Page 201 of Soul So Dark

Alex

“How do you know how to make that?” Dallas asks as I set down the plate of sushi rolls—tuna maki and yellowtail scallion.

I take a seat adjacent to her at the table and hand her a set of chopsticks as she eyes the rolls hungrily.

“Part of my job as Ponyboy Curtis,” I reply, which elicits a smile from her. “But really, it was the Raffertys’ chef, Jocelyn. Aiden’s actually a better cook than I am.”

Dallas pops a piece of yellowtail in her mouth, but then stops mid-chew, knitting her brow with confusion.

“She was there every day when his dad was home, which wasn’t much,” I explain. “But when he was travelling, she’d come on Sundays and prep food for the entire week so the kitchen was fully stocked. And she made Aiden help. His favorite food is sushi, so she’d swing by the airport on her way to his house and pick up a crate of seafood flown in fresh from Japan.”

“Swing by the airport,” Dallas deadpans.

I still forget, there’s a lot about Aiden and his family that Dallas doesn’t know.

She swallows and then takes a sip of water. “I know I’ve only spent a couple of hours with you tonight, but you’re different now.”

“How?” I ask, pinching one of the tuna makis between the tips of my chopsticks.

“You’re much more—” she eyes me over the table, “intense. You don’t smile as much as you used to.”

“I don’t?” Seems I’ve heard this exact observation somewhere before.

“When’s the last time you had a good laugh?”

“I’ll laugh withyou,even if your jokes suck.”

“My jokes never sucked!” she retorts. “You always liked them back then.”

“You still have a lot of jokes now, making me think you bolted as soon as I answered the phone.”

She can’t contain herself now, giggling so much that she nearly loses a piece of sushi.

“You were freaking out,” she sighs. “Who were you talking to, anyway?”

“I have to be straight with you, Dal.” I take a deep breath, my tone turning serious again. “Iwastalking to another woman.”

She should be good at recognizing my bullshit by now, but there’s still a tiny shred of her that prepares for the worst.

“Mí abuelita.”

“What?” She scrunches up her face. “Yourgrandmother?”

At least she still knows a few words. But I can’t even keep a straight face while explaining it.

“My entire family finally convinced her to move up here to be closer to us. At first, she refused, but we finally wore her down. Adrian’s even renovating a house for her in Dire Ridge. She finally agreed, but then told him that she would only move here if she could get ahold of us when she needed to. It was code for,Alex better be stateside by the time I get there.I’ve been waiting for her to call since I got back, so when I saw that it was her, I had to take it, no matter what, or she’d think I was lying. And that’s not to mention my aunts calling me and leaving threatening messages if I don’t pick up.”

Dallas’s face softens. “That’s actually really sweet. I can tell you love her very much.” Then she grins. “And I guess you weren’t lying about having a huge family.”

“I told you there’s a lot of them. They talk a lot, andall at once,” I whisper with a flash of my eyes.

“How did you die?” she asks, slowly pinching another yellowtail in her chopsticks.

It sounds strange for someone to ask, especially her. But I’ll tell her anything she wants to know.

“A mission went off the rails and, to make a long story short, I tried to jump a fence and didn’t realize it had as much electricity running through it as the substation nearby.”

Her eyes go wide. “You were electrocuted?”