Border Ctrl+Esc by Ivy L. James

Author:Ivy L. James [James, Ivy L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LGBTQIA+, contemporary, friends to lovers, multicultural, geeks, nerds, marriage of convenience, green card marriage, demisexual, bisexual, family drama, inheritance, work drama, money problems, adulting, one-bed dilemma
Publisher: NineStar Press, LLC
Published: 2021-07-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

In Which Santiago Starts a Team

SEPTEMBER

CUTEST WIFE IN HISTORY: Hey, love of my life

CUTEST WIFE IN HISTORY: Guess what you get today

BEST HUSBAND EVER: A puppy???

CUTEST WIFE IN HISTORY: I wish. No, lasagna

BEST HUSBAND EVER: LASAGNA

BEST HUSBAND EVER: FOR REAL??

CUTEST WIFE IN HISTORY: I’m making it rn

BEST HUSBAND EVER: I will get home so fast

BEST HUSBAND EVER: Wait

BEST HUSBAND EVER: There’s a yard sale

CUTEST WIFE IN HISTORY: Don’t do it

BEST HUSBAND EVER: I’m doing it

CUTEST WIFE IN HISTORY: NO

BEST HUSBAND EVER: YES

In the afternoon sunlight streaming through the kitchen window, Mariana stirred the meat sauce for tonight’s lasagna and laughed at her mother-in-law’s pun over video call on her tablet. “That joke actually works in English too. Purr-gatory.”

“How’s your béchamel coming along?” Lola peered at her screen. “I only see the meat.”

“Béchamel?”

“The white sauce? Milk, flour, butter, spices?”

“Oh, my recipe doesn’t have that. I make a ricotta cheese mixture.” Mariana held that bowl up to the camera.

“We should trade recipes! Send me yours, and I’ll send you mine, and we can make each other’s over a video call. Actually, I think Santiago has mine. You should be able to get it from him.” Lola’s breath started coming short, and she had to pause to catch it.

Mariana stilled her stirring, her smile falling away. “Are you okay?”

Of course, she wasn’t. Lola still needed her surgery, but they couldn’t schedule it until they could afford a full-time caretaker for afterward. But they couldn’t pay a caretaker until Mariana’s inheritance came in—and they were still counting down the days until they hit that oh-so-important six-month mark.

“I know I’m a literal ocean away,” Mariana continued, “but is there anything I can do? Anything at all?”

Lola mustered a smile. “I’m as good as I’m going to be, all things considered. But thank you.”

A rhythmic bounce-bounce-bounce outside the apartment drew nearer until the door opened. One knee raised, Santiago snatched a soccer ball out of the air. Mariana set her stirring spoon down to applaud his feat of grace and dexterity.

He took a bow. “Thank you. Do you want to play later? I got it for a dollar at that yard sale.”

“I’m garbage at athletics, but I’ll play with you if you want. Come say hi to your mom.”

He looked around. “Where is she?”

Mariana gestured to the tablet on the counter beside the stove. Santiago trotted into the kitchen and switched to Spanish. “Hi, Mamá! What are you and Mariana talking about?”

Lola smiled at her son. “Our respective lasagna recipes, currently. Do you still have mine?”

“I think I wrote it down in my recipe book, yeah.”

While Mariana laid out the cooked lasagna noodles in the pan, Santiago bounced his soccer ball from knee to knee, showing off for his mother. And eventually, he got around to what he was even more excited about.

“I want to make a kids’ soccer team. Like I had in Madrid.”

His mom beamed. “Oh, that would be so fun!”

He’d searched the requirements online and found that to join the Northern Virginia

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