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“Hola,” I said. “Es un placer conocerlos.”
Another explosion of Spanish backed by even bigger smiles.
I caught about a sixteenth of what they were saying, none of it I could be sure I actually understood, so I just smiled back and nodded a lot.
Though, I figured it was all good considering Javi chuckled often, and since he’d wrapped his arm around me, the longer we chattered (or they did), the tighter his hold got.
I sensed I’d passed inspection.
Phew!
This went on for a while, and I adored that it did. It said, even if these people had never met, they were close. They were a family. And they didn’t hide how much they practically idolized Javi.
Obviously, I loved that last part most of all.
There was a knock on the door.
Javi gave me a squeeze and a nod to let me know I could leave our three-sided, four-person conversation and go answer it.
“Me gustó hablar con ustedes,” I said to his grandparents.
“Nosotros tambien, Harlow,” they replied in unison, and man, my name sounded pretty with a Nicaraguan accent.
I went to the door, looked out the peephole and saw Luna standing there.
I opened it. “Hey.”
“Arthur got in,” she said as greeting.
She was talking about the laptop.
Yippee!
“Oh my goodness,” I replied.
She looked at Javi still talking to his grandparents on the couch, then to me. “Come to my place for a briefing?”
I nodded, turned to Javi and made hand motions to explain what I was doing. He studied me while I did so, alert and wary, and before he could say anything, I ducked out of my apartment and walked with Luna to hers.
“Raye isn’t answering her door and Jess is at Eric’s and isn’t answering her phone,” Luna explained. “So it’s just Willow, Shanti, you and me.”
This meant afternoon nookie was on the table all around for the girls who had guys.
Gosh, I hoped Knox and Gabe figured themselves out really soon and we could find someone fab for Shanti (like Liam). I wanted all my besties to have their brand of this goodness.
“Did Arthur find anything on Trev’s laptop?” I asked.
“He found lots. And none of it good,” Luna answered in a dire tone.
Unfun, but not unexpected.
We hit Luna’s boho-chic pad, and I saw immediately that Shanti was pissed, and unusually, so was Willow.
“I swear to God if I find out Kev’s done any of this kind of shit, I’m going to cut off his balls!” Willow all but shouted.
Well…
Dang.