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He never had and never would.
I heard both of Nico’s parents speaking ninety miles an hour to each other in Spanish, and I couldn’t interpret what they were saying. I was fairly good at the language when they went slow, but at the pace they were setting, only the most fluent could understand.
Which obviously Nico was, because he had a killer smile on his face.
“What are they saying?” I asked.
It came out huskily. Breathily.
“They’re saying something about babies in the future,” Nico grinned.
My mouth opened and shut like a guppy searching for food on the top of a pond.
“W-wh-what?” I asked.
He didn’t answer, but I distinctly heard the word percado. Mainly because Lolita had shrieked it, and I’d heard it all the way into the kitchen.
And I knew what percado meant. Sin.
Oh, dear.
We entered the kitchen, and every one of the Pena children, adults and teenagers alike, were all staring rapturously out the window speaking a million miles an hour to each other.
This, at least, I could understand.
They used English.
Nikki was sitting on top of the counter, trying valiantly to see outside.
Nikki looked like a younger version of her mother.
Her hair was shorter, though, cut right above her chin in a stylish bob. She was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, and had what I suspected was a flour handprint on her ass.
There were six kids in the Pena bunch. Nicolas, Nikki, Natalie, Noel, Nova, and Nina. Nina was the youngest at a little over sixteen. Nicolas the oldest at thirty one.
Sol liked to say he was lucky that he got his boy first, because if the girls had come first, he’d have been too crazy to raise Nico to be a real man.
“What are y’all doing?” Nico asked loudly.
All five girls shrieked in surprise.
Nico grinned.
Then I was pulled into a hug that was both humbling and perfect.
I’d missed these ladies.
Like crazy.
“Oh, my God, Nina! You’re taller than me!” I squealed.
Nina laughed, reminding me of Nikki at that age. She was beautiful, and I bet her big brother wasn’t too happy with how she’d attract the eye of any man. He’d have to be gay not to see these ladies’ beauty.
“Oh, you’re exactly the same,” Nina replied.
Our little huddle was pushed over, and we all tippy-toed walked to the side as Nico pushed by us so he could get to the refrigerator.
He reached inside and withdrew a beer, walking over to the bar stools to the side of the kitchen and sat down. He’d grabbed the TV remote off the counter and turned on what looked to be Sports Center.
What a surprise!
Not.
It was either that or a soccer game. I guess we were lucky.
“I can’t believe he kissed you. What the hell, hoe?” Nikki whispered quietly.
Well, whispered was a relative term. She more said it in a normal voice, but the high-pitch tone of it brought everyone’s attention in the room.
Nico and his parents alike.
Lolita joined our hug, fitting herself in between the counter and the fridge door. “Oh, niña. I’m glad you’ve finally come home.”
“Me too, Lolita,” I whispered fervently, laying my head down until it rested on Nova’s shoulder.
Nova laid her cheek against my head, and we all shed a few tears.
It felt good to be home.
“Did you and my brother have any hot sex yet? I always knew you liked him, you know,” Nikki whispered in my ear.
Jesus, the girl always spoke what was on her mind. I swear she didn’t have any filter.
“Nikki,” I said, looking into her beautiful brown eyes. “Do you remember that time when you told that huge man at the corner store that he needed to take a shower because he smelled like ass?”
Her eyes twinkled. “Yes.”
Nico snorted, remembering the story well.
He’d been on leave from the army that time as well. He’d just finished basic training and was home for a week before he was expected to go back.
We’d been on the way to the lake and he’d been pumping gas at the time while we’d gone inside for snacks.
It all started out innocent, of course, like it always did with Nikki.
I’d gone to the bathroom and had to wait in line while Nikki had chosen our snacks.
When I’d waited a really long time, I finally got the nerve to ask if everything was all right from the woman in the stall.
She’d said that she was fairly sure she was having a miscarriage, and that her husband was outside and to please ask him to come in there.
I’d ran out only to find the man in question putting the moves on Nikki.
Nikki had thought it was funny, because Nikki had particular tastes.
She didn’t like anyone that wasn’t a ‘bad boy’, so to speak. This man was about as uptight as you would expect any country club boy, so it’d struck me as odd at the time that she was even giving him the time of day.
But, of course, Nikki was a bitch at times, and liked to play tricks on her brother; she liked to lead young, unsuspecting men on where she’d then tell them wild stories about her brother, where they’d then try to defend her honor.
Only this time the man’s woman was in the bathroom having a miscarriage, and she wasn’t dealing with an ‘unsuspecting man’ but a real asshole that didn’t care that his wife was in there having a miscarriage. Only that he had a sexy woman willing to give him the time of day.
I’d told the man about his wife, but he hadn’t cared. Nikki had, though, and had let him know what kind of ‘piece of cow shit’ he was. It’d escalated and turned into a screaming match where they’d both gotten nearly violent.
I’d called an ambulance and had opened the door to the convenience store to gesture to Nico that shit was going down.
He’d looked at the sky like he was in pain and had then proceeded to beat the shit out of the guy because the man had put his hands on his sister.
