"There's always lots of carrots in the soup." I smirked at him. "I know how much you love carrots."
"Ha ha," he said as he wrapped my small hand in his large one as we pulled away from the clinic.
“¡Viejita!”my grandmother called when we pulled up to her house in Guaynabo. My eyes welled with tears when I laid eyes on her. She looked almost exactly the same as she had the last time I’d seen her. The older version of my mother’s heart shaped face grinned at me as Cole and I climbed out of the SUV.
“My grandmother calls me a little old lady because I liked to help her do housework when I was little and always told my siblings and my cousins what to do.”
"So, you've always been this bossy?"
“Excuse you? I have superior organizational and leadership skills. I don’t hear you complaining.”
“You never will.”
“Stop.”
“Stop what.”
“Stop flirting with me.”
“I’m not flirting.”
"Yes, you are, and it's confusing."
“Lisa, I—”
"Te extrañé mucho, cariño." Abuelita squeezed me so hard that it was hard to draw breath, but I didn't care. I missed her, too. We hadn't hugged like this in three long years, and I would stay like this as long as she wanted. When she finally released me, she turned her attention to Cole and CJ. "¿Es este el abogado sexy que tu madre me sigue diciendo?"
I rolled my eyes. My grandmother had just called Cole the sexy lawyer to his face and let him know that the women in my family talk about him regularly.
Cole grinned, and his cheeks flushed pink.
“¡Abuelita!”
“¿Que, que?” she asked. “Es la verdad.” She shrugged.
Just because it's true doesn't mean it needs to be said out loudis something I should have printed on a t-shirt to wear whenever I'm in the same room with any member of my family.
“Abuelita, esto es Cole y Cole, esto es mi abuela, Ana.”
Cole stepped forward and bent with CJ in his arms to give my grandmother a kiss on the cheek.
“Encantado de conocerte. Lisa me ha hablado mucho de ti. Tengo muchas ganas de comer tu asopao. Tu nieta dice que es lo mejor.”
My eyes were probably straining from rolling so much. Cole was laying it on thick, telling Abuelita how much he was looking forward to her soup and that I told him that it was the best. She, of course, hung on his every word.
“¡Tu hablas español!”she said to Cole before turning to me. “¿Por qué no me dijiste que tu prometido podía hablar español?”
The simple answer was that I didn’t know Cole could speak Spanish until a few hours ago, but I was stuck on the word prometido—fiancé.My grandmother didn't seem to know that my engagement with Cole was fake. Of course, Mami wouldn't tell her mother that her newly divorced and oldest granddaughter was pretending to be engaged to win a court case. It barely made sense to me. I looked at Cole, who seemed to be reading my mind.
“¿Y quien es esta muñequito?" She turned her attention to CJ, which eased some of my tension.
The little doll, who always seemed to be a good judge of character, allowed my grandmother to take him from Cole’s arms and bounce him while singing.
“Que linda manita
Tu tienes bebe,
Que linda, que bella,
