“You hush and keep stirring.”
Dee snorts out a laugh. “Nice try, sis.”
“You be quiet, too. If that rice is sticky, I’ll have your head.”
I lift the lid on a pot to peek inside. “She told you, DeeDee.”
Mom smacks my hand away. “Get out of here, and get our guests settled in the family room with drinks.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I say as Dee returns my snort.
“I guess she told you,” Dee retorts.
“I’m going to tell you all if you don’t quit the bickering,” Mom says.
“You’re still hoping that’s gonna happen, Ma?” Milo asks when he comes in from the garage carrying a big bag of presents and flowers for Mom.
“Suck-up,” Maria says.
Mom holds her arms out to Milo, who gives me, Dee and Maria a smug smile as he goes to her. “Come here and give me a hug, my sweet boy.”
“Mama’s boy,” I say on a cough.
“You wish you were her favorite,” Milo says.
“You’re all my favorites,” Mom says. “Especially when you’re not talking.”
“Right,” Maria says, her tone dripping with sarcasm. “Milo is your favorite, and we all know it.”
“Lord save me from these children,” Mom says to the ceiling.
We used to make mad fun of her for talking to the ceiling, as if God could hear her through the roof.
“What are they doing now?” Dad asks when he joins us in the kitchen.
“They won’t shut up and quit bickering.”
“Nothing new there, my love. Kids, get out of here, and let your mother spin her magic.”
Maria’s fiancé, Austin, walks in with Everly in his arms and his parents trailing behind them.
“Perfect timing,” Maria says as she goes to hug them. “I just got kicked out of the kitchen.”
SOFIA
“Swim, Rie!” Everly says, reaching for Maria.
“Not until we go home, Pooh. Let’s play with Mateo until then.”
“Bike,” Mateo says.
“You can stay in here with me if you’d like,” Elena says to me from her post at the stove. “Let Nico take him back outside for a bit.”
“Do you mind?” I ask him.
“Not at all.” He takes Mateo from me, and I marvel at how easily he goes to Nico when he usually wants me and only me. That drives Joaquín crazy. He says Mateo cries for Mama the whole time he’s with him. Secretly, I love that, even though it breaks my heart to know Mateo is so unhappy when he’s away from me.
I love watching Nico’s family interact. They’re like a TV show with the banter and the one-liners, the insults and the love. There’s so much love, even when they’re picking on one another. I’d never known a family like them until I started working at the restaurant and saw them together. There’re so many of them, too. It took me a while to figure out who goes with who, but now I’ve got it down.