As expected, he peered at her curiously. “Did he call or show up?”

The last time she’d spoken of Grayson to Felix was the day after their marathon conversation on the phone over a week ago. She’d told him about how all the texts Grayson had sent after she hung up on him that night were nothing more than apologies and that she’d finally answered his call the next morning. That’s when Felix made it clear to her what he thought of Grayson and asked her straight out what her intentions were with the guy. She assured him it was nothing more than to remain friendly and explained why. Felix had been okay with that but asked that she not keep him in the dark about any interaction with Grayson, especially if he was still going to be stopping by to see her.

“I told him that morning after we talked almost all night last week, the night I said he’d gotten rude with me. So he’s known all this time.” She squeezed his hand. “He hasn’t mentioned coming by to see me either. I’m sure he thinks that would be awkward with my boyfriend around and all.”

Felix’s lips stretched into a smile. “Your boyfriend? So that means . . .?”

She nodded, feeling giddy, and then yelped when he picked her up and spun her around. Before she could say anything more, his lips were on hers and he kissed her deeply. He brought her down slowly to the ground, but his lips never came off hers. They took a few steps back until she was pressed against his car where the crazed kissing continued as he cradled her face in his hands.

The sound of someone clearing her throat noticeably loudly had Ella pushing Felix away. An older woman holding a platter with food and a young girl wearing a smirk stood by the car behind Felix’s, staring at them. Ella couldn’t believe neither she nor Felix had noticed the car pull up.

“Mom?” Felix said, slipping his hand into Ella’s as her heart did a summersault, “I didn’t know you were gonna be here.”

His mother glanced at Ella disapprovingly then back at Felix. Ella felt her face ablaze instantly. “Caro invited us over for dinner,” his mother explained as she walked toward them. “I still haven’t met Abel’s new baby.” She glanced at Ella again. “I’m Isidora, Felix’s mother, and this is Alessandra, my daughter and his sister. And you are?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Felix said quickly. “Mom, you didn’t even give me chance. This is Ella, my, uh . . . girlfriend.”

His mother’s face jerked back to look at Felix with a raised brow. “Y eso?”

“I was, um, waiting until it was official, and I just found out right now. That’s why we were . . .” He gestured to Ella and did a swirly thing with his hand. “Anyway.” He cleared his throat. “So this is perfect timing. You’re the first one who knows it’s official.”

His sister’s mouth dropped open. “No wonder you’ve been in town all this time. Mom and I thought it was kind of strange for you to stay put so long.” She held her arms open to Ella, who glanced at Felix and then dropped his hand to hug Alessandra. “Nice to meet you, Ella.” She pulled back to look at her. “Sorry, but I’m terrible at this. I don’t recognize you. Singer? Athlete?”

“None of the above,” Felix said quickly and a bit defensively, reaching for Ella’s hand.

“I’m kind of athletic,” Ella offered.

Felix looked at her weirdly before turning back to his sister, but Ella didn’t miss the warning eye. “She works at 5th Street.”

“Ah,” his sister said with a smile. “Got it.” She turned back to their mother. “And now we know why he’s been in town so long.”

His mother held up her free arm now too. “Ven aqui,” she said, and Ella quickly, obliged hugging her as well. “¿Hablas español?”

Ella responded in Spanish that she, in fact, did speak Spanish. Felix took the platter from his mother as they all walked toward Abel and Nellie’s front door. His mother began grilling her in Spanish about how she and Felix met and how long they’d been seeing each other.

She saw the smirks all around as they entered Abel’s enormous and beautiful house. Isidora introduced her to Abel’s mom, Caro, who was equally inquisitive about her and Felix’s relationship. She sat with the two women, Alessandra, and Nellie at the kitchen table.

Isidora told Caro she hadn’t known a thing about Ella until she’d met her just outside.

“Nellie and Charlee had mentioned something about Felix being over the moon about a girl at the gym.” She winked at Ella and reached across the table to touch her hand. “I saw that same look on Felix’s face on my own boys when they brought home Nellie and Charlee.”

Ella felt her face warm, unable to think of a single thing to say in response to that, but the comment had the butterflies in her stomach swarming. This was all happening so fast. She was glad now she had no warning that she’d be meeting Felix’s mom and sister tonight, or she was sure she would’ve been a mess all day. She may’ve even tried to get out of it. This was way too soon.

Thankfully, after a few more minutes of grilling her about her work at 5th Street, her family, and then her school, they moved on to another subject—cooking. Caro asked Isidora about the dish she’d brought. It was one of those layered dips, but Isidora added her own flare to it.

Charlee walked into the kitchen just as the conversation had moved back to Ella, with Isidora and Caro inquiring about her cooking skills. Ella couldn’t have been more grateful for the interruption because the truth was her skills in the kitchen weren’t all that great.