her eyes and heart.
When Wyatt and Abby had decided to build a bigger house and sell the old Connelly homestead plus five acres to their foreman, Carla had heard the news in town like everyone else. At the time, she never would’ve guessed she’d be back here as the guest of honor at a party the Palacios’ were throwing, let alone carrying the baby of the oldest Palacios.
What a small world we live in…
“Are you okay?”
Christian’s voice finally penetrated through the haze of memories, pulling Carla back to the present. “Oh! Yes. Sorry. We’re good. I was just remembering how Abby lived here all through school, and all of the sleepovers I’ve had here.”
“It is a small world,” Christian agreed, and Carla grinned at how his words mirrored her thoughts exactly.
“What?” he asked, cocking his head to the side quizzically.
“Nothing. Let’s go. Time to meet the family.”
She opened the truck door and felt the wall of mariachi music slam into her. Instinctively, she pulled the door back shut and turned to Christian, eyes wide. He gave her a grimacing smile.
“My family likes it loud,” he said by way of explanation. She thought that was rather understating the situation, but she nodded anyway and opened her door again. This time, she was ready for it, and only gasped a little at the sheer volume pouring out of the speakers everywhere.
Christian hurried around to her side of the truck and helped her down, already treating her like glass that could easily be broken. It made her feel loved, and just a little bit smothered. Four and a half more months of this? Being able to breathe was going to have to come up at some point.
With her arm tucked inside his, they began wandering through the throngs, hugging everyone, Christian shouting, “¡Les presento a mi novia, Carla!” again and again.
Everyone seemed so friendly, hugging her, welcoming her into the family, and even switching over to English when they realized her Spanish was painfully limited. In turn, Carla quickly figured out some of the elderly in the group didn’t speak English any better than she spoke Spanish, so they ended up nodding and smiling at each other a lot. She made a mental note to become more serious about her Duolingo time.
Christian didn’t have an accent when speaking English, which made it easy to forget that it wasn’t his native tongue. But his family? They were a different story. She needed to up her game and meet them halfway. At least be able to ask them something more than “What is your name?” in Spanish again and again.
As Christian got deep into a discussion with a cousin? Uncle? She wasn’t quite sure – about the future’s market for beef, Carla spotted Nieves slouched in a chair pulled up to a propane heater, tapping away on her phone, looking bored as always. Without anything else to do, Carla decided to head over to say hi.
“How’s the cleaning of the mansion going?” she asked.
Nieves shrugged, not even looking up from her phone as her thumbs bobbed and weaved in a blur over the screen. “Keila’s got someone else helping her ‘cause school’s started.”
“Someone else?” Carla repeated, surprised. How had she missed this tidbit of information? She thought back to the Early Spinster’s meetings, trying to remember if Keila had discussed cleaning out the mansion at one of them and Carla had just forgotten in the meanwhile, when Yesenia came hurrying over with a huge smile on her face. “Hi, Carla!” she said enthusiastically, giving Carla a big hug. “I’m so glad you could come tonight. How are things going?”
“Good, good,” Carla said automatically. “How is school?”
Yesenia rolled her eyes. “If I could just find one person to explain to me how organic chemistry will help me teach new immigrants how to speak English, I’d be a lot more enthused about the class. As it is, it’s kicking my ass. Either I graduate, or I go nuts.”
“How much longer do you have?” Carla asked, knowing the answer but politely acting as if she didn’t have the date burned into her brain.
“May of 2024,” Yesenia said glumly. “Not that I’m counting or anything, but that’s three years and six months from now. I could give you down to the day, if you really wanted to know.”
Carla chuckled even as she gave her young friend a one-armed hug. “It’s hard, I know. It’ll all be worth it, though. Just think about all of the people you’re going to