“I’ll take some water and some food,” Sal said as Reiner reached up to place a hand on her shoulder. “Di, where’s your mom? I need to tell her hi before—”

“Salomé! Mija!” my mom cried out from the back door at the top step.

Mija. Her daughter. God help me.

I just barely held back an eye roll. She didn’t even call me that. Since Sal had gotten married, everyone in the family acted like she was a celebrity instead of the kid who had fallen out of the tree and broken her arm at our house in El Paso. My mom was probably the worst about it; it really got on my nerves. And maybe just maybe made me a tiny bit jealous that she was more affectionate and proud of my cousin than me.

It wasn’t Sal’s fault.

“Brace yourself,” I whispered to her.

She elbowed me with a snort.

The next two hours went by in the blink of an eye as a few friends of Josh’s from school and their parents showed up, mixed in with the family we had in San Antonio, and the young couple from next door and their kid. There must have been at least fifty people in the backyard and the birthday party was still going in full swing. We still hadn’t cut cake, socked the shit out of a piñata, or opened presents.

“You need help with anything?” my cousin asked, coming up behind me with two used royal blue party plates in her hands.

I was squatting by one of the coolers, trying to rearrange more drinks inside. “That’s okay. I’m done.”

She watched me as I stood up, her pretty face beaming. “There’re so many people here.”

“I know. I’m pretty sure I don’t know ten of them,” I huffed, zoning in on the group of adults I really was pretty positive that I’d never met in my life. “Anybody bothering you guys?”

“No.” She shook her head. “When he has his hat on, no one pays attention.”

That was the thing with Sal: she didn’t say no one knows who I am. She didn’t care. My mom had shown me pictures that Sal’s dad had posted online of her face on a billboard in Germany, for God’s sake.

“Good, because if they are, tell them to fuck off, or tell me and I’ll tell them to fuck off.”

Sal laughed and tapped her elbow against mine a little too hard, but I kept my wince to myself. “The boys look great.”

For probably the third time in the last couple of hours, that all too familiar knot formed in my throat. The first time had been when I’d overheard Louie in the moonwalk shouting, “This is the best party ever!” The second time had been when one of Josh’s friend’s moms came into the backyard and referred to me as his mom. Neither one of us had objected to the title, but I’d felt every inch of it. How could I not? I shouldn’t be the one throwing the party. It should have been Rodrigo.

“Josh has grown a foot since I last saw him,” she commented, her gaze on the moonwalk like she could see him through the net walls. “And Louie’s still the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“I know. He really is, and he’s the sweetest kid in the world.”

“Josh isn’t?”

I kind of gave her a side look. “When he wants to be, but he’s just like Rodrigo, a smart-ass.”

Her chuckle had me glancing at her, frowning.

“What?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know you’re the smart-ass in the family.”

“I am not,” I scoffed.

“Sure you’re not,” she laughed.

“Diana?” a male voice asked from behind, pausing our conversation.

I was too distracted to piece together why the rough, male voice sounded so familiar, but I was about to turn my head over my shoulder when it clicked. He’d come.

“Hey,” I said to the voice I recognized as Dallas’s from the rough texture it had, fully turning around to find him a few feet away with Miss Pearl on his arm. Well. I had no idea they even knew each other, but that was pretty damn cute he’d brought her. “Miss Pearl, I’m so happy you’re here.”

The older woman smiled. “Thank you for inviting me, last minute and all, Miss Cruz.”

And she went there. Okay. I barely held back a laugh at her brutal honesty. “Diana, please. You’re welcome. Come on in and let’s get you a seat and something to eat and drink,” I said, walking around to take her other hand. “I’ll find you later,” I said to my cousin who simply nodded, head bobbing a hello at the two newcomers. Miss Pearl seemed to eye her for a second too long but followed after me.

I made eye contact with two of my other cousins who happened to be sitting at the table closest to us and mouthed, “Move it” while cocking my head to the side. Luckily, they were polite enough to move, taking their trash with them.

“You didn’t tell me with enough time about the party,” Miss Pearl started. There we went again. “I couldn’t buy your boy a present,” she apologized as we settled her into a chair at an empty table.

“Don’t worry. He has so many presents already. What can I get you both to drink?”

She requested a Diet Coke and Dallas a beer after I told him what we had.

I was surprised he was here. With a beer and a red cup filled with soda in hand, I made my way back to the table, dodging a horde of kids walking through the yard with their cell phones in hand, not paying attention to where they were going.

“Here you go,” I said to both, passing Dallas his can, skipping his gaze in the process, and handing Miss Pearl her cup of diet. “Are you hungry?” I asked her. “We have fajitas, chicken, Mexican rice, beans, nachos…”

“I can’t handle spicy. It messes with my digestion. Is any of that fine?”

“Yes, ma’am. None of it is spicy.”

“I’ll take some chicken and Mexican rice, whatever that is.”

My lips quirked. “Okay. I’ll bring you back a plate. Dallas? Anything?” I made myself ask before my mom caught me not asking and demanded to know where the hell my manners had gone.

But my neighbor turned toward the older woman instead of responding to me. “I’m gonna grab my own plate. You’ll be fine, Nana?”

Wait a second, wait a second.

Nana?

She lifted those thin, gnarled fingers as I stood there and tried figuring out what the hell was going on. Nana? “Boy, I was born fine,” the woman answered, oblivious to the questions bouncing around in my head.

Dallas raised his eyebrows but grinned that grin I’d only seen him give Louie. “If you say so.”

“I say so,” she confirmed, raising her entire hand to wave him off. “Go.”

Fucking Nana? Dallas was related to Miss Pearl? Since when?

“I can get whatever you want,” I started to say before he stood up, my gaze bouncing back and forth between the man and woman who lived across the street from me.

“I know you can, but I got two hands. I can help.”

Nana? Focus, Diana, focus. I gestured toward the grill where one of my uncles was currently manning it, but really, I glanced at Miss Pearl one more time. I didn’t see the relation. I really didn’t.

We made it three feet away from the table when he asked, “Why don’t you tell her your last name isn’t Cruz?”