The minute I did her eyes lifted to the stairs, she stopped yelling and her mouth dropped open.
I wanted to turn and run back to the bed, pull the covers over my head and wait until Hector got back.
Instead, New Sadie clicked into place, took her hand from her chest, waved the cell phone at the woman and called, “Hi.”
Hector twisted and looked up at me. I watched him bite his bottom lip and as I’d never seen him do that before I didn’t know whether he was biting back a smile or annoyance.
I took in a deep breath and walked down the stairs.
All three women watched me descend, all of them had their mouths hanging open.
I thought this was bizarre. Hector was Hispanic Hottie, he’d nearly been married to Belinda. It wasn’t like he’d never had a woman at his house.
Hector stepped to the side when I got to the bottom and I stopped next to him.
“Sadie, this is my sister Gloria. Gloria, Sadie,” Hector introduced us when I came to a halt.
So this was Catfight, Rough Up Belinda Gloria.
I couldn’t help it, I smiled at her.
Her eyes bugged out.
Now, this was bizarre too.
Hector rapped out something in terse Spanish and Gloria blinked.
Then she said to me, “It’s just like Mamá said, you do look like a fairy princess.”
Oh. That again.
I shrugged.
Eyes still on me, she breathed, “Dios mio, please tell me it’s just a little hard to be that beautiful.”
I stared at her, not knowing how to react.
On the one hand, what she said was really sweet and that made me feel nice.
On the other hand, it was more than “just a little hard” to look like me because looking like me made me a Balducci Brothers Target of Terror.
On this thought, of their own accord, my fingers started toward the scar on my cheek and for some reason when I did this, Hector’s body gave off his angry electric current and it began snapping around the room.
His arm slid around my shoulders and he tucked my front into his side. His other hand came up, his fingers wrapped around my raised wrist and he pulled my hand to his chest. While he did this, he barked low, angry Spanish words at his sister.
She shook her head then nodded and, her face going a bit pale, she said, “I’m sorry, Sadie. I didn’t think.”
So, Gloria knew what happened to me too.
This time, I mentally shrugged. It was way harder than the fairy princess thing but I was getting used to it too.
“Please, don’t worry about it,” I said softly.
Finally, she gave me a small, hesitant grin, turned and gestured to the two girls behind her. “These are my girls, Ines and Tia.”
I looked at them, they were smiling at me and both were nearly as pretty as Gloria (but not quite) and finally I said, “Hi.”
They said, “Hi,” back.