Ali had just closed the door behind Travis when Cristina's car pulled up the driveway. Ali tried not to groan. She wanted nothing but to sit down and dial Alejandro's phone a thousand times until he picked up, but it wouldn’t get her anywhere good. She needed to focus, get through what she needed to get through. She'd tear him apart for abandoning her again if—when—she saw him again. She opened the door for Cristina and wrapped her up in a hug as she came up the steps. "Thanks for coming, sweetie."

 

"Of course, mami," Cristina said.

 

"Are you mad at me?" Ali asked as they settled down on the couch.

 

"Mad at you? No. Do I think you're making a huge mistake, one that you'll regret for the rest of your life?" Cristina sighed and leaned back against the arm of the couch. "I don't know, Ali. I know it would be the wrong choice for me, but you're not me. Maybe you can change him, help him make something of his life that's not just blood and tears."

 

"I don't want to change him," Ali said. "And this isn't about him, anyway. Not really."

 

"Yeah, I know, it's about how you need to get in touch with your inner woman. But Ali—my cousin, he's not going to give you what you want. What I want for you."

 

"I know," Ali said, and Cristina subsided, her eyes searching, confused. "I think that's where I've been wrong since the beginning, Cristina. I kept waiting for someone else to give me the life I wanted. And the truth is that I need to go find it myself. I can't keep waiting for it to just arrive. That's not how it works, not when it's something worth having."

 

"That may be the first thing you've said that made any sense at all," Cristina said. "Do you have anything stronger than this tea? I was up with the mothers until all hours, and what a mess."

 

Ali winced, went to the kitchen, and brought out a bottle of whiskey. "Do you think Mama will ever speak to me again?" she asked as she poured.

 

Cristina shrugged. "Probably. I think she understands better than you think. She thought this was something she wanted. And the comment you made, about him assaulting you—that got a lot of people's attention. There are a couple of women who've come forward since yesterday, saying that they were also on the receiving end of Bobby's… attentions, after he'd had too much to drink."

 

Ali felt her face draw tight. She'd meant to make her point to him, to find a way to put into his head that she didn't dare be alone with him again, much less intimate. She hadn't meant to tell everyone in the community that he was the next best thing to a rapist. But that was when she'd assumed she was the only one. She thought back to the way people had avoided him at parties once he'd gotten going— especially women. "I hope he gets some help for the way he is," she said, finding it the fairest way to say what she was thinking. "How's Carmac taking it?"

 

Cristina threw back her whiskey and puffed her lips out. "He's trying to spin it. You're unstable, of course, and Bobby's been seeking treatment for his drinking—I could just about hear his teeth grinding at that point—and the other women are just trying to get attention, of course."

 

"What's Bobby saying?"

 

"Not much, actually. Once Alejandro left the church, he kind of… dropped into a pew and didn't move. Your mama and his cleared the guests out of the church, and the groomsmen tried to hustle Bobby out, but he was just quiet." Cristina was silent a moment. "I wish I hadn't pushed so hard, Ali. I feel like this is my fault on both sides. I shouldn't have introduced you to Alejandro, but I shouldn’t have pushed you back towards Bobby either. I should have let you make up your own mind."

 

"You were doing what you thought was best," Ali said, and made herself smile. It was the truth, after all. As misguided as it might have been, it was the truth. "I appreciate that." She dug into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out the engagement ring.

 

She'd worn it long enough for it to need to be cleaned. She hated that it looked tarnished in her palm. As if she hadn't taken good enough care of it. And maybe she hadn't. Maybe things with her and Bobby would have worked out, if she'd just managed to put a little more effort into it.

 

But at the same time, he would have needed to do more, as well. More listening, more understanding, more trying. It just hadn't worked out, and maybe that wasn't anyone's fault at all.

 

"I don't imagine Bobby's going to want anything to do with me for a very long time," she said. "Do you think that you could get this back to him? I don't feel right having it in the house. Not after last time."

 

There was a certain depth to Cristina's sigh as she picked up the ring. "It would have been so much fun to decorate the mansion with you."

 

"Well, if things work out the way I'm hoping they will, you'll get to decorate something with me. Not a mansion, but maybe a little house, up near San Antonio."

 

She'd hoped to get a smile, maybe even a squeal out of her friend, but no such luck. Cristina sat quietly, studying the way the light reflected through the diamond and made tiny rainbows on her hand. "So you're leaving?"

 

Ali sighed. "Bobby ruined my business. It was everything I wanted, and he destroyed it to try and force me back with him. I'm done with Arroyo Flats. I got a job offer up towards San Antonio, running a program that will help kids. It's the next best thing, Cristina."

 

"And it's close to Alejandro. So you can be close by when he gets killed."

 

"I don’t think it's going to be like that."

 

Cristina's smile was soft and sad. "That's because you're not thinking with this," she said, tapping one manicured fingernail between Ali's brows. "So I hope to hell he's doing a good job with this." She pointed into Ali's lap.

 

Ali's cheeks flushed, and she nodded. "He's doing just fine," she said.

 

"You know I just want you to be safe?"

 

"I do. Promise."

 

Cristina smiled, the whiskey filtering through her and softening the hard edges she spent so much time keeping filed clean and tight. "And make me a couple little nieces and nephews to play with, okay? I don't want my babies growing up without family."

 

That was as close as Cristina was ever going to get to endorsing the relationship between her best friend and her cousin, Ali was fairly sure. She found a smile, somewhere deep down inside, and raised her glass. "I'll drink to that," she said. Cristina tinked her glass against Ali's and then squeezed her friend's fingers without saying another word.