Page 75 of The Amazing Date

“What’s all that noise?”

Her laugh across the line finally eases my concern. “I’m not good at this. At all.” She laughs at me.

“I can’t think of anything you’re not good at,” I joke back.

“I love you, dear brother.” The background noise dies down a bit. “There, hope that’s better. Can you hear me now?”

“Much. Where are you?”

Her laugh returns. “I’m at LAX. I’m trying to be more spontaneous and go with the flow, but my anal side wouldn’t allow me to go through with it. Am I making any sense?”

My laugh joins hers. “Not in the slightest.”

“Well, when you called from the bar while out celebrating, I had a moment of FOMO. I know you guys are catching a flight back here tomorrow or, shit, later today. But I asked myself why. Rylee and I have the next two days off and were going to hang out somewhere anyway. You apparently can give a rat’s ass about your job. What better time than for me to surprise you guys and show up in New York. Rylee can show me the neighborhood around Columbia. And you can come with us so you can tell Papi it’s safe and he has nothing to worry about.”

“Oh my god, that’s brilliant. You do know you mentioned Columbia? Are you going to do it? Rylee is going to love this.”

“Yeah, but I just spoiled the surprise. My brain wouldn’t let me just get on the plane. I started thinking what if the flight got delayed, rerouted to Poland? Hijacked? No one would know I was on it. Or what if you guys decided to change your flight and come back early and our planes pass each other thirty thousand feet above Kansas City or somewhere? Do you see how my mind works?”

I ease back into the soft couch and laugh. My sister is and will always be my hero. There’s not a secret or a thought she can keep from me.

“Rylee and I are a couple,” I blurt out, surprising myself. My heart stops, and I wait for Gabby’s reaction—my world on hold until she speaks.

I hear a frustrated huff from the line and brace. “About freaking time.”

“Wait. What? You’re not surprised?”

“Surprised at how long it took you to make it happen.” Her giggle erases every concern that remains in my head. Gabby approves.

“You’ve both been taken with each other ever since Puerto Rico four years ago. I’m not blind. Why the hell do you think I went on six-mile hikes every morning in ninety-degree weather, hermoso? For my health? I wanted to give you two some one-on-one time to get to know each other. I saw the way you looked at her that first day on the beach and knew you were a goner.” The news from Gabby comes fast and furious. “I wasn’t sure how deeply Rylee felt for a while. I knew she was attracted to you, but I didn’t know for sure how deep her feelings were until after you left the island. She was devastated. Barely wanted to leave Abuela’s house that second week on the island.”

Gabby pauses, and I can tell this reveal is lifting a secret she has been holding for years. “After the summer, when we became roommates, her ears would perk up whenever I mentioned your name. Two or three questions drilling me about you.”

“Even after the way I treated her?”

“Especially after,” Gabby adds. “I don’t know everything that happened between you two, but the guilt she wore for years and your wafer-thin lie about injuring your hand in a fight—something Rylee felt responsible for yet you didn’t want known.”

I shake my head, not believing my ears. All these years I carried this secret from Gabby, only to discover it never was a secret.

“Two days after you left PR, a few members of the motorcycle club showed up at Abuela’s. They wanted to check in with her, pay their respect, and invite Rylee back to the piers to finish her dance. No mention of a punch or a fight.”

Shit. My lie had been exposed years ago, yet Gabby never called me on it. And Rylee never mentioned it. I feel a sense of jealousy fill my chest as ask what I have no right to ask. “Did Rylee go? Dance with them on the piers?” I feel small for asking. I had no possession of Rylee’s time; I had tossed her aside.

“She was leaving the next day, and she had promised to cook for Abuela. When I pressed her after dinner whether she wanted to go, she declined and whispered she couldn’t see herself dancing salsa with anyone but you. That’s when I knew.”

Damn. Four long years wasted, my stubbornness and pettiness keeping away the one prize I’ve wanted all along.

“And I almost blew it all, Gabby. Four years is a long time. Feelings change. People change.”

“Did your feelings change? Our first night here in LA was déjà vu, watching you and Rylee in the same space again for the first time.” The line goes quiet for a moment, and I take a deep breath. “You want me to prove to you that she’s always felt this way toward you?”

I lift my feet from the floor, crossing them on the couch. “How?”

“Are you in her living room by her couch?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Is that framed picture of a sunset still hanging there?”

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