Page 11 of Sundowners
“Is it right this time?”
“You’ll find out after you shower—”
“Unless I eat it all,” I said with a grin.
Emmanuel shook his head but he gave me a pleased grin. “Good to have you back, Roman.” He walked through the doorway to the hall and hopefully the shower beyond. “I missed kicking your ass at Madden.”
“Anytime,” I said as I heard the door close to the bathroom.
Bernadette sighed and poked at her food.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her.
She shrugged. “Nothing. I just worry. He’s just been moody. College is harder than he thought it would be and it’s been a fight. I hope you can encourage him, you know? Let him know it doesn’t suck forever.”
I laughed. “Who says it doesn’t?”
She frowned at me and pulled my bowl away.
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Please, this is the first real meal I’ve had since I got home.” She shook her head and laughed as I shoveled in a few more bites. “Honestly, the early parts of general ed do suck just because it feels like a continuation of the shit you hated in high school, but once he gets to the subjects he likes, and once he chooses a major, it will be better. I swear. And I’ll talk to him.”
She nodded. “I wish he was at UC with you. Then you could at least keep an eye on him.”
“He’s going to be fine. You don’t remember how much of a mess I was.”
Her focus narrowed on me and I quickly realized my error.
“Was? I heard from Rey you were pretty upset about Frances. I’m sorry, Roman. We really tried—”
I held up a hand. “I know you did. It’s just weird, you know?”
She gave me that side-tilt-pity-smile thing and I was torn between crying on her shoulder or throwing another tantrum. Instead, I cleared the table and started washing the dishes. “I’m okay. I’ll get used to it. Besides, I gotta grow up sometime, right?”
My smile wasn’t fooling her, but she patted me on the shoulder.
“Don’t worry. I promised I wouldn’t let you starve. Come by anytime. Guess I’m going to be a domestic goddess after all.”
“You weren’t already?”
She flicked me with a towel and then we spent the next hour talking shit about Rey and his messy life. It was nice. Almost nice enough to fill that hole in my heart that wondered what the hell I was going to do without my lola at home.
5
CHAPTER FIVE
Creed
“We gota new gal in twenty-six while you were off. Frances Josephine San Angelo. Age seventy-two, diabetic, mild COPD, mild dementia. Sisters are Stella De Leon and Phyllis Jackson. I was here to check her in and she’s hysterically funny.”
I pulled up my new patient’s chart and read through the notes.
“Says her emergency contacts are her nephew Reynaldo Cabral, niece Vanessa Cabral, and her grandson Roman San Angelo.” I frowned. “Occupation for Reynaldo…police officer. Interesting.”Interesting, indeed. An officer of the law could be dangerous. I’d have to proceed with caution. I planned on staying here for several more years, if all went according to plan.
“Yes, and Roman is a grad student up the hill. He’scute,” Lexi said with feeling. She placed a hand in the middle of my back as she passed by. “It will be nice to have a cop around. Maybe we’ll stop having so many break-ins in the area.”
I turned to face her. “Break-ins?”
“Yeah, they got Jamal’s truck two days ago, and Lisa’s car last week. The police said it was probably a displaced person, but I don’t know. They haven’t been staying around here lately.”
