Page 19 of The Right Garza

After overhearing my conversation with Mama about the sleeping arrangements, he’d called Monica—his mother—and asked her if I could stay in the guest bedroom. To which she bellowed over the speaker, “What kinda foolish question is that? Lexi is always welcome. Doesn’t she have a key? Tell her to just come in.”

Yep, I did have a key, but I’m pretty sure it got charred along with all of Torin’s shit that I burned on their lawn after our breakup.

“How long do I have to stay here again?” I ask.

“I’ll be back for you in two days.”

On the drive, while I stuffed my face, he’d thrown in a stipulation to the deal—yeah,afterthe fact—that I come home to Redlands and spend some time with my family first.

The last thing I want to do right now is spend time with my family, but I think he knows that, and that’s why he’s making me do it. He’s that kind of jerk. But the moment I agreed to become indebted to him in Vegas, I lost all say. He’s in charge now. As much as I hate it, as much as the rebellious part of me wants to lash out, the fact of the matter is, until the debt is paid, he owns me. Whatever he says goes.

So, biting my tongue, I open the car door and step out. As usual, the Mendez house is the only noisy residence in a generally quiet neighborhood. As I grudgingly trudge up the red-painted pathway, I make out Uncle Franco, along with his common-law wife Marie, Aunt Rosa, Uncle Lenny, and my all-grown-up cousin, Alicia.

They are so deep in their game of dominoes, hollering at each other in Spanglish, that they don’t notice me until I’m ascending the steps to the veranda.

“¡Mira mira!” Uncle Franco exclaims. “¡Vuelve el hijo pródigo!”

I roll my eyes. Prodigal child my ass. “Do you all realize how loud you’re being?”

“You leave the nest and suddenly forget you’re a Mendez,” Aunt Rosa pipes up. “We are loud. Everyone knows this,si?”

Actually, I’m more of a Flores than a Mendez, but… “Whatever.”

Alicia jumps up and rushes over to hug me. Then, one by one, so do the rest of them. They tell me how tall I’ve gotten. How skinny I’ve gotten. That I’m starting to look like achica blanca.

“Come sit, join us,” says Uncle Lenny. “You used to be good at dominoes, are you still?”

“I can still drag your asses in the mud, if that’s what you’re asking,” I tell him. “Where’s Mama?”

“She goes to bed early now,” answers Aunt Rosa. “She is up before dawn in the mornings to go down to the restaurant.”

“And you’re all out here making so much noise?”

Franco waves me off. “She takes pills. They make her sleep like the dead. Come play.”

Marie orders, “Alicia, go get your cousin a beer and some of the food from tonight.”

“I’m not hungry,” I say. “But I’ll take the beer.”

“Oh, you are very hungry. Very hungry,” Uncle Lenny says. “You need some meat on your bones. You are disappearing.”

Oh, for Pete’s sake.I’m one hundred and forty pounds! That’s five poundsoverwhat I should be for my height. But in this family, you’re either curvy or you’re starving; no in between.

Deciding not to waste my breath arguing about this, I take a seat at the domino table. “Just a game or two. I’m a little jet-lagged.”

Trent walks up to the veranda just then. His slight smirk and raised brow tells me he overheard my lie about being jet-lagged. Hell. I hope he doesn’t use it to force me to do something else, like stay here longer with them.

“Night,” he addresses everyone, which gets a chorus of “Hey, Trent”, “Hola, Trent”, “Buenas Noches” in return.

He comes up to me, all confident and commanding, and presses a key into my palm. “Will call you in a few days.”

And then he’s gone again.

“Wait, it is the other one who is your boyfriend, no?” Aunt Rosa asks with a frown. “The serious one. The soldier.”

“That was years ago, Aunty. He’s not my boyfriend anymore.”

Her frown deepens. “So, you are with this one now? The bad one?”