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“Then it should be yours.”
“Gracias, Mamá.” I hug her, my throat tight as tears begin to flow down my cheeks. “You have no idea what this means to me.”
“I do.” She squeezes my forearm. “It was always meant to be yours. I was just waiting for the right time. And now that you have Luna, it will give you an excuse to ride out there.”
I spin toward my father. “She’s mine?!”
“I did say that I’d give her to you on your birthday,” he confirms.
“Actually, I believe he said that if you behaved like a proper young woman should, he would give her to you.” Ezequiel, my older brother by six years, comes through the doorway and takes his seat beside my father. “I’m not sure you’ve met your end of that bargain.”
I scrunch my nose at him, tightening my lips in that silent way of telling someone to shut up. “I’ve been very good,” I say in spite of my brother’s wide-eyed stare. Sure, I’ve done a thing or two that might have bent the rules from time to time. Sometimes I take Luna out for a midnight ride. Sometimes I steal away to where the worker’s break during the day, where I can curse and pretend to smoke. Sometimes I let Diego touch me in ways he shouldn’t, and even though everyone assumes we’ll be married someday, that wouldn’t matter to my father. But he doesn’t know any of this, and what he doesn’t know, won’t hurt my chances.
“Well…” my father begins.
“Pa!” I cry. “You can’t possibly tell me no!”
He begins to laugh in that way I love, fullheartedly with his shoulders bouncing. “Of course she’s yours.”
“Yes!”
He lifts a finger when I begin to speak. “Under the condition that you have the stable hand show you how to ride her,” he says, because he’s unaware I’ve already done so. “She’s not a gentle beast, and I don’t trust you to handle her on your own yet.”
“Yes, yes, of course, Papi. Whatever you say.”
“Feliz Cumpleaños, mi sol.”Happy birthday, my sun.
I scream with sheer joy. “Thank you, thank you! I love you, Pa. I love you, Mamá. Thank you!” I place a kiss on top of my father’s head and blow one to my mother.
“All right, all right. Don’t strangle me!” Pa laughs.
“Sorry. I’m going to ride her right now!” I make to move, but he clasps my wrist and holds me to him.
“Sonia, are you forgetting something?”
My gaze darts to my mother, then my brother, who shrugs. “I…” My brain scrambles to remember anything I may have forgotten to do. “Eat cake?”
“Diego. He asked if he could take you into town for the day, remember?”
“Ugh!” I roll my eyes. “Pa, I told him I’d rather do that another day. I don’t need any more clothes.”
“It’s not about what he’s going to buy you,mija. It’s about spending time together.”
“He’s a nice boy,” my mother throws in.
“But he’s here almost every day. Pa, I want to ride Luna. I’ve never ridden her during the… Uh, I’ve never ridden her,” I correct, but not before my father catches on.
He cranes his neck around to look directly at me, his mouth pursed. “You’ve never ridden her, right?”
“Of course not. I just meant—”
“Don’t forget my condition, Sonia Anahí Beltran.”
I tighten my lips into a straight line, hating it when he uses my full name. “I won’t,” I assure him.
He arches a brow before turning back to his plate. Cutting a slice of steak, he dips it into the runny yolk of his egg. “Perhaps when you return.”
“The party is this afternoon,” I remind him, suddenly resenting thefiestahe said would be bigger than myquinceañera. People will be coming from miles away, though I’m not sure if it’s because they want to celebrate with me or to simply be a part of something that resembles more a festival than a birthday party.
