"Can't trust him." Jo said, eyes dancing. "He has a drug habit you know."
"So I've heard’" May commented with a smile. She might not have been first string on news but news, of any kind, did
have a way of making the rounds. And - it was a cute story. It made it easy to forget that it had all started when
Hector's job had finally caught up to him. Because they'd all heard about that too.
"It’s a cute drug habit." Andi defended. Eyes dancing as they met Hector's and she held up her arms for him.
"Got to admit, I'm seeing you in a whole new light." Sara told her brother.
"Gotta be careful around doctors and nurses. They know where the veins are and what to put in them." Hector said
with a chuckle. He went over to Andi, kissed her, then picked her up, sat down in her chair and held her on his lap.
Catherine went over to the door. "Wally! Why don't you pick me up?"
"Because you're taller and I have a bad back." He shouted back. "No! That's too high...." trailed off before Catherine
shut the door again.
"Whole new light? That never sounds good. I'll still pummel you." Hector said to Sara easily.
Andi snuggled in contentedly, resting her head on his wide shoulder. Arms around him and tucked close. All that talk
about 'wow' moments. She thought most moments with Hector were 'wow' in one way or another. For instance, how
many men not only gave their love so openly but also would join a group of gossiping women for the fun of it?
True. It was most likely in self defense but still...
"No." Sara waved a hand in front of her. "It's too late. You've totally ruined my entire image of you. I mean, I knew you
were a softie in disguise but I never knew you were mushy too!" And, damn, it was impossible for her not to feel happy
about that. Not to feel happy for him. Sure, she'd seen him happy before but - just damn, it was hard not to grin like a
nut at him.
Catherine glance away from the window she was peeking out and gave Jo a wink. There were a couple of digital
cameras that had been passed around earlier. And to make the sneak attacks up to Hector, they'd already agreed
that the best way to appease him was if there were enough pictures of Andi for his own collection in there as well. And,
naturally, pictures of groups of them for him to remember them by as well. No one talked about it but just about all the
women thought that long missions doing whatever it was he did, probably got lonely after a while.
Mrs Johnson came in then, bearing her cobbler. She put it on the counter without a word and immediately checked the
oven to check her macaroni and cheese. "Good girl." She said to Andi with a wink and received the resultant greetings
like a queen at her court. Never mind it wasn't even her kitchen. It was a small difference she didn't acknowledge. She
looked out the window.
"Oh dear, playing with fire already, are we?" She asked with a chuckle.
"Boys will be boys." Hector said with a grin.
"And what are you doing in here then?"
"Obviously stopping the lies that are being spread around about me." Hector said seriously.
Andi chuckled at Mrs. Johnson's 'grand' entrance. Her relatives could learn a thing or two from the gracious way the
older woman included everyone in her welcome.
"Really?" Mrs. Johnson sounded pleased and turned her attention on the rest of the 'girls'. Not missing at all the way
Hector had staked both his claim and exactly where he stood with the woman in his arms. It was a move that told
anyone that was paying the slightest attention that the two of them were in it together. 'It' probably covering
everything. "So were they good lies?" She asked with a smile.
Sara nodded.
"The best. Mushy kind." She stated factually.
"Oh, I do like the mushy kind." Mrs. Johnson agreed.
Jo nudged Hector and grinned at him.
"I always knew you had it in you. Way, way, way deep buried somewhere in you."
"This keeps up I'm going to bury it even deeper." Hector said, covering some embarrassment by stealing Catherine's
soda and taking a drink from it.
"Now, now." Mrs Johnson said. "You can't do that until Bob and Gladys Haskins arrive. We all know how much Gladys
likes 'mush.'" She said with a smile.
"Oh god." Hector said. "Think I'll go play with fire now."
Sara, who rarely, if ever, had seen her brother bashful, was delighted. And it was odd too. Hector and Andi could joke
about certain things like how Hector was in bed to tease Pete, but in certain other areas you wouldn't think were half
that intimate, they'd go pink. It was strangely cute. And she hadn't thought 'cute' was ever a word she'd apply to her
oldest brother.
Andi chuckled and nuzzled gently against Hector's throat.
"You can tell the next story if it makes you feel better." She offered with a smile.
"Oh ho." May chuckled. "That's a dangerous offer. Maybe we should just make him go play with fire."
"Depending on the story, he just might be." Jo laughed.
"Great, mocking me in my own kitchen." Hector said with a chuckle. "I see how it is. Just remember, everything she
says is a lie, and I'm not a softie." He said, wagging a finger at Sara. "Now let me get back tot he burgers before they
think I've been taken hostage or burn my backyard down."
Sara just raised her hands. Who was she to argue with softiness? the gesture implied. But inside - she felt better. It
really was okay to get mushy sometimes. If Hector could - then it couldn't be such a bad thing, right? Because 'soft'
wasn't a side you generally let get out in their family.
"You could try." Andi commented, calmly. "But I do have you pinned down at the moment." She looked up at him with a
smile sliding crooked. Yep, with her huge and heavy bulk no less. Same excuse he'd used quite a long time ago when
she'd gone to visit him in his camp.
Catherine took her soda back.
"We could just move this entire discussion out to the back porch." She suggested. "Let the men have a chance to get
in on it as well and all..." the look she shot Hector was laughing. And evil. Which meant Jo was grinning about it.
"Mocked and threatened." Hector said with a laugh and easily stood up. "If y'all will be so kind as to bring the food out,
well, we men folk will listen to whatever you have to say."
"With at least half an ear." Mrs Johnson said. Hector made it to the door and opened it.
"Hector!" Jo said and Hector turned right into a flash. "Gotcha."
Andi laughed. A choking, cheerful sound she wasn't doing too good at keeping down. Mrs. Johnson grinned.
"Well, won't that be a picture for the books?" She commented cheerfully. Sara, who hadn't been in on the plan,
clapped with a wide smile of her own.
"Let me see, let me see." She scooted over to look at the screen on the back of the camera. "Oo. Good one. He's
doing that eyebrow thing!"
"I do not have an eyebrow thing." Hector said, heading out the door. "I don't." He said to Andi with a chuckle.
"You so do." Sara said, hot on their heels.
"He so what?" Pete asked.
"Has an eyebrow thing."
"Yeah, we all have eyebrows." Tommy said.
"Not for long." Amy said from her lawn chair. "Not the way you keep going."
Andi grinned.
"Of course you don't." She agreed far too easily about the 'eyebrow thing' to be taken seriously.
"No. No, I know what she's talking about." Pete offered, starting to grin. "He does this thing with his eyebrows." He had
to use his fingers to demonstrate on his own.
"There was an eyebrow thing?" Rachel asked as Jo and Catherine carried out the cooler of drinks.
"He's been doing that eyebrow thing since high school." Wally offered as he walked over to join his wife, still carrying
the baby and she immediately forgot there was anyone else having a conversation, barely remembering to set down
her end of the cooler on the table.
"Oosa good baba?" She cooed to the gurgling bundle in her husband's arms.
"He's up for sale if you want him" May offered. "We'll cut you a real good deal and throw in a set of tires."
"Hey." Chris protested, looking at Hector. "That's not a football you're carrying."
"Nicer legs." Jerry, safely married, could comment. Just as Tommy jumped back with a startled noise and a pillar of fire
shot into the air.
"Well, what can I say? She had me pinned down." Hector said and looked at Tommy. "You okay over there?"
"I think the Boca burgers are toast." Tommy said, in a way that said it might not be unintentional....
"Cool." Hector said with a laugh. Mrs Johnson sat down at a table and smiled at the gathering.
"I've decided I have far too few pictures of the neighborhood hooligans." She announced regally. "Therefore, we WILL
fill my photo album today." She winked at Andi, having found the perfect excuse no one could really argue with, since
no one had been able to tell Mrs Johnson no since they were children.
"Tommy!" Amy protested, getting out of her seat to walk over and survey the damage.
Pete wandered over to the cooler to get another drink and Sara handed him a Coke. Which he raised an eyebrow
over but took all the same.
"Yeah." Chris commented with a laugh at Hector. "I can see how she's managed to pin you."
"Well." Jo sighed. "I suppose we can all manage to behave for pictures. If it’s for Mrs. J after all."
"Pinning?" Pete asked. "Does this have anything to do with our word for the day?"
"We have a word for the day?" Jerry asked. "Is this something my kids can hear?"
"Oosa... " Catherine was holding the baby now and it was hard not to imagine that she and Wally were just waiting for
a distraction to slip out the door with it.
"Stairwell." Pete stated factually.
Andi made a funny noise and her ear tips went pink. Still. She was working on immunization but it was a slow go. Pete
grinned triumphantly as Chris looked puzzled.
"Is this something I want to know about?" He asked.
"Oh, you wanna know." Tommy answered from the grill where Amy was adding more Boca burgers to replace the old
ones. Almost as if she'd expected something to happen to the first batch...
Hector all out grinned. "Stairwell." He agreed with a grave nod and raised an eyebrow at Andi. "This is payback for all
those Hector is on drugs stories."
Chris chuckled. "And what does that mean?" He asked.
"If you have to ask, you'll never know." Hector said with the right degree of mystery.
"So you're on drugs," Chris looked at Hector, "and she's got a thing about stairwells?" Being single, and very much a
bachelor, the gossip didn't make it around to him often. Which was fine with him. Except in cases where all the women
and half the men were grinning like idiots and he was sure he's missed something.
"I'm starting to get 'a thing' for stairwells." Andi agreed. Shooting Hector a look that promised retribution when he
wasn't looking so cute.
"We're here!" Gladys Haskins came bustling cheerfully out, husband happily wandering along behind her. "Have I
missed anything?"
"Nope!" Hector said with a wide grin, and put Andi down to greet Mrs Haskins properly as she shoved another
casserole dish into his arm. "You're just in time to watch Tommy ruin dinner."
"Ha!" Tommy said with an exclamation of triumph as he plattered some of the burgers. "Dinner is served!"
No one knew quite how he did it, but even with all the flames and smoke and swearing, somehow the burgers always
turned out fine.
There was a great deal of shuffling and friendly jostling and joking almost immediately on that announcement. The
tables were all crowded with food and people ended up sitting with plates in their laps on the benches or scattered
around the back porch, legs stretched out in front of them. Mrs. Johnson and the Haskins got the 'kid's' table by sheer
dint of the fact that it was the only area that had any flat space to set their plates on.
Andi settled in on her ususal spot against Hector's side. Plate fuller than anything she could manage to eat by herself.
But she expected to have help and everything had looked terribly good. Drinks got passed around until everyone had
a least one and for a little while there wasn't much talking. Just pleased noises and the occasional remark to someone
else about their addition to the menu being good.
Andi applied herself to the food but she was soaking up more than that. She liked this. She liked the way it felt. And
she liked sitting in a comfortable group and simply being able to be without any pressure to perform. She tried some of
the corn bread off of Hector's plate and nodded at the new taste.
"So." Jerry looked at the piles of food still spread out. "Who's going to volunteer to wheelbarrow me back out to the car
after this?"
"No one." Jo said. "You're going to roll like we threatened to do to you in high school. It'll be fun." Rachel laughed as
she snapped a picture of Andi stealing corn bread off Hector's plate, then passed the camera.
"Whoa!" Hector said. "What's with the picture taking?"
"I told you." Mrs Johnson said as Catherine snapped one of the Haskins'. "They're for my photo album. Now be a good
boy and smile."
"See?" Andi wiped her mouth after a drink and then pressed a kiss to Hector's cheek. "It’s for a good cause."
"Hey, I should be charging for pictures of me." Pete clarified. "I'm going to be famous some day!"
But he cheerfully stuck out his tongue and made a face while Sara shifted over behind him to use her fingers to add,
not bunny ears, but devil horns for the next picture.
"That's right!" Jo laughed, snapping an unnoticed picture of Tommy leaning away from the Boca burger Amy was
trying to convince him to eat, his own facial expression something close to one of Hector's nieces or nephews. "If Mrs.
J wants pictures, Mrs. J gets pictures. Don't fight it." She handed the camera off and its whereabouts were soon lost
again until it decided to resurface. "Embrace it!"
Two of Jerry's kids had managed to get the poodle going and, though it wasn't barking, you could hear the jingle of its
collar as it raced them up and down the fence in the back. And up and down. And up and down...
"We'll want some nice ones for our cork board." Gladys stated with a grin. The cork board at the grocery store told up
a good section of the wall behind the counter and the Haskins filled it full of pictures and letters and postcards and
little odds and ends from the different people that lived in the neighborhood. There was still a picture of a very young
looking Hector in his new uniform up on it. Nothing ever got taken off, it just eventually got buried. The rumor was that,
if you dug back far enough in the news clippings and pictures and photos, you could find the first memo ever written.
Secondary rumor had that it was a note from God asking someone to tell Gladys to stop suggesting how He should do
things as He created the world.
"Okay fine." Hector said and resigned himself to pictures being taken as the meal continued. Tommy getting up at one
point to light the tiki torches around the yard.
"You just keep those pictures handy, Mr Haskins." Pete said. "So when I'm famous you can say you knew me when."
"Oh yes, I'll put it next to your America's Most Wanted poster with pride." Mr Haskins said.
"Rock on!" Pete hardly seemed disturbed by how he got famous and Sara shook her head.
"Don't encourage him. Otherwise he might stick with this major instead of changing it in two semesters like usual." But,
since she had yet to pick a college, much less a major, she couldn't ride him too hard about it.
Dinner slowly wound down and the evening mellowed into desserts and comfortable conversation. Andi snuggled into
Hector's arms and mostly listened. Not because she felt isolated or unwelcome or withdrawn. Quite the contrary. But
she wanted to soak this all in. Remember every laugh and playful jab of it.
She wanted to be reminded that Hector hadn't been entirely on his own all these years.
"So, your turn, Mr. Softie." Sara shot her oldest brother an evil look while the guys exchanged coin tosses to see who
got Jolanda's last brownie. Football, as stuffed as everyone was, was definitely off the list of things to do to wind down.
Sara looked as if she'd been waiting for this all night. "Andi told us a 'wow' moment with you. Now you've got to tell us
one of yours with her."
"A 'wow' moment?" Hector asked as Sara nodded gleefully. Everyone else seemed to quiet down and listen closely for
this. If they were leaning forward it couldn't have been any more obvious. "Ah.....can I get away with not being quick on
my feet?"
"Absolutely not." Jo said. "Because we know better. You may have your family screwed into thinking you're the quiet,
thoughtful kind. But we know better. Come on, give us something. Or we'll talk about drugs and stairwells."
"Now it's drugs and stairwells?" Chris asked. "This is what I get for showing up late, isn't it?"
"Come on." Rachel said. "We're not going to leave you alone. Maybe we'll camp out in your bedroom."
Hector laughed. "All right, all right. A wow moment. I don't know, I mean, I know lots of them." He said. "But they were
then, this is now. Not that they're any less important, just that they're in hindsight. Me? I like creating new wow
moments." He held up his hand and caught something that came flying through the dark.
"You were so uncooperative with getting this thing you know." He said to Andi. "But here it is, and here's my wow
moment. Andi, will you marry me? And say yes in front of all these nosy people?"
She'd had her head resting on his shoulder and had drawn back just enough to look curiously at his hand and then
back at his face when he spoke to her. The realization hit her eyes first and the light and the smile washed through
their color first, spreading in a bright flush across her entire face and spilling across her lips in a brilliant smile. For a
question she'd known was coming eventually, it didn't take any of the joy or laughter out of the moment at all for her.
"Yes!" She laughed it. Throwing her arms around him. "Oh yes! Yes, please - " her lips met his in a river of bubbling
laughter. "Oh yes!"
"Yeah?" Hector said as he was nearly bowled over. The cheers began, loud whoops and congratulations. Flashes
from the cameras went off as Hector grinned.