The Green Warriors are in the final.
For an instant, I was too stunned to speak. Or move.
And then, I was moving. Just like that day all those weeks ago, when I’d turned my life upside down. Only this time, the dam had broken for a completely different reason.
I launched myself at Josie. With a shocked laugh, she wrapped her arms around me. We squeezed each other, and when I released her, I turned on my heels.
Cameron’s eyes were on me, just like I’d known they would be, wrinkling at the corners with a smile. I threw myself at him, too. And when I landed against his chest, his arms were already open. Laughter rolled off him, and it was deep and rich and it traveled right into my heart.
I was happy. Ecstatic.
“We made it, Coach,” I said into his neck. And I didn’t care that my mother was there, or Josie, or the whole team and half the town. I didn’t even care that this was just some recreational team with a roster of kids. I didn’t even care that we hadn’t won anything yet, or that I was celebrating some other team being disqualified. I could only think of how happy my kids would be. How big María’s smile would be. How good this would be for the town. “We freaking made it!”
Cameron’s mouth came to my ear, and he said low, so low only I could hear, “I could fucking eat you right now.” Which only made me giggle.
“Mira, mira. Look,” I heard my mother say with a laugh. “They totally banged. Do you think they’re past the situationship stage?”
Josie’s laughter reached my ears. “I sure hope so, Maricela.”
Cameron let out a grunt that I interpreted as a promise.
I extracted my head off his neck, but he didn’t release me. I guessed that that was okay, social cues had never been his thing. “Where in the world did you learn that, Mom?”
“I have a TickTack now.”
“TikTok?”
She rolled her eyes. “A clock always made ticktack-ticktack, so if anything, that name is wrong.”
Oh God.
She was actually right.
Cameron pressed his lips to the top of my head before lifting my mother’s giant suitcase and walking out.
My mother stared at him as he left, just like I had been doing, and then turned to give me a look.
“What?” I whispered.
“No, nada,” she said, lifting her hands in the air. But I could see her smirk. She took one of the stools from Cameron’s island out and plopped herself down. “Sit down with me.”
“Mami,” I warned with a sigh. “Cameron will be back in a few minutes, and he’s taking the couch tonight. We should probably call it a night and have whatever conversation you want to have tomorrow morning when we are all rested.”
“Okay, one?” She lifted her hands in the air. “There’s no need to be coy around me. You two can share a bed.” Flashes from earlier tonight came back, making me feel breathless. My mother clicked her tongue. “And two? That man will not be back until you go looking for him. He said he would get the rooms ready for us but he’s giving us space to talk. So sit.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “But—”
“Ahora, Adalyn.”
I took out the stool with a roll of my eyes. “Happy?”
“Not really,” she said, her expression serious. “Why did you not come back home immediately? Why would you take part in your father’s games? And more importantly, why did I have to buy Matthew off to know where you were?”
“What could you possibly offer him to rat me out like this?”
My mother shrugged. “I’ll never say. A mother doesn’t betray her children. And that man is like the son I never had.”
I opened my mouth to complain but my mother arched her brows, reminding me I had questions to answer. “This is not a game. I really messed up, Mom. There’s a conduct clause in my contract—”
“You are his daughter,” she interjected. “He shouldn’t care about clauses.”
“I’m also his employee,” I countered, feeling that chest tightness that stopped air getting to my lungs. “And hopefully, because I’m both, one day I’ll be the one he picks to take over for him.” These were words I’d said more than once, words I’d worked for, dedicated myself to fulfill, but somehow… Someway, they now tasted bitter in my mouth. I ignored it. “I needed to fix it. To show him he could trust me. I also wanted to help the team after my… slip.”
Maricela Reyes shook her head, making those beautiful dark waves move around her face. “There’s something you’re not telling me. I know.”
I willed my face to remain still, my expression blank. I couldn’t tell my mother about David, or what Dad had done out of some… sense of responsibility that only made me feel small and inadequate. If my mother heard about any of that, what had happened to Sparkles wouldn’t be anything in comparison to what she would do. She would catch a flight to Miami right now and—
That was exactly how Cameron had reacted to the story. Tonight. It had been so clear from his words, his face, the way he’d held me, everything. He… cared about me. That much.
“You know how much I love my job,” I continued, a little breathless. “The club. How much respect I have for what Dad does.”
“You’re getting it all wrong, mi amor.” A long sigh left through her nose. “I loved your father. I still do. I don’t think you can ever stop loving your first great love, and he was that for me. But ever since you were little, you’ve had him on this pedestal nobody else can reach. Not even you.”
“Is that so wrong?” I asked her, honestly. “Is it so bad to aspire to be like him? To want to impress him?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head, and I believed she genuinely didn’t. “But while you’re on your way there, you’re climbing, getting higher and higher, and I’m scared you’ll fall. I’m scared he’ll do something to shatter all that faith you have in him.”
I felt the ball in my stomach shift. He’d tested that faith, hadn’t he? But then, he’d also succumbed to David’s demands to protect our relationship. To spare me the heartbreak after learning he’d asked David to marry me. And that meant something. It had to.