Page 61 of Deal with the Devil

“I don’t?—”

“We’re giving this a real shot.”

She studies me, like she’s not sure if she believes me.How can she not believe me?

“You don’t seem like the marrying for real kind?”

Baby, I’d be any kind for you. Just not the leaving kind.

“Do you understand, Nevaeh?”

Slowly, she nods. But her words are hesitant when she agrees, “Okay. A real shot.”

“Say you’re mine.”

“I’m your wife.” She flashesme a shy, cheeky smile as she dances out from between my body and the truck. It’s as she’s slipping inside the bakery that she giggles, “For now.”

I scrub my hand down my face.Fucking woman.

twenty-five

Kane

The house is average lower middle class with a big front room window overlooking the street, peeking from pink, sun-stained stucco. As we pull up in front of her parent’s house, that window fills with not just the two people I expect to meet this morning, but at least six others.

Nevaeh smiles at me like she expected as much, pushes her sunglasses up her nose and slips from my truck without waiting for me to come around to her side to open her door.

Fucking. Woman.

I follow, jogging to catch her as she walks up thecracked sidewalk, up three concrete steps, and right inside without knocking. Again, I follow.

Loudness hits us as fawning women scurry to meet Nevaeh at the door, someone taking the bakery box and passing it to a man who stands not far back without even a glance, as though the woman knows that man will simply take it to the kitchen. And he does.

The woman grabs Nevaeh by her arms and tugs her close, kissing her face once, twice—she leans back to smile down at Nevaeh before leaning in to kiss her a third time. “Nevaeh, you look wonderful.”

“Glowing,” another woman ads, eyebrows bouncing suggestively.

“This must be the new man,” yet another says as she shoves her way through the little crowd in the tiny entrance to grab one of my arms. “Nice and strong.” A wink for Nevaeh. “You chose good,Mija.”

I can’t see her face, but I hear her smile when she says, “Thank you, Mama.”

A few of the women descend into Spanish, a couple wayward words in English making surprise appearances as we’re pulled from the front door into the house. It’s small and closed concept. The hallway from the entrance to the kitchen is snug, and there’s currently a lot of bodies in it, but as we pass the living room, I see a tidy space with floral printed couches that probably have permanent groovesin the carpet. There are photos on the walls of class pictures, and more are proudly displayed on a console table of Nevaeh’s life growing up.

The eat-in kitchen comes quickly, and is more open than the living space with a large patio door that opens into a well utilized square yard with a small kiddie pool where children splash with toy dinosaurs and—is that a mermaid? There’s another child, definitely younger than five, crying crocodile tears about a dino that ate the arm of her doll, a little boy, possibly around five, standing sheepishly close by holding the dino in suspect. A Spinosaurus, if memory serves. I glance at the doll and see two intact arms. Poor hungry Spinosaurus probably took a little nibble, nothing to cause true harm. I wink at the boy. His face lights up and he shoots me a wide grin as the woman hovering over the crying girl says, “Mateo, we’ve talked about this.”

“He’s hungry!” Mateo holds his ground.

“There are fish in the pool for him if he’s hungry.” A quick glance in that direction shows there are fish in the pool.Bet they don’t taste quite as delicious as dolls, though.

“Fine,” Mateo huffs a little boy, end of the world, huff.

As though to push her point clear as crystal, the woman, clearly the boy’s mother, continues, “Your sister’s dolls are not chew toys for your dinosaurs.”

“Okay.” Mateo is getting annoyed, and Nevaeh clearly hears it because she turns from the older woman chatting to her about—I’m not sure—to the boy.

“Where’s my hug?”

The boy splits another grin as he darts from his mother and the still sniffling girl to Nevaeh. She spreads her arms wide as he connects, kissing his cheek and hair as she whispers, “Are you bugging Gabby again?”

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