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“Híjole de su madre,” he exclaims, hopping backwards.
After the explosion dies down, and the fright is over, my brothers and Edmund hoot and make wooping noises like banshees. Those back in the cheap seats (my parents, grandparents, and Bernadette) gasp in awe, cheering from the safety of the lawn chairs.
Mateo goes to set up the next one and I’m thinking, with the amount of fireworks Nate brought, we’ll be here all night.
Francesca kicks a pebble and sighs dramatically.
“Okay, if you really must know…”
Are we still talking about this?
“No,” I say. “You don’t have to tell me anything. I didn’t mean to get in your business. You do you.”
“The thing is,” she continues. “We’ve been secretly engaged for a while now.”
I snap around so quickly, I’m going to feel the whiplash once the shock wears off.
“Whattt?”
“Edmund and I have been wanting to tell everyone, but then Enrique got engaged. We didn’t want to be like ‘hey, look at us. We’re engaged, too. Yay!’—so we decided to wait until after the wedding. And we thought, what better time to make an announcement than the Fourth of July?”
“You’re engaged. For real this time?”
“Yes, for real this time. Sheesh!”
Okay, so her engagement to that movie star only lasted a day, and she admitted to the family that it was only going to be in name only—some kind of Hollywood publicity stunt—but I guess that’s one of the reasons why none of us have fully welcomed Edmund. I admit we are a little too hard on him.
“How long?”
“About a year.”
I scrub my hand down my face. “And you’ve been waiting this whole time?”
“It’s been really hard. Edmund is going out of his mind.”
He better be. Nobody’s going to touch my little sister until the ink is dry on that marriage certificate.
“You need to make the announcement, Francesca. Do it tonight.”
“No! I don’t want to steal your limelight.”
“You’re an actress. Stealing the limelight is in your job description.”
“Nacho, this is your special time. It wouldn’t be fair to ask you to share it with me.”
Perfect. Now I’m lying to my family and keeping Francesca from her happiness.
“You wouldn’t be stealing anything from me. I’m not engaged.”
“Wait. What? We saw you propose to her. You were on one knee.”
“I was capturing a scorpion from her foot.”
She blinks at me. “Oooh. I was wondering what the deal was with that Altoids tin.”
“Everyone just jumped to conclusions. And you know there’s no arguing with Abuela.”
“I do know that all too well.”
