Chapter Fifteen
Fernando paused as the stewardess removed Sophie’s breakfast items and she turned in her seat to mirror him.
“How did that lead to the pacts?”
“It took us months to get him to see there were other options than fighting everyone all the time. Revenge and retribution were the only languages he spoke. He was constantly pushing Julio’s buttons and scrapping with him. This one time, I let them go, thinking they would get it out of their system once and for all, but then Gabe and I realized they were like caged animals and were going to fight to the death. Gabe broke them up, and Julio was able to walk away, but Enrique just kept swinging. Gabe had to literally sit on him to keep him down, and he stayed there for over an hour. By this point, the staff was trying to get me to give him up and walk away. ‘ He is bad through and through,’ they said. ‘ He is going to ruin your reputation and make you even more unadoptable. ’ Yada, yada. I wasn’t going to do it. Once you’re in my family, you’re in. But, by this point, the boys and I had been picked up and questioned by the police at least three times in association with local robberies they assumed Enrique had pulled, and as his found brothers, we had to be accomplices. Things were tough.”
“Did he do it? Did he rob the locals?” Sophie asked, astonished at the young man the Enrique she knew had been.
“Maybe when he first arrived, though I personally doubt it. He was too busy getting the lay of the land, and he got his first whipping for theft after only a week in the home. He is more careful than that. I know he didn’t pull any jobs after we took him into the family. He was never alone for that very reason. We told him we had his back, and we meant it. That meant protecting him from the darkness outside and within.”
Fernando ran his hands through his hair several times, then leaned back, staring off, getting lost in the memories.
“I bit off more than I could chew with Enrique. He was a tougher nut to crack than Julio, and I thought Julio was nearly impossible after months of getting bullied by him. I was wrong. If Julio was a coconut and needed two hundred pounds of pressure applied strategically to his weak spot, then Enrique was a Brazil Nut with two layers of hard outer shell that was never going to be pounded into submission. Life had already tried, and he was still walking. If it hadn’t been for Dad McKenzie, I don’t know what I would have done. I don’t think Enrique would be a free man today, that’s for sure.”
“How did Colin help? I mean, I know about the Saturday sign-outs and the pancake breakfasts at the firehouse, but how did he help you save Enrique?”
“He gave me a safe space to vent. Encouraged me not to give up. He and the other firefighters offered us a safe place to go, away from the boy’s home, to see what real men were like. How they interacted with each other. I don’t think Enrique had ever seen men of genuine character until Colin and the guys started picking him up. The firefighters laughed and joked, pushed and shoved but didn’t actually fight. They snuck each other’s food and played pranks on each other without real retribution. There was this one time when Greg, a skinny fireman, swapped out the sugar in the coffee station for salt. The captain of the squad came up and mixed his coffee with it. Everyone knew he had a massive sweet tooth and took a hint of coffee with his sugar. Enrique watched in rapt attention as he took that first sip and spewed it all over the floor. You could see it on his face that he thought there would be a fight and was totally confused when the captain laughed it off and mopped up the floor himself. Later that day, he said he would have busted some heads for that, but Colin said, “ Nah, Cap. can take a joke. It was all in good fun. If you bust knuckles every time someone plays around with you, you won’t ever have any friends or fun. You have to know when to laugh, cry, and fight. Save the fighting for when you or your loved one is in danger, and life will be much more enjoyable. ” He dropped that little nugget on his van full of orphans like it was a comment about the weather. He never lectured or yelled; he just dropped wisdom on us knowing that some would sink in, and some would bounce off. Anyway, one of those nuggets of wisdom was to observe Enrique as closely as he observed us and find his weakness. It didn’t take long to figure out it was backing down from a challenge. It was getting him and us into plenty of trouble, so we decided to use it in his favor. We started challenging him to do the right thing. It was my idea, but to be honest, I stunk at it. Julio, on the other hand, could push his buttons like no one else. Enrique looked up to him, sort of. If Julio challenged him not to fight a kid, Enrique walked away. He had to prove that he was just as strong as Julio, and if Julio wasn’t fighting a blockhead trying to stir up trouble, then Enrique was strong enough to walk away, too. It felt like years, but it was closer to six months when he saw that the positive challenges we were posing were actually making him better, and he started to come around.”
“How did that lead to annual pacts to buy Rolex watches and face your fears while going on adventures?” Sophie asked, trying to see the bigger picture but still unable to connect the dots.
“When Enrique was twelve, he and I were headed off to middle school. It was a new school, new kids, a fresh start, and he wanted to make a good impression. The charity bins were pulled out for us to pick through and select our new clothes. It was a pretty poor selection that year. The firefighters usually chipped in to buy us a new set of clothes, but there had been some restructuring at the firehouse, and the new folks weren’t as invested as the older members of Dad McKenzie’s squad. And the number of my little family kept growing. By this point, there were five of us in the Bad Boys Club, ranging from eleven to sixteen. Gabe and Anthony had jobs at Chuckles Chicken, a fast-food restaurant in the town. But, the men would never have purchased something for just three of us and not all five, even though the older brothers would have been totally fine with it, and it would have saved us all a lot of heartache in the end. Three days before school starts, we ride the bus to the local mall and hang out. Anthony and Gabe pay for the fair and get us snacks from the food court. We walk through some of the stores, even try on some clothes just for kicks, but never buy anything because it is way out of our price range. We made plans to walk from the mall to the Goodwill a mile or so down the road to look for some clothes there. The boys and I have often wondered why we didn’t head straight there from the bus. God works in mysterious ways, I guess. Before we can collect Enrique and leave, he’s arrested for shoplifting an entire set of new clothes: a shirt, pants, socks, shoes, a belt, and even a flat-billed cap. The total for that outfit was almost seven hundred dollars. The authorities had been wanting him for a while, so they threw the book at him—six months in juvenile detention and a year of probation. When he finally got out and rejoined the family, I posed the first pact: everyone promised to stop criminal activity, stay out of jail, and work to repair the family’s reputation. It was for everyone, but Enrique knew it was to help keep him straight. And just like that, the BBC pacts began. Sometimes, they seem trivial, but they are to help us grow and become better people. To show the world we are more than they thought we could be.”
The captain announced the final descent into Rome, so the conversation came to an end.
“Don’t think you are done telling me about this. I want the scoop on all the pacts. Especially the one that led you to the Rolex store and me,” Sophie said with a wink as she stowed her things and sat up straight in her seat, preparing for landing. To her surprise, Fernando reached over and held her hand, entwining their fingers.
“I don’t believe in luck, but holding your hand has kept me calm thus far, so why stop now? And I’m enjoying holding my girlfriend’s hand. How is it working for you, honestly?” Fernando’s heart was racing; he was going to blame it on the plane’s impending landing and not the possible rejection he had just set himself up for.
“I’m finding that holding your hand is quite enjoyable and has a calming effect on my nerves as well,” Sophie admitted.
Fernando turned to look out the window but smiled secretly to himself. The thought that she was enjoying his touch was exhilarating. Still, if it calmed her nerves, she was in a very different place in their fake relationship than he was. The touch of her skin made him calm and energized at the same time. He felt like a teenager with his first crush, and he wasn’t sure what to do about it. Gabe had told him to open himself up and be decisive in the next twenty-one days or risk losing Sophie forever. The latter was unthinkable, but so was the first. Every time he opened himself up to a woman, they trampled his heart. Hannah had put him back together again. He wasn’t sure he would ever, could ever, risk it again. But for Sophie, he would try.