Chapter 26
Adam can’t stay the night because he’s too worried William might have another bad night. “I’m just scared he’s going to hurt himself, knocking around into furniture in the middle of the night, and tripping over shit,” he says apologetically as we chat on the porch by the front door.
“Shit, Adam. Does this mean the doctor is right with his suspicions on dementia?”
Adam puts a hand over the stubble of his chin. “It definitely doesn’t look good. I need to get him reassessed, given some of these new symptoms.”
I shake my head. This is heartbreaking. “Don’t worry about not staying. I get it. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him, either.”
He smiles, kisses me slowly, then moans a little bit as I grab his head and pull his hair.
He ends up pushing me against the door, lowering his mouth to my neck, and then I’m the one moaning.
He pulls back abruptly, laughing. “Okay. Okay. We gotta stop or I’m going to throw you over my shoulder and march you back upstairs. ”
“You never put it inside me,” I say, lightly touching where he’s hard again.
“Fuck, Sky.” He laughs again. “If that’s what you want, next time, okay? Next time.”
“When is next time?”
He pauses. “I wanna take you out to dinner downtown. I want everyone to see you’re mine. After that I want to”—he grins—“what did you just say? Put it inside you?”
I have my hand on my heart and I feel the beginnings of tears stinging my eyes. “Everyone? You want everyone to see I’m yours?”
He kisses my forehead so gently, a tear actually does make it to my cheek, despite my best efforts to hold it in. He uses his thumb to wipe it away. “If you’re fine with it. Yes. I want everyone to know you’re mine.”
I swallow. “Okay. Um. My next evening off is Tuesday.”
“I’ll pick you up then.”
We kiss good night again, and then again, and then we both laugh because I guess everything about this feels so good.
I know it’s mostly due to endorphins and oxytocin and whatever other hormones are responsible for human romantic attachment, but I don’t care.
I want more of this, more of him. It feels unfair now that I don’t know what he would feel like, banging me hard against my bed.
I even wistfully watch him cross the street, making sure he gets inside his home safely.
I’m so full of energy—left over from my nervousness earlier, when I was scared I would probably be Adam’s worst lover he’s ever had, as well as my nervous system trying to deal with the intensity of post-orgasmic euphoria—that I know I need to take a walk in the woods.
I go inside to grab a hoodie and slip on some sneakers, and I make my way down the street.
Just beyond the cul-de-sac is a skinny trail that, as far as I know, only I and the opossums, skunks, and raccoons use.
But before I can reach it, there is the low rumble of a car engine getting closer behind me.
I step into the nearest yard so they can drive around me, whoever they are.
But instead they go even slower. They come even closer.
I don’t look back. I sense this all with my ears, even as I pretend I do not hear them.
Who is following me in the dark with their headlights off?
Finally, they step on the gas and reach me. When I turn, it’s Janie, the cranky lady next door who always acts like I can’t see her spying on me and obviously hating on me through her kitchen window. “Can I help you?” I ask.
Her face is completely expressionless. “Was that Adam Noemi I saw just leaving your grandmother’s home?”
What the fuck is she asking that for? Does she need Adam for something? “Yeah?”
She shakes her head. “Haven’t you done enough to the reputation of this town?
” My jaw drops, because although I knew she was a nosy busybody, I didn’t think she was also a nasty gossip like that.
I guess I should have known, but honestly, I try not to assume the worst of people every chance I get.
I probably should change that, considering all they do is prove me wrong.
She goes on, “What have you done to him? He knows well enough to stay away from the likes of you, so you must’ve done something.”
I almost jump when I feel a quick bump of something furry on my hand.
I don’t have to glance down to know it’s a coyote I’ve named Granola, for his beautiful toasted-oat coloring.
“Oh,” I say so soft it’s a hum, when I sense that he’s brought his whole family, eleven coyotes in all.
He nudges my hand again and I know he’s here, that they’re all here, because he sensed my fear.
They’re my backup. My beloved, beautiful backup.
I turn back to Janie and decide to go with my earlier plan from what feels like ages ago now. She wants to believe I’m evil?
Okay. Let’s do this, then.
I look right into her eyes—she’s still got that nasty, holier-than-thou expression on her face—and then I begin to bark.
I growl and chirp and when I begin howling, the coyotes surround me and they do the exact same thing. They howl, too.
She was pretty freaked out when I began barking, but once the coyotes join me, she opens her mouth and screams. And of course, that just makes the rest of us louder.
She hits reverse and doesn’t even take the time to turn her white SUV around. She reverses it all the way down the street, and I cannot help it. I chase her and keep howling, my backup adding to the chase, joyfully joining me and yipping while running in circles around me.
I know she will tell people. I know that by tomorrow, the whole town will know about Sky Flores’s barking escapades. But I find, as I arch my back and howl for the final time, good and long at the blue ink sky—that for the first time in maybe ever, I simply do not care.
“Skyyyyy.”
The scents of bacon and coffee awaken my stomach, but I’m still half in a dream about spending the night in a coyote den, sprawled in a big pile with them, relaxing while watching videos on my phone.
“Oh, Skyyyyyy!!!” the voice chirps again.
“What,” I mumble. It’s not Nadia or Amá Sonya, because they would never take it upon themselves to disturb me while I was still asleep, which means it’s got to be one of my annoying sisters.
“Did you get the plate next to her nose?”
“I tried, but her face is buried in the pillow!”
Or both of my annoying sisters, rather.
I lift up my head and the first thing I focus on is Sage’s hands, wrapped around a plate full of what looks like breakfast tacos.
Both of my sisters are great cooks—we kinda all had to learn because Nadia sure as hell didn’t cook for us—but these look a little bougie, which is Teal’s style.
The corn tortillas are fried with chili powder, making them much more golden than usual.
Inside each one are scrambled eggs cooked with spinach, or maybe kale, with fried potatoes and scallions.
Each is topped with a fan of sliced avocado, a drizzle of crema, and chopped cilantro.
On the side are three slices of bacon that don’t exactly look right, so I’m assuming they’re turkey bacon or maybe made out of soy.
Motivated by hunger, I sit up and rub my eyes. Teal places the plate in my lap. “There ya go.”
“Thanks.” I reach for the water at my bedside first, and take in the scene.
Teal’s standing next to me, arms crossed, like she’s some kind of boot camp leader monitoring if I’m going to eat her food properly or not.
Sage is sitting at the end of the bed, legs crossed, her own plate in her lap, working on her last taco, from the looks of it.
She looks around and gestures with half a taco in her hand. “When the hell did you do all this?”
I furrow my brow and say, “Oh right. The décor. A while ago.”
“It looks amazing.” She points at the furniture and my bed and the wallpaper. “Jesus, you need to be an interior designer, Sky.”
I laugh. “I don’t think so. The whole thing was a big headache, even if it was worth it in the end.” I glance around myself, only I’m looking for a car seat. “Where’s the baby?”
“Tenn took him to the Finger Lakes with a cooler full of pumped milk.”
“Best lakes in town.” I put my water bottle back, grab a taco, and just as I’m about to bite, I look up. “So…what are you guys doing here? You’re not just feeding me from the goodness of your hearts.”
“What do you mean?” Sage asks through a full mouth. “Can’t we make you food just because?”
I shake my head. “You can. But you don’t.”
“We want to know what happened with you and Adam,” Teal says, pulling out her phone so I can look at the last text I sent them. Adam and I totally just did stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I swallow my bite. “Oh. Yeah.”
“We figured you meant, you know.” Sage makes a gesture with her finger and hand that I think is supposed to indicate intercourse. “And we wanted to hear about it!”
“And make sure you were safe. You’re not on birth control, are you?” Teal is still looking like she’s either a cop or a military sergeant, and I guess now I understand why.
I suppress a sigh. I’m glad my sisters want to know about my life, but I’ll be so happy when they let go of this idea that I’m some little kid who doesn’t know anything about anything.
They want to know what happened? Fine. “I gave him a hand job, and he came all over my comforter, which is why it’s rolled up in the corner over there, and then he ate me out, and then he ate my ass while finger-blasting me.
Oh, and he brought a ton of Indian food from out of town, so if you want any, you can pack some up in Tupperware whenever you leave. ”
“He ate your ass!” Sage gasps. “What was that like?”
“Tenn’s never eaten your ass before?” Teal asks.
“No. We don’t do ass things. We’ve never really talked about it but he must not be into it, I figured.”
“Maybe he wants to receive,” Teal suggests.
Sage frowns thoughtfully. “Hmm. Anyone want to watch the baby sometime next week?”
“So you can eat your husband’s ass?” I ask. “I can watch Oak. That’s an important endeavor.”
“Deal,” Sage says, then turns to Teal. “Why do you sound surprised that we hadn’t done it before? Is everyone getting their ass eaten but me and Tennessee?”
Teal shrugs. “I don’t kiss and tell.”
I roll my eyes. “You told us about the time Carter fingered you in the kitchen but then stopped short of getting you off, plus a great deal of other intimate moments. So you should amend your statement to I don’t eat ass and tell.”
Teal scoffs playfully. “All I can say is, if you’re going to eat a man’s ass, reach around and tease his dick at the same time. He will sound like he’s going to die, but don’t stop till he—” She makes an explosion sound at the same time she opens her hands in front of her.
Sage raises her eyebrows. “Noted!” She turns to me. “Okay, soooo. You two didn’t do penetration.”
I swallow a bite of what is definitely turkey bacon. Not bad, but not exactly awesome, either, not that I would ever tell Teal that. “Why do we call it penetration, anyway? That’s pretty focused on the cis male experience of intercourse, isn’t it?”
Sage nods. “I see. Yes. Okay, so you didn’t receive him yesterday.” She gestures to her crotch. “Your receptionist didn’t accept a new appointment.”
I roll my eyes. “No. We did not. But when and if we do”—on Tuesday most likely, but I don’t include this—“I can text you guys. Do you want to know after or while he’s still inside me?”
“Hey.” Teal sits next to me and puts her hand on my knee. “I’m sorry if we sound patronizing.”
I sigh. “I just get frustrated sometimes at how much I missed, you know? I went from sixteen to twenty-four. And now I’m twenty-six. I feel like I know nothing, and I know you all mean well, but sometimes I feel like you treat me like I’m incapable. You know?”
“I get it. I’m sorry, Sky. When I got that text yesterday, I panicked because I realized that you never really got the big-sister birds-and-the-bees talk like Sage gave me.”
I breathe out slowly and nod. “I know. I didn’t. But I have done it before, you know.”
“With Ramón!” Sage says. “No one thought you two were fucking. That boy acted like he was trying to literally be Jesus with his purity. He wouldn’t even laugh at the most vague dirty joke!”
I laugh because it’s true. Ramón wanted to have sex with me so badly, but he also had so much shame about wanting it. It’s probably one of the many reasons why the very few times we were able to were really…forgettable, to put it as kindly as possible.
“Do you want us to help you with anything?” Teal asks. “Birth control, condoms—”
“We could go to Lucky Treasures,” Sage says. “They’ll have all that. Well, not oral contraceptives, but condoms, lube, lingerie.”
I brighten. “Lingerie?”
“Yeah! I need something new. My drive is coming back, now that I’m feeling less anxious and paranoid about everything.”
“Okay, well, they open in thirty minutes,” Teal says, checking her watch. “I gotta get back to work in about an hour and a half, so we should leave soon. Sky, get dressed while I do the dishes.”
I roll my eyes. “Okay, bossy.”
“Oh, you love it,” Teal calls as she makes her way toward the stairs.
Sage reaches for my dirty plate and gives me a little hug in the meantime. “I’m so glad you and Adam are doing things!” She smiles. “He seems like a good man.”
I can’t help but grin back as I think about him, and all the ways he is good. “He really is.”
“Yes. That’s what you deserve.” She stands. “Okay, go get ready. We have some sexy underwear to purchase.”