Tangled: A Moreno Brothers novella by Elizabeth Reyes Read Free Book Online Page B

Valerie would be dying to tell her
husband. “He can’t say anything—”
    “Okay, you can’t say anything,” Valerie said quickly before
Isabel could even finish. “Isabel is pregnant!”
    Alex’s eyes went wide, but then he looked confused. “Why can’t I
say anything?”
    “Because she’s gonna surprise Romero for Christmas,” Valerie
chirped in delight. “He’s been wanting another baby for years!”
    “Yeah, he has.” Alex laughed. “He was just talking about it the
other day. He’s gonna be so stoked.” He walked over to Isabel and hugged her. “Congrats.”
    After Isabel pulled away and thanked him, still feeling a bit
choked up, Alex brought up something she hadn’t even thought of. “If you’re
gonna want to keep this under wraps, don’t tell Manny and Max.”
    Isabel’s eyes shot open. “That’s right,” she said, bringing her
hand to her head. “Those two are incapable of keeping secrets.”
    “Not to mention neither knows how to whisper.” Valerie laughed. “They’d
probably discuss it right in front of him and then for the life of them not be
able to figure out how he could’ve possibly heard them.”
    “Yeah,” Alex agreed, laughing now too. “You may as well just tell
Romero if you’re gonna tell them and ask them to keep it under wraps.”
    “Okay, so let’s all agree no one tells Manny or Max,” Isabel said,
pointing at them. “I don’t mind if anyone else knows like your family,” she
said to Alex. “Just as long as they know I’m keeping it from him and his uncles
until Christmas.”
    As much as she mocked Max and Manny for their inability to keep a
secret, she wasn’t much better. She’d never been good at lying, especially not
to Romero, and she knew keeping this from him for the next few weeks would
require lying to him. But the end result would be absolutely worth it. He was
going to be beyond thrilled.
    Isabel was already wondering how she’d get through Thanksgiving
tomorrow when already just the thought of cutting up the pansa for the menudo made her a little nauseated. Still it was less than a month away. She could do
this. Her morning sickness with her second pregnancy hadn’t been as bad as with
her first. Isabel could only hope the third time was even better.
    “Okay, I gotta go,” she said, remembering Romero was waiting for
her at home with the kids.
    The lying had already started. She’d taken advantage of the fact that
Romero and the kids were caught up watching E.T. for the hundredth time to say
she had to run out and get an ingredient she’d forgotten for tomorrow’s
Thanksgiving dinner. She’d been in the kitchen all day, but after another nauseous
episode, she couldn’t stand it anymore and decided to run out and get the home-pregnancy
test and make a pit stop at Valerie’s. Amanda was another one she didn’t trust
to spill the beans. Her young daughter asked a million questions. Isabel would
be forced to tell her what she was up to if she saw her buy the test, so she’d
been forced to wait until Amanda was sucked into the movie and wouldn’t
immediately tag along with her to the store as she normally did.
    Isabel even covered her tracks by pushing the brown sugar to the
back of the pantry because she would never forget to buy any of the ingredients
for her contribution to their Thanksgiving feast. She knew Romero knew this as
well. Just like with everything else she was meticulous about her grocery
lists. That was where the new job came in handy. She blamed it on being so busy
and exhausted last week when she’d started getting all her stuff together for
Thanksgiving, and Romero had easily bought it, barely turning away from the TV
when she told him.
    “Was it crazy busy?” Romero asked as soon as she walked in.
    “ Yes, ” she said, feigning annoyance. “The supermarket is
always a mess the day before Thanksgiving.”
    Romero kissed her then followed her into the kitchen. “No wonder
you were gone so