Mrs. Santiago soon got down to business, though. “Why are you making my Rafael so unhappy?”
“Me?” she squeaked out.
“Si”. He won’t eat. He won’t answer his telephone. He punched Ramon.”
“Mrs. Santiago, I don’t think you understand. I’m engaged to marry another man on — ”
“Engaged? How can that be?” She and her daughter exchanged puzzled frowns. When Mrs. Santiago turned back to her, she said, “But Rafael said you were married to him.”
Helen cradled her face in her two hands.
“Did you marry him?” Luisa asked. “Rafael never lies. I do not understand.”
“Yes, we were married, but it wasn’t legal.”
Mrs. Santiago tilted her head. “Rafael said you were married by a priest.”
“Well, a padre did marry us, but — ”
“A padre is a priest, and that makes it legal in God’s eyes.” She took both of Helen’s hands in hers as if welcoming her to the family. “Mi hija… my daughter.”
Helen closed her eyes. How could she explain an unexplainable situation?
Meanwhile the five children, ranging in age from two to eight, were leapfrogging down her hallways. Their screeching laughter filled the house. Helen could barely think. She began to understand Rafe’s feeling of being crushed by his family.
After an hour of arguing fruitlessly over her involvement, or lack of involvement, with Rafe, Mrs. Santiago and her brood left. At the doorway, Rafe’s mother patted her hand. “Don’t you be worrying none. Rafael loves you. You love him.”
“But I don’t love — ”
“Shhh. A mother knows.”
Helen closed the door and went to bed for the rest of the day.
The next day, Helen opened her door to the persistent ringing of the doorbell, and her mouth dropped to the floor. She had another visitor. Rather, two visitors. Leaning against either doorjamb were two Hispanic men. One looked like Antonio Banderas with a long ponytail, wearing a leather jacket and dark sunglasses. The other, younger one, wore faded, very tight blue jeans with a pristine white T-shirt, sporting the logo, “Firemen Have Big Hoses.”
Oh, God! Antonio and Eduardo Santiago.
“We came for the Christmas cookies,” Tony said, strutting in without an invitation. “Mama says you bake a mean cookie.”
“And I like milk,” Eddie said, wiggling his eyebrows at her.
They both took after Rafe. Tall, dark, and exceedingly, dangerously handsome.
“So, when are you going to put Rafe out of his misery?” Antonio asked later, as he sprawled in an easy chair, his long legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles. He did resemble Antonio Banderas. Women must go nuts over him. “He’s driving everyone loco. He won’t even dance with Carmen, and he always dances with Carmen at Christmas.”
“Dance?” She blinked with bafflement. I’m in Bedlam, and my roommates are two studmuffins.
“Yeah, didn’t he tell you? Rafe’s usually so blinkin’ serious, but — ”
“Rafe? Serious? Are you kidding me? The guy who jokes while falling out of an airplane? The guy who claims he can have tongue hard-ons? The guy who teases till he drops? The guy who can ride a horse with a blister on his butt and laugh? The guy who thinks he’s the happy gunslinger? The guy who — ”
“A tongue hard-on?” Tony and Eddie exclaimed at the same time. Then they both burst out laughing.
Eddie was standing near her Christmas tree, playing with the ornaments. Wasn’t he the firefighter, the one Rafe said had once posed as a centerfold? Yep, he was the one, she decided, looking at his tight buns.
When they finally stopped laughing, Tony commented, “Damn, I haven’t laughed so hard since Carmen talked all of us into being the Village People in a talent show.”
“Yeah, but you got to be a sexy construction worker. I had to be an Indian,” Eddie grumbled.
Helen wondered which one Rafe had been, but before she could ask, Tony continued talking to his brother, “And how ’bout the time Carmen talked Rafe into being her tap dance partner at the church Christmas recital?” At Helen’s raised brows, he explained, “He was sixteen, and Carmen was about five. Her partner got the measles, and Rafe got recruited. Every Christmas since then, Carmen makes him tap dance with her at the church recital. It’s a tradition.”