Page 20 of Just for the Holidays
“You used my toothpaste,” he muttered against her mouth, tasting cinnamon and clove.
“Yes, I forgot mine,” she told him a little breathlessly as they pulled apart.
He was a little deprived of oxygen himself, and still this felt right. Even if it was only for today.
“Mami sent Gabi with a list of what she needs us to help with and she wants us at the house for breakfast. Are you okay with that?” he asked quietly as Gabi sat on the couch playing with the cat.
Perla didn’t respond immediately, her gaze fixed on something behind them. “You finished it,” she said, pointing at the other side of the room. When he turned, he saw the little Christmas tree that he’d decorated after he’d come back and found her asleep.
“Yeah,” he confirmed as Perla walked over to it, getting his sister’s attention.
“Acho, Gael. Did you actually put up the tree?”
Perla turned to look at him, obviously curious for what he’d tell his sister. “Perla wanted it up.”
“I did. Thank you.” His pretend girlfriend offered him a happy little smile, and the warmth of it blazed all the way to his bones.
“Oh.” There was a whole lot more to that one syllable that his sister kept to herself, but he wasn’t trying to encourage Gabi and her opinions. His head was enough of a mess as it was. He took the few steps to reach Perla and put his arms around her. He’d always been like this with her. Couldn’t keep his hands to himself.
“All right, lovebirds, Mami texted. Food will be ready in fifteen minutes. Gael, go brush your teeth,” Gabi said with a flutter of her hand. “Go now while I’m still here. I’ll keep Perla company.”
He didn’t call his sister a cockblock as he walked into the bedroom, but he thought it. He still couldn’t muster up a negative feeling as he stepped into the shower. All he could think was that for the first time in a long time, he was looking forward to Nochebuena.
Things were decidedly different this morning. Gael not only had been extra handsy, but he’d also been like that in front of hissister. Now they were stepping out to go have breakfast with his mother and he was holding Perla’s hand as they walked, like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Are you still doing your famous desserts?” Perla asked as they carefully walked the path to the house. Gabi had filled her in on the duties that had been assigned to Gael.
“You remember that?” Gael sounded surprised. If he only knew that she had every detail about him permanently on tap. That there was nothing he’d ever told her that she didn’t remember.
“Of course I do. Chocoflan and tres leches are your specialties. Do you still make extras?” She smiled at a memory of them making desserts the year before everything fell apart. As they worked, Veronica had informed her that Gael was a neighborhood legend due to his skills making the two desserts. After getting a job at one of the Latin markets in town when he was in high school, Gael started making them for his family and made extras for the neighbors. Every year after that the list of people he gave them to grew, and by the time he was in college he made a couple of dozen desserts every year, which he distributed to people in the neighborhood and a local senior center.
“Kind of. Not like I used to,” he answered, pulling her out of her own head. Gael must’ve noticed something in her expression because he put a finger under her chin and tipped her face up to him. “Is something wrong?”
“What are we doing, Gael?” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop herself. It wasn’t like the question wasn’t warranted. He pursed his mouth as he considered what to say and she wished he wasn’t wearing his sunglasses so she could look into his eyes.
“Right now the only thing I know for sure is that while you’re here, I want more of you.” He shook his head and his long hair grazed against his chin. She almost smiled thinking that now she was the one with the shorn hair and his was long enough to braid. “Having you in my bed this morning felt good. And holding you when my sister was with us felt even better. I don’t have any answers other than that. I can’t offer anything beyond this day and tonight.”
She should’ve prodded then and told him he was acting like she was only a warm body, a convenient distraction. But she realized that even if he was, she wanted him anyway. If he felt the same, then today she’d pretend that he really was hers. Tonight she’d ask him to make love to her just as she’d intended, and in the morning she’d get in her car and finally move on with her life. Finally say goodbye to Gael Montez.
“We have today, then,” she said, and pushed up to kiss him.
Eleven
“Gael!” Gabi called from behind him and as soon as he turned, a wet, cold clump of snow hit him right in the face.
“Eat it, sucker!”
He didn’t have the chance to ask if it was on purpose, because his pain in the ass of a sister was already running toward him with another snowball.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” he called, bending down to pile some snow in his hands. “Perla, get behind me. She’s ruthless.”
He heard a snicker and turned around to see Perla packing a ball of her own.
“Good. I’ll need reinforcements,” he said, affecting the voice of his character in the Space Squadron, a military general who could blast fireballs from his hands. “Heads up,” he bellowed as he avoided another face full of snow and pelted his sister on the elbow.
Perla was small but fast, and soon she was also chucking snowballs in Gabi’s direction. “Perla Sambrano,do notthrow snow at my head!” his twin sister shrieked. “You know I don’t like getting my hair wet.” Gael grinned like a loon when he heard Perla’s apology and then saw a snowball hit Gabi right in the solar plexus.
“Yes!” he crowed, throwing a fist in the air as he ran for cover. “Get her, babe!” The word was out of his mouth before he could stop himself. Perla’s hand froze and the snowball she was packing crumbled on her palm as she looked at him. What the hell was going on with him? Why did he have to keep testing the boundaries? He had just come to a place that worked for both of them, and already he was trying to push past it into something else. But his annoying sister wasn’t done throwing snow at him.
