Love Finds You in Romeo, Colorado by Gwen Ford Faulkenberry

Author:Gwen Ford Faulkenberry [Faulkenberry, Gwen Ford]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781934770467
Publisher: Guideposts
Published: 2011-04-11T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

When Claire arrived back at the Casa, she found Abuelita, Graeme, and Gabbie sitting on the floor in the den. They were intently studying Graeme’s oversized checkerboard, but it was not set with its regular black and red checkers. Instead, the squares were covered with an assortment of Graeme’s dinosaur figurines.

Graeme and Gabbie were bent over one side of the board, advancing what appeared to be an army of meat-eaters, while Abuelita strategized from the other, setting a trap for their green T. rex with her purple triceratops.

“Oh, man!” Graeme exclaimed to Gabbie. “She’s going to wipe out our T. rex!”

“Hola everybody! I’m home!”

Graeme jumped up to hug Claire, keeping one eye fastened on the board.

“Mommy! We’re playing Dino-checkers!”

“Cool.” She sat down beside them with Graeme in her lap.

“Buenas tardes, hija. I was just jumping Graeme and Gabbie’s lizard king.” Abuelita raised her triceratops dramatically and crashed it down onto the T. rex, knocking it over.

“Good-bye, tiny lizard,” she said sweetly. “It has been nice knowing you.”

She replaced the T. rex by standing her triceratops proudly on the empty square.

“We still have our allosaurus and velociraptor,” Gabbie said, glaring down her nose.

At seven o’clock Martina called. Claire could hear a cacophony of voices in the background.

“Claire, I should have planned ahead better than this. I had no idea—Yes, Rosa, that goes to table five.”

“Martina, do you want Gabbie to spend the night with us?”

“Can she? Would it be too much trouble? Alberto! Over here. This table needs bussing. There are fifteen people waiting!”

“It’s fine—great. Graeme and Gabbie will be thrilled. Don’t worry about a thing.”

“I’ll call you in the morning! Muchas gracias!”

“De nada.”

Claire hung up the phone and continued to peel the orange in her hand. Then she peeled a second one and pulled it apart, arranging the slices on saucers in the shape of two pinwheels. She poured Graeme and Gabbie each a cup of warm milk and herself and Abuelita cups of hot water, dropping a bag of chai in Abuelita’s and Ginger Peach in her own. Arranging this all on a silver tray—one of Abuelita’s many—Claire carried it out to the patio, where Abuelita was sitting in a lounge chair beside a big terra-cotta pot filled with colorful cacti. She looked very relaxed. Maybe even asleep. Graeme and Gabbie were squatted by the goldfish pond a few yards away.

“Are you two fishing?” Claire gasped when she saw their poles.

She set down the tray on the table by Abuelita and ran over to them just in time to see Gabbie’s cork go under.

“You’ve got one, Gab! Reel him in!”

Gabbie jerked her pole and reeled as fast as she could. One of Abuelita’s fantail goldfish, a calico about four inches long, appeared at the end of her line.

“Way to go, Gabbie!” Graeme jumped up and down, patting his friend on the back as if she’d just caught a prize Dolly Varden trout. “Boy, that’s a nice one!”

Gabbie held the fish right up in front of Claire’s face. It wriggled on the hook, splashing her with tiny drops of water.

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