Page 82 of Wild Catch
“Why not? And don’t give me any of that work assignment crap—you’re both pretty deep in it if he’s introducing you to his family.”
“He didn’t want to, trust?—”
“But Rosalina, that guywantsyou. And what’s more, you want him.” I freeze, watching as my face in the mirror reddens more and more. After the pause has stretched enough, Mom adds, “You’ve just never talked about a guy this way, chiquita. I think you have feelings for him and that’s why your head’s a mess.”
“That’s not true.” I have difficulty swallowing down the lump in my throat. “I don’t even like hot guys.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” My chest rises and falls in tune with my rapid breathing, my voice growing more high pitched as I continue. “I like normal guys who don’t give me an inferiority complex and don’t keep me on my toes, guys who’d never cheat on me, and who arenotprofessional baseball players.”
“Is this Logan fellow a cheater?”
“No!”
“Then why does that speech sound so specific?”
“Because I… I…” A groan is all I can articulate for a second. “I already dated a baseball player and it sucked.”
“You didwhat?” Mom sounds just the same as if she was trying to clarify whether I put the dark clothes in the laundry along with the white, and not as if I just admitted to having kept a hefty secret from her.
But this is what I wanted, to unload everything I had stuck in my chest, so I tell her that story too. I gloss over the part about how I gave myself to a guy who didn’t deserve me because this is a Latina mother after all, but the gist is clear. I was duped by a guy who kept me a secret while he fooled around.
“Rosalina!” She also whisper-shouts this. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“I was too embarrassed, and then this thing with Logan happened and—ugh.” I melt against the wall, sliding down until I’m sitting on the floor. “I deserve la chancla.”
“No, that guy does! And the wooden one like the kind my mom used on me, none of this rubber crap they sell now and call flippy floppies.”
I bite my lips and don’t correct her. Flippy floppies is definitely the superior name.
“But what I don’t understand is this,” Mom says, “you yourself admit that this new guy, Logan, is a pretty good one. He sounds dreamy to me. So why are you comparing him to that Ben Williams asshole who now has a target on his face?” I have no doubt that should Mom ever spot Ben in the wild, she will land her footwear right in the middle of his mug.
“B-Because this is fake.” I bring my knees up to hug them. “It’s kinda like Ben not making our relationship public. This one is public but it’s fake. Once again, the real thing escapes me.”
“Then make it freaking real,” she whispers with urgency. “Grab that man by the?—”
“Mom,” I gasp.
“—Face and plant a big, noisy kiss on that mouth of his.”
“I can’t do that, are you kidding me? That would be sexual harassment—it’d get me fired.”
“Good point, get his consent first.”
I give a dry chuckle. “Therein lies the problem. He barely tolerates me, forget being interested enough to let me kiss him.”
“I know you’re an adult,” she repeats way more sardonically than earlier, “but your mother is right on this. You wait and see.”
CHAPTER28
LOGAN
Ifeel shockingly good for someone who got very little sleep last night.
After getting up, I comb through my apartment collecting everything purple and packing it into a black overnight bag. The only things I leave behind are the books because I’m intrigued. I want to see how things go for the duke and the governess, and whether the rest are just as hooky.
There’s a twenty-four-hour pharmacy in my neighborhood and I stop by to get a few things. Once that task is completed, I make the drive to the Orlando Wild facilities in record time, basically arriving at the same time as Jose and Harry, the groundskeepers. I dig into my bag to find two bottles of orange juice, which I know they both like. It’s not my first time meeting them at the front doors.
