Mangos and Mistletoe by Adriana Herrera

Author:Adriana Herrera [Herrera, Adriana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781393339175
Publisher: Adriana Herrera
Published: 2020-03-14T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Sully

“I can’t believe you guys are not going to be in the kitchen anymore,” I lamented into Alex’s shoulder, tightening my arms around him.

He pulled back smiling sadly and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “We’ll still be here all week. They were really awesome about letting us stick around if we wanted.” He glanced up at Derek who was stoically standing by the door waiting for his teammate. “And we both have the time. We might as well...”

Alex’s smile and the flush on Derek’s face made it pretty easy to guess what they were going to be doing. My new friend gave me one last squeeze and moved to stand next to the massive blond who immediately draped an arm around him.

“Well, I’m glad someone gets to relax in this place for the rest of the week,” I complained, and glared at Kiskeya who had said her goodbyes and had gone back to taking notes. About what, I did not know. We wouldn’t even know what the second day challenges were until the morning.

“We’re heading to bed. We’re super tired.” Alex sounded way too wired for any sleep to be happening in that room, but I let them get away with the lie and wished them a good night.

By the time I closed the door behind them, Kiskeya had quietly slipped into the bathroom to take a shower. It had been a long-ass day, but I was still buzzing with nervous energy. I grabbed the bag of mango with chili I’d nabbed from the kitchen studio and got in bed.

I grinned when I saw all the texts from my mom and brother. I’d sent them a voice message after we finished, letting them know we’d moved on to day two, and warning them with pain of death against telling anyone or putting it on Facebook, since this wouldn’t air until a couple of days before Christmas.

I shivered as I got under the covers, and then remembered I was in a fancy castle with a fireplace I could turn on with a remote. As soon as I got the fire going, my phone buzzed with a video call from my mom.

I accepted the call right away and grinned into the screen. “Mami. How long have you even been home?”

My mother had gone through a tough couple of years. After taking a bad fall at work that had shattered her shoulder, it took almost eighteen months and multiple surgeries for her to get back to normal. She’d been an engineer for one of the utility companies. One of the few women of color in her union. That job had meant the world to her, so losing her independence and ultimately her ability to do what she loved had taken a toll on her. She’d only been back to work for a few months and was still adjusting to being stuck indoors instead of out with her crew like she’d done for almost fifteen years. We were all still getting used to our lives being back to our new normal.

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