When my plate is almost empty, I ask Ángel, “Do you have any good stories about these guys?”
“He doesn’t,” Santiago answers too quickly.
“Tú solo mastica. Hablar te va a dar indigestión.”Keep eating. Talking will give you indigestion.Ángel pats Santiago’s shoulder, then sets his elbow on the table and rests his chin on his fist.
“One time, when Santiago was about two or three, he got into his mother’s spice cabinet,” Ángel starts.
Santiago groans while Levi and Walker chuckle.
Ángel ignores Santiago’s obvious objection. “He found the nutmeg and got it everywhere. I meaneverywhere. Then he stripped off his clothes, and the nutmeg got on his…willis and doodleberry. Poor boy screamed and screamed.”
“Oh, no.” My eyes widen as I chuckle. Levi drops his fork on his plate, throwing his head back in laughter. Walker holds his stomach, curling over from laughing so much.
“Willis and doodleberry?” Santiago criticizes.
Ángel lowers his brows at Santiago and gestures to me. “I’m talking to a lady.” Dismissing Santiago,
Ángel turns his attention back to me. “He’d freak out any time he smelled nutmeg after that.”
Santiago shivers. “Still don’t touch the stuff.”
I try to compose myself as I question Ángel again. “What about these two? Any embarrassing stories?”
Levi and Walker sober.
“None,” Levi snaps, then says to Ángel, “I’ll give you a hundred dollars to not say a word.”
Walker keeps his lips sealed.
I squint at him. “No objection from you?”
Walker shrugs.
Ángel points to Levi. “This one used to bring me injured animals all the time. I’d let him use the barn and whatever he could find to nurse them back to health. One time he even brought a raccoon.”
“A raccoon?” My mouth falls open.
“It followed me home,” Levi defends himself.
“Because you fed him marshmallows the whole way,” Santiago ripostes, shoveling another bite of rice into his mouth.
Ángel moves to point toward Walker. “And this one was arrested for destruction of property when he was about sixteen. I got a call in the middle of the night to pick him up at the station. I had to post his bail.”
Rearing back, I place my hand on my chest dramatically. “Sheriff Maddox, I am shocked.”
Walker rolls his eyes at my teasing. “I was trying to free the man’s horse.”
My head tilts to the side. “A horse?”
“Neighbor wasn’t feeding it, and Walk cut the fence,” Ángel explains further.
“I wasliberatingit,” Walker responds.
“He actually used the word liberating when he was questioned by the sheriff at the time,” Levi interjects.
Ángel continues with the tales. “Well, there was one time when they dared each other to?—”
“And on that note,” Santiago slaps his hands on his lap, interrupting the story and stands. “I think it’s time to clean up and get going. No more stories from a senile old man.”
