Page 2 of Big Pucking Deal
Jordan eyes her from head to toe and up again, the wide grin only growing bigger. I can’t blame him. She’s smoking. Petite, copper red hair that drapes down her back in waves, blue eyes, a deep set dimple in one cheek, and a heart shaped face that makes her look like a cherub angel. Think Miranda Kerr, but shorter and definitely more sass.
“Well congratulations to you too, Brooke,” my brother says with a little smolder. “I’m Jordan. Jolie’s twin brother.”
“I didn’t know you two were twins, but I can absolutely tell you’re siblings. You two are ridiculously beautiful.”
Jordan and I examine each other as if it’s the first time we’re seeing one another. While we are fraternal twins, I’d have to agree with Brooke. The fact that he’s a boy and I’m a girl along with our height are about the only differences between us.
We both have fair skin and blonde hair –mine lighter than his, but only because of highlights– brown eyes, identical noses and diamond shaped faces, meaning we both have pretty distinct jawlines. That feature was something I hated growing up but now as an adult, I love the contours of my face.
“Nah,” we say in unison then break out into laughter.
When the laughter subsides, Jordan takes my bag from me and asks, “Have you had a chance to see Jo since you’ve been back?”
I feel my heart sigh and dance in my chest at the mention of his name.
Jo is Joaquín Santos, our childhood best friend, my lifelong crush, and currently the star rightwing for the Houston Havoc Hockey Team. The same Houston Havoc’s for which I am now a Whirlwind dancer.
A little backstory.
When Jordan and I were seven years old, our dad was transferred to Houston from Idaho with his company. He’s an oil and gas guy, and Houston is the epicenter for oil companies.
Leaving our childhood home and friends behind was tough, especially since we went from the land of many seasons to the land of one. Okay, two seasons. Hot and Hades hot. We moved smack dab in the middle of summer and were greeted by temps of a hundred degrees plus.
Our new house didn’t have a pool –which I now know is pretty rare in Houston– but our new neighbors did, and they invited us over the first week we moved in. The house belonged to Fernando and Paola Santos and their children, twelve year old Risa and seven year old Joaquín.
Jordan and Joaquín were instant best friends, of course. Risa was extremely nice, but our age difference made it difficult to have anything in common between the two of us. I stayed at the shallow end at first, kicking my feet in the water and pouting while everyone else had a good time. It wasn’t long when I felt a splash and looked up to see Joaquín in front of me.
“Hey,” he said. “Don’tcha wanna play with us?”
I looked at him like he had a bug on his face. “Me?”
“Duh. Yeah, you. We need a third to play water tag and Jordan says you’re the best tagger. So..are ya?”
“Am I what?” I asked.
“Are you the best tagger?” I smiled wide, holes where teeth should’ve been, and nodded.
My long braids bounced around and I slid into the water. From that day forward, we were inseparable.
People started calling us the three J’s. Jo, Jo and Jo, even though Joaquín’s name was not pronounced the same as ours. We ate together, played together, got in trouble together, learned what it means to be there through thick and thin with each other, and had even decided we would go to college together and start our own business. The Three J’s Building Company. That’s what we named it. Real creative, I know, but we were ten.
Along the way, I fell for Joaquín, but it was not reciprocated. I watched as he dated girl after girl and never once looked my way. I held tight onto my virginity, hoping to give it to him. But the day we graduated high school and he went home with my nemesis was the day I realized he would never be mine.
Joaquín was a hockey stud and ended up getting drafted by Houston straight out of high school. His parents really encouraged him to go to college and play after he graduated, but Joaquín couldn’t bear the thought of waiting four years to play in the pros.
So instead of going to college, he went to play in Houston’s development league in Europe for two years, then came blazing back to the states to become the hottest player on the ice.
While he was doing that, I went away to college broken-hearted and without my twin brother. He stayed here and went to U of H, and I went to school in Colorado and joined the dance team, something I had been doing since moving to Texas.
Leaving Jordan behind was torture, but he visited a lot and even dated a girl there for a while. That ended when Joaquín returned and the two of them continued trolling the city for girls.
Jordan changed his major from tax to Sports Administration, got a job as an assistant facility manager for the House of Havoc upon graduation, and once again became inseparable from Joaquín.
I still got my daily texts and three times a week phone calls from him, but they weren’t the same. When I’d come home to visit, it always seemed to be that Joaquín was busy either at a game, training for a game, or taking advantage of the short time he had off from playing. It made it so we never got to see one another in all the time we were apart. Seems impossible, but it really wasn’t.
Now we’re both back in the same city and part of the same organization. I may just be a dancer –something I’m doing to keep my love for dance alive while I apply for teaching jobs– but we’ll be seeing each other at every home game and no doubt plenty outside of hockey.
Which brings us back to the now.
