a point. He stands off the bed. “I’m a filmmaker,” he tells Jo. “I know how to get creative.”
My muscles contract. He might’ve given my sister way too much info, but fuck is he hot.
Joana nods, impressed. “I respect that.”
He slings a messenger bag across his chest. “I should head out. I’m supposed to be teaching Jesse a new editing software.” They have enough footage to begin piecing together some of the pilot, and Jesse is only going to be in Philly on the weekends soon. Jack said his brother’s senior year is about to start. Which also means Highland and I won’t have to “get creative” for that long.
I come up to my boyfriend before he goes, and then a knock sounds on the door.
“Oscar!”
“Joana!”
“Mom and Dad are here?” Jo asks me at the sound of their voices.
“Yeah.” They just showed up unannounced. Also, not shocked. I’m sure they just want to help Joana get settled in. “Can you get the door, Jo?”
“You bet.”
While my sister descends the loft’s stairs to answer the door, Jack stops cold a foot from me. “Am I about to meet your parents?”
“Unless I toss you out the window, but we’re in a high-rise, so…”
Stress lines his face. “Fuck.”
I catch his hand in mine. “Hey, you’re a people-person, Highland. You’ve got this.”
“I want your parents to like me, Os.” He rubs his forehead. “After the execs told me I’m a ‘liability’ to the docuseries last night—I feel more like crawling into a hole and crying into a baby blanket than putting on a happy face.”
“Why cry in a baby blanket when you have me?”
His laughter dies too fast. He lets go of my hand just to place his palms on either side of his waist. Like he’s on a cool-down after a marathon.
His confidence is on a hiatus, and I’m about to bring it back. “You are legitimately the most endearing motherfucker on a first meeting. You could make polar icecaps melt.”
He cracks a dim smile.
“You could make all the stars in the sky fall for the sun.”
Jack looks deeper into me. He takes a huge breath and hangs his arms over my shoulders like a casual slow-dance. “Tell me a secret that you’ve never told anyone else.”
We have a short window of time. Joana is at the door, but I take advantage of every single second. Holding his waist, I lean in and whisper, “Estou apaixonado por voçê.” I translate, “I’m in love with you.”
His smile spreads across his face. Eyes full of vivid emotion.
I feel it in my chest.
“Oscar Felipe Oliveira,” my mom calls from the kitchen. “Why are your cupboards full of junk food?” She curses in Portuguese. “How do you expect your sister to eat?”
I focus more on Jack.
He’s radiating, his smile unable to wane. He clasps my hand, and he’s the one leading us as we descend the stairs to the bottom floor.
How do I expect Jo to eat? I answer my mom, “With the mountain of arroz e feijão you brought over, that’s how.” She has containers upon containers of homecooked food stacked on the counter.
A perk to inviting Joana to live with me.
“And thank God I did,” my mom says, finding space in the fridge. Her curly hair is styled in frizz-less ringlets. She carries herself like a famous soap star, and when she spins on me, she sighs at the welt on my cheek and goes on about how Quinn and I should be banded together as brothers.
Get that.
Want that.
Do not have that with the baby bro right now.
They see our brotherly relationship as a work-in-progress with highs and lows.
I kiss my mom’s cheeks and introduce Jack. “This is my boyfriend.”
She hugs Jack before he can even say, hi. “I remember seeing you at some family events.” She gives him a tighter squeeze, and she means the Hale, Meadows, and Cobalt families. She backs up. “You’re usually carrying a camera around.” Her hand touches her heart. “You have such a beautiful smile.”
Jack is smiling that hundred-watt smile. For sure, I’m taking partial credit for summoning it. “You’re the gorgeous one, Mrs. Oliveira,” he says warmly. “Casting directors would hire you for beauty shots on the spot, and I’d probably be put on a waitlist.”
Yeah, right. I almost laugh.
My mom looks beyond flattered by Highland, as I knew she’d be. “Call me Sônia. Oscar’s father is Rodrigo.”
Right now, my dad is more preoccupied with Jo and boxing. He holds up his palms and calls out combinations. She