Page 21 of Under His Sheets
“You haven’t been to a Sutter family meal. I swear the food gets cold from the icy glares my father gives to whoever is on his bad side that day.”
She elbowed me. “Then you’ve come to the right place to have a good time.” She gazed at the gathered folks with a fond smile.
Those gathered continued to whisper quietly until they heard the front doors open and the scolding of an older woman in Catalan. Everyone froze as we heard two sets of footsteps coming toward us, the arguing voices growing louder until they turned the corner.
As a group, we shouted, “Happy Birthday!”
Mrs. Segura clutched at her chest, her eyes wide, and she fell against the man escorting her.
With a familiar chin dimple.
I lifted my hands to clap along with everyone but I couldn’t make them work.
The protest, the school, and now here?
What. The. Hell?
“Ay, fill meu! You grace us with your presence!”
Alonso made his way to his father’s side, held out his hand to shake, and the old man pulled him in for a tight embrace, speaking in his ear for several moments before he let him go with a stern expression on his face.
Alonso gave him a curt nod, and then he stopped to hug and kiss Mateu, then June, passed me by as I tried not to swallow my own tongue or faint or something ridiculous like that on his way to Felip.
“Germà, it’s been a long time.”
Felip hugged his brother Alonso just as their father had, speaking to him in his ear, but with Felip, he grew annoyed and pulled away, nodding and waving his words away. He went for Cecilia and gave her a big hug, lifting her off the ground. She laughed heartily, and then when he set her down, she held out her hand to gesture to me.
Andhelooked as if he’d swallowed his tongue.
“Alonso, this is my former student, Randall Sutter. He’s working at the Frederick Douglass International School now in Castelldefels.”
The empty seat next to me was meant for him, and he watched me carefully, no trace of a smile on his face as he took the seat, held out his hand to shake, and then turned to look down at his plate as the conversation grew in volume.
I was sure he could hear my heartbeat over it all.
I broke out in a sweat beneath my cardigan and dress shirt.
We had a fair amount of distance between us but his thigh brushed mine and we both jolted at the contact.
The meal was served—steak and a vegetable dish called escalivada, along with bread and a few other small plates—and June had been right. The men barely paid attention to the food as they continued to chat in a mixture of English, Spanish, and Catalan. It was quite civilized, however Felip sloshed wine out of his glass with his enthusiastic hand gestures.
Alonso and I both moved to cut our steak at the same time and we bumped elbows. I hadn’t noticed before that he was left-handed. He gave me a quick look while keeping his head down, and he ate swiftly and efficiently, as if he thought he might be able to sneak away without having to answer any questions.
No. Way.
This was one too many coincidences.
“Glad you made it,” Felip said to him, putting a hand on his forearm. “You’ve been out of contact for a while. Everything okay?”
Alonso shrugged. “You know how it is.” He glanced in their father’s direction and then shrugged again. I had an inkling I knew what it was about.
It sure seemed like Alonso and I shared a place in our family’s hierarchy.
It was weird being served by the winery staff but I understood that they were handling the festivities to give Mrs. Segura a break for her birthday. They offered us flights of wine, and I looked to Felip to tell me about each one. Cecilia made faces at it all, every single one she tried, and I cracked up, almost forgetting the elephant in the room ofwhat the ever-loving fuckwas my savior—AlonsoSegura, apparently—doing here?
After the meal came a decadent chocolate cake. It was sincerely the best food I’d had since I’d been in Spain, and the wine had me feeling kind of floaty. When we were fully sated, and I was ready for a nap, Cecilia put me on the spot.
“Senyor Segura? Do you know that Randall is actually quite an accomplished musician?”
