I guffawed. “She’s afraid to talk tome, but Ceci can throw apples at her and she can talk to her all day?”
“Que?” she questioned, completely thrown off. Oops. I forgot Amá didn’t know about that particular fight. Wisely, she decided to brush it off for now. “I am not taking sides or saying that any one of you is right or wrong. This is why I am calling, to ask you if there is something going on? Because if we raised you to do anything, we raised you babies to be good family to each other. Are you doing that, Mija?”
I swallowed hard, guilt landing exactly where she wanted it to. It’s true Ihadbeen a little distant maybe, but that was because I wanted to work on my project. And maybe I've been kind of short with my siblings lately too. But that was only because I was trying to stand up for myself more. But was I really being a bad sister?
Did Lis really think that I could hate her just because I turned her down for lunch a few times?
“I’ll be home soon, Amá,” I said quickly, unable to think of yet another thing on my plate at that moment. And only because this hurt in a way I wasn't expecting, I added. “I’ll try to become a better sister by the time I get there.”
I didn’t give her a chance to answer before hanging up.
Chapter Thirty-Two
AUGUSTUS
I should have never said yes.
It was a stupid, reckless, hare-brained idea to think this could ever work. That I could ever do this without my heart getting tangled up in the mix. And now, here I stood making one of the worst decisions I’d made since I got to this God forsaken city.
Doubts aside, it was too late to back down now. Whether I wanted to or not, I was going to the Fernandez Thanksgiving.
When Clay hit me up last minute wondering what I was doing for the holiday, I knew better than to lie. He’d become a good friend all over again in these weeks we were reconnecting, and he was one of the few people who knew the extent to which I had ostracized myself frommy own family.
He didn’t know the newfound regret that was starting to surface every time I thought about that choice, though. Ever since seeing my mom, I couldn’t help the feeling that enough was enough. That I’d gone through enough pain in my life and that I’d shown enough of my solidarity with my sister.
Yet that thought made me feel guilty. It wasn’t like she was throwing in the towel. She wasn’t tiring of being alone and running back to mommy. She was still out there without a family. What gave me the right to call it quits if she didn’t have that luxury? And what kind of brother was I that I could only stand up for her as long as it was convenient for me?
And now, on top of mistakenly thinking I could play house with the Fergusons who were coincidentally sharing Thanksgiving dinner this year with the Fernandez’s and come out unscathed, I made another egregious error.
I didn’t tell her I was coming.
The floppy haired one answered the door, his grinning smirk seeming to be there before I even came into view. Did they have cameras or something? Or was that just his face?
“Why, hello,” he said in an overly welcoming voice, not bothering to hide his delight at my arrival. I really didn’t know how to feel about this kid. He seemed nice, but every word he said made me feel like he had one up on me somehow. Like he was deviously planning something underneath those smirks of his. “Welcome to Thanksgiving, come in and I’ll get Al.”
Taking a cautious step toward the humungous door he was holding open, I said, “No actually I was invited by?—”
“Al!” he yelled unceremoniously, causing my eyes to go wide. I didn’t even know what that would do in a house this big. Would she be able to hear? She must’ve been in a room close to the door because I could hear her call back in the distance. I tried to catch his eye as I shook my head, not wanting any assumptions thrown around that she wouldn’t be comfortablewith, but before I could he was already singing out, “Visitor for you!”
I glowered as he returned his grinning smile back to me, and still holding the door open he gestured with his free hand to the space around him. “Well come in, we don’t bite.”
I merely grunted as I stepped around him into this mausoleum of a home racking my brain on what I would tell her about why I was crashing her holiday like this. There was no time to think when my angel girl came bustling through the foyer though, her hair in big waves around her body that was dressed in a rich wine colored sweater and tight jeans. She looked flushed, like she had been working and I could imagine she was helping whoever was in the kitchen. And her eyes were alert, darting around the room in confusion as she rushed to meet her brother at the door.
“A visitor for me?” she asked, confused. That was until I stepped around her brother and she stopped cold. “Oh! Harp?”
“Hey, Boss,” I said slowly. Embarrassed to be showing up here like a lost animal.
She had none of it, because of course she didn’t. Her confused expression smoothed into happy surprise as she took me in, a smile slipping across her face as it so easily had since we’d gotten to know each other so intimately. She looked happy to see me, even though I was crashing.
Stepping forward, she slipped an arm around my not occupied hand and kissed my cheek swiftly.Was that just friendly… or?
“Hi!” she said happily. “Happy Thanksgiving, what a surprise! Did you come for me?”
“I—” I didn’t want to lie but even if I didn’t come for her, I would stay for her. I technically already had.
Unfortunately, the universe decided to answer for me as another familiar face illuminated the front door, all wide grins and booming voices.
“Montez!” Clay appeared from behind Alta and her brother, his smiling face the opposite of the now confused eyes I was getting from the only one who mattered. “Took you long enough! Come in!”
