Crush by Jen Doyle

Author:Jen Doyle [Doyle, Jen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-64197-122-5
Publisher: NYLA

9

The evening clearly wasn’t going as Alejandro had planned. Given the candles and the table set for two, he seemed to have put those hours between Santa Rosa and their motorcycle ride to good use. Not caring one bit about that apparently, his grandmother had pushed the candles to the side and added another place setting right in between the two. Muttering in Spanish the entire time, Alejandro had nevertheless gotten a chair from over by the couch, brought it to the table, and held it for his grandmother to sit in before holding out a second for Maggie.

It was kind of adorable.

It was also Maggie’s wake-up call as to what it would mean if she and Alejandro were actually together. This wasn’t exactly the kind of family dynamic she was used to. Dinner conversations at her house were much quieter. Restrained. Cold. Alejandro and his grandmother spent a fair amount of the evening arguing—or, rather, his grandmother scolded, muttered and glared, while Alejandro rolled his eyes. Yet there was no denying the deep connection between the two. It made Maggie miss her uncle even more while at the same time think about what it would be like to have a life like this. To live this kind of a life here in Santa Christa with Alejandro. Not until this morning had she begun to contemplate it was even remotely possible; now she ached for it with every ounce of her soul.

Suddenly feeling emotional, she looked down at her plate, wishing she hadn’t inhaled everything on it. Despite being heated up rather than freshly made—because, really, the man had a range of talents, but dinner from scratch while riding on a motorcycle simply wasn’t possible no matter how disapproving of the concept his grandmother clearly was—the enchiladas were possibly the best thing Maggie had ever tasted in her life.

When she was confident she wouldn’t be bursting into tears, Maggie looked up, only to find both Alejandro and his grandmother watching her. Or, rather, Alejandro sitting back in his chair and watching her as his grandmother took it all in.

“Sorry,” Maggie mumbled, trying hard not to lose any not-going-to-cry ground. “It’s been a, um…” Crazy. Emotional. “…Kind of long day.”

Though his grandmother seemed about to say something, Alejandro leaned forward and started to gather up plates. “Why don’t you go outside? I’ll pull dessert together and be out in a few minutes.”

Right. And let his grandmother believe she was one of those women who wanted everything done for her? Hell, no.

But when Maggie stood up and began to help, the older woman got up and took Maggie by the arm, gently pulling her to the doors leading outside. “Sit. Be comfortable.”

Maggie didn’t think it was a good thing when she heard the two arguing—again—through the open kitchen windows. Having been more comfortable as a child hanging out with the men and women who worked the fields than with her actual family, Maggie had picked up a fair amount of Spanish growing up.

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