Garcia

An hour into the cookout, I’m beginning to worry about Kimber. I’ve never seen her drink, she’s been pregnant or nursing our entire relationship. Two and a half margaritas later she’s dancing with Tiana on their deck. Both of them are giggling uncontrollably about a meme on Instagram about a baby and a cat.

Drake is over the moon listening to them going on and on. I imagine he hasn’t heard Tiana laugh for a while. She went through hell finding out her brother murdered her parents and her aunt because he wanted to keep her all to himself. I’m not sure I would ever be able to get over something like that.

“Don’t worry so much. They deserve to let loose for a while, both of them.” Drake is standing at the grill moving steaks around with tongs as if he can see perfectly. It’s amazing that he has come so far so fast adapting to his new life without sight. I guess he knew it was coming for seventeen years but still going blind is going blind.

“I know, I had to give her some bad news before we came, though, and I’m afraid she’s trying to numb the pain with alcohol.”

The sun is an enormous orange, pink ball slipping below the horizon. There are streaks of white airplane fuel crisscrossing the sky after a long day of military flights and the breeze is warm and inviting. Evenings can be pretty comfortable here, the humidity lifts a smidge and without the sun to burn your skin off,I enjoy being outdoors.

I look out over his back yard and wish we were still looking at a West Coastsunset instead of this one where we would be far from my family and Caleb.

“Did you tell her about your brothers stopping by?” We are far enough from the girls that they couldn’t hear us if they tried, and they aren’t trying. Grayson is lying on his side looking around content with a belly full of breast milk that I just fed him from a bottle.

“No, worse. Her ex came to see me this week. Suddenly he wants to share custody. Motherfucker.” I look over at Grayson, “Sorry, little man.” I’ve gotta stop cursing.

“Is that so unusual? I guess I figured the father was long gone the way you treat him like he’s your own.”

“He is mine, he will always be mine. And yeah, it’s unusual considering that he divorced her because he didn’t want to have a baby right now.”

He closes the grill and feels around for the knobs to turn down the heat a little bit. “Oh, well, yes, I suppose you’re right, that is unusual. What’s his excuse, or his reasoning, I guess?”

“There is none, that’s the crazy part. He didn’t even come to see Grayson in the hospital, didn’t know his name, nothing. Then all of a sudden he’s sorry and he was scared of the responsibilities and now he wants to be fucking father of the year or some shit.”

“Do you think he wants Kimber back?”

“Hell, I don’t know what he wants. You should have seen him, he looked like such a pathetic excuse for a Marine standing in my office asking me to break the news to Kimber for him.”

“He asked you to tell her?”

“Yep, wasn’t gonna either but she sensed something was wrong and I had to.”

“Women have a way of doing that, don’t they? The good ones anyway.”

“I don’t like keeping secrets from her but he hasn’t made any moves since Monday. I was hoping he flaked out. She still deserved to know.”

“She did.” He sits down on a chaise on the other side of Grayson’s stroller and tilts his head so he can hear the girls better. “I understand you’re worried but she’s a grown woman and if she wants to drink it away for an evening, I say what the hell.”

I suppose someone who hadn’t been raised by an abusive alcoholic might see it that way. I watched my father abuse my mother and my brothers and sisters my whole life while he tried to drink his worries away.

He would come home from the office, wherever that was, and make his way through the house to the bar first thing every night. He didn’t even bother to say hello to any of us.

After three drinks he started being nice, asking how school was, telling my mother how pretty she was. Then they would start to drink together at his insistence. I swear my mom became an alcoholic by force. By bedtime he had put hands on at least two of us, more if no one was out of the house for a sporting event or school activity and mom was in tears. He would drag her to their bedroom and I would hide in mine with my pillow over my head so I couldn’t hear her cries.

One thing I never understood was why we didn’t all bond together and fight back, or at least comfort each other. We all went our separate ways to nurse our wounds. We locked our doors and blocked each other out. I tried to look in on my sisters but they would yell at me to go away. My brothers acted like it was nothing, they called me a pussy for crying.

My dad groomed all of us to be perfect criminals. Sebastian and Diego are running his drug empire and Camilla and Isa head up one of the largest underground insider trading businesses in the country. Adriana takes care of mother and runs what I would call a modern day brothel. She calls it a companion service.

I wouldn’t have anything to do with any of them or their morally corrupt lives. I resisted and for that I paid. One particular night when I was seven or eight, I lay in my bed with bruises covering my back and abdomen and a cut lip bleeding on my pillowcase.

I refused to deliver a package for my father to a little grocery store near the school I went to. All I had to do was hop out of the car he sent to pick me up from school everyday, run it in to the owner, and get back in the car. I knew it was wrong, even at that age I sensed everything about my family was twisted. The beatings I got for not conforming were proof.

Sometimes I wondered if I was really related to them at all. I had nothing in common with any of them. Once I had asked for a signature on a permission slip to sing in the school choir. One of my teachers told me I had an exceptional tone and encouraged me to join. Dad thought I was a pussy for wanting to sing like a girl and he beat the shit out of me and pushed me into the swimming pool in the backyard just for asking. I was twelve.

That was the night I vowed to be totally the opposite of my family. My little sister Camilla was in high school pushing drugs for my dad. My other sister Isa was nineteen and laundering money at the fake business. And my older sister Adriana kept my father’s friends and business associates entertained. Sebastian and Diego did whatever he told them to do, which usually involved delivering packages, collecting money, and beating people to a pulp.

They were a bunch of corrupt law-breaking gangsters and I didn’t want to end up like any one of them. I could have been a cop but I chose the USMC instead. I didn’t relish the idea of being on the opposite end of a case that involved my family. I hated them but I’d seen what they did to those who crossed them and I valued my life too much to end up like that.

I loved the idea of solidarity and being a part of a family with strict rules and good morals. I couldn’t wait to defend my country and climb the ranks to prove I wasn’t a gangster. The Marines were good people fighting for good things. That’s what I wanted to be, a good man.

Drake’s gate opens on the side of the house and I jump up to see who it is. I’m so fucking jumpy these days. This is how I didn’t want to spend my life, looking over my shoulder, wondering when something bad was going to happen.

“It’s just Mattie and Belle, damn, Garcia, you got a little anxiety going on there?” Drake says standing slowly to greet our friends. “You know them, don’t you? Hey, guys, over here, I have the grill all heated up. You can throw your stuff on whenever you’re ready.”

“Yeah, we met in Cali at their wedding rehearsal.”

Mattie climbs the stairs of the deck carrying two bags of groceries with Belle right behind him. “The wedding that never was,” Mattie says patting me on the back. “It’s good to see you under better circumstances.”

Their hands are full so I move aside and open one of the French doors that lead into the kitchen. “For sure, you two are looking great.” I scoop Grayson up into my arms and follow them inside.

A massive earthquake ruined their weekend of wedding activities and almost ended Belle’s life six months ago. She suffered a severe brain injury and he broke his leg. Months later, when they were both out of the hospital, they chose not to test fate again with a big wedding and got married at the courthouse. Shortly after they were relocated here to North Carolina and somehow we all ended up on the same block in tiny little Jewel Falls.

If it weren’t for their wedding that never happened, I would not have met Kimber. She was there alone, recently divorced and pregnant as a guest. Her friend Violet hooked up with my best friend Major Steele. One chance encounter on the beach with Violet, her mother, and Kimber led me to the love of my life and a baby in less than a year.

It’s crazy but I wouldn’t change a thing. Well, that’s not true, I would have stayed in California now that I know Caleb thinks he can take what’s mine. What he gave up and tossed aside carelessly.

I can’t help but feel partially responsible for what’s happening. I helped put us in closer proximity to him by accepting the relocation to North Carolina. It’s a lot harder to get shared custody of an infant when the mother is on the other side of the country. But Kimber’s family is here and I wanted her to be happy.

Drake raises his fingers to his mouth to whistle at Kimber and Tiana over the music. Both whip their heads in our direction with their hair flying everywhere, their drinks sloshing onto the deck. When they notice Mattie and Belle their faces light up and they squeal as they run with open arms to hug them.

Tiana holds Belle at arm’s length, “I’m so glad you could come. Oh my gosh, Belle, you look beautiful, where did you get this bracelet, I love it,” she says snatching her delicate wrist to look closer at the colorful strands of beads.

Belle looks at Tiana and then the bracelet and then Mattie who stops unloading the grocery bags. He steps around the island and circles her waist with his arm pulling her in close. “You got it on our honeymoon in Cabo, honey, remember?” he says with the kind of tenderness you use when you talk to a young child.

“Cabo?”

“Yes, we went six weeks ago, remember?”

Her expression is blank as she stares at the floor trying to remember her own honeymoon.

When she looks up she has tears in her eyes. It’s as if she knows she should remember this but she can’t. Her brain injury, it must still be affecting her.

“It’s okay, baby, we can show everyone the pictures later. That will jog your memory, it always does.”

She nods like a zombie and Mattie glances up at me before leading her out onto the deck to a chair.

“Shit, I didn’t mean to mess that up. I didn’t know she was having so much trouble remembering,” Tiana says when they are out of earshot.

“Don’t feel bad, I didn’t know either. I don’t think any of us did,” Kimber says.

Tiana pokes her lip out in a pout and frowns. “Mattie should have warned us.”

“Yes, that would have been helpful for everyone,” I say and Kimber moves closer to look at Grayson who is now sleeping in my arms despite all of the activity going on around him.

“It would be so sad to forget the most important moments of your life. I can’t imagine forgetting one single part of Grayson’s birth and life so far, or meeting you, or loving you. Garcia, I love you so much, don’t let me forget.”

Note to self, Kimber is an emotional drinker. “Nobody’s going to forget you, baby, and you’re not going to forget us. I think maybe we should slow down on the drinking.” I shift Grayson into one arm and take her glass and set it on the counter.

“Who’s we? You’re not drinking tonight, I am.”

“No more for a while, trooper. Let’s go help Drake with the grill.” I guide her by the waist to the door and she wobbles a bit on her heels grabbing onto my arm.

Tiana is staring at us with a curious expression. She’s been drinking quiet a bit too but she’s not quite as bad off as Kimber. “You okay?” I ask.

She looks at me like she’s forgotten I’m here and shakes her head. “Yeah, sorry.”

“Nothing to apologize for, you coming?”

“Yeah, yeah, I am.” She sets her empty glass on the counter next to Kimber’s and follows us out onto the deck. I never said anything about her not drinking, it’s not my place, of course. I wonder what’s going on inside her head?

Outside Belle is sitting in a lounger and Mattie is behind her massaging her shoulders while he and Drake talk about a crash that happened during a recent NASCAR race. Tiana sits down next to Drake and Kimber and I take the double glider on his right with Grayson.

The atmosphere has changed dramatically in the past fifteen minutes. No one is drinking, the volume on the music has been turned down and Tiana and Kimber have stopped laughing and dancing.

I feel like telling Kimber to slow down has ruined her fun. “Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be bossy about your drinking in there. I just think you should pace yourself, that’s all. I don’t want to ruin your fun.”

She turns to me with her big round green eyes batting her lashes “I like it when you’re bossy.” She snuggles against me and I consider taking her home right now. It hasn’t been six weeks but there are hundreds of other things we can do.

“You’re tempting me, future Mrs. Garcia.”

She giggles and slides her hand up my thigh. I don’t want to but I move it down to my knee. She’s drunker than I thought. She wouldn’t be this forward in front of our friends if she weren’t. I swear she only had two margaritas but I guess when you haven’t had any alcohol for a year two margaritas would fuck you up.

“Garcia, do you watch NASCAR?” Drake asks.

“On TV?”

He smirks, “Well, yes, unless you attend in person.”

“Nah, we don’t watch much TV but I did go to the Indy 500 about four years ago. My buddy and I set off firecrackers under the bleachers. I was deaf for a week.”

“You’re a practical joker, huh? Somehow that doesn’t surprise me,” Drake says with a chuckle.

“You have no idea,” Kimber says under her breath.

“I think somebody wants firecrackers under her bed tonight,” I say quietly into her hair.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Oh, now don’t you know that’s the worst thing to say to the class clown?”

“I’ll be sure to call the fire department if I hear fireworks coming from your house tonight,” Mattie says.

“I think Grayson would be pretty pissed if somebody woke him up like that,” Drake says standing to check on the meat.

“He’s pissed off every two hours like clockwork anyway.”

“He’s just hungry, aren’t you, sweet boy?” Kimber says reaching up to stroke him on the cheek.

“You guys make a beautiful family,” Tiana says with a sigh and a slow dreamy voice.

I would normally make a smart-ass comment or simply thank her but knowing just how fucked up her family was I’m not sure what to say.

“Tiana wants babies,” Drake says rolling his unseeing eyes.

“I do, at least two or three.”

“I want six or seven,” I announce. Kimber sits up and turns her whole body to face me on the swing. She looks absolutely sober, clear-eyed, and shocked.

“Six or seven? You never told me that. Are you messing with me? You’re messing with me, right? Class clown and all that.”

I cock my head to the side and think back about all of the discussions we have had about our future. I could have sworn I told her I wanted a big family.

“No, not clowning, I want a lot of kids, don’t you?”

“I only want one or two, two max. I had no idea, Juliàn, I hope this isn’t a dealbreaker.”

I stare at her with my mouth hanging open, stunned.

“Uh oh, trouble in paradise,” Mattie says standing up to make his way back into the kitchen.

“This meat is done, you want to grab the salads out of the fridge, babe?” Drake says to Tiana. She hops up and follows Mattie. Even Belle is uncomfortable and starts digging for something in her purse.

Everyone scattered the second things got serious between Kimber and me. No one is interested in being part of a family argument.

“Okay, everybody, stop. I’m messing with you. I know you want your own soccer team. Sorry, baby, sometimes the prankster needs to be pranked. Thanks, Tiana, perfect timing.” Tiana wiggles her eyebrows up and down and smiles a mischievous smile. Kimber narrows her eyes and points her perfectly manicured nail at me, “I finally got you back for scaring me with that giant spider taped to the roll of toilet paper.”

Mattie sticks his head out of the door, “Ha, she got you, man. I can’t believe you did that with the spider, dude, you’re wicked clever.” He’s such a surfer boy. I can’t believe he’s a Marine.

Drake is laughing and a shy smile plays on Belle’s lips. These guys may as well have just declared prank war on me. I can’t wait to start planning my revenge.

I sweep my pointed finger through the air gesturing at each of them, “You are all targets now, watch your backs, I will seek revenge.”

“I’m exempt, I can’t see,” Drake says.

“No way, you were in on this, you’re fair game.”

“Damn it, I thought I could use this blindness shit to my advantage once in a while,” he mumbles to himself removing the meat from the grill and placing it onto a plate that Tiana has brought outside.

“Not this time.”

“Let’s eat,” Kimber says getting up to help Tiana set the table. They have a gorgeous solid wood patio table and benches. It looks handmade and expensive as hell. A pergola covers the deck with tiny white twinkling lights woven into thick purple wisteria. The lights came on automatically at dusk transforming the party from the drunken party bus it was before the sun went down into a romantic softly lit dinner.

I watch them moving from the kitchen to the table several times before getting up and laying Grayson in his stroller. “Does this thing have a bug net?” I ask Kimber looking through the things she has stored under the stroller.

She frowns, “No, I never thought of that. Is he asleep?”

“Yeah, I’ll just roll him into the kitchen and close the screen door. Is it okay to leave your back door open, Drake?”

“Sure, of course. He’ll be fine, we will be able to hear him if he wakes up.”

“Thanks.” I push him just inside the door where I can see him from the table and I close only the screen part of the door.

The six of us get to know each other while we eat. I learn that Belle is a librarian which fits perfectly with her quiet demeanor but I wonder if she’s been able to go back to work with her memory problems.

Tiana is originally from the UK, I thought I’d read that in one of the news articles about her brother, her faint accent also gave that away. She’s a singer who is currently waitressing until she decides what her next move in her career will be. Drake is a retired Major in the USMC, I knew that, but I learned tonight that he is coming up with a program to help disabled veterans cope with the loss of their sight. I knew he wouldn’t last long sitting on the porch and doing yard work.

Mattie grew up here in North Carolina with Kimber. They went to the same school and hung out with the same crowd. There is a lot of familiar banter between them and even though I know it’s only friendly it makes me the tiniest bit jealous.

I want that with Kimber, I want to have years of experiences and history between us. I want something that seals us together and bonds us for life. We need to get married. Maybe I’ll mention pushing up the wedding?

When we are finished eating Kimber disappears into the house to feed Grayson while I help Tiana and Belle clear the dishes off the table.

Drake’s house happens to be positioned on the inside curve of the street making my driveway visible from one section of his deck. When I stand with a stack of dishes in my hands, I notice headlights swinging into my driveway and I freeze. It’s too dark to recognize the car so I wait for its occupant or occupants to exit.

The trees in our yard shield the driver when he or she exits the car and walks up to the porch to ring the bell. It’s not a Bentley so unless my dad sent my brothers up in two cars it isn’t them, thank God, but if not them, then who?

The person doesn’t wait long after ringing the bell, like it was only a formality. They open the screen door and place something inside closing it and hurrying back to the dark blue sedan. I can see them better coming toward the car to leave less than a second later. It’s a he and he is wearing a suit and tie, definitely not one of my dad’s thugs, he’s dressed like a business man or a lawyer… Fuck, Caleb sent his lawyer to personally drop off custody papers on a Saturday evening. What a fucking cowardly dick.

This has been pretty much a perfect night with friends and family. I don’t want it ruined by Kimber finding out Caleb is seeking partial custody of Grayson. I watch the car pull out of my drive. I lean around the deck and watch it turn off of our street and when I’m sure it’s gone I make my way over to Drake who is sitting alone with a drink and a cigar. I’m glad he’s outside with that nasty thing and not smoking it near Grayson.

“Hey, I have to run home for a second and Kimber’s inside feeding the baby, will you let her know I’ll be right back if she comes out before I get back?”

The corners of his eyes twitch and he turns to face me, which is a bit unnerving since he seems to look straight through me with his blank eyes.

“Why don’t you go tell her yourself?”

I take a deep breath and blow it out, “I think Caleb just had legal documents left on my doorstep. I’d like to get them put away so she isn’t upset by them tonight.”

“What do you mean you think?”

“I saw a man in a suit put something in my door just now.”

“Oh no, you’re not going over there alone. What if that’s not what it is? What if it’s a special delivery from your brothers?”

“Not their style. They would want the satisfaction of seeing us suffer when they told Kimber about my family. It’s got to be Caleb.”

“Alright, but take Mattie with you. I’d go but I wouldn’t be much help.”

“What am I supposed to tell him I’m doing?”

“True. Okay, I’ll go and we will take Tango. I’ve been teaching him how to be a detection dog. He knows how to identify most drugs and explosives already. Go tell Mattie we are running across the street for more beer. The fridge is almost empty anyway but he doesn’t know I have another one full in the garage.”

“Thanks, man, really, you’re a life saver.”

“You have to promise me not to keep those papers from her, though. I know you want to and I agree tonight’s not the time but she has to know what he’s up to.”

“I know, yeah, I’ll tell her, just not tonight.”

He stands and feels for the edge of the deck to lay his cigar on the edge of it and places his beer bottle on the glass lawn table with a clink.

Mattie steps out onto the deck as if on cue. “Hey, we’re going to run to my house and get more beer, be right back.”

“Okay cool, I was just gonna tell ya we were running low.”

“If Kimber comes out tell her I’ll be right back.”

Mattie nods and flops down in a chaise lounger patting his lean flat stomach. “I’ll be right here. I’m too full to move.”

“No shit, for a little guy you can put away some serious food, man,” I say. He grins with pride like eating a ten-ounce sirloin, three huge servings of potato salad, and half of a cherry pie by himself was an accomplishment.

On my side of the street, Drake stops me at the bottom of the stairs to the porch with his arm stretched out in front of my chest.

“Search,” he says to Tango and Tango starts sniffing his way up the steps and all around the porch and along the edges of the screen door. When he’s done he returns to Drake’s side and sits down.

“All clear, no drugs, no explosives. You can see what it is now.”

I take the stairs two at a time and open the door. A large manila envelope addressed to Kimber Johnson, her married name, is propped against the dark wood door. Inside I find what I expected, a petition for shared custody. I fucking hate that man more than anything or anybody right now, more than my crooked father, more than my asshole brothers and my weak mother. Caleb Johnson is enemy #1 in the war to save my family and I’m going to take him down.

“Got it?” Drake asks.

“Yeah, I’m going to run inside and put it where she won’t see it tonight,” or ever if I can help it, I need to have another chat with Caleb. This time it won’t be on the base and it won’t be cordial or fake. I’m going to tell him what I think of him and where he can shove his custody petition.

I put the envelope in our safe on the floor of the linen closet upstairs. We keep important documents in it as well as an extra gun. Kimber isn’t crazy about having a gun in the house so she will never look there.

Drake, Tango, and I make our way back to his house and enter through the garage where I get a twelve pack of beer from his extra refrigerator and carry it inside just as Kimber is coming downstairs holding Grayson in one arm and a bottle in the other.

“Oh good, you’re here. Can you take him for a minute while I use the restroom?”

“Yeah, hold on, let me put this in the kitchen.” Drake and Kimber follow me into the kitchen. Drake and Tango keep walking out onto the deck where everyone is spread out on lawn chairs groaning about being too full.

“You going to let me have a drink now that I’m full and sober?” she asks. I put the beer in the fridge and turn to take Grayson. I bend down and kiss her full lips while removing the baby from her arms. I kiss her harder than I intended and slip my tongue between her lips searching for reassurance that she will always be mine and only mine.

I have her backed up against the refrigerator when we pull apart. I press my forehead to hers, we are both panting and she is smiling looking at me with her bedroom-eyes.

“I asked for a drink but I like that a lot better, Mr. Garcia.”

“Me too. Let’s make it an early night, okay?”

She nods and Grayson squawks as if to say nobody’s having any fun tonight unless it involves me.

“I don’t think he’s going to cooperate.”

“I can be very persuasive.”

“Yes, I know, I’ve fallen victim to your persuasiveness.” She smiles and takes my hand leading us back to the party to put in an acceptable amount of time before we leave.

I hope she’s right. I’m going to need those powers of persuasion to convince Caleb not to go forward with his plan if he keeps pushing. Someone needs to show him he’s not cut out for fatherhood and that someone is going to be me.