In Between Men

by Mary Castillo

  “Uh, no, not at all.” Not that she’d know, as it had been tossed in her drawer with all the other stuff Susan bought for her.

  “Good because trust me, now that you’re about to hit thirty”—Isa turned twenty-nine two months ago—“it’s all over. So if you want another husband, get started now.”

  Strategically changing the subject, Isa scanned the field. “Where’s Andrew?”

  Isa found him pumping his legs as fast as he could to keep up with the other kids. With a power she’d never seen before, his foot slammed the ball and Alex ducked out of the way before it hit him in the face.

  Mother and son cringed, but Alex yelled out, “Good kick. Next time aim the other way.”

  Alex knew the second he jogged off the field that he’d been had.

  Eleven weeks wasn’t that long, he told himself as he eyed Susan Contreras standing as the ringleader in a circle of single and married soccer moms who watched their sons’ soccer practice. Why did he let Ted talk him into this? Why did Ted have to be called up for active duty now? Alex had other things to do, but as always, what he wanted would have to come second.

  “Alex, could you help me with the ice chest?” Susan asked.

  Pulling the corners of his lips into a smile, he set his clipboard on a picnic table. “Sure. Where do you want me to move it to?”

  “Oh, over there somewhere,” she cooed, waving her hand around. “How’s tú papa?”

  “Fine.”

  “And your sister Christine?” she asked and he paused to answer.

  “I got an email from her today,” Alex said, tension coiling in his neck. Christine’s next tuition payment would be due at the end of the month.

  Alex hoped he would walk out of tomorrow’s meeting with his boss with a nice healthy raise. Hopefully, a raise that would allow him to keep paying Christine’s tuition with some left over for him to go back to college, part time, of course. It would be a start. “She’s already studying for mid-terms.”

  “Hmm. So have you been keeping busy?”

  “Yeah. Not too busy, though.” Unease chilled his skin, warning that this wasn’t a casual conversation. But the shade was such a relief after getting beaten on by the sweltering September sun. His eyes already burned from the sunscreen sweating down his face and he wanted nothing more than to dunk his head in ice water.

  “That’s nice. So will you be at Josie’s barbeque on Saturday?” Susan asked.

  Here it comes. Some unlucky lady was about to get shoved in his path. “Maybe.”

  “Well, I was thinking if you’re seeing someone and you want to bring her to these things, I’d welcome her completely. Just as tú mama would.”

  He flinched, not expecting that one. “Ohh-kay. But I’m not seeing anyone—”

  “Oh!” A delighted smile popped on her face. “I see.”

  “You want to set me up, don’t you?”

  That rattled the smile off her face. “How do yo—I mean, what would give you that idea?”

  “I’ve known you since I coached Memo’s team.”

  “If you want me to introduce you to some nice girls, I’d be happy to—”

  “That’s okay.” He thanked God that Susan’s daughter was with that fireman guy in L.A. “I can look on my own.”

  “Do you have anyone in mind? I mean, I was saying to Isa the other day that you two should—”

  So that’s what they were talking about on the sidelines. He’d seen them standing arm in arm, watching and talking.

  Isa was…Isa. Don’t get him wrong, she was cute, if a little too quiet for his taste. He glanced past Susan’s shoulder and looked for Isa. One of the moms caught him looking and bent forward to show off her cleavage. Alex blinked and turned back to Susan.

  “Uh. I don’t think so,” he stammered, searching for an escape.

  Her hand curled into a fist. “¿Con permiso? There’s nothing wrong with her.”

  “I just don’t see it happening right now.”

  “Why not now?”

  Isa wanted a soda but her feet ground to a halt when Susan all but demanded to know why Alex Lujon did not want to date her.

  Before she could tell her feet to run, Alex said, “I don’t think that would work.” He laughed. “I’m sure she’s really sweet but—”

  “But you’d go as friends,” Susan insisted, as if they were haggling over a rug.

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “I’m sure Isa is available Saturday night.”

  “I’ll have to double check an—” He stepped back, bumping into her, and Isa lost her chance to escape and pretend she never heard any of this.

  “Isa?” he asked as if he couldn’t believe she was standing there.

  Susan gasped but quickly recovered. “I was just telling Alex that I…”

  Her voice drifted away and Isa’s mind grasped at something smart to say. It had to be cool and unruffled. But what came to mind was the memory of Tamara telling her ex-boyfriend who had just proposed that she had to go to the bathroom in front of God, family, and a horrified Susan.

  That would not work. But what would Alexis say? You will all be fired—

  No. Not that either.

  “I need to go do something that I’ve been meaning to do,” Susan said. “Talk soon!”

  Staring out at the field, Alex took a deep breath before asking, “You heard all that, didn’t you?”

  “Don’t worry about…any of it,” Isa managed as she dipped down and yanked something that felt like a bottle out of the cooler. Water dripped down her hand. “I mean that’s Susan for you, right?”

  “Still, I don’t want you to think…”

  Isa clutched her bottle to her thumping chest with both hands. “It would be weird.”

  “No, of—”

  “You should get back to practice.”

  He shifted his weight on his other foot and the sun burned her eyes. Birds darted about the rafters of the gazebo, blithely unaware of Isa and Alex shuffling their feet and hoping no one else was paying attention.

  “Isa, I’m really sorry for all of this,” he started. “I think you’re—”

  BONK! Her bottle went airborne. Alex’s mouth dropped open and he rushed forward. Somewhere behind her she heard Andrew yell sorry. As her vision went to static, Isa had this vague sense of falling and her last thought before kissing the dirty pavement was, damn it.

  3

  ALEX LUJON’S HOROSCOPE FOR SEPTEMBER 7

  With Mercury out of retrograde you are now free to open your eyes to see more of the world around you. However, this expansive feeling does not include romance. In fact, starting a romantic relationship is highly inadvisable until late next week.

  Isa’s eyes snapped open when Susan shouted in her face, “Isa, say something! Anything!”

  “Anything?” Isa managed.

  “¡Gracias a Díos! You’re alive.”

  “Don’t move her,” Alex commanded.

  “Is she okay?” Andrew whined somewhere behind her. “I didn’t mean to.”

  Isa pulled her eyes open and saw three heads staring down at her. The pain in her head forced them shut, but Susan dug her nails into the soft of her palm.

  “Ow,” she moaned. “Stop hurting me. I’ll wear the damn sunscreen.”

  Her hand fell onto the concrete. “But you said you were wearing it!”

  “I’m taking her to the hospital,” Alex decided, and Isa opened her eyes. There was Susan looking indignant about the sunscreen, and Alex. But then there was also Joan Collins. Isa shut her eyes. She had a head injury. She really didn’t see what she just saw.

  “Isa,” Alex said. “Open your eyes.”

  “He seems so masterful, darling.”

  Isa opened her eyes and saw Joan Collins standing next to Alex, her eyes admiring his broad shoulders.

  Frowning, she asked Joan, “What are you doing here?”

  “Oh my God! Does she have anemia?” Susan gasped, clutching her hand tighter.

  �
��Amnesia, which I don’t have,” Isa corrected. Her eyes fluttered shut and when she reopened them, Joan was gone. “What happened?”

  “A ball hit you in the back of the head,” Alex explained.

  A head injury, she told herself. Joan was a mild hallucination brought on by a soccer ball, not insanity.

  “Ice! Someone get some ice!” Susan demanded. “Honey, you’ll be just fine.”

  “Am I bleeding?”

  Two gasps and Susan fell back into the arms of two mothers standing behind her. They practically fell out of their tops trying to catch her.

  Alex bent closer and Isa pressed her head into the ungiving concrete, thinking he was going to kiss her. But she felt his strong fingers in her hair, feeling her scalp. When he touched the tender lump she couldn’t help but hiss back the pain.

  “Sorry,” he murmured. His eyes met hers and a jolt lit through her. “You’re not bleeding but I’m taking you to the hospital.”

  “Where’s Andrew?” she asked.

  “He’s fine. But Susan—” He glanced over and then rolled his eyes. Isa snorted and when he looked down amused, she curled her toes tightly.

  “I should’ve been paying closer attention,” he apologized and she started making sounds that it wasn’t his fault. “Not just the ball, but what I said.”

  Oh, that’s right. How could she have forgotten? As far as she was concerned, that particular incident now made all of this Alex’s fault.

  “Darling, make him pay for this,” Joan said from out of nowhere.

  Isa shifted her eyes to the right and saw only Susan’s knees, which were now dirty from kneeling beside her. Joan was right even if, well, she wasn’t real.

  “Can you sit up?” Alex asked.

  “You owe me,” came out of Isa’s mouth.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.”

  “She’s right,” Susan insisted beside her, having made a miraculous recovery. “You were facing the field and you should have done something. Now you need to make this up to her.”

  Isa shut her eyes and prayed for unconsciousness to take her away.

  “I can take her to the hospital,” he offered.

  Wow, what a hero, Isa thought sourly. She sighed and sat up, the world shifting treacherously in front of her eyes. Alex’s arm shot around her shoulders, “Whoa, take it easy there.”

  “I’m not a horse.” She braced herself up on her free hand in case she plopped down again.

  “Alex, I think you owe Isa dinner.” Susan cast an unmerciful eye his way.

  “I don’t think—” Isa started, when Alex surprised the hell out of her by saying, “Sure.”

  Carefully she turned her head to face him. “You don’t have to.”

  But Alex did and now he felt even shittier remembering how his first thought when Susan started singing Isa’s praises was that Isa had put her up to it. His conscience couldn’t bear the claws of guilt that he’d embarrassed her and then watched her take a ball to the head.

  “I’d really like to make this up to you,” he kindly insisted.

  Her lips pressed into a thin line like he’d just called her a skanky crack ‘ho.

  “Well thanks, Alex. But I can feed myself. Can someone help me stand up here?”

  He took her arm and she glared at him with eyes so blue that they hit him like a punch to the gut. As she gathered her backpack and Andrew while waving off Susan’s help, he wondered why he hadn’t noticed her eyes before.

  Two hours later, Alex staggered through the front door and smelled cigarette smoke drifting into the house from the back patio. His dad wasn’t supposed to be smoking, which would be a double death wish with his lung condition and living with Ted’s wife. Hoping to call Isa to try to apologize again, Alex put that in the back of his mind as he pocketed his keys.

  “We’re gonna have words you and I!”

  Before he appeared on the steps leading to the back patio, Alex took a moment as he prepared himself to deal with her.

  Her, being Ted’s wife, whose face was slathered in green stuff, making her eyes look huge with vengeance. Unable to afford the apartment she had shared with Ted in Irvine, June forced her way into the house where Alex and his four siblings had grown up.

  “How much longer do we have until you can’t move your mouth anymore?” Alex asked.

  “Hey son, you’re home early,” his dad said cheerfully, appearing from the patio off the kitchen. “How was practice?”

  “Great.”

  “It’s a nice evening, care to bring out a couple of beers?”

  June made sure no one forgot she stood there by drumming her nails on the counter.

  His dad assessed the situation. He leaned on the counter, eager to see what his daughter-in-law was so mad about now.

  Alex really wanted that beer and the only way he’d get it was to get this over with. “Okay, what?” he asked her.

  “You insulted my friend and then hit her with a soccer ball!”

  “Look I never meant to hurt Isa’s feelings. It was Susan who—”

  “What’s so wrong with her that you won’t at the very least get to know her?”

  Alex realized she had no way of knowing, unless…“How do you even know about this?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “That’s not the point.”

  “Well since Isa has now been voted team mom, looks like I’ll have plenty of time to get to know her now, won’t I?”

  “Who are we talking about?” his dad asked innocently.

  “No one,” June and Alex barked.

  “Oh that girl! Isa is her name, sí?”

  June nodded, a long crack in her green mask forming across her brow.

  “You know, m’ijo, from what I’ve heard she sounds like a really nice girl. Did you really hit her in the head?”

  Alex pressed the jumping muscle under his right eye to make it stop. Wishing all of this would just stop. “Can I have my beer please?”

  “Call her an’ apowogize,” June mumbled, little cracks forming around the corners of her mouth, which just weirded him out. “And then take her out.”

  “She doesn’t want a pity date,” he said. “And even though it’s none of your business, I was planning to call and make sure she’s okay.”

  “What’s a pity date?” his dad asked.

  June stiffened, practically shaking from wanting to tell him off but her mask had probably solidified so she couldn’t.

  “Do you have any opinions you want to share?” Alex turned to his dad on his way to the refrigerator.

  Stifling a laugh, his dad ran the back of his hand across his mouth. “Like I always say, never say never. When you call this girl one thing might lead to another and…”

  The muscle twitch nearly shut his eye. Alex was going to have to take this one looking like a major jerk. Simple fact: Alex didn’t mess with single moms, no matter how beautiful their blue eyes were.

  Number one, they didn’t just want a guy around; they also wanted a father for their kid. Number two, they had ex husbands or boyfriends. Number three, as the oldest, Alex had spent his life taking care of his siblings and then after mom died, his father, so he really wasn’t looking for any more responsibilities.

  And finally, from the way Isa got all prickly on him, she didn’t exactly jump at the chance to go out with him.

  The refrigerator door slammed with a clink of bottles.

  “This does not leave this kitchen,” he started.

  June and his dad leaned in ever so slightly.

  “She’s not my type, okay? I didn’t want to come out and say it because Isa seems like a nice woman. But it ain’t gonna happen.”

  “Ash-ho,” June mumbled, pivoting on the heel of her poofy heeled slipper and marching down the hall. The wall clock bounced and settled crookedly when she slammed the bathroom door.

  Taking a deep breath and raising his salt-and-pepper eyebrows, Alex’s dad murmured as he walked back outside. “I hope you know she’ll be in there all night. Tha
t’s not good for a man my age and my kind of problems. This is your fault.”

  “Wha—why—I didn’t marry her,” Alex sputtered.

  “Yeah, but you let your brother talk us into taking her in,” his dad muttered. With one cutting look, he then slammed the screen door shut. Alex looked down and realized his dad took his beer.

  4

  By seven that night, Isa realized that her plans to move somewhere far, far away, like Ohio, would have to be postponed. At least until after the soccer season ended. God forgive her, she would pray every night they didn’t make it into the finals because Andrew could talk about nothing except soccer.

  But as a mother, her son’s happiness was much more important than her pride.

  Great. Not only was her head killing her, she now had the guilt of wanting to move Andrew far from all this on top of dragging him away from the picnic with his friends.

  “Did I say I was sorry enough? Because I really am,” Andrew said, looking up from his fries.

  “I know you are, honey.”

  “Does it hurt?”

  “Not anymore.” She hoped she had something for the pain.

  “Do you think Alex is mad at me?”

  “Why?”

  “He told me to watch where I kick the ball.”

  She paused, holding her burger just so from her mouth. “Did he yell at you?”

  So help Isa but if he so much as looked at her son the wrong way she’d—

  “No. But I felt bad for hitting you. And he told me to make sure I took good care of you tonight.”

  This was one of those moments when as his mother, she needed to say something wise, except she didn’t know what that could be. However, she did know that the idea of Alex lecturing her son did not sit well with her.

  “Is that why you’ve been so quiet?”

  Andrew nodded his head and a pang hit her right in the center of her chest.

  “Well, don’t feel bad. It was an accident. But you’ve got one thing going.”

  She waited for him to peek up. “What?” he asked.