Unwrap My Heart

Capítulo 9

WILLY

After breakfast the next day, I fired up Big Red and leaned against the wall as she idled, her engine running just as well as it had the day I’d bought her. Then I took my old, rusted ramps and set them against my tailgate. After attaching the safety straps to the truck, I loaded the three-wheeler into the bed of my truck and killed the engine.

By the time I had the ramps stowed under the machine and had tied everything down with ratchet straps, my mother had come out of the house to see what I was doing.

“You’re not going for a ride on that thing, are you, Guillermo?”

“I’m going to Daniel’s for a few minutes, Ma. I won’t be long.”

“Did Dani finally talk you into selling that monstrosity to him?”

She’d hated Big Red since the day she laid eyes on it, certain her only son was going to break his fool neck.

“Something like that.”

She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms.

“Why now?”

I scratched my beard.

“I’m going to trade for some building materials, if you must know, Ma.”

“What could you possibly be building at this time of year?”

I rested my arms on the top of the bed and looked over the truck at her.

“Can you keep a secret?”

“Probably.”

When I just shook my head and waited, she caved.

“Yes, I can keep a secret, Guiller. I'm your mother.”

I nodded.

“I’m getting the stuff so Andrés can build his mother a hope chest for Christmas. With my help, of course.”

My mother looked at me for a long time, her usually open expression unreadable. I hated when she did that, and it took all of my willpower not to squirm.

Maybe Rue had told her about the kiss, although if she had, my mother probably wouldn’t have been able to help saying something by now.

“It’s a special thing,” she said finally, “A woman’s hope chest.”

“And the bastards took hers. Drés told me she cried in the bathroom and he wished she had another one.”

“It means something, Willy.”

I held up my hand to stop her.

“Her son is building her a hope chest. Sure, I’m donating the materials. But he’s going to do most of the work and it will be a gift from that boy to his mother. That’s it. And she deserves it.”

“Ay, my little angel. You’ve always had a good heart.”

Then she turned and went back inside without saying anything else.

No, I didn’t.

I’d gone and kissed the last woman on the planet I had any business kissing, and I’d gone and done it right before Christmas. If I caused tension with Rue that affected my mother’s first holiday without my dad, I’d never forgive myself.

It was best I threw myself into a task that would not only make a little boy happy but keep me too busy to get myself into any more trouble.

I drove into town and parked in front of the hardware store so Dani would be able to see the back of my truck from behind the counter and then, after a last look at the three-wheeler that simply confirmed I was doing the right thing, I went inside.