Page 17 of Against The Boards

She laughed. “Was dinner that bad? What did you do to piss her off now?”

I groaned. I didn’t need to ask her how she knew; my sister and her wife told each other everything. “I kissed her.”

“That’s it? What’s wrong with that?”

I cringed. “And then walked away and said something like ‘if I knew that’s how to shut you up, I would have done that years ago.’ I think she might stab me tomorrow.”

The line was silent for a moment, and then she burst out laughing. “Liliana wasn’t wrong. You have zero game with this woman.”

“I don’t know why I act like that around her. She frustrates me.”

“Yeah, sexually. You probably need to bang it out.”

I sighed. “Not you, too.”

“I love you, but I’ve heard you talk more about this woman in the past three years than any of your girlfriends. The entire family has a pool on when you’ll finally get together.”

I banged my head against my pillow. “You do not.”

She laughed. “We do! Because we all know you’re gonna marry that woman and have the most ridiculously cute babies.”

I groaned. My sister and her wife were sometimes worse than my grandparents about nagging me about when I would settle down. Liliana even took me to task for not considering marrying Stephanie.

Growing up and watching my parents have the worst marriage ever definitely had something to do with my opinion on the institution. My grandparents and my sister might have been shining examples of great marriages, but it wasn’t something I ever wanted. But in my family, continuing the line was always important to us, especially to my grandparents. I loved my nephews, and I loved that my sister and her wife had the family they wanted, but having kids wasn’t something I wanted for myself.

“Nina, you know how I feel about that,” I said.

“But she’s wicked hot, and you’d have such beautiful hockey-playing babies,” she argued.

“Not if she’s gonna murder me in my sleep.”

She laughed. “So you’re saying you could change your mind.”

“NINA!”

“So I’ll see you later?” she asked.

“There isn’t seriously a family pool, right?”

Her laughter was all the answer I needed.

“I hate all of you.”

“You love us!”

I hung up on her and gathered my things. I was leaving tonight, and I didn’t care if I got to the house really late. I wasn’t about to deal with whatever Rox had in store for me. I couldn’t believe I’d kissed her.

The worst part? I still couldn’t stop remembering the sound of her moans.

“There he is!” my grandmother said when I came down the stairs the next afternoon. I hadn’t intended on sleeping in so late, but I got to my grandparents’ house late last night.

“Morning, Abuela,” I said to her and hunched down to hug the petite older woman. “How’s Abuelo?”

She waved a hand at me. “He’s fine; they already brought him back. He’s in the den. You didn’t need to come.”

She poured me a cup of coffee, and I thanked her silently. I grabbed a yogurt and a spoon and took a seat at the table. I knew my grandmother would try to make me a big breakfast if I didn’t do that, but I needed to stick to my nutrition plan, especially during the off-season.

“I wanted to. I feel like I don’t do enough for the family.”