Xavier hands me a beer and the doorbell chimes. Everyone in the room looks at everyone else.
“Mom?” Xavier spears her with a questioning look. “Did you tell anyone we had company?” His voice is laced with a fear I hate that I’ve put there, but I know deep down it’s for the best.
Then the front door bangs open. Before I can process it, a familiar voice from the hallway calls “Where is everyone?”
Xavier looks at me. “Is that…?”
My brother Ares? Yes. I nod and mouthI’m so sorryto his mother.
“Follow your nose, Hermano.” Apollo’s voice is next. “Kitchen.”
“Did you two Mamagüevos not even wait for someone to open the door? Ay, díos. Mamá will murder you both.” My sister’s stern voice carries too.
My heart drops to my feet, right along with my jaw. Valentina bursts into melodic laughter. “We’re in here.”
I look at her like she’s betrayed me. And she winks at me. “Mi casa es su casa.”
Xavier gives me a confused look. I frown back.
Ares steps inside with a duffel bag slung over one shoulder, hands full of bags, and wearing plaid Christmas pajamas under his coat like he rolled out of a holiday catalog. Snow clings to his hair, and he’s out of breath.
“Jesus fuck, it is freezing out there.” Ares at least had the good sense to kick his shoes off at the door. He drops the duffel and lifts a plaid gift bag like he’s Santa’s feral intern. “Xavier, your boyfriend forgot something.” He grins at me. “A few somethings.”
I choke on oxygen.
Xavier’s eyebrows shoot up. “You drove all the way here?”
Ares shakes his head. “We flew. We couldn’t let Arte stormout of the house in a storm cloud without bringing...” He lifts his hands. “Anything.”
"¡Apúrate!" Athena makes her way in behind our brothers, slips her arm around me and pecks me on the cheek. “Apologies, Mrs. Martinez, for breaking into your house. But we couldn’t let our brother show up empty handed.”
She ruffles my hair like she’s been dying to embarrass me all day. “We didn’t realize how serious things were between him and Xavier, or we’d have invited you all up for Christmas.” Her words hit their target as they get spat into my ear. “You should have fucking said something, Hermano.” She growls in my ear before turning a smile to Xavier’s mom. “We’ll be out of your hair in no time.”
Valentina’s face falls like Athena just announced the family pet had been killed. “Out of my… qué? Absolutely not, you’ll stay and have dinner with us.”
Ares nudges Apollo and hisses a ‘Yesssssss’ not so quietly which makes Valentina smile even more.
“But Mamá is outside waiting for us.”
Valentina gasps so loudly everyone looks at her. She doesn’t say another word but pushes her way through the now growing crowd in her kitchen to presumably go talk to Mamá.
This isn’t what I meant by keeping things quiet. As if he can read my thoughts, Apollo saunters over to me. “Don’t worry, Papá doesn’t know where we are. Mamá lost her shit at his drunk ass and told him to find somewhere else to spend Christmas, that she was taking us to her friend’s house.”
I blink, like that might make what he just said make more sense. “And Abuela?”
“Last minute Christmas cruise with her Canasta friends.” Ares is opening the bag and placing pans of food on the counter.
I don’t believe what’s happening. Is my family reallygatecrashing my tantrum escape to my boyfriend’s house for Christmas Eve?
Mamá joins the melee as Valentina leads her inside. They’re talking in rapid Spanish, and pause for no one, while Mamá produces a big enough bag of limes to beat someone to death with. “¿Dónde está el tequila?”
Fuck. This is going to be messy. I don’t do messy. Within minutes, Ares has passed out matching pajamas. Not the same ones that match our team’s, but different ones,familyones, and it’s not something Xavier misses.
“Are these the team pjs this year?” Roman scrunches his nose up. “Because I’m not sure I can support the Raccoons when my brother is a Wolf.” He shrugs at me. “Sorry.”
Xavier throws a Santa hat at his brother. “These aren’t the ones I saw on social media. They’re different.” His eyes search my face as I give him a nod to confirm.
“They’re family pjs.” Ares throws it out there like it’s no big deal, but from the way Xavier’s gaze intensifies, it’s a big fucking deal.
