Angel’s mouth was open, but before she even thought to try for a breath or to scream, he released her. She fell back into the couch.
“Just kidding,” Mike said flatly. And this is when the fear flooded in. As Angel lay on the couch trembling, he kicked the bare bottom of her foot with the pointed toe of his cowboy boot. “You’re lucky you’re pregnant,” he said, his voice low. “Just kidding.” His eyes slid from her.
He wanted her. This understanding arrived whole and obvious. He controlled it, yes, he was disturbed by it, but that didn’t change his desire, and the fact of it now lay bare. And as they held each other’s gaze—his thick brown lashes, his brown-green irises, a red vein stretched across the white of his right eye—she saw this understanding pass between them. She saw that he was terrified.
He swiped a palm over his curly hair, touched the collar of his shirt, as if to make sure he was still there.
He turned away as if he couldn’t stand to look at her—on her back like a bug, her legs now curled up protectively, her own hands around her throat—then slammed out the door. From his computer on the drafting table, an email arrived with a cheerful chime.
EVEN NOW, watching her mother cross the Family Foundations parking lot to her car, Angel can feel Mike’s fingers around her neck, the pressure of his thumbs above her windpipe like meat lodged in her throat. She trembles, the panic coursing through her, even though she is fine. Fine! He didn’t even squeeze. She didn’t even have a bruise after.
Marissa’s gait is stiff and truncated, and Angel knows her mother is still crying. She wants to call her mother back, but at the same time, Angel is glad her mother feels bad. She should! But instead of bustling in with energetic competence to make everything right, Marissa seems defeated, and this scares Angel, because she doesn’t want to see her mother powerless in the face of what Mike did. Her mother’s manner conveys that she is sorry, but that she has been crumpled by what happened. And if her mother is crumpled, doesn’t that mean, by extension, that what Mike did was awful and permanent, and that Angel might be forever damaged? Doesn’t it mean that her relationship with her mother might never go back to normal?
Angel tightens her hold on the baby and turns her back on her mother. As she makes her way to her dad’s truck, Connor pats her cheek, his brow cinched with worry.
Tío Tíve has given Amadeo another ride to his DWI class. After, they stop at the drugstore. As they wait in the checkout line, Tíve peers into Amadeo’s packed cart.
“You didn’t get no diapers,” he says critically. His own handbasket contains a single canister of Tums.
“Right, hang on.” Amadeo takes off, running down aisles to grab a package.
“That your mom’s?” Tío Tíve asks as Amadeo, winded, swipes his credit card.
“We share one,” Amadeo says lamely. He expects his uncle’s characteristic grunt of disapproval, but the old man just looks at him with pity.
“I appreciate the ride,” Amadeo says on the way home.
His uncle doesn’t respond, but then he says, “Good to see you providing. Trying to, anyway. Call next time you need a ride.”
Was that praise? Amadeo grins out the window. The afternoon light is golden on the fields. The green leaves shimmer and dance, and in the acequias, the blue sky flashes.
He’s been in an excellent mood since his date with Brianna. Amadeo is surprised that he enjoyed himself as much as he did; this skinny Brianna girl, nervous and clean-living and with an untended patch of pubic hair, is not his type at all. Despite the fact that she is so thin, there’s something a little piggy in her appearance: the button nose, the pale firmness of her skin. A skinny pig in hiking sandals. She’s kind of adorable.
Angel’s admiration is contagious. He wants Brianna to like him, wants her to understand that he’s a good guy, and he’s allowing himself to believe that he’s trying to win her over for Angel’s sake. When you think about it, it can only benefit Angel, having her dad and teacher sweet on each other—maybe, if Amadeo plays things right, Brianna will give his daughter extra help getting into college.