Page 18 of Rookie Season
“But I get such a great reception when I don’t.”
Now she does look at me, toes to tips. I lean over the island, flexing for her benefit.
I hitch a thumb upstairs. “If it’s bothering you, I can?—”
“I’m not affected.”
“Right.”
She seems affected. She turns away again and presses up onto her toes, trying to reach more mugs at the top. I round the island to her, nudging her out of the way with a hip.
“My grandfather swears he won my grandmother over with his cafecito.” I reach the mugs easily and pass them to her.
“He makes it strong?”
I grin. “He’d say, Esto te despierta hasta las ideas. It’ll even wake up your brain cells.”
She laughs as she sets the mugs on the counter in tidy rows.
Although he came to Tampa and married my grandmother fifty years ago, he still loves to share his food, stories, and music at every opportunity.
“I hope you weren’t up too late drinking alone last night.”
I file away the fact that she noticed. “I wasn’t drinking alone. I was thinking about home.”
She turns that over as the coffee machine beeps. “What about it?”
“On Christmas day, we’d go outside and look for reindeer tracks in the snow.”
“Did you find them?”
“Never.” I go to the fridge, pulling out cream as she gets sugar from a drawer. “My parents tried to convince us the cat’s footprints were reindeer though. I said the reindeer work in a team, so there weren’t enough tracks.”
“Smart kid. When did you catch on?”
“I was seven or eight. But once I was in high school, I took over making it work for my cousins.”
“Cute.”
“How about you? What’s your best Christmas memory?”
She turns the question over before answering. “One year there was a huge storm. Dad couldn’t get to the bar, so it was closed. I got a chemistry set and played with it the entire holiday and made him play with me.” Her lips curve at the memory.
I grew up with a big family, and they were a massive part of my life. Taking care of each other was just how we rolled. Her family was smaller, and taking care of each other was a necessity.
“You worry about him.”
“Running the bar has been hard work for a long time, and he thinks he has to do it alone. I wish he’d see that I’m here. Except…” She blows out a breath. “I don’t want to do things like he does. I have my own ideas. And I think I’ve earned the space to try them out.”
“So, why don’t you?”
Sierra shoots me a look. “Because he reminds me that’s not how we do things. But what he means is, it’s not how he does things. Sometimes it feels like it would be easier if I worked somewhere else.”
It’s obvious how much she cares about her family and feels responsible for their business.
“You ever tell him that?”
“No.” She laughs. “It’s not going to happen.”
