Page 103 of Yours, Forever

When she gazed at me again, her eyes were warm and inviting once more.

How I wanted to kiss her. Evaporate into the air so she could breathe me in, and let us become one in the quiet space of our room.

I couldn't do either. Being in her arms had to be enough.

I sighed. "Now you know more than anyone. I had never told anyone about the half-sibling that was never real, or my fear that I'm more like my father than I'd like to be."

She put her hand on my chest. "I'll keep your trust safe."

"I know."

Later, in the dark of the room, I was about to fall asleep in Eva's arms, and maybe she thought I slept. Her words were soft, almost a confession.

"I could belong with you."

Chapter 29

Max

El Dieciocho was oneof the ways I remembered how I grew up. Getting to celebrate it yearly with the Sotomayors was one of my favorite holidays.

The whole group sat sprawled across the outside furniture, strategically placed near the barbecues. Plural, because even though the Sotomayors had a practical—and fancy—gas unit, they also had a basic, charcoal one. A Chilean classic of half a steel barrel, with grills adjustable for height and nothing else. The kind where you started the fire by using rolled up newspaper, and never any liquid flammables.

I sighed and brought Eva closer to me on the two-seater couch. Sun shone on the deck and a gentle breeze kept us at a perfect temperature; I could imagine this was September in Chile, too.With trees all around us, plus the magnificent lake view… this could very well be a place near the mountains south of Santiago.

I had never gone back to Chile, once I moved up north with my dad. On days like today, the echo of what used to be home lived right underneath my skin. A certain nostalgia for the place I used to call my own, but wasn't where I belonged anymore. Honoring that place, the call of the sea, the mountains and nature, through the celebration of this holiday, was a nod to my roots. My past. Funny, that my heart might make me choose a place just like that to call my home again. If it would have me.

"So, cueca." Eva arched a questioning eyebrow my way. "National dance—I got that, but do you know how to dance it?"

Even though El Dieciocho was technically about celebrating the country's independence, it historically celebrated our culture and traditions. Cueca was mostly ignored throughout the year, but in September? It was everywhere. Including on this random deck in North America.

"No," I laughed. "It's actually rare that people know how to dance cueca. Some do, and of course there are national competitions, or people attempting it while partying at a ramada—very old tradition for the Dieciocho—but it's not something we all do. We just listen to it at this time of the year."

"Didn't you have to learn it at school?" Tío Raúl asked. "I know I did."

"And do you remember how to do it?" I quipped.

Tío Raúl gave me a cheeky smile. "I could if I tried."

"Could you?" Eva asked me.

"I could take a class, I guess, if you want to see me flirting like a cock."

Laughter burst from most people around us, from those who understood the reference.

"What?" Eva chuckled, her confusion tinting the word. "Flirting like a cock?"

"Yes." I shifted on the couch and leaned close to her. Even though we were side by side, my arm around her shoulders, we stared at each other's eyes. "The dance is based on how a rooster seduces a hen. A mating ritual. It's about getting close, so close to kissing…"

I didn't care that we were surrounded by my friends and found family. I leaned even closer to her, as if I were about to kiss her—and oh, how I wish I could.

A little devil on my shoulder screamed at me to do it. To crush my mouth to hers at last. Its voice echoed through me, loud and desperate.

She didn't move back. She kept her eyes on mine, defiance and a dare in her eyes, and nerves, too.

I let my mouth hover over hers. "And just when you're about to press lips together and finally get a taste, hiding from prying eyes with a carefully placed handkerchief… you retreat."

And I did; I rested back on the couch again, far from her lips. It pained me, but there was nothing to it. I wouldn't steal a kiss from her by taking advantage of our witnesses.