her, she got back to what she’d started to tell him earlier.
“Because of my mom’s dinner date, we’d been having some girl talk as we got everything together. The subject of my birthday celebration came up, and my mom called me out on it.” She turned and smiled at him but then turned to face forward again. “She said she knew all along that I’d want you as my galán but thought maybe I was too shy to ask you and that’s why I’d chosen to not ask anyone at all.” She giggled. Giggled at a time like this when Alej’s heart had begun thundering for an altogether different reason now. “Like I’d be too shy to ask you anything.” Shrugging, she went on. “Since I was busted anyway, I just told them the truth.”
“And that would be?” Alej asked, squeezing his eyes shut in anticipation.
“That I didn’t want to be so obvious about it because I was afraid they’d be even more concerned about the amount of time I spend with you. They laughed at my not-wanting-to-be-too-obvious comment.” She giggled again, despite what this conversation was doing to Alej. “They said they’ve known since day one that I had a thing for you and that you’ve never made your feelings for me a secret. But they’ve never been concerned about you disrespecting me. Said your father raised a hard-working perfect gentleman.” She turned around and smiled at him again, pulling a strand of hair behind her ear. “Then they gushed about how handsome you’ve gotten over the years. Of course, they took the opportunity to give me the talk.”
She laughed as they continued to ride around town, and Alej held on tighter in case he passed out. She told him how she thought her mother had given her that talk years ago when she’d sat her down and talked about where babies come from and such.
“Over the years, I’ve heard plenty of times about how a señorita is expected to behave at all times.”
They reached the big meadow just outside of town where lots of kids went out to hang out on nights like this when the moon was so bright. Many had firepits going and burned malvaviscos for smores.
Someone playing the guitar reminded Alej of the time the guy invited Isa out to hear him play for her. It was a reminder that, even as unnerving as this conversation had gotten, at least he knew now only newbies to town like Luis could not know about Alej’s staking claim on Isa. Stopping just before they reached a small creek that ran through the meadow, Alej got off and helped her down.
They walked Atrevido over to the creek for a drink as Isa went on. “But this evening’s conversation was of a different kind. Abuela aired her perpetual worry about what people will think, especially now that I’ll be putting it out there. But . . .” She held her hand out when she finally saw how anxious this all made Alej since the whole time before she’d been facing forward during the most alarming parts of conversation. He took her hand and there it was again. They were holding hands for no other reason than because they wanted to. “It was a good talk, Alej. There was no talk of me cutting down my time with you for appearance’s sake. My mom said if they’d never been able to stop me before, they knew I was at an age now where it be impossible to stop me. She’s more worried about . . .”
Alej turned to her when she stopped. He’d been watching Atrevido happily drink away from the creek. It was his way of trying to take deep breaths without Isa noticing how alarming all this talk was to him. “About what?” he asked curiously.
She glanced away. “About me getting pregnant.”
The air and sudden tightness at his throat rendered him speechless for a second. “Isa, I would never—”
“I know you wouldn’t,” she said, quickly turning back to him. “Unless I allowed it and as I told them, I’m way too young to be even considering anything physical with you. But she warned me that it starts slow and we’ll get braver and braver as little things begin to happen.” She glanced down at their entwined hands. “She said this was the age Abuela began echoing the importance of abstinence, so she’d get it good and lodged in my mom’s head, and she didn’t even have a .