Page 59 of High

“To fight off sharks,” I said, and only barely managed to keep a straight face. He sighed and a little line settled between his eyebrows, but if he wanted to know, he’d have to actually put some effort into learning. “I can shoot a gun.”

“Think of it as working your way up?”

I stared at him, and for once he wasn’t pulling his I’m Jefe crap to get me to listen to him, so I nodded and took it.

“You’re no good at hiding it when you think I’m being overprotective. This is a compromise.”

“You’re no good at keeping your promise. You said you’d train me. It’s been weeks.”

“That’s nearly no time at all.” He stepped forward and whispered, “I am protecting you. I’m doing all that I can to keep you safe, and I will keep my promise, but I will do it my way. One step at a time, right?” He kissed my cheek and I fought a smile, but it won.

“I suppose.”

While I was pushing the button on my new knife again—it really wasn’t bigger than a set of car keys—he slipped a debit card into my pocket. I fished it back out. The orange card had my name on it. I ran my thumb over the raised silver lettering. “Thio?”

He shrugged a shoulder. “I want you to be able to have the things you need or want. Don’t let Mamá pay for anything.”

“What’s the limit?” I grinned.

“Less than a car but more than an expensive suit.” He stared at me. “Not enough for a tiger.”

“You don’t even know how much they cost. Like a car you drive, or a normal car?”

“Go, or Mamá will be upset.”

“Not with me.” I gave him a toothy grin.

Thio sighed, but I loved that he smiled at me as I went out the door. After we’d gotten back from Pleasant Beach, I couldn’t bring myself to stay mad at him. I mean, here and there I thought about the past too long and got pissed off again, but it was difficult to stay angry when he would kiss me like he couldn’t stand not to do it for one more second. It was too difficult to be strong against those sorts of tactics, and besides, I didn’t want to be upset anymore. I loved him, and while that wasn’t new, all the things we were able to do together now were.

Once outside I shoved the small knife into my pocket, and groaned when I noticed there were two cars escorting Thio’s Rolls, which apparently we were taking, plus our driver and another man in the front seat. I casually strolled up to Tía Rosa, who stood in the sunshine waiting patiently for me.

“I feel like the president with all these men.”

She shushed me but laughed, and Héctor held open the door for her. I went around and got in by myself, something that actually made me feel pretty good. When Thio was around, I didn’t do much for myself, and while that was nice, sometimes I thought he forgot I was capable of the simplest tasks, in spite of what he promised. We got comfortable, and the car began moving without anyone lowering the divider to ask where we were going.

“So, what have you been doing with yourself this week, mijito?” Tía Rosa patted my hand where it rested on the seat between us. Her makeup was flawless as usual, and she didn’t have a single hair out of place. I wasn’t sure how she managed that when we were oceanside.

“Running.” I sighed.

“That’s healthy!” She patted my hand again. “Read anything this week?”

I grimaced, suddenly feeling guilty. “No, I haven’t. I’ve… I spent a lot of time by myself. Before. In Pedregal. I’ve mostly wanted to stay with Thio as much as possible since I came home, and you know Thio’s not exactly a reader.”

“But we’re still going to the bookstore?” She raised a finger at me and mock glared.

“Of course.”

“Good.” She kept up a running chat the entire way to the mall she liked. I hadn’t thought much about the fact that we were going to the city, and as we got into traffic, my chest squeezed at the idea of all the people surrounding us, but I tried to focus on her.

The mall was a massive complex with palm-lined walkways that went around all of the stores, so I knew we would be doing a good deal of walking, which was the reason Arlo had probably invented excuses for not coming. It killed me that I had to stand around until all the men got out of their cars before we could go do our thing, but Tía Rosa waited for them to get themselves out and organized as if it was nothing. We started walking toward the outdoor mall and the men swarmed around us.

Again, I marveled at how good Tía Rosa was at not noticing the guards, but I was still not great with all of the people in the mall. Once we hit the busy sidewalks, we had no choice but to walk close together, and I felt trapped by the tall bodies that weren’t even attempting to blend in here. Without Thio around to tell them to be subtle, they were not trying to hide that they were security.

By the time we were through the stores Tía Rosa wanted to see, it was getting late in the afternoon, so we stopped and bought coffees and then ended up in the bookstore. We’d barely walked in the front, with that wonderful paper smell filling the air, before I was ready to go home again and wondering what Thío was up to. I followed Tía Rosa aimlessly around the bookstore, holding her basket and dropping in a few things I thought she might like that I saw here and there. We walked by the graphic novels and I let out a groan.

She turned toward me with her eyebrows lifted exactly the way Thio’s did.

“I haven’t seen anything new in… years.”