Reckless Kiss

“Maybe they’re the ones giving me up…”

Exhaling slowly, he looks into my room. “Your brother obviously loves you. Look at this beautiful place—”

“It’s a beautiful cage.”

“Just give me some time. We’ll find a solution.”

Lourdes would say my boyfriend is so privileged, but I don’t want to be cynical. I was raised to believe. “We can try, I guess.”

One more kiss, one more longing look, and he’s gone, dropping fast behind the cottage and pausing to look back. We extend our hands in a wave… or maybe a wistful grasp… before he dashes across the tree line and off my brother’s property.

A feeling of dread tightens my chest. Deacon is so optimistic, and I wish I could be the same way. I’m afraid this is not going to end well. Sofia’s voice pulls me from my troubled thoughts, and when I open my bedroom door, she’s sitting with her back to it.

“

Good morning, sunshine.” I reach down for her hand.

She pops up and marches into my room. “Watch Moana with me!”

Climbing into the middle of my bed, she props her little body against the pillows. The remote is in her hand, and she turns on the oversized, flat screen television hanging on the opposite wall to the channel she needs.

“I didn’t know Beto had Disney plus.” I climb in beside her, curling into the blankets and pulling Deacon’s pillow to my chest.

“He has all the channels.” Sofia’s tone is very duh, and she immediately starts singing. “You’re welcome!”

I bury my face in the down, inhaling deeply of rich citrus and sage. It’s almost like he’s still here, and I hug the pillow tighter, fighting my sadness, dreaming of his hard body, his soft kisses, his expert touch. His impossible dreams.

“I’m sorry you were hurt.” My brother stands in the kitchen with his arms crossed. As always, he’s in jeans and a white tank, feet bare, brow lowered.

“I’m fine.” I finish my coffee, ready to go.

Valeria reaches for my hand across the table. “We don’t have to discuss it right now.”

“There’s nothing to discuss.” Beto walks away from where we’re sitting. “It’s settled.”

I’m not in the mood for him. “How’s Lo feeling today? All grown up?” I wonder if anybody catches the irony in my question.

“Who knows?” Valeria sits back, lifting her coffee. “I don’t understand half the stuff she says anymore. It’s all YouTube quotes and video game references.”

My brother returns, placing a white box on the table in front of me. It’s a brand-new, latest model iPhone.

“What’s this?” I frown up at him.

“Lourdes said your phone was broken when you fell.” He looks down, and while his tone is stern as ever, I do see a flash of something almost like an apology in his eyes.

Whatever.

“So you’re paying for my phone now?”

“Mateo is the reason you broke your old one. He was following my orders.”

Orders. I love how he tosses that word around like he’s el presidente.

Opening the box, I lift the shiny new device. “It’s yellow.”

He shrugs. “It’s as close as I could get to your favorite colors.”

Anger mixes with frustration mixes with annoyance. Deacon says my brother loves me. I want to believe it, but after the way he’s acted since he returned…