“Yes, that’s why she quit, isn’t it?”
I stare at the phone, check the calendar to make sure it’s not April’s Fool, and once I can form the words, I ask, “Wait, Siobhan quit?”
“You didn’t know?” The disarray in his voice makes me wonder if I should call an ambulance or one of my brothers so they can check on him.
“I had no idea. The last time I saw her, she was on her way to Luna Harbor.”
Well, that’s not exactly how it happened, but I won’t tell him that I left her at a bed and breakfast waiting for a car service. That’s when I check on the app to verify the time the driver picked her up and dropped her off in Luna Harbor.
My pulse quickens when I realize she was dropped at the ferry terminal. Wait, that’s impossible. I paid good money for them to take her to our place. There’s something wrong.
“She should be there,” I insist.
“No, she called your abuelo and quit—with a voicemail. We’re disappointed in her. After everything—”
“She quit?” I interrupt his rant. “Pa, that’s impossible.”
“It’s not. She called and left a message. Your grandfather didn’t say much, just that she wasn’t coming back. I assumed…” His voice trails.
Why would she do that? She planned on staying, didn’t she? What changed her mind?
I’m trying to think about the weekend. Not once did she mention moving out, I would remember.
“Where did she go?”
“Aren’t you listening?” He rumbles. “We thought she was with you since she didn’t say much. Did you do something to her? Are you guys broken up?”
“We were never together,” I growl.
“Three years living in the same house, and you dare tell me that you two weren’t a couple. Hay, Dios Mio, esta generación es un desastre.”
Okay, he’s flustered, and I should tell him that complaining about my generation being a disaster won’t help… I stop for a second, trying to figure out what we need to do. “Why are you calling me?”
“We need her back. Mi padre no puede estar todo el día en la cerveceria. Él y tu tío quieren…” he sighs.
He’s rambling so fast, that I almost miss what he says about Abuelo spending time at the brewery and how he and Uncle Gary want to… I assume they want to spend time together.
My poor father is having trouble understanding the relationship between those two men. It’s not like he’s not supportive but finding out after almost forty years that they’re a couple must be pretty hard.
“Abuelo wants to spend time with his husband?” I say it in the calmest, most understanding voice I can come up with under the circumstances. My father needs more time to adjust to the idea that Uncle Gary, Abuelo’s best friend, is like a father to him.
A few months ago, after they came back from a long trip, Myka caught them kissing. She likes to call it the sweetest, most disturbing surprise. No one wants to see their grandparents or parents making out, no one. That’s when we learned he and Abuelo have been married for years. Twenty to be precise. They just didn’t know if we would accept them. A ridiculous assumption. We love them and we’re happy for them.
Dad’s the only one who’s having trouble accepting their relationship. He feels betrayed. They lied to him for years—he has a point.They should’ve trusted us a little more.
My brothers Manelik and Nando told him to get therapy and suggested family therapy for the three.
But his daddy issues aren’t my current problem. I have to know more about Siobhan’s whereabouts. If they don’t know why she quit, maybe they know where she is. I can go and convince her to come back to Luna Harbor. We’ll raise her salary, and I’ll promise to find her a good job once my family is ready to let her go.
“I’ll find her,” I mutter as I scratch my chin, wondering where she can be and how I’ll convince her to go back to Luna Harbor when for the past few years, I spent at least an hour every day convincing her to leave the town. The irony doesn’t go unnoticed.
“And then what?”
“Let me worry about it, okay.”
“What if she won’t come back?”
“Well, then you’ll be the one in charge of your heritage. Isn’t that what Cantús do?” I hang up before he tries to guilt trip me into going back to that side of the country again.