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“So the last thing I had to do was make sure I had every other woman out of my system. The idea of dating anyone other than Sofi wasn’t appealing but with my past, I had to be sure. I would give Sofi nothing less than my entire heart. I couldn’t be hiding any part of it away for a potential future woman. So I asked Tracy out. It was stupid, and I now know I shouldn’t have needed that last test. But I’d been testing every other part of my life and at the time it made sense.”
“I’m guessing you didn’t run that plan of yours by a woman?” Tía Rosa asked tartly.
Austin shook his head. He hadn’t run his plan by anyone. He now knew he should have. Especially knowing the heartache he’d caused Sofi. That was the only part of this he couldn’t stand. He knew he deserved the pain, but Sofi . . .
“You deserve for her to hate you forever,” Darla finally spoke. They weren’t the words Austin wanted to hear, but they were the truth.
Austin nodded.
Darla looked back to her sisters-in-law, who also nodded.
“But we won’t let that happen,” Darla said as she let Austin in, relief filling him with each step he took into the Castillos’ home. He knew most would say it was a crazy emotion as he was walking into the lionesses’ den, but for his plan to succeed he had to face this danger.
And now that Darla had voiced her support . . . maybe, just maybe, Austin would make it out of this mess.
“So I’ve injured Sofi’s trust in me and I know it will take time and many acts to restore, but I know there’s something she’d like me to do for her. She’s never said it out loud but now I see all of those times she said she hoped that her future husband did this . . . I can learn and do this for her,” Austin began, the Tías hanging on his every word.
He knew he hadn’t tamed the lionesses but they were for the time being not threatening to eat him alive. Austin would take that and hopefully they’d be willing to guide him as he took this step into foreign, for him, territory.
Twelve
Sofi couldn’t helpthe smile that came over her face as her phone dinged just on time. A little after Sofi’s request for space, Austin had texted her, asking permission to contact her just once each day. Since then, the texts had come in like clockwork, at the exact same time every day. At first she’d been hesitant, not sure if she was ready to give Austin daily access to her, but he’d proven so much with just this one thing. He was never late, always considerate, and reminded Sofi daily that he knew her inside and out. She now couldn’t feel anything but grateful for giving him this chance. They were rebuilding their friendship slowly but surely. In fact, in recent days Sofi had started to think maybe they had a chance for more.
She tried to keep that hope from growing too wildly but she still loved Austin. She always would. And if he truly loved her . . . she pushed back down on that ever-persistent hopefulness that continued to be her constant companion and began to draw her phone from her back pocket.
Austin’s texts were so consistent that Sofi had timed her breaks by them, knowing if she ended her break right at 2:15, she could read Austin’s text just before returning to the kitchen for the next few hours.
Two-fifteen was an oddly specific time. For the first week or so, Sofi had puzzled over it, and then it had come back to her. A conversation they’d had back in high school. The last bell would sound right at two fifteen and Sofi had often declared it her very favorite time of the day. So Austin had remembered that and sent her a text at her very favorite time of the day. Reminding her how well this man knew her and how he cared about her happiness. She glanced down at her phone to read what he’d sent that day.
Que tengas un hermoso dia, alma mia.
Her smiled grew as she lingered on the words alma mia.My soul, something he’d begun calling Sofi quite often in these texts. It was almost like he’d been taking Spanish language classes and come upon that term, unable to let it go once he learned it. But Sofi knew that couldn’t be the case. Austin had told her more than once that he’d never have the patience to learn a second language, often when he was marveling at the fact that she spoke two languages. It was a cute sentiment, although Sofi had always wished Austin wouldn’t put that skill on some unreachable pedestal but would realize that he could learn too. If Austin spoke Spanish? He’d be the perfect man. She slipped her phone back into her pocket before washing her hands and then concentrating on wrapping burritos. They were today’s special at the mercado, which meant nearly every customer had ordered them.
Like she’d asked, Austin was giving her space. Barring the cute daily texts, she hadn’t seen or heard from her best friend and she was missing him more than she could have imagined. Especially since it had only been two and a half weeks, seventeen days, since she’d asked for space—not that she was counting, of course—and she’d more easily survived the four weeks of silence from Austin the month before, even though that had seemed like torture at the time.
But this time it was different. Because the distance between them was her choice. And she often wondered why she was still keeping that space when all she wanted was to see Austin’s face again. But then she’d remember him with his date and she’d be reminded of her pain . . .
However, the more she mulled over the events of that night, the more she realized she may have overreacted. At least a bit, saying things she shouldn’t have said. Austin had made her no commitment. Yes, he’d known how she felt and it was a slap to the face, but after hearing his reasons she at least somewhat understood his logic. His actions were stupid but the reasoning was valid. So even as she wasn’t happy with what he’d done, she’d already forgiven him. Something she had yet to tell him, because she didn’t want him to think that she was ready to completely move on. After that night, things had changed. Sofi had seen that like every other man, Austin could break her trust and her heart. Not that those things couldn’t be fixed with time, but she’d always assumed Austin was the one man who would never let her down. She knew that it was only her own idealized version of him that he’d failed, and that holding him to that kind of perfection wasn’t fair, but still Sofi couldn’t help her disappointment. She’d been assailed by doubts, questioning whether they were as right for each other as she’d always assumed. Maybe their love wouldn’t be one for the ages. It might just be a normal love, the same kind she would have had with any other guy she’d chosen, and that disillusioned Sofi deeply.
Those thoughts kept her busy as she wrapped burrito after burrito, wishing she’d taken the afternoon off. Any of her buffoon brothers could have taken over this shift at the mercado kitchen because Sofi had already prepped all of the burrito fillings and toppings. She really needed something more complicated to slow her running thoughts instead of having all of this time to dwell on Austin.
She was still hurt. But she couldn’t ignore the fact that she also ached to be near him. She’d forgiven him. But she wasn’t sure what she wanted from him. She’d never been so confused and that scared her. Austin’s character had always been steady and sure to Sofi. Because who he was felt different now, did that mean they weren’t meant for one another?
“Mario!” Sofi called out, knowing her brother was stocking shelves out in the market. She’d trade jobs with him. Anything was better than being alone in this kitchen with her thoughts.
“Sup, Sof?” Mario said, waving through the window that led to the mercado.
“Wrap these burritos for me?” she asked, holding up an empty tortilla. She’d made a big batch from scratch that morning and rewarmed them just now to assemble burritos.
“Aw, Sofi. You know I’m no good at that,” Mario whined.
But Sofi wasn’t dissuaded. “It’s not that hard.” She quickly showed Mario how to wrap one and he grunted.
“Fine, but you owe me,” Mario replied.
Sofi nodded eagerly. Her brothers often told her she owed them but they soon forgot any debts. Kind of like the way they forgot how they’d been so angry at Austin seventeen days before. Both Daniel and Mario had asked in the last few days when Austin would be coming to visit the mercado or join them for Castillo dinners. Sofi hadn’t mentioned that they had been ready to kill the guy mere weeks before, because she wanted them to forgive him, but how were they so quick to forget? Sofi wished it were that easy for her.
Another group who’d forgiven Austin rather easily were the Tías. One day they’d been condemning him to the afterlife beneath them, and the next day they shocked Sofi by letting her know they had no objections to her dating Austin. Sofi would have wondered where the change of heart came from, but these were the Tías. They were never known for the logic behind their actions.
