The Mechanics of The Heart (Unedited)

12

Hunter Colin

The food warms my stomach, Bambi's food taste like what home should've been. Eating her food you'd think she'd have stories of our grandmother and aunties teaching her or even our own mother spending hours in the kitchen whispering the secret to delicious recipes and perfectly baked cookies together. But there was not sentimental stories behind the recipes she made, no grandmother or aunt to speak of.

Warmth spreads throughout my body and its not the food.

I feel eyes dance across my frame as I slide the last of my lasagna onto my fork, I leaned back in my seat after putting the fork to my lips. Beside me Bayou starts to fuss, his sauced hands pulling at the restraints of his high chair. From his spot at the head of the table Bear rises, moving to unbuckle my nephew.

The interaction is almost silent besides Bayou's small whines until he's lifted into Bears arms. Their pair of dark eyes locking as Bear mumbles something softly to him before turning to address us. "I'll be right back, potty break." The last part is directed to Bambi who nods, offering a sheepish smile to her guest as Bear disappears upstairs.

"We're in the middle of potty training but sometimes he's gets embarrassed to ask his dad to take him in front of people." I sip my water as I watch the bounce of her stray curls as Amara shakes her head waving a dismissive hand.

"No worries, my brother wore pull ups until he was seven." Bambi smiles softly at the response.
"Are you close with your brother?" Bambi ask and the question is followed by a breath or two of silence and I watch the smile falter slightly on Amara's face briefly and I blink and she's offering that smile again, it doesn't quite reach her eyes and it seems forced.

"Not as we used to be. Have you and Bullet always been close?" The warmth in my body returns as she glances at me, including me into the conversation and I nod.

"Since she's been able to walk Bam's been attached to my hip." I want to ask her why she's not close with her brother anymore but I retreat from the thought before it can manifest.

It wasn't my business.

Clearing my throat, I leaned back further, my shoulder blades pressing against the chair as if I was physically withdrawing myself from the conversation.

"Well I guess that's true, Bullets my best friend. We've spent some time apart but now I think we're closer than ever. Maybe the same outcome can happen for you and your brother." Amara nods with that smile but offers nothing more to the topic.

"Have you always been a gallerist?" Bambi is oblivious to Amara's obvious attempt in changing the subject so it works. Bambi starts her explanation with enthusiasm but her tone falls solemn at the end, she kind of isolated herself after Lyric and Wrench left Bambi had kind of isolated herself for a while, it didn't help that Lisa was almost always busy with the ranch and Marisol was taking more responsibility over Isa, bambi

"Oh no well I mean, Bear bought the gallery a while ago but I haven't started doing showings up until about two months ago. I did some social work for a bit before Bayou was born. I used to be an assistant in an attorneys office, when I came to Nevada I originally planned to finish my art degree but I was only the bar exam away from completing Law school. And so when I obtained my law degree I wanted to open a shelter for domestic violence victims and battered women." Bambi explains, busing herself with moving the serving dishes around, although nothing was wrong with the placement. My mind reels with the memories and my body tenses with the familiar anger I felt that day we found Bambi's shelter burned to the ground.

"That sounds like very extraordinary work. I didn't know I was working for such a badass woman." Amara reaches to pull Bambi into a side embrace, Bambi's emotions playing on her face like a movie and I was grateful Amara pried no further.

"Hey darlin', I'm sorry to interrupt but we have a death con one in our tub and I need backup."Bears unamused tone floats down the stair well. I roll my eyes towards the ceiling, a chuckle bubbling out as Bambi snorts.

"I'll be back, excuse me." I nod, reaching for a piece of garlic bread, tearing off the crust before ripping it into little pieces, eating one.

"Do I want to know what Death con one is?" I rise my gaze to Amara, my lips tilting at the question.

"No, no you do not." I chuckle, I had spent a many a days babysitting my nephew to know potty duty was a warzone. "How're you findin' yourself in Nevada?" I find myself asking, fingers resting on the cool of my glass of water.

Amara kind of sighs and twist her mouth to the side before she answers. "It's okay, the heat's gonna take some time to get used to." I nod as she moves the barely eat slice of lasagna around her plate, my own practically cleaned.

"A good AC system in your house and car will help keep the battle in your favor." I offer with a smirk, the Nevada heat was brutal. Most repair men in town specialized in AC units because everyone kept theirs at a sixty-five degree, freezing or just down right killing their units.

My eyes sweep over her expression as she snorts, moving t rest her chin on the open palm of her hand. "Well Bullet, if you happen to know a good mechanic that could fix the unit in my car, that'd be great." I felt like I was being lured into something as she looked at me, her eyes a deep brown. Not necessarily dark but deep like space, never ending.

"I do, actually."