Sixty Days (21 page)

“I did,
” he says with a nod. “A sexier version, that is.” He moves closer to me and whispers, “I just wish I were the one that had gotten you this sore.”

“I’m beginning to thi
nk you’re becoming a sex addict,” I say, my heart rate racing.

“An addict for you
.” He gives me a quick kiss near my ear and neck. “Lay your feet in my lap. I know just the thing you need to make the soreness in your legs better. I’ll work on your butt later,” he says, whispering that last part. I do as he asks, not caring who catches us.

Last night we
decided not to hide our feelings anymore in front of anyone, hoping the other two men in my life would get used to the idea of us being together.

“Good,
you two are here! Don’t mind me,” Ari says walking in on us and continuing toward the stairs to yell at the guys to come down.

“What are you up to?” I ask
carefully eying her and lowering my feet from Mickey’s lap.

“Well,
you remember last week when we were talking and you mentioned how fun it would be to do a secret Santa?” she asks.

“Yeah…” I say
, hesitating a little.

“Well
, we are doing it! Who cares if Christmas is in two days, we are doing it,” she firmly says “Ma—” she starts calling for our grandmother.

“I’m here, already. You don’
t have to yell,” Mama interrupts her yelling.

“
How do you do that? It’s freaky,” Ari says shaking her head.

“Didn’t you hear? Our grandmother is a super ninja. She appears when you least expect it. I wouldn’t be surprised if she could even catch a fly with her
very own hands,” I joke.

After
a few minutes of determination on Ari’s part, the entire family, except for Junior who still hasn’t gotten off of bed, gathers around the living room. “What are we doing here?” Mary asks in a bored tone.

“We
are here because we are doing secret Santa. Everyone has to pick one of these,” she shows a piece of paper, “from the cap, but you can’t see it until I say so. Got it?”

We all nod, already knowing how the whole secret Santa thing works. Before Ari gets to were Mickey and I are she says that she is going to pick Junior’s piece of paper
for him. Once she gets to us, she throws us a wink and tells everyone to check their papers to make sure they didn’t get themselves as secret Santa. I’m not really surprised that I got Mickey and I wouldn’t be surprised if he picked my name. I’m thankful for that, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to give him his present without raising suspicions.

“Thank God I have
n’t done my Christmas shopping!” Mickey exclaims.

“Why thank God? This is the worst
possible time to shop,” Mary tells him.

“I
prefer to get it all done at the same time. I would’ve hated the idea of going back for just one gift,” he answers with a shrug. “Well, I’m off to shop. Want to go with me?” he asks, looking directly at me. “I know you haven’t had the chance to buy anything yet either,” he further explains.

“Sure,” I look up at him with a smile, i
gnoring the looks my brother and dad are giving us.

Yesterday was fun.
Shopping with Mickey is always an interesting experience. Luckily, I had already gotten him his present so I didn’t have to be sneaky about buying him something there. To be honest, I really didn’t need to buy anything. It took me a while, but after we spent hours going from store to store and he still hadn’t bought anything, I finally realized that he didn’t have anything to buy either.

He fess
ed up and we took the opportunity to enjoy each other’s company. We bought a few things and then went to grab a bite to eat. It was pretty late when we came back. Since no one was around we snuck into my room, where he made good on his earlier promise.

I am now getting ready for our bowling day. I decide to wear my combat boots with jeans and another one of my off the shoulder sweater
s. What can I say? I love them.

“Yo
u look lovely,” Mickey says with a wink when I enter the kitchen.

“Thanks!” I say with a smile.

“Seriously, Vega, if you keep this up, you won’t be having children,” Kev threatens.

“Seri
ously, Kev. This is getting old,” I say with a sigh as I look inside the fridge.

“What you
looking for?” Mickey asks.

“
Pancake batter. I want pancakes,” I say as I find the batter and start preparing it.

“Again?” Mickey asks while Kev says “Didn’t you have breakfast already?”

“Yeah, but I’m hungry and I want pancakes,” I say with shrug.

“Y
ou’re one weird little creature,” Kev mutters.

“I don’t know…I think
it’s cute,” Mickey says, earning him a slap on the back of his head.

Once I’m done eating my syrup covered pancakes we head to the bowling alley.
We drive in three separate cars. Mom and Dad decide to ride together with Angel and Carla in Dad’s Jetta. I ride with Mickey, Mama, Lola, Ari, Luke and Junior in Mickey’s truck and Kevin is driving my Jeep. Since Mary is running late, he, Chino, and Mario are meeting up with us as soon as she’s ready.

We are getting our shoes when
I hear someone calling my name. I don’t recognize the voice but I still look to see who it is.

“Laylah?” the guy says again. He’s tall but not as tall as Mickey. He has messy
, sandy blond hair and amazing blue eyes. I would be lying if I said he wasn’t attractive. “Hey, how are you?” he says walking toward me with a smile.

“I’m fine, um?” I say confused.

“You don’t remember me, do you?” he asks, his smile turning in amusement.

“No, sorry I don’t,
” I confess.

“It’s okay
. I’m Carter, we had that art technique and appreciation course together.” Now that I look at him better, I finally realize who he is. He used to always sit next to me.

“Oh
, yeah! How are you?” I ask.

“I’m good. A
ctually, I’m glad I ran into you,” he confesses “I’m working on promoting a new art collection and there is going to be a show in a couple of weeks. Now that I ran into you, I was wondering if you wanted to go with me?”

“Umm…” Oh boy! This is awkward. To make it worse the glare that Mickey is giving Carter has prob
ably got the poor guy blown to pieces already.

“
I know it’s weird but I actually been wanting to ask you out ever since we took that class together, but you always disappeared on me before I ever got the chance to do so,” he quickly adds, before I get a chance to answer him

“I’m honored, Carter. But
, I have a boyfriend and he wouldn’t really be happy if I went out with another guy,” I say just as Mickey is getting to where we are.

“Figures,
” he mutters “Well, can’t say I didn’t try.”

“Everything
alright here?” Mickey asks in a clipped tone. He’s jealous. I rarely get to see him like this and I sort of like it. I nod in answer.

“So this is the boyfriend?” Carter guesses. I nod with a smile. “Well, it was really nice seeing you again, Laylah. You should go to the
showing,” he says as he leaves.

“It was reall
y nice seeing you again, Laylah,” Mickey mocks “What is up with that dude?”

“You’re jealous,
” I say with an amused smile.

“I can’t stand it when another man flirts
with my fiancé,” he says. “I would give everything right now to kiss you in front of everyone and make the official statement that you’re a hundred percent mine,” he whispers close to my ear.

“You and I, both. Soon, Mickey, s
oon. Just a couple of more days,” I promise.

“I know,
” he says with a nod “For now, I’ll just make the statement in the privacy of our bedroom,” he once again whispers in my ear.

“Hey, what is going on over there between you two?” my dad asks giving us a disapproving glare.

“Nothing, Dad, we’re just talking,” I call back at him. “Unfortunately, nothing else at all,” I mutter.

“Glad to see y
ou’re suffering as much as I am,” Mickey teases.

“Shut up!” I snap at him and start walking
to where Ari is sitting down alone. He soon enough joins us.

It took them a while,
but Mario, Kev, Chino, and Mary finally arrived. As soon as they did, we went on to start the game. Since there are fifteen of us and each lane only allows up to six players, we divide into three groups of five. It’s a thing of luck that the guys decided to pay the owner for closing up the alley just for us today.

The bowling alley
just isn’t that big. It only has four lanes and a simple arcade room that also houses a pool table. It’s mainly used by bowling teams and clubs. The only reason Jose, the owner, agreed to close up is because he’s a long time neighbor.

Plus, he’s been known for harvesting a crush on Lola. A crush
that Lola does not reciprocate. The poor man still continues to suffer over it, but you’ve got to give him a round of applause for his persistence.

According to the rules that my brother imposed we would be dividing in three teams.
I am on a team with Kevin, Mickey, Arianna and Chino. Team two is composed of Luke, Mary, Mario, Lola and Junior, and team three is my parents, Angel, Carla and Mama.

“God, I hate this!” I mutter as
I look for a bowling ball that I can actually carry and hold. I hate bowling. Well, maybe not hate, more like I suck at it, big time. The only time I ever get a strike is on my very last turn of the game. I don’t know why, but this is the way it always happens. The rest of the game is usually gutter balls or single pins.

“What’s the matter
, lil’ sis?” Chino asks. Ever since he had found out about us and our engagement he has taken to calling me some version of sister in English, Spanish, and sometimes even Spanglish.

“Have I told you how much I hate bowling? Because if I haven’t then…I
hate bowling.”

“You suck at it, don’t you?” he asks with a smirk.

“She’s the worst!” Mickey exclaims coming out of nowhere “Here you go, my heaven,” he hands me the perfect bowling ball.

“Thank you, D
imps.” I kiss him on the cheek, no longer caring who sees.

“God! You guys make me sick,
” Chino says, mocking disgust.

“Shut up!” I push him
on the shoulder and start walking toward our lane. “And, Mickey is right. I do suck. Even when they put the stupid side bars up, I still manage to miss all the pins.”

“Seriously?” Chino asks with a wicked grin as we get to our lane.

“You don’t have to be so happy about it,” I say smiling even though I’m annoyed. I hear Mickey say, “Ouch! Dude, what the hell was that for?”

“For whatever it is that you did to make my sister kiss you on the damn cheek and for
looking so damn happy about it. Stay away, Vega. I don’t care if you’re my best friend, stay the hell away from her,” I hear Kev hiss at Mickey.

I roll my eyes at him as Chino whispers
, “He’s going to make a bad situation out of this isn’t he?”

I nod and huff a big sigh
. “He’s the main reason for all the secrets and lies.”

He nods. “Anyway…I’m glad you suck at this. One player less to beat. And don’t worry about him. He’ll get over it once he sees how much you two love each other.”

“I hope so.”

“Well, I know so.” H
e winks.

“You gu
ys ready to get your asses kicked?” Arianna asks cheerfully.

“What’s her deal?” Chino asks eying her in amusement.

“She’s seventeen, stay away,” I warn.

“Not, that!
Jesus, Lai! I’m not a pervert. I meant what’s her game strategy.”

“Oh, sorry
…” I say, feeling ashamed.

“The apple doesn’t fall that far from the tree doesn’t it?” he sheepishly grins.

“Apparently not,” I hesitantly admit. “Well, you know how great Kevin is, right?” he nods. “Ari is in her high school bowling team. They have won the state championship four years in a row.”

“Say it ain’t so…” he says in amusement “
Shit just got interesting.”

It has indeed. My brother is awesome at
bowling, but not as good as Ari. She always gets the perfect shot. She’s the captain of her high school team, for God sakes!

What makes this whole situation interesting is that my brother has no
idea how good Ari is. I’d even be willing to bet that he chose this team thinking he was going to win. I know I can never win against her, so I’m just going to sit in the chair, relax, throw gutter balls, and watch Ari kick Kevin’s ass. Mostly enjoy the moment my brother realizes Ari is making strike after strike. Yep! Things are going to be extremely interesting.