She had to call back twice before Cristina answered the phone. "Ali?" She said in greeting.

 

"How bad was it, after I left?"

 

Cristina sighed. "Pretty bad. Your mother fainted, your father screamed at Carmac. Bobby turned shades of purple, and then he started asking people to get him a drink. There were reporters calling me all last night."

 

"Yeah, Karen warned me," Ali said. "I guess I made a mess of things."

 

She waited for Cristina to agree. She heard a sigh, and then heard some movement as Cristina closed the door to the room she was in and settled down somewhere. "Why did you do it, Ali? Was it because of Alejandro?"

 

"You remember when you kept asking me what I wanted?"

 

"Of course."

 

"I'm still not completely sure. But I know I don't want Bobby. At least, I don't want the life he's going to have. I don't want to live in the public eye, and I don't want to have to spend all day figuring out how to match my hat with my shoes. I want to go to the feed store in my shitkickers and take care of my horse and help some kids. When Bobby and I were going to do that together, I could deal with some of the other stuff. But he's turning into someone I never knew, someone I never wanted to know. And I kept waiting for him to switch back, to become that man that I fell in love with back in college. Only he never did."

 

"Did you feel differently once the Xanax wore off?"

 

Ali chucked. "I felt hung over as all shit, that's for sure."

 

Cristina laughed too. "You weren't supposed to take that many."

 

"Well, you told me to take my medicine."

 

They laughed together, light and easy, like they had months ago. Before Alejandro came back to town.

 

"Do you promise me that this wasn't because of my cousin, mami?"

 

There was so much sorrow and worry inside of Cristina’s voice that it plucked at Ali’s heart. “Why does it matter so much that I not be with him, Cristina? I know he lives a rough life, but I feel alive when I’m with him.”

 

“Because I introduced you,” Cristina cried out. “When he came to our cheerleading practice, I told you who he was. I let you flirt with him, I encouraged you to have a fling with him. And now— If you’re leaving for him, if you’re with him, and something happens to you, that means it’s my fault. That means I killed you, and I can’t live with that.”

 

Ali heard her friend collapse into harsh sobs, and the sound twisted her heart into bits. She searched for the words she needed. “Oh, sweetie, I promise. I’m making my own choices. I’m not leaving for him—though I’m not gonna lie to you, I am with him, at least, at the moment—but I’m leaving because I need to make my own life. I left Bobby because it was the right thing not to marry him. And being with Alejandro right now— It’s the only thing in my messed up world that feels right.”

 

She listened while Cristina cried herself out. “No governor’s mansion for me,” she said, finally. She was laughing, but there was a bitter hint in her tone.

 

“Not unless you get there on your own,” Ali said.

 

“Wouldn’t that be a sight,” she said, and just like that they were friends again. Not as close as they’d been once, Ali thought, and maybe they never would be again. But closer than they’d been when she picked up the phone.

 

“Look, I need to ask you one more favor.”

 

Cristina snorted. “The last favor I did for you ruined your wedding. Your very expensive wedding, as your daddy reminded me repeatedly.”

 

Ali let it pass for now. “I know. But this is the last matron of honor duty I’ll ask of you. Can you swing by my place in a couple of hours?”

 

“Sure,” Cristina said. “Happy to. After all, if this is the way things are going to go, Alejandro and I are going to have a few words.”

 

“Cristina—”

 

“What do I always tell you, Ali?” They finished it together: “Take your medicine.”

 

She disconnected the call, and turned around to see Alejandro standing in the doorway. “How long have you been there?”

 

“Just a second,” he said. “Everything okay?”

 

“Yeah,” she replied, slipping her phone into the pocket of her jeans. “Just a couple things I needed to take care of. Cristina’s probably going to stop by later.”

 

His grin spread sideways across his face. “Oh? How much does she hate me right now?” He stepped close to her and put his hands around her waist. Ali let him hold her, let her weight relax back into his chest.

 

“I don’t think she hates you at all. I think that she’s worried. About both of us. And you have to admit, there’s good reason for that. We’ve torn each other up more than once.”

 

She could feel him nod against her shoulder, his grip tight around her waist tight and firm. “That we have.”

 

“We probably will again.”

 

“I’ll try not to,” he said, and his lips pressed like rose petals against the nape of her neck. She sighed, feeling her body heat and relax against him at the same time. His fingers teased at her skin, dipping under the waistband of her jeans, and up under the hem of her shirt.

 

“Where’s everybody gone?” she asked, letting him take her weight, wrapping one arm up around his neck.

 

“Pitbull and Zig left to go find where the Diablos are holed up. We know it’s in one of the industrial parks outside of town, but the exact ‘where,’ we’re not sure. Karen went to go get a shower. She said she’d swing by tonight, make sure everything was okay, and to call if you needed her before then.”

 

She spun in his arms then, wrapping both arms around his neck and capturing his mouth for a firm kiss. “So we’re all alone is what you’re saying?”

 

He laughed softly against her mouth. “And I thought I was insatiable.”

 

Ali quirked an eyebrow at him. “I mean, we don’t have to, if you don’t want to.”

 

Alejandro’s thumb brushed over her nipple, which tightened for him quickly as she sighed. “Oh, I want to. I just assumed you’d be too sore. If I can be so bold, I was pretty rough earlier.”

 

There was a lot of bravado in his voice, but even more than that she heard a little boy who was still worried that he wasn’t worth loving. She caught his face in her hands and brought him to look right at her. “You were,” she said. “And I’m achy. And tight. And still wet and needy and wishing I was full of you all over again.”

 

He groaned against her skin, nipping at her neck. She moved with him for a moment, smiling to herself. “I mean, do you even have a gentle setting?”

 

He pulled back then. The look in his eyes, like he was accepting the challenge that she was putting forth. “Do I have a gentle setting?” he scoffed at her mockingly, and then everything about him shifted. The burning fire in his eyes banked into a simmering smolder, the tension in his hands melted away, and instead of driving her on with his fingers, she found him full of invitation and delicate warmth. He took her hand and pulled her along with him until he sat down on the couch, then tugged her down into his lap. She sat crosswise, her legs thrown over his right hip, and he kissed her, lips soft and gentle, his fingers exploring her with more delicacy than he’d ever shown her in all the years they’d been together.

 

“There were women,” he said as he pressed kisses along her jawline. “There were a lot of women, Ali. I tried over and over again to fall in love, especially once Cristina started telling me about Bobby. I knew she was just trying to get me to move on, to get over you, and I thought I could. But every time I thought of you and him—it was too much. So I had women, I had endless women, and I wished that every one of them was you.”

 

Ali knew she was supposed to be upset about this. It wasn’t some sort of revelation, after all. It had been a decade, and God knew Alejandro was a good looking man. And the way he made love to her— that wasn’t something a guy developed simply by daydreaming. But she couldn’t find any room in her heart for “upset.”

 

“Even if you didn’t think of me, every single time, it’s not my place to be upset. It’s not like you owed me anything during that time.” She laughed and kissed the tip of his nose, a gesture that made him glare at her. Mostly jokingly. She hoped. “Go sneaking off with someone else now, though, and we’d have a different conversation.”

 

He gave her a curious look. “And what if I didn’t sneak off? What if I brought someone else home?”

 

She resisted the urge to swat his arm again. “Talk to me about it first, please.”

 

“Are you saying that could potentially be an option?”

 

“I don’t really think this is the point right now.”

 

He sighed and laughingly rolled his eyes. “And you tell me this after you ask me to be gentle.”

 

She could feel him pressing into her, hard and ready. “If it’s too much for you to handle, we can stop.”

 

The heat in his eyes didn’t fade. “I’d really prefer not to wait.”

 

“So show me,” she said. “How gentle can you be?”

 

He made love to her like a summer rain, washing over her skin in delicate waves. His fingers brushed her nipples instead of twisting, caressed her sides instead of urging, stroked over her ass instead of gripping. He whispered to her while he did it, murmuring how much he loved her, how beautiful she was, how perfect it felt to be finally holding her. Her clothes fell away like flower petals, and they were naked together. He brought her down so that she straddled him, his cock hard and solid between them, pressed against her belly.

 

And then he leaned back and put his hands up behind his head. “This is how gentle I can be,” he said. “Show me what you want.”