by J. E. Parker
She stilled, and after a moment, her wide gaze dropped to the front of my jeans. "Even if what you've got is a fine sight prettier than most." She paused as if recalling the sight. "A whole lot bigger too."
"Oh what the hell!" The screen door slammed behind Hendrix as he stepped through the unlocked backdoor, eyes full of disgust. "Now I'm traumatized!"
The Crazy Old Biddy scoffed. "Lord, here he goes." Taking her attention from me, she turned to face my son. "Listen here, delinquent. If you wanna talk about somebody being traumatized, how about we discuss you and that granddaughter of mine desecrating my kitchen island last week!"
Hendrix smirked, and I knew that whatever shit he was about to stir up would make Grandmama want to shoot him.
Turns out, I was right.
"If you think that was bad, you should've seen what I did to her on the dining room table later that night."
Oh shit...
My boy and the Crazy Old Biddy were always bickering, but ever since he and Maddie moved in with Grandmama, who was getting up there in age and needed more help than before, instead of buying their own house like they'd planned, they never stopped giving one another grief.
Apparently, today was no different.
"Boy, you better quit grinning like a possum eating a sweet tater and make a run for it, 'cause I'm about to cut your tail!"
Reaching into the oversized, fuchsia-colored purse that hung from her hunched shoulder, she ripped out her prized flyswatter and started waving it around like it was a sword and she was a medieval gladiator.
"Ain't nobody, and I mean nobody, gonna defile my supper table and live to tell the tale!"
Hendrix looked at me and winked. "Later, Pop." Before I could reply, he turned and made a run for it, just like Grandmama had told him to, bursting through the screen door so fast he almost ripped it off the hinges.
Not one to be outdone, Grandmama followed suit. "You may be faster than green grass through a goose!" she hollered, giving chase. "But when I catch you, I swear I'm gonna cream yo' corn!"
Shaking my head, I turned and opened the window above my sink just in time for Hendrix to run by, followed by the pissed-off town busybody.
"Would one of you two nutjobs mind sending my grandkids over here in about fifteen minutes, please? I bought ice cream for them, and after this shit-show, I need a bowl or two myself."
Hendrix darted across my side yard and into Grandmama's front one. "Save me some chocolate!" he yelled, rounding a row of azaleas.
"You ain't gonna live long enough to eat it!"
Wide-eyed, I stared at Grandmama as she raced—damn she's fast for her age—after my boy, hell-bent on teaching him a lesson or two. "Will do, Buddy. Come on over later. You know, after you get rid of the crazy coot trailing you."
"I heard that!"
Chuckling at their antics, I shut the window.
Then, after pulling a dozen pints of various ice cream that I'd bought earlier from the grocery bags, I shoved them into the freezer before tossing my wallet and keys on top of the fridge where my sneaky grandkids couldn't reach them.
They tended to hide my stuff.
I swear they got the idea from Grandmama.
Hell, maybe even Shelby.
"Alright," I said to myself, looking around my empty house. "Time to grab Lucca, Gracie, and Addie before the three M's get over here, or else there won't be any ice cream left."
I shook my head as I glanced at the piles of dirty towels I would have to wash, the shoes I had to pick up, and the toys I still needed to put away. "Little monsters. Every damn one of them."
More than ready to spend the rest of the day, and hopefully the night, if I could convince my kids, plus Ashley Jo, to let me host another of my famous sleepovers, I readjusted my fitted ball cap and headed out the front door.
My first stop was to pick up Addie.
Only, little did I know, when I stepped foot into Ashley Jo's house this time, life as I knew it would change, and my future, one I thought was all but etched in stone, would transform right along with it.
Forever.
9
Carmen
I was close to hyperventilating.
Hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly I was surprised I hadn’t already bent it in half, mimicking a taco, I rode Anthony’s culo, keeping my front bumper mere feet from his rear one as we turned onto a sycamore-lined neighborhood street twenty minutes past Toluca, in Kissler.
Jade screamed as we went over a speed bump without me hitting the brakes or slowing, sending us airborne the slightest bit. The bottom of my Kia hit the asphalt with a clank, making the most God-awful scraping noise.
But I cared little.
Jade, though, she was about to throttle me.
“For the love of cheese and rice, watch it!” she yelled, one hand wrapped around my forearm, the other clutching the oh shit handle above the door. “We’re in a tiny car while Anthony’s in a large SUV! There’s a big ol’ difference in how fast we can go over speed bumps!”
Pressed back against the seat, she stared out the windshield, her face pale, and eyes wide. “And if we wreck and I die before I get to see Ashley again, I swear I will come back and haunt you!”
A sob, one of many that had jerked my entire body, spilled out at her words. “Chiquita,” I cried, vision blurring. “She’s…”
Hard as I tried, I couldn’t find the words.
“Alive,” she finished for me, knowing the chaotic thoughts running rampant through my whirling mind. “And she’s about to be in your arms.”
Taking her hand from my forearm, she pulled one of my shaking hands from the steering wheel and laced our fingers together. “Once we’ve seen her... ”
Overcome with emotion, she paused.
“Once we’ve seen Ashley,” she continued, latching onto the strength I knew she possessed, “and we have three pieces of our family back together, I want you to get right back in the car and drive to the fire station over in Toluca.”
My tear-filled gaze briefly met her hurt one. “Then I want you to find James, and I want you to fix the two hearts I convinced you to break all those years ago.”
Nearly blinded by the wetness pooling in my eyes, I gasped for much-needed air as my stomach turned itself inside out. “Little One, you didn’t—”
“I want you to tell him you’re sorry, and then I want my family back,” she ground out, interrupting me, and grasping the hem of her shorts in fisted hands after releasing mine. “James, you, Hendrix, Ashley, me, Faye, and Amelia.”
I flinched at the last two names. For years, I’d searched for them. But each time I did, I’d failed.
In my heart, I believed they were dead.
It was a belief Jade had refused to accept.
“I want the future I was supposed to have, with the family I was meant to love, and the happily ever after James promised us both.” Our eyes met once more. “And I won’t accept anything less. Not this time, and never again.”
“Jade, bebé—”
“Oh my God, look out!!”
Mouth snapping shut, I slammed my foot down on the brakes and came to a sliding stop as Anthony parked next to the curb in a crowded cul-de-sac.
Front bumper missing his back one by inches, I threw the transmission into park and covered my mouth, my shortened breaths coming in quick gasps.
Jade released the death grip she had on her shorts and turned, narrowed eyes boring holes into me. “You are a terrible driver.” Clasping her forehead with her palm, she shook her head. “I don’t know how I’m still alive after ever riding with you!”
Jumping out of his car, Anthony raced to my partially raised window, fury clear on his face.
“First,” he said, fisted hands resting on the roof. “I need you to give me five minutes to talk to my principessa before you get out and approach the door.”
Five minutes?
I didn’t know if I could wait that long.
Hadn’t seven years been long enou
gh?
“Second"—his eyes flicked to the house I’d parked in front of—"when this reunion is over, I’m teaching you how to properly operate a fucking vehicle.”
Shaking his head just as Jade had done, he glared at me. “Because, sweetheart, no offense intended, but you drive for absolute shit.”
Jade barked out a peal of laughter as she stared at the stunning two-story brick home where Chiquita lived.
Surrounded by a white, wraparound front porch and an array of beautiful flowers—some potted, others hanging in baskets, most of them yellow—it looked like something out of a magazine.
The pink child’s bicycle, purple scooter, and Barbie rollerblades left on the chalk-covered driveway only added to the warmth the property exuded.
But also caused my forehead to crease.
Does Ashley have another child?
My pulse pounded at the thought as memories of the sweet little girl our circumstances had forced her to surrender under Georgia’s safe haven law stirred.
Thinking of that beautiful little bebé, who’d looked just like her gorgeous madre, was enough to call forth more tears.
El Diablo, that cabrón!
He’d destroyed so much.
Right or wrong, I hoped another prisoner shanked him with a filed down toothbrush in whatever penitentiary he now called home. It was the least he deserved after the pain he’d caused and the scars he’d inflicted.
“Give me five minutes,” Anthony repeated, pulling me from the dark and painful past I’d begun to recall. “After that, come tap on the door.”
Rapping his knuckles on top of my vehicle, he stepped back and then took off. Rounding the front end, he jogged across the yard, up the porch steps, and walked straight into Chiquita’s house without so much as knocking.
Silence, interrupted by the sounds of my heavy breaths, surrounded me as Jade turned in her seat, wide, unblinking eyes locked on the picturesque house he’d just disappeared into.
Lightheaded, I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing as time stood still.
Inhale, exhale.
Deep breaths—
“Ashley!”
Eyelids popping open, I swung my blurred gaze in the direction Jade was looking. Palms pressed against the glass of her closed window, her tears fell. “A-Ashley!”
My hand flew to my mouth when I caught sight of the gorgeous girl—no, gorgeous woman—standing just inside the now open doorway, less than forty feet away.
Chest filling with an emotion I couldn’t decipher, and unable to stand being away from her, the daughter I never thought I’d see again, I unbuckled my seat belt and jumped out.
My long hair blew in the light breeze that stirred, causing strands of my tawny locks to stick to my tear-streaked face, but I ignored them.
Focused solely on reaching Ashley, the sundress I wore could’ve blown away, leaving me buck culo naked, and I wouldn’t have cared.
She was the only thing that mattered.
I’d just rounded the rear end of the car when her voice, one I hadn’t heard in person for far too long, echoed through the air, partially mending the wounds that marred my heart.
“Carmen!”
My name rolling off her lips was all it took for me to move faster. “Chiquita!” I yelled right back as I ran toward her, and she raced toward me.
Meeting in the middle of the yard, our bodies slammed together. Arms and legs entwined, we both fell to the grass-covered ground in a heap of rattling bones and stinging flesh.
Her scent, one that was as unique to her as her preciosa voice, flooded my lungs as I sucked in one breath after another, finally getting the oxygen my starving lungs craved.
“Carmen!” she yelled again, grasping me tightly. “You’re here.” A sob jerked her shoulders. “You’re not dead.”
Face buried against the top of her head, I ran my hands over her frame, which was more filled out than before, checking her for any injuries. I would’ve never forgiven myself if I’d hurt her in my rush to reach her.
Thankfully, she was fine.
“I’m not dead,” I whispered in reply, my tears dampening the top of her thick, chocolate-brown hair.
Fingers digging into my back, she continued to sob against me as Jade ripped herself free of the multitude of emotions paralyzing her and clambered out of the still idling car.
“Ash!” Footsteps pounded the grass behind us seconds before Jade screamed and then tackled a now kneeling Chiquita and I clear to the ground again.
Body half blanketing her older sister’s, she clutched the front of Ashley’s shirt as she cried her name and buried her face against her chest.
The sight both broke and healed me.
It broke me because we’d all lost so much time together. Healed me because even though I still didn’t understand how such a miracle was possible, they were together once more.
And my familia, one that was tattered beyond what I thought could be repaired, was now being stitched back together.
Piece by broken piece.
10
Carmen
The tears wouldn't stop.
Even as I sat on Chiquita's cream-colored microfiber loveseat and stared at my beautiful Ashley, who was seated across from me on a large sofa next to a hiccuping Jade, they continued to fill my eyes.
"How?" Ashley asked, clasping her sister's hand in hers. "I watched you die. I watched you both die."
"Almost die," I corrected, my voice steady as I crossed one of my legs over the other and bounced my flat-covered foot, unable to stop fidgeting. "But as you can see, neither of us actually croaked."
I winked, trying to make the best of a situation I still couldn't wrap my head around.
"Then tell me." She looked between Jade and me. "Tell me how."
"I woke u-up." Little One's sobs started all over again as she spoke. Ever since her and Ashley’s reunion, she hadn't been able to get hold of herself. And understandably so. "I woke up when Clyde pulled me from the t-trunk, then stayed awake as he threw me into the w-water."
She drew in a steadying breath as Ashley wrapped an arm around her, holding her close, just as she'd done many times before. "It's okay." She kissed Jade's temple, making my heart squeeze. "Just breathe for me."
Doing as she was told, Little One took a second breath. "He was drunk and didn't realize I was still alive. Mama C either."
Anthony, who sat on the loveseat next to me, spoke up next. "How did you get out?"
Jade shrugged and wiped away her tears. "I don't know. I just… did."
"Dominic shot you in the chest," Ashley replied, her disbelief clear.
"No, he didn't." Jade shook her head. "His inebriated self got me in the shoulder." She smiled wryly. "Wanna see?"
Ashley's eyes bulged, and I couldn't help but laugh. No, she definitely does not want to see. Focusing her attention on me, she cleared her throat. "What about you? I saw Dominic stab you."
I felt sick at the memory.
Not because of what I'd gone through, but because the sounds of her piercing screams as she begged El Diablo to stop hurting me would haunt me forever.
"Over and over," she added.
Throat narrowing on account of both sadness and anger, I nodded. "I know you did. Seeing you fight against him to save me...” Warring to wrangle my sorrow, I glanced at the ceiling before looking at her once more. "That hurt worse than my blade did as he jammed it into my belly half a dozen times."
"But how did you—"
"Survive?"
It was her turn to nod. "Yeah."
"Well, I almost didn't." I uncrossed my legs and leaned forward. "If Jade hadn't found the strength to pull me out when she did and then crawl to the road and flag someone down to get help, I wouldn't have made it to the morning. Between the hemorrhaging and the infection that had already set in, I was dying."
And quickly, I mentally added.
Her chin wobbled. "You're okay now, though?"
I smiled. "I'm missing half a sple
en, a foot of intestine, and I'm down to one kidney, but I'm here."
Placing my palm on my chest, I bit my inner cheek, beyond thankful that despite how scary my injuries sounded, I was okay and could function normally. I just had to physically take care of myself, more so than most people.
If I didn’t, I could get sick.
"And I'm clean. Have been since that night."
Seven years of sobriety.
Some days I still couldn't believe it.
I'd come so far thanks to the help of both the outpatient drug treatment program I’d attended while living at the shelter with Jade, and Narcotics Anonymous meetings, which I still took part in, though not as often as I once had.
Would Guapo be proud of me?
Chest ripping open wide at the thought, I pushed the question my mind whispered to the back of my head and focused back on Ashely and Jade. Not the man I loved and missed more than words could ever say.
Unable to contain myself, I squealed when Ashley smiled pridefully. She and Jade both laughed as I clapped my hands thrice, overcome with joy, a feeling I wasn't accustomed to.
"Now, Chiquita, tell us about you. I hear you've got a man now." I waggled my eyebrows, earning a chuckle from her. "Heard he's in the NFL too."
Right then, I swore to myself that if he ever hurt her, I would eviscerate him on the spot, then hang him from one of the goalposts.
Ashley's cheeks flamed red. "His name is Chase." When the cheek splitting smile beaming on her face fell, I about came off my seat, ready to do whatever I had to in order to bring it back. But Anthony's warm palm on my knuckles made me pause. "But I have to tell you something. Chase is Clyde's—"
"They know, principessa," Anthony interjected, his tone gentle. "I made sure they knew before I brought them here."
"He did." Jade squeezed her hand. "And it's okay, Ash. I promise I won't hold who his father is against him."
My belly tightened as Ashley exhaled in clear relief. It had taken so much courage for Little One to say such a thing. She still struggled with panic attacks and nightmares, much like me, but she'd grown to be so strong.
