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She waved me off. “Uno no lo va a matar. He’s a grown man, you give him what he wants. He’s going to die, you let him die happy. And that goes for me too. Don’t you tell me I can’t have what I want because you’re trying to make me live forever. I want to die doing the things I love. I want to be happy until the very end.”
“Okay, Mamá.”
“You want to be happy?” she said, going on. “Marry an ugly rich man who loves you more than you love him.” She nodded at the windshield. “This one’s not ugly, but he’s got the rest of it. Enculado.”
I snorted. “Jacob is not whipped.”
She pulled her face back to stare at me. “Estás ciega! Are you blind? I like this one. I never liked Nick.”
“Ha,” I said, changing lanes. “Now you tell me.” I let a slow breath out through my nose. “Jacob definitely does not love me more than I love him, Mamá.”
She scoffed. “You are blind. You’re worrying in the wrong direction. Worry the other way.”
“Why doesn’t he ever kiss you?” Benny asked.
“He kisses me,” I said defensively.
“No, he doesn’t. He always looks like he wants to, but he never does.”
I shifted in my seat. “He doesn’t like PDA.”
“But he’s always holding your hand and touching you and stuff.”
“Kissing is different.”
“It’s not that different…” he mumbled.
“If he asks you to marry him, say yes,” Mom said. “You’re not getting any younger.”
“Okay, Mamá? I just went through a horrible divorce and we’ve only been dating for five seconds.”
“And he’s already giving your brother an organ. Dios mío, what more do you want? I like him. Good job, good-looking. He’s very polite.”
“He is polite.” And generous, and kind. “But just so you know, I probably won’t ever remarry.”
She pivoted to look at me like I was speaking in tongues. “Why?”
“Because it didn’t end well for me?”
She waved me off again. “You just be smart about it. You make him give you an expensive ring. You put your name on everything, all his property. Then if he leaves you, you take his house.”
“Mamá!”
“What? That’s what I did with Gil. It’s how I know he’s not going to leave me. He can’t afford it.”
“Gil is obsessed with you and couldn’t live without you,” I said.
“And if he did, he’d do it without his house.” She shrugged.
I laughed. Then I looked in the rearview. “So what’d you think of Jacob’s family?” I gave my brother a twisted-lip smile. “BEN.”
“Shut up,” he muttered.
“Jane’s pretty, huh?” I said, looking back at the road. “She’s single,” I sang.
“I know. She told me.”
I gasped. “You asked her?”
