Total pages in book: 191
Estimated words: 182070 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 182070 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
We’d stayed in love with each other. Not that long ago, Connie had said something about how she’d raised three kids and wasn’t planning on having any more. She had given birth to two of them, and I knew I was the third. The first. Her practice baby. For as long as I could remember, she had always been my rock.
Even shorter than me—and really, basically a hobbit if we were going to throw words around, because I was below average, but she took it to a whole new level—she was also a regular source of entertainment. And she was very lovable, nuts or not.
On the screen, she blinked at her husband.
He did something that made it seem like he squirmed.
She blinked again.
And again he seemed to squirm.
I missed her. And her husband. And their kids.
“Do you hear that?” my brother-in-law said suddenly, getting to his feet. “I think my phone is ringing. Let me go look for it.”
I snorted, “Liar!” at the same time my sister muttered, “Chickenshit.”
And then we both laughed and gave each other a thumbs-up through our cameras when the microphone picked up my brother-in-law’s, “I’m not lying! I’m pretty sure I heard it!”
He was totally lying.
And it just made us laugh more.
Richard did some dumb shit every once in a while, but he was awesome. After my sister and cousin, he was probably my third favorite person. Chickenshit or not.
He’d won me over from the start. It wasn’t every man who would be crazy about his sister-in-law moving in for years, but he’d been the first one to bring it up after Mamá Lupe had died. Not once in the years that I lived with them did he ever make me feel bad or weird or unwanted.
There was a reason why my sister stuck around with him and all their moves over the years while he was active in the army.
On the screen though, Connie almost instantly sobered as she faced the camera again and asked, “Now that Nosey is gone, are you going to tell me what upset you, or am I going to have to guess?”
Damn it. I knew I should have waited to video chat with her. What else did I expect?
Luckily, I finished chopping up the onions at the same time as she’d thrown her question out at me, so I had an excuse to set my knife down on the cutting board. I knew better than to try to lie to her. But I also didn’t want her to have the full story. Zac Travis invited me over and then blew me off. But it’s no big deal because it seemed he had an important call! Yeah, like that would fly with the psycho living in Killeen, hours away. God forbid anyone ever hurt me, mentally, emotionally, or physically.
My sister had never given me a reason to doubt that she would come straight to help me if I ever needed her. And even when I didn’t need her. Kids in tow at three in the morning and everything.
She was my hero.
And maybe Zac had inadvertently hurt my feelings, but I wasn’t about to throw him under the bus when part of me understood he had apologized and whatever had happened hadn’t been planned.
She had seen him a few times over the years, and I didn’t want to make things awkward. She had never been as close to Boogie or him as I’d been, but they weren’t total strangers. She had lived with our abuela for a few years before moving away once she had finished her basics at the local community college.
“I was supposed to hang out with a friend, but they kind of left me hanging. It’s not a big deal, but I just overreacted and got annoyed.”
Eyes lighter than mine stared at me through my tablet as she narrowed them. We didn’t totally look alike. Her hair was straight; mine was about as curly as humanly possible. Hers was light like our dad’s, and mine was dark like our mom’s. She had always been all cute and small, and I gained weight if I just looked at a single Chips Ahoy. Connie had always been pretty and popular and had boys all over her. Me? Not so much. At least not until my early twenties.
But she wasn’t totally believing me; I could tell from her facial expression.
“It’s no big deal,” I insisted. That got me an eye roll that made me want to change the subject ASAP. “Say, have you talked to your parents lately? They haven’t emailed or video messaged me in over a week.”
That had my sister sliding me a look before grunting. She let the “your parents” thing go, fortunately. “Yeah. Mom emailed me yesterday—”
“Mom! Mommy! I think I super-glued my fingers together!” a voice hollered from somewhere in the background. “Oww! Mom! Help me!”