Rock Chick 07 Regret (19 page)

“Excuse me?”

He didn’t explain himself, instead he said, “Sadie, you’re safe here. You can be the girl I’ve seen the last few days.”

Oh my.

My body tensed and Ice Princess slid into my skin before I could stop her.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I replied coldly even though I knew
exactly
what he meant.

He lifted my casted hand to his mouth and (no kidding, right in front of everyone!) kissed the exposed fingers there.

Ice Princess melted in a steaming, hot puddle.

Then he murmured, “You know what I mean.”

Darn.

My eyes flitted to the table. Indy was watching me and when my eyes hit hers, hers slid quickly away but I could still see her smile. I saw Tex was also watching me but he didn’t look away. He was grinning at me broadly so it was my eyes that slid away. Unfortunately, they caught Blanca’s and hers were shining with tears (again!).

Blooming heck.

I looked back at Hector. “Please let me go,” I whispered.

He let me go and I took in a relieved breath but it stuck in my throat when his hand went to the seat of my chair. He gave a firm tug which pulled my chair right next to his chair so our thighs were pressed together. Then he sat back and draped his arm around the back of my chair.

There was no way I could scoot away or put him in deep freeze (which would have been my premier choice) so I just sat there, tense, while everyone tried to pretend they weren’t grinning at each other because of Hector and me.

So I tried to pretend they weren’t trying to pretend and told myself I could get through the night.

How much worse could it get?

* * * * *

The next incident happened when Blanca started to clear the table.

Jet and Indy got up to help her.

I threw my chair back and took that golden opportunity to get away from Hector. I decided I should help clear the table too. Even though I’d always lived in a house with help who cooked for us and cleared our table, I
had
helped Ralphie and Buddy at their house.

I could do this.

Problem was, I had a cast on my arm. Not so easy to stack plates and carry platters still heavy with food even though everyone had finished eating (one thing was certain sure, Blanca was generous with her hospitality).

Still, it was either help or sit close to Hector’s side, everyone thinking we were something we were
not
or, we were not going to be after Hector and I had our talk.

I decided plates were my best bet so, balancing some plates and cutlery precariously, I followed Jet and Indy to the kitchen.

Disaster nearly struck when I hit Blanca’s kitchen, the plates teetered and some forks and knives fell to the floor.

Before it could get worse and I had to buy Blanca a new set of stoneware, Indy turned from depositing her load on the counter and deftly grabbed the plates in my hands as Blanca bent down and picked up the cutlery.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Chavez,” I said to her, feeling like an idiot.

She straightened and ordered, “Blanca,
mi hija
, you call me Blanca.” Then she put the cutlery in the sink and swept out.

But Jet was at the sink, rinsing dishes and for some bizarre reason she was giggling.

I didn’t want to know but I
did
want to know and not having the willpower to stop myself I asked, “What’s funny?”

She threw me a dazzling smile (Jet was Eddie’s fiancée, she was blonde, green-eyed and very pretty but when she smiled, she was a heart-stopper).

“Do you speak Spanish?” she asked.

I shook my head.

“
Mi hija
means, ‘my daughter’.”

Oh my.

Blanca just called me her daughter.
Her daughter
.

That could not be good.

I moved closer to Jet. “Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

Indy giggled a little as Jet handed her a rinsed plate to put in the dishwasher.

I started to organize the plates and cutlery on the counter so Jet could more easily rinse them.

“Do, um, Mexican-American women call people that for –?” I started.

“Nope,” Jet interrupted me. “I didn’t get an
hija
until…” She looked to the ceiling then finished, “I think it was the third time I saw her.”

“You win!” Indy cried and then burst out laughing. Without hesitation Jet laughed with her.

And at that moment, I couldn’t help it, they were so engaging (even though it seriously
weirded
me out,
all
of it), I laughed with them.

Blanca came in depositing more stuff and then started banging around the kitchen again, preparing to serve dessert.

“Can I do something?” I asked her.

“
Sí
, you can make the coffee,” Blanca answered and I was relieved. I could definitely make coffee
and
do it one-handed. I’d had loads of practice at that at Buddy and Ralphie’s place.

She showed me where to find the coffee stuff then swept out again, carrying dessert plates.

Immediately, when Blanca left, on a whisper I asked Jet, “Do
you
speak Spanish?”

“A little,” Jet replied, squirting dishwashing liquid into a dirty pot and then turning the tap into it.

“What does
mamita
mean?”

She looked me, eyes knowing, and grinned big. “It means ‘little mama’, it’s an endearment, like a guy calling his girl ‘babe’.”

Oh my.

Hector called me “babe”.

Blooming heck.

I kept going. “What about
mi cielo
?”

Jet blinked. “Hector called you
mi cielo
?”

I nodded.

Her big grin went even bigger. “It means, literally, ‘my sky’ but it’s also an endearment, a little, um…” She looked for a word. “Stronger than
mamita,
” she finished.

I didn’t know what to make of that but I wasn’t sure it was good. I mean, it was good if I was a normal, Veronica Mars-type person but it wasn’t good as I wasn’t a normal, Veronica Mars-type person (which I wasn’t).

“He calls you
mi amor
, you’re really in trouble,” Jet went on before I could run screaming from the house.

“Why?”

“That means ‘my love’ and that means he’s serious,” Jet replied then went on with a big smile. “Or, I should say,
more
serious.”

I couldn’t stop myself from leaning into her and whispering, “I think I’m in trouble.”

“Sister, you are
definitely
in trouble,” Indy said and she was smiling at me too, like this was a good thing.

I didn’t think this was a good thing. In fact, I was more than a little worried it was a very,
very
bad thing.

I shook off my feelings of foreboding and, lastly, because I had to know, so I asked Jet, “What was Blanca saying in the living room when Hector and I arrived?”

Jet shook her head. “She was talking too fast and I’m not fluent or anything but I think the gist of it was that if Hector, Eddie and Lee didn’t wreak vengeance on, um…” she stopped.

“It’s okay, I get it,” I said softly because I saw she was uncomfortable. She gave me a different smile, this one less dazzling but far more sweet.

Somehow Blanca (who didn’t know me from Eve), having a tizzy on my behalf made me feel strange but it wasn’t a bad strange, it was a weird, happy strange.

It wasn’t
that
strange. I used to feel that way around my Mom.

But it
was
a strange I hadn’t felt in a very long time.

Jet’s eyes slid to Indy but I had exhausted New Sadie’s reserves so I turned away and finished up the coffee.

Surprisingly, and thankfully, they didn’t push it.

* * * * *

The last incident happened after dinner was over.

We were all heading back to the living room for more coffee and Blanca had claimed Hector. They walked in front of me, her arm around his waist, his arm around her shoulders, head tilted low as she talked to him in Spanish.

Everyone but Indy and Lee were in front of them, I walked behind them, Indy and Lee behind me.

A few steps from the living room door I decided it was time. I had my opportunity so I stopped and turned to Lee.

“Can I talk to you a second?” I asked.

Lee and Indy stopped. Lee’s eyes came to me and he nodded.

Indy said, “I’ll just –”

My gaze swung to her and I interrupted, “No, it’s okay. You can stay. This won’t take long.”

Indy nodded but she took Lee’s hand and it looked like she was bracing. Lee just kept watching me.

Throughout dessert, I practiced what I was going to say so I was ready.

I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders, looked at Lee and said, “I’ve spent my life around bad people. Bad people that did things to hurt other people and they had no regrets.”

“Sadie –” Lee started.

“Please, hear me out.”

Lee stopped talking.

“It was hard, living in that world,” I told him.

He was silent. Indy was silent. I went on.

“It would be harder living in a world where a good person blamed himself for what a bad person did.” I paused then delivered my grand finale, what
I
thought was rather decisively (if I did say so myself), “You share no responsibility for what happened to me.”

Immediately Lee said, “I appreciate that but it doesn’t change the fact that I –”

I interrupted, “You hold onto this regret it’s going to…”

Now what did I say?

I didn’t expect Lee to do anything but feel off the hook. He was messing up my grand finale! I didn’t think to practice different responses to his possible responses! Why couldn’t he just agree and let it go so we could go have coffee?

This being nice to people was
hard
.

Oh well, I just had to make it up. “It’s going to be… ” I searched for a word. “Very um…” come on Sadie! “
Upsetting,
” I finished.

Both Indy and Lee were staring at me.

I was spent, I had no more but I didn’t feel it was appropriate to walk away.

Finally Lee grinned and said, “I wouldn’t want to upset you.”

His tone was bizarre. Then it hit me that he was teasing me.

Yes,
teasing me
.

The Ice Princess reared her head. “Well. Yes. See that it doesn’t happen.”

For some reason what I said made Lee burst out laughing. It made Indy do the same.

They laughed right in the face of the Ice Princess!

How bizarre was
that?

Lee moved in (shattering my Ice Fortress, by the way), threw his arm around my shoulders and walked me into the living room, Indy following.

“I’ll see it doesn’t happen again,” he said, still sounding like he was teasing. Then he said, “I promise.”

Startled at the change in tone, I looked up at him. He was no longer teasing, he was very serious.

Before I could react, he deposited me at Hector’s side. Hector lifted his brows at me.

I pulled my lips between my teeth. Hector saw I wasn’t going to share and he sighed.

Thirty minutes later, we left.

It was finally over.

And I survived.

Thank goodness
.