Clutch Hit Faith O'Shea (red queen free ebook txt) 📖

offer consolation, his phone pinged.

He yanked it out of his back pocket and checked his texts. It was from Al…Allie. It was from her personal account, not Ursus. That gave him another ping. This wasn’t business.

Arrived, met your mother. We’re just finishing up dinner. All seems well. Will let you know how tomorrow goes.

It lacked feeling, but then texts did, unless an emoji of some kind was added. A happy face, a heart, a frown would have told him more than her words had.

Does she suspect anything is amiss?

Not anymore.

What do you mean?

I’ll call later and explain.

As soon as you can, please.

When I’m back in my room.

Good.

He looked up to see Seb staring. “Well?

“Al…Allie’s with my mother. I haven’t told her anything other than I’m married. I’m a bit nervous about how it’s going.”

“Allie’s playing the wife?”

“She said she’d do that.”

“Impressive. I can’t see her agreeing to that unless she thinks she can pull it off. If there’s feeling on your end, I wouldn’t give up on the marriage too soon.”

He didn’t have any plans to give up at all, but he’d keep that secret to himself.

Seb stood and grabbed his coat, shrugged himself into it.

“I’m out. Thanks for the company. The place is great. It makes me think I should move out of my apartment. Now that I’ve been given the promise I’ll be staying in Boston and with a bit more money in my pocket that’ll come from it, I can buy where I want.”

“It’s nice to have money in your pocket.”

“It is indeed. I’ll swing by and pick you up around nine. Then we’ll get over to the Registry and get you a license.”

“Thank you for that. It will be nice to have another freedom.”

He could go anywhere he wanted. Al…Allie had shown him how the GPS system worked so he needn’t worry about getting lost.

“I’ve got some things going on over the next couple of days, so I’ll have to drop you off right after the test. Will you be okay?”

“As long as I pass, and I won’t be cooped up here, then yes. I will be fine.”

“Okay. See you in the morning.”

As soon as he closed the door, Mateo began to pace again. How long would it take for Allie to get back to her room? Her comment about his mother no longer thinking something was amiss was eating away at him. A lot more than his mother’s visa was riding on this meeting. He wanted the women to get along. Mariposa would be living with him for a period of time, and if he was able to win Allie’s affections, she’d be here as well. He needed this to work, but if his mother doubted Allie’s feelings… would she give her a second chance, or would her quiet disdain cause an explosion that he couldn’t contain?

It took over a couple of hours for his phone to ring and he was quick to answer it.

“Hello.”

“Hi. Relax. It’s all good.”

“What happened?”

“I kind of told her about your new life, what you like about it, but I forgot to mention our wedded bliss. She instantly picked up on it. I backtracked, apologized, and told her this is what I did for a living and I was treating this as I would any other player, which of course you’re not.”

“What did you say to convince her otherwise?”

There was a hesitation and he held his breath.

“I told her…”

“What?”

So quickly that he almost didn’t catch it, she stuttered out, “I told her you light up my life. Okay?”

What an odd thing to say. Unless it was true. Hope filled his heart, but he knew it wouldn’t be too smart to let it expand too deeply.

“She looks good?”

“Yes. Excited that she’ll be away from here soon.” She added, “She’s very Cuban.”

He didn’t expect the laugh, but the musical tone made him smile in return.

“What does that mean exactly?”

“She’s very friendly, affectionate. Lots of hugs and kisses. It seems that your countrymen love people.”

It was his turn to laugh now. “It does take getting used to.”

“But she’s also very sensible, down-to-earth. I like her.”

“Has she shown you around?”

“We walked to the restaurant, so I got to see some of the street life.”

He could only imagine what she’d thought. It was a world in decay, buildings in need of repair, graffiti smudging the walls, pictures of Che, dead fifty years, still a popular figure among many. Americans might think it unsanitary, with layers of dust and crumbling stone rising as ash in any warm breeze, street vendors with food unprotected from the elements.

“We went by a grocery store where there was a line hours long. Your mother said they’d reinstituted rationing again. There’s an economic crisis looming between the US sanctions and the trouble in Venezuela.”

“We’ve been in a stage of economic crisis since the 1950s. One’s either looming, in full swing, or abating. I’m glad she’s getting out.”

“I am, too. We’re going to apply for her visa tomorrow. Havana is still issuing them, but from what Jelani’s heard, the US government is cracking down on Cuban immigrants, not only green cards. They’ve started deporting them along with other Latinos. We need to get your citizenship papers started as quickly as we can.”

“They would deport us back?”

“Not if I have anything to do with it. You’re married to a US citizen but there is a downside.”

“What is that?”

“We might have to stay married until you’re naturalized.”

“How long will that take?”

“Years.”

He was glad she couldn’t see the smile on his face. This was an upside for him.

“We’re going to have to talk about that when I get back. We have to come to some resolution between us if we’re going to be stuck with each other.”

“I don’t mind being stuck.”

“You say that now, but after a few months of…celibacy…you might not feel the same way.”

Disappointment hit like a hammer and he struck back, “We can just tell people and be done with it.”

“Mateo—”

He could sense the fear in her voice and thought it wiser