Page 133 of Rock Chick Rescue

Our eyes caught, he nodded then he touched his lips to mine.

I could swear I heard a collective sigh from our audience.

Wonderful.

“Nancy, do you want a drink?” Eddie asked as he pried her hand loose from my arm and guided her away.

I watched them go, Mom leaning heavily into Eddie’s body.

Okay, so, I could love that guy.

There you go, I admitted it.

Shitanddamn.

* * *

I spentthe next two hours shuffled between Blanca, Elena and Rosa, being introduced to Eddie’s family; aunts, uncles and cousins.

And there werea lotof them.

In this time, Eddie semi-disappeared. He was there, but wasn’t. I saw him with Lee. I saw him with Hank. I saw him with Lee’s dad, Malcolm, and Indy’s dad, Tom. I saw him with some of his male cousins (needless to say, there was definitely a male/female divide).

I did not see him anywhere near me.

I also had more food shoved at me than I’d eaten in a week, all of which I consumed so I wouldn’t appear rude, and I seemed to be carrying a mystical bottomless margarita glass.

Bottom line, no matter how full I was, I was also quite drunk.

I kind of needed to be drunk because I found out the reason behind the big bash that included Christmas lights and tables groaning with food.

In Eddie’s thirty-three years (yes, I learned that too), I was only the second woman he’d ever brought to meet “the family.”

Worse than that eek-worthy fact, I was the only one Blanca liked.

I also found out a lot about Eddie. Maybe too much.

See, there’s a reason Eddie seemed dangerous. Eddie had a checkered past. In fact, everyone, all the way down to the cousins, were still saying rosaries in grateful thanks to the Holy Trinity that Eddie chose to enter the Police Academy rather than embark on a life of crime.

Though, from the many,manyaccounts of his escapades, he would have been pretty good at a life of crime.

I was listening in a drunken stupor-esque glaze of horror to one of Eddie’s aunties talking about one particular time (there were several) when Eddie stole a car, when a hand wrapped around my arm.

I turned, then looked down to see Eddie’s sister, Gloria.

She said something in Spanish to the auntie and then led me away.

I looked over my shoulder.

The auntie seemed somewhat perturbed to be interrupted while scaring the bejeezus out of me, so I turned back to Gloria.

“I think that might have been rude,” I said.

“You should thank me. I’m saving you,” Gloria replied. “They’re trying to scare you. See if you got grit. Any girl of Eddie’s has to have grit. You looked ready to bolt.”

She wasn’t wrong. I was ready to bolt.

“You need another margarita,” Gloria decided.

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