Chapter 13 #2
Despite my best efforts to sprint to the car and gather everything in, it still wasn’t fast enough. After setting all the games, presents, and items for Sarge on the table, I walked back over to the kitchen to hear my sister talking to Iris.
“I’m really glad you’re not some super skinny chick with a thigh gap,” Rita said to Iris.
“What the hell is that?” I asked, having never heard of a thigh gap before but not liking the fact that Rita would be nitpicking at Iris’s body in any way.
Hearing my voice, Rita turned to look at me. “It was a compliment, bro, so calm down.”
“Then what does it mean?” I repeated.
This time she pointed her finger in my face. “Are you a girl? No. So you wouldn’t understand.”
“It means she has thick thighs and big hips, both of which are perfect for birthing babies…and I love babies,” my mom chimed in, emphasizing the last part.
“Mom,” I warned.
“Don’t mom me,” she shot back. “Go do your thing, I’ve got her.”
“I don’t have a thing,” I told her. “We already got everything out of the car.”
“Okay, then go hang out with your father and JT in the living room,” she countered.
She practically shooed me away, pushing me out of the kitchen.
“How old are you, dear?” I heard my mom ask Iris as I walked away very slowly.
My mother was trying to seem casual about it, but I knew damn well she was prying.
“I’m thirty,” she replied.
“Oh perfect,” Mom said. “Now that Hector is forty, he could use a friend who’s younger to keep him on his toes.”
“Mom,” I all but growled.
“I’m ignoring you since you are no longer in the room and not part of this conversation,” she yelled to me.
Thankfully, Iris seemed to just take it in jest by laughing.
“Do you like babies, Iris?” my mom asked next, and I just shook my head as I ran my hand up and down over my face, hoping to God Iris was still interested in me by the end of the day.
Dani waved at me from down the hallway and started to walk my way, signing, “She’ll be fine. They like her, so they won’t say anything too over the top.”
I highly doubted that.
“How long have you two been seeing each other?” she signed.
“We’re not,” I signed back.
“So we didn’t interrupt anything when we just showed up here this morning,” she signed and grinned from ear to ear at me, winking.
“Possibly,” I signed back, wondering how much to give away.
Dani was the sibling who would take your secrets to the grave if you asked her to, so I told her the full story about the break-in and why Iris was here.
“But you’d like there to be more?” Dani inquired, watching my face for any sign of emotion I didn’t say in my words.
That was the thing about Dani—because she couldn’t hear inflection in people’s voices, she was incredible at reading faces, and she was one of the few people who could read me, even after all the training the military and police academy had given me on how to neutralize emotions.
Knowing she’d see right through me anyway, I simply nodded in return.
“I like her, and I hope it works out for you,” she signed, smiling back at me before giving me a big hug.
Iris and Rita walked out from the kitchen, and I chose to take that as my opportunity.
“All done?” I asked Iris, and as soon as she nodded in response, I grabbed her hand. “Good. Let’s go take Sarge out.”
I heard Rita chuckle behind me, but I didn’t care.
“I apologize on behalf of my entire family for anything that was said,” I told her as we walked down the gravel drive to Sarge’s favorite spot.
Iris snickered next to me. “Your family is really nice, Hector. Your mom told me that she’s already picked out baby names for us and that you are prime dad material.”
I stopped dead in my tracks and turned to her, shocked, my eyes as wide as they could possibly get. “She told you what?”
Iris full out laughed now. “Just kidding, but she did tell me that your sister Rita doesn’t want kids, and Dani is too young, so the family lineage—and her hopes of multiple grandbabies—lies with you. No pressure,” she said, smiling up at me.
“You do know that her telling you that means she hopes that you will be the one to give her those babies, yes?”
“Relax, Hector,” she said, starting to walk forward again, and I followed. “I told her I don’t sign contracts without reading the fine print first.”
I said nothing in response, but internally I would have enjoyed seeing the look on my mom’s face when Iris said that.
“Maybe she just sees something between us that you’re too broody to admit,” she said. “Guess it’s a good thing I don’t scare too easily when it comes to you.”
God, this woman. I’d spent years building walls and keeping people out, and this woman was bulldozing them faster than a speeding bullet.
“Do you want kids…eventually, I mean?” she asked me, trying to sound nonchalant about it, but there was definitely genuine curiosity.
“I did when I was younger, and I can’t say that I don’t anymore, but I’m not getting any younger,” I told her honestly. “You usually have to be married or at least in a relationship for that to happen, and I haven’t had either of those.”
I chose to deflect instead of allowing her to ask me more questions. “What about you?”
“I definitely want kids,” she responded. “I’d like several, but they don’t have to be mine biologically. I’m open to adoption like my family did.”
I was happy for her that she’d ended up with such a good adopted family, because not every child did. She deserved to have a family of her own, and I wanted that for her. I found myself wanting to be the one to give it to her—a thought I had never had with any other woman. Ever.
We walked to the side of the gravel driveway where it was a little flatter, and Iris started to throw the tennis ball for Sarge.
I just stood by and watched her, enjoying the view of her sexy body in front of me and her contagious laugh as she played with Sarge. I wouldn’t mind having her around more to enjoy days like today—minus my crazy family.
We finally made our way back up to my house, only to find JT and Rita making out on my front porch.
“Dude, could you not feel up my sister right in front of me?” I asked my brother-in-law.
“Could I? Sure,” he responded. “Am I gonna stop? Nope.”
And he didn’t.
“If you want, I can go tell your mom they’re about to make her a grandbaby on the front porch,” Iris suggested with an evil grin.
I laughed, genuinely laughed, at the thought of my mom coming out to chat about babies and essentially cock-blocking JT in the process.
Despite having just finished eating breakfast less than thirty minutes ago, there was so much food back on the table. In the time we had walked Sarge, my mom had cooked up the chilaquiles and my father had whipped up some sangria.
My mother’s side of the family was from Mexico, and my father’s side was Portuguese and Spanish. They said all the time that food was their love language, especially when we had large family gatherings.
Two more meals, three games, and four pitchers of sangria later, my family was all finally packing up for the day and headed home.
Iris had been sitting next to me on the couch, leaned up against me, half asleep and hiccupping. She’d had three full glasses of the sangria—and my father usually made it strong.
Dani and JT were the designated drivers for the evening, so I helped them rally the rest of the troops into their respective car rides home.
When I walked back up to house, Iris was standing in the doorway with a goofy, semi-drunk smile on her face. God, I wanted to kiss her and take her to bed so damn bad, but I wasn’t going to do that with her inebriated. I also didn’t want her going back to her apartment like this either.
“It’s late and you’re not exactly sober, so just stay here again tonight, okay?”
“Okay,” she said, still smiling, but she took a few steps closer to me and put her body flush up against the front of mine.
“I feel safe here with you,” she said softly, mindlessly running her fingers over my beard at my jawline. “I know if anyone were to try to hurt me, you would stop them.”
Damn, if that didn’t make me feel good, knowing I gave that peace to her. One good thing about looking like a scary, dangerous asshole was that she took solace in that, knowing I could protect her.
“Your natural badassery skills are awesome,” she said, moving her hand from my beard down to intertwine with my hand at my hip.
She pulled me inside toward the couch. We both sat, me sitting upright against the back of the couch, and Iris sitting facing my left side.
“Happy birthday, Hector,” she said quietly to me. “Did you have a good birthday?”
I did, though I’d specifically told my mother I did not want a bunch of people over. I had told her earlier in the week that I would text her in the morning and meet them all for dinner somewhere. Somewhere that wasn’t my house.
“Yes. That was the least awkward encounter with my family I think I’ve had in years, and it was all because of you, so thank you,” I told her.
“I really want to make out with you like teenagers,” she said, smiling, her glassy eyes and pink cheeks indicating she was still buzzed.
“I know at some point you’ll regret being with me, Iris, because I’m a grumpy asshole who’s done some bad things,” I told her.
“But I don’t want to make that regret happen sooner by taking you to bed while you’re tipsy and you wake up tomorrow morning wishing you hadn’t let me take advantage of you. ”
She stared contemplatively at me for a few moments, or maybe she was struggling to get her thoughts together since she was still tipsy.
“You’re a good man, Hector.”
“I’m really not, Iris, but I’m glad you think so.”