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What was I going to say, though? That he wasn’t welcome? That wasn’t very nice and that wasn’t the way my parents had raised me. Plus, I’d brought Jenny home with me a few times during breaks. That wasn’t counting the other teammates and friends that had been in and out of my life over the years who had come by for holidays.
The small three-bedroom house was right at the end of the cul-de-sac. My mom’s new-ish car and my dad’s work truck were in the driveway, as I parked on the street. The house wasn’t new in any way, but my dad took care of it.
I shot him a smile as Kulti grabbed our bags from the trunk, holding my hand out. “I can take that.”
He gave me a single look before he kept walking right up the stones my dad had laid as a path to the doorway. The German didn’t even bother waiting for me to catch up before he was knocking on the door, a little more subdued than the way he banged on mine every time he came over.
I shoved him to the side as the locks began turning.
“Quién es?”Of course it would be my dad.
“Sal!” I called back, putting my index finger up to my mouth when Kulti looked at me.
“Sal? You lost your key?” The bottom lock turned and a moment later, my dad’s face appeared in the crack of the door.
“No.” I grinned, happy to see him. “Happy early birthday. Don’t freak out—“
His forehead scrunched up as he swung the door wide. “Don’t freak—?“ He stopped. His gaze swung from me to Kulti, then back to me and finally back to Kulti. The weirdest breath escaped his mouth.
Then, he shut the door in our faces.
Kulti and I looked at each other, and a second later I started laughing as a big grin that caught me totally off guard cracked across his lightly bearded face.
“Dad,” I cried his name out.
There was no reply, which only made me laugh even harder.
“Papi, come on.” I pressed my forehead against the door, my shoulders shaking as I replayed the look on his face when he spotted the German next to me. “Oh God.”
Twisting my head to look at Kulti again, he was still smiling.
“Salomé?Que paso?” My mom’s voice came from inside the house a second before she opened the door, her forehead scrunched up in confusion already. “Porque—ay carajo!”she said, immediately spotting the much taller man standing next to me. Her face went a little pale. Her mouth gaped in surprise for all of three seconds before she cleared her throat, looked back at me and cleared her throat again. “Okay. Okay.” Her eyes swung back over to the German before she smiled warily. “Come in, come in.” She spoke in Spanish, ushering us inside.
“Hey, Mom,” I said, giving her a hug before stepping aside as she closed the door behind us. “I brought my friend with me.” I gave her a look with wide eyes that saidplease don’t bring anything up. “Mom, Rey…Reiner...? Kulti...?” I looked at him for a clue as to what I should have my family call him. He just shrugged in response casually, extending a proper hand out to my mom. “Rey, this is my mom.”
My mom was too busy looking him up and down like she couldn’t believe he was real, and honestly a small part of me couldn’t believe it either. Reiner Kulti was standing in my house. I’d watched hundreds of his games in the living room. I’d sworn to my dad I was going to be as good as The King in this exact place more times than I could count. He was here.Here. As my friend, spending the next few days because he had nothing else to do.
Jesus Christ.
“Hola, Señora Casillas,”Kulti said in his perfect Spanish, continuing on in it, “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for having me.”
Who was this man with manners? I watched him, not really surprised at how polite he was but… a little bit caught off guard.
A small slow smile crossed my mom’s face, pleased with his introduction. “It’s nice to meet you too,” she said, thankfully avoiding anything likeI’ve heard so much about youor something really incriminating. Mom finally looked over at me, not switching back to English. “I was wondering why your dad shut the door and walked into the bedroom. He’s in there now. Go find him while I get Reiner a drink.”
So she decided to go with Reiner. How about that.
I gave him a small smile as he stood there with our bags in hand. “I’ll be right back. You can leave the bags there, I’ll move them later.”
He gave me what I was starting to call his ‘shut up Sal’ look.
I smiled at my mom and gave her another hug despite the fact she was more focused on the man next to me. “I’ll get him out of there.”
Sure enough, the bedroom door was closed when I came up to my parents’ room. I knocked on it twice before saying, “Dad? I’m coming in. Don’t scar me for life.”
Sitting on the edge of his bed, with his head between his knees, was the man who had raised me. His rough dark hands were gripping the back of his head and it took everything inside of me not to start laughing at his mini-panic attack. Choking it all back, I took a seat beside him and put my hand on his back.
“Surprise,” I whispered with only the slightest hint of laughter in my voice.
