day. That day came two weeks after Grady's wedding, and it loomed like an ugly thing in the back of my mind.
To add insult to injury,abuela'shealth wasn’t good. Likely, this would be her last birthday before old age took her. I couldn’t believe the old lady had lasted this long.
“Tell me about you,” I said and leaned back. Time to get the spotlight off of me and change the subject. Char loved nothing more than talking about herself. “What happened with that internship? You dating anyone?”
I nodded and acted engrossed as Charlotte prattled about an internship in the management department of a craft store and a guy that annoyed her, but couldn’t peel my gaze off Dagny and her rumpled perfection tonight.
Whycouldn’t I take my brain off of her?
Dagny approached and set our drinks down, then followed with a fruit tart and my favorite croissant which I hadn’t ordered.
