“Sorry,” we both mutter back.
Olivia comes out a second later. She is drowning in my clothes. Sweatpants that are clearly rolled a few times at her hips and a hoodie that reaches her knees hang loosely off her body.She looks ridiculous, but also happy. She’s grinning from ear to ear.
“Thanks, Scottie,” she says, taking a seat next to me on the floor. “I feel like I’m living in a cloud right now.” She crosses her legs—well, I think she does; it’s honestly hard to tell—and wraps her arms around herself. “Can I wear your clothes every day?”
“Yes.” Gabby and Kadesha both stare daggers at me and I realize that was not just an internal thought. Shit. “I mean, keep ‘em, if you want.”
She beams and…shit. I shouldn’t have offered the Messi hoodie. It might be my favorite but I already know I’ll never be asking for it back.
Gabby pulls out Sushi Go and expertly explains the rules to Liv. What she doesn’t say is that game nights are sacred to us. When we were young, we didn’t have a lot of luxuries, but I taught Gabby every card game I could. She probably would have preferred playing with dolls or stuffed animals, but we couldn’t afford anything like that. So we played card games, even made up our own games to keep ourselves entertained.
Things are different now, but we’re all about traditions. We’ve branched out on different games, and for some reason, Sushi Go has been our favorite for a while. I’m pretty sure Gabby just likes how it allows for sabotage.
“The cards are so cute.” Liv “ooh’s” and “ahh’s” when we run her through the deck. “Oh!” She suddenly jumps up and we all stare. “Sorry. I just, umm, forgot about the watermelon. Sorry.”
“Stop apologizing,” I say, standing up too. “Let’s go get it for him.”
Gabby grabs all the snacks she made while we make up a tiny plate for Churro. Liv goes crazy for the actual tiny plates Kadesha got us. She asks if she can hold on to Churro so I give her the sling and we all settle back in the living room.
“Hey Chunk,” Liv coos, holding Churro up in his sling. “How would you like a tasty treat?” She offers him the plate and we all watch as he nibbles it up.
“I guess he likes it,” I say. “Thanks for bringing it over.”
“I will never get over how cute he is. And I still want to hear the bedtime story.”
I gulp, notice Gabby and Kadesha snickering, and grab the plate to put in the sink.
We’re on our fifth round of the game when Gabby starts screaming at me in Spanish. I’m actually impressed she waited this long. Apparently, she thinks Liv and I have been sneaking each other sashimi cards when she’s not looking.
We have been.
“Los dos son unos tramposos! Lo sabía! Gavin, nunca has ganado tres veces seguido.”
We all laugh, tossing the remaining cards into the pile. “Cálmate,” I whisper to Gabby. “We’re just having a little fun.”
Of course, Liv is apologizing profusely, saying I made her do it, but Gabby just keeps muttering under her breath. She switched to Italian for a moment but now the hard vowels are making me wonder if she’s practicing her Danish.
“Damn, how many languages do you speak?” Liv asks a moment later.
“Five. Six…ish.” Gabby shrugs. She’s never understood how impressive it is. Learning new languages is Gabby’s favorite pastime.
“That’s incredible. How’d you get into that? I mean, where did you even start?” Liv’s eyes are full of wonder, but Gabby’s cloud over.
I decide to answer for her. “We were both bilingual as kids. Our dad mainly spoke English so our mom only spoke to us in Spanish. When we moved to the States it was a tough transition, especially for Gabby since she was so young.”
“Tough?” Gabby looks at me, daring me to be more honest. “I was in first grade and couldn’t really differentiate one language from the other. Kids were mean.” She looks at me again and her face softens this time. “But lucky for me, I have the best big brother in the world. He spent every afternoon and weekend helping me adjust. And the more time we spent in the library reading about languages, I guess I developed a knack for them. We taught ourselves French, but of course Gavin lost it immediately. I practiced a lot more. Then Italian and Portuguese were pretty easy to pick up with a couple online classes. I’m working on a few more. Hoping it helps me get better job offers.”
My heart warms with Gabby’s admission. “Without my brilliant sister, I probably would have lost my Spanish by now. I’m glad I get to keep that part of our family though.”
“That’s amazing,” Liv replies. “I wish my family held on to more of their culture. I think my grandparents spoke a little French but it sort of died with them. At least my brother cooks authentic French food sometimes.”
“Did you try the Alfajores yet?” Gabby extends the plate of cookies to Liv and I don’t miss the change in her tone. Maybe she’s warming up to her. “They’re our mom’s recipe.”
Liv takes a small bite, then a larger one. “Wow. These are insane.”
Gabby looks at me again, with a softness that makes my chest ache. “Did I mention I have the best brother? He made sure to save her recipe book for me.”
I sniff, cover it up by taking a long pull of my beer.
