Page 137 of Riding the Pine

I have to say, I’m enjoying this whole thing tremendously.

“Bisexuality doesn’t look the same on every person, Nieto.” She’s patting Apollo’s shoulder now.

He’s got his fingers in his ears, and his mouth is moving as he whispers “la-la-la-la-la,” but it’s not from a Christmas carol this time.

“Plus, if the price of me occasionally banging another woman is too high for Scott to pay.” Athena shrugs. “He can take his money elsewhere.” Seeing her strength return thread by thread like a rich tapestry has been something special to behold.

I’m absolutely going to marry that woman. In fact, I’m going to propose right here, right now, in front of everyone who knows and loves her best.

The ring is in the library, one of her favorite places, and somewhere she’s spent a lot of her time now that her father has left the building.

I kiss her cheek as I pass. “There is no price too high to pay for loving you, Athena. Whoever is charging can take the shirt off my back if it means I get to keep you.”

Her whole face softens, and Abuelita lets out a dreamy sigh. “I don’t know why you’re all getting so bent out of shape. Ares your reputation for sexual conquests is all over the internet. I’m old, I’m not dead.” She shakes her head. “Just because I’m ancient doesn’t mean I don’t get horny.” She winks at me. “Everything still works just fine.”

Good God. Now I want the ground to swallow me up as well.

Abuelita flaps her hand at us. “Don’t forget how you all came into this world.” She wags a finger at her grandchildren. “Some old people still like sex.”

Gabriella has already retreated into the cookie haven. And Athena is staring at her grandmother like she’s trying to decide something. I just like that Abuelita is comfortable enough around me to embarrass the shit out of me like I’m just one of the gang. There’s an odd comfort there. Twisted, but comfort none-the-less.

“What made you ask, Pollo?”

He shrugs. “You’re both bi, Artemis is gay. I just…” He scrubs his jaw. “I dunno. Maybe I’m missing some kind of signal that I’m something else too. Like, how would I know? What does it feel like?”

Abuelita holds up a hand. “I’ll take this one.” She smacks her grandson playfully upside the head. “You are something else. You’re straight. If you weren’t you’d know by now, and you’d feel like some part of you is missing or unsatisfied. And from the way you pine about that woman of yours…” She clicks her tongue. “I’d be very surprised if you’re anything other than straight.”

Apollo mulls over her words, nodding slowly. “It’s okay to wonder, right? Like, does everyone wonder at some point in their life?”

It’s clear that Artemis’s coming out has sent Apollo into a crisis of sexuality. He looks around the room waiting for someone to answer.

“I kissed a boy when I was ten years old.”

Everyone turns to look at me.

I shrug. “Did absolutely nothing for me. Dated his sister for a while when we got older. She was my first…” My skin heats at how much this family knows about me, now their grandmother as well. “You’d know. And they both experimented throughout their teens.” I point at Ares and Athena. “And this one…” I thumb at Artemis.

“What about this one?” The man in question tips his head to the side.

“Honestly?”

He jerks his chin for me to continue.

“You’ve been held back by your father your whole life, so you’ve only recently decided to find your true self or give him a voice that’s perhaps always been there.”

“Amén,” agrees Abuelita.

Artemis’s hard jaw softens as he processes my words. “That’s what my therapist says too.”

I look back at Apollo. “You’re questioning yourself now because you spent your whole life thinking that Artemis was straight. If he’d discovered his sexuality and come out when you were ten, or fifteen, you’d have questioned yourself then. It’s totally normal, we all have a ‘shit, what is my label?’ kind of moment. Have your existential crisis. Ask all the questions you want, even if they’re about your siblings’ sex lives. This is a safe space.” I swallow down the lump I didn’t realize had appeared in my throat. “At least it always has been for me.”

When everyone simmers back down into their smaller discussions, Apollo mouths ‘thank you,’ at me, and I nod. ‘I got you,” I mouth back. He covers his heart with his hand.

I excuse myself and head into the library. I hid it somewhere she’d never look, behind a copy of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. She fucking hates that book.

But when I pull out the book, my hiding place is empty. My stomach tightens. Where the fuck is the ring box with Abuelita’s ring in it?

Shit.

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