My brow raised. "You broke a statue?"
He rolled his eyes like he was fed up with the topic already. Clearly this had been brought up against him before. "It was four years ago and anaccident. It wasn't even a big statue."
"It was the centerpiece of the lobby," Anita deadpanned.
Javi threw his hands up in defense. "Their fault for having such a fragile piece in the center of a huge room unprotected. I'm surprised it didn’t break sooner."
"Do you know how much that cost me?" She leaned forward with her hands on her knees as she made heavy eye contact with her son, unable to believe how he could downplay the accident.
Javier mumbled an apology and chuckled sheepishly, and I couldn't help but laugh. I never would have thought Javier of all people would have been so irresponsible. "How did you do it?"
"We were walking to the pool when Gabriela said, ‘Whoever touches the statue last has to sit in the middle seat on the way back home.’ We were both running too fast so instead of lightly touching it, we knocked it over."
"I thought they were going to put us out," Anita muttered. "Javier was a mischievous child, in case you did not know."
"I don't believe it."
"Oh, the stories I'm going to tell you."
Javier's lips formed into a straight, serious line. "No need for that, Mamá."
I wiggled my finger. "No, no. I want to hear the stories."
Anita made a kissy face. "I'll show you his baby pictures too."
Before Javier could protest like he was eager to do, there was a loud knock on the door. Alan was in the garage still loading thethings into the car which meant that it was not him. It was two in the morning, who could possibly be knocking on the door?
When no one made a move to the door, Javier took it upon himself. His mom protested because it was dangerous to open the door for a stranger at such an ungodly hour of the morning. Javi insisted that he was just going to look through the peephole.
It took him a second to make out who was standing on the front porch. When he did figure it out, he faced us with an unreadable expression.
"Who is it?" his mom asked impatiently.
He paused before his gaze fell on mine. "Your brother and sister."
I tilted my head thinking I misheard him because there was no way he said what I thought he said. His unwavering expression told me that I had heard him correctly and it sent a shiver down my spine.
"They've had over a week to show up unannounced and they choose to do it when we’re about to leave?" I asked rhetorically.
They knocked again. Well—I should say Easton knocked again. I knew it was his knock because it was loud and impatient, like the police were about the bust through the door.
Javier gave me a reassuring nod before he unlocked it and revealed the two standing there timidly. They stood like they did not belong, like they knew they had no right to be here, but they said fuck it and came anyway.
Emerson gave a small wave. "Sorry for showing up like this Mrs. Cortez. We knew that you would be up because we knew when you guys were leaving."
"How did you know that?" Javier asked bluntly.
"Ricky," my sister replied. "Your friend is very helpful, Eli."
They expected a reply, but I had none to offer them. What did they truly want from me?
"Can we talk to you?"
No. There were so many better opportunities for them to 'talk' to me. How about when we slept in the same bedroom for our entire lives? How about when I woke up in the hospital? How about the entire week I spent at someone else's house, hoping that they would make an appearance but had to come to the harsh realization that they wouldn't? I should have immediately told them no.
But I really wanted to hear them out.
We stepped onto the porch and I pushed the door so that it wasn't completely shut but still gave us some privacy. I tugged my jacket tighter around me, it was chillier outside than I expected it to be.
