I poke my head into the kitchen. A dozen people are buzzing around. My dad is stirring some vat at the stove. Probably menudo. My mother is braiding my cousin’s hair. Everyone is smiling and eating and hugging. Tori finally sees me.
“Holy shit. It’s Katherine!”
Everyone turns to me, mouths open.
“Hey, guys.” And goddamn it. I left their gifts under my bed at the farm.
I sigh and force a smile.
I’m not sure what I’m expecting. Yelling? Threats? A one-way ticket to a convent? But that’s not what happens.
Instead, my dad yanks me off my feet into a bear hug.
“Mija!” My father twirls me around until I’m laughing.
He’s wiping away tears that only make mine well up. Ugh. Can I go twenty-four hours without crying? This is ridiculous.
When my dad releases me, my mom rushes in for a hug. “Gracias a Dios! She’s home!”
People hand me off like a rag doll to hug me and pet my hair. Yes, really. They pet me. And then they make me sit down and eat because they claim I’m too skinny.
It takes all of sixty seconds for Tori to saunter over and sit on my lap like she’s five, not seventeen.
“Dude, get your bony ass off me.” I try to shrug her away, but she clings to me like a koala bear.
“I missed you, sissy.”
Aww. My heart melts a little. “Missed you too, Tor.”
She grabs my face and whispers, “Did you bring your hot man toy?”
I shrug out of her hold and shake my head. “Don’t call him that. And no.”
She studies my face and then gasps, “You guys broke up?”
Again, everyone’s attention is on me. “Yes, we broke up. Is everyone happy now? Brady’s going back to Boston. And no, before you ask, I am not getting back with Eric. You may not know this, but he’s an asshole.”
My little cousins start laughing and my mother flutters around like I just declared that I like to pole-dance with pasties in my free time.
Two hours later, my parents kick everyone out so we can talk. They’ll be back tomorrow for Christmas anyway, so it’s not like I ruined anything.
My dad points to the couch. “Siéntate.” He sighs. “Explain everything. Like why you didn’t come home this summer and why the senator’s boy has been calling us.”
“Dad, you might want to sit too.” Because it’s gonna be a long night.
To their credit, they don’t interrupt me, even when I tell them Eric got me pregnant.
Anyway, they must have suspected I was hiding something major to not come home all this time.
At hearing this news, my mom cries quietly while my father clenches his jaw and rubs her shoulder.
I explain how the asshole finally came around. Two weeks later. And by that time I realized he wasn’t the kind of man I wanted to have a child with. Someone who cuts and runs at the first sign of trouble. And then I tell them I was with Mel when I miscarried a few weeks later.
“Mija,” my father chokes out, “I wish you had told us something. I never would’ve talked to that lowlife if you had.”
My lower lip quivers. “I’m sorry, Dad. I didn’t want to disappoint you.”
He laughs and shakes his head before he pulls me into another hug. “How could that even be possible? My girl is the first person in the family to graduate from college. And from a damn good school. You worked for a senator. How could I be disappointed in you?”
I mumble into his shoulder. “I just feel like you guys had all your hopes pinned on me. You worked so hard to get me those opportunities. To get me to a place where I could get a job like that.” Leaning back, I sniffle. “All those times you didn’t get things you needed because I needed school books. Or how the electricity would get turned off but you’d still fill my meal card with money.”
Seriously, my parents are amazing. I don’t even bring up the years they spent as migrant farmers because I'll bawl.
He pats my back. “How did you know about the electricity?”
“Tori would call me.”
“Traitor!” she screams from the other room.
My dad chuckles at my eavesdropping little sister.
But the words I’ve used to describe my ex linger in my mind. Someone who cuts and runs. And my stomach drops. Is that what I just did to Brady?
I back away from my dad, misery seeping into my bones.
My dad must notice my expression. “Did you get the flowers we sent for the funerals?”
I nod, not wanting to think about that day.
“We felt real bad about Mel and her husband.” His voice is thick. “She was always such a good girl. Always treated everyone real good.”
“I know, Daddy.”
He’s silent for a while, and then he sighs. “?Y el otro? El hermano del Cal. Tell me about him.”
A sad smile lifts my lips. That’s easy. There’s so much to say about Brady.
I tell my dad how wonderful he is. How hard he works on the farm to provide for his niece and parents. How well he took care of me when he arrived. How much he loves his niece.