Page 46 of Sweet
“I still think you should get the degree.” Spider hugged her shoulders. “But it’s your decision.”
“You’re supposed to be on my side,” she said, laying her head in the curve of his shoulder.
“I am.” Spider kissed her forehead. “Always.”
“And forever.” She looked at him from the corner of her eye.
“Yeah.” Spider’s smile was slow and sweet. “Forever, princesa.”
The end?
Epilogue
Fifteen years later…
Spider waitedat the foot of the staircase, running his hand along the old banister that smelled of lemon oil and beeswax.
“Do you need help?” He glanced up the stairs.
“No!”
They’d spent two weeks cleaning their small house from top to bottom, polishing the restored woodwork, cleaning up the garden and filling containers with spring blooms.
Daisy’s parents had offered to host the graduation party at their house, but his wife had insisted on holding the party in their small home. Spider did insist on letting Daisy’s aunt Dolores cater the party though. Daisy had been killing herself with graduation requirements that semester, all while juggling a satellite branch of Café Maya she’d recently opened on the campus where she was graduating. The last thing she needed to do on her own college graduation day was cook for seventy people.
“Okay.” She stepped onto the landing and looked down. “I look ridiculous.”
Spider grinned. “You look fucking hot.”
“Hot?” She tried to smother the smile, but she couldn’t. “These hats? They’re clearly not meant for people with curly hair.”
He couldn’t stop smiling as she walked down the steps toward him.
The cap did smash down her spiraled curls a little, but her black robe was immaculately ironed and the gold ropes hanging from her neck fell down and framed her boobs nicely.
“I like it.” He picked up a gold tassel. “My baby got the smart ropes.”
She raised one eyebrow. “They’re called honor cords, and I have plans for them later when my family is gone.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Princesa, don’t give me a hard-on when we’re supposed to be picking up your aunt in fifteen minutes.”
Tia Imelda had insisted on driving with Spider; she was getting older and was convinced that her nephew drove too fast on the highway. She told Roberto that Spider drove more carefully.
Really, Spider knew Imelda just liked riding in the silver 1963 Buick Riviera he and Daisy had bought and fixed up three years before. It was Daisy’s present to him for their ten-year anniversary and only proved that his wife was fucking awesome.
“Oh!” Daisy started up the stairs. “I have an idea for my cap.” She paused and turned around. “Do we have time?”
He checked his watch. “Five minutes and we need to go pick up your aunt. I’m not showing up late for my wife’s college graduation. She’ll kill me.”
Daisy rolled her eyes. “Ha ha. Five minutes should be enough. And if you drove faster—”
“Getting stopped by some asshole cop on the way to my wife’s graduation is also not in the plan.” Which was inevitable if he went over the speed limit. He might be a business owner, celebrated graphic artist, and upstanding citizen these days, but he still had a fucking spider tattooed on his head and a neck that said “gangbanger” to law enforcement.
Spider tapped his watch. “Five minutes. I’ll start the car.”
She glanced toward the kitchen. “Do you think Dolores—?”
“Daisy!”
