A/N – "Thoughts"

Chapter 6 – Mexico

Gordo slowly walked into the kitchen and grinned as he saw Samantha sitting at the kitchen table, stuffing her mouth full of pancakes. Playfully, ruffling her hair, he saw Miranda standing at the counter with her back to him. She had a section of the paper laid out on the counter and as she read it, she sipped from her coffee mug.

Walking over, Gordo wrapped his arms around her and pressed up against her back. As he kissed her cheek, Miranda smiled as she leaned back against him. "Finally got your sorry butt out of bed."

"I needed sometime to think," he said as he let go and grabbed himself his own cup of coffee.

Miranda glanced at him, curious. "About what?"

"Your anniversary gift," Gordo told her with a grin as he took a drink of his coffee.

"Whatya gonna get me?" she asked like a little girl.

Gordo chuckled softly, "Now, if I told you, it wouldn't be much of surprise."

She glared at him. Miranda hated surprises. Not so much the surprises themselves but the not knowing what it was, bugged her. Slowly a grin spread across her face; putting down her coffee cup, she walked over to him. "Gordo," she said softly. Loosely threading her arms around his waist, Miranda leaned in and very gently brushed her lips against his. "Tell me," she whispered and grinned as she saw Gordo trying to fight it. Miranda leaned in and kissed him again, pulling back, she pouted at him and gave him this sad puppy dog look. She then started to gently trail kisses from his lips, across his cheek, finally to his earlobe. "Tell me," she whispered again and started to gently nibble on his earlobe.

"Fine," Gordo groaned, defeated. As Miranda pulled back so she could look him in the eyes again, Gordo glared at her and she just giggled back at him with a wide grin. "You know how you've always said you wanted to go back to Mexico."

Miranda's grin was suddenly replaced with a look of complete surprise. "You didn't?"

"You and your mom have been hinting at wanting to go back to visit your grandparents, so you father and I put together a little trip for this summer. We spend two weeks in July with your grandparents in Guaymas," Gordo told her with a grin.

Miranda gave him a lingering kiss. "I love you," she told him with a huge grin.

"I know," he answered sarcastically with a small grin, "and you're welcome. I know how much you've wanted to go back and I think your grandparents should meet their great granddaughter."

"It sucked missing Rome but looking back, it was nice seeing my grandparents. They loved smothering me and Angela." Miranda glanced back at Sammy who was finishing her orange juice, "They'll love Sammy," she then turned her attention back to Gordo, "and getting to better know their new grandson-in law."

The only time Gordo had met them was their wedding and that had only been for few days. Gordo snickered, "Is there even such a thing?" Miranda just smirked and shrugged.

-----

Miranda sat on a small bench in the far corner of her abuelos backyard, just starring out at the rest of the yard. She, along with the rest of her family, were spending the month of June visiting her family in Guaymas, Mexico. While at first she had been a little pissed about it, but actually being here, it was pretty nice. Even if she barely spoke the language. "That's one thing I have to do when I get home. Drop French and start taking Spanish."

The only down side was she missed her friends and she was a little irked that she was going to miss the trip to Rome.

As she sat there, she kept thinking about Gordo. For the past few months, she had been feeling different around him. It was a weird feeling, one she really couldn't figure out or really wanted to. When she figured out Gordo had a crush on Lizzie, she started really pushing him to tell her. She figured if he was with Lizzie, somehow, the weird feeling would go away.

She was wrong.

The harder she tried to push Lizzie and Gordo together, the stronger her feelings got and the more annoyed Miranda got. The last thing she wanted to do was fall for her best friend, who obviously had a huge crush on their other best friend. But ever since seventh grade, they had been getting closer. They had gone from being casual friends because of Lizzie to best friends themselves, outside of Lizzie.

Sighing softly, she ran a hand through her long black hair and stretched her legs out in front of her. "I can not have a crush on Gordo. He's like a brother to me, plus he's hopelessly in love with Lizzie."

Miranda grumbled under her breath, "Stupid Gordo."

"I am not jealous. Why should I be jealous?" It was like her own thoughts were taunting her. Aggravated, Miranda stood up and headed for the house. While she had originally come outside to find some quiet, her brain had made sure she didn't.

Walking inside, she found her abuela sitting at the kitchen table slicing some peppers. "What are you doing up so early?" Abuela Santiago asked in heavily accented English.

Miranda shrugged, "Woke up early and went outside to think about some stuff," she said as she took a bite out of a muffin.

"You've seemed preoccupied ever since you arrived. You want to talk about it?"

"Not really. It's complicated."

Abuela Santiago smirked as she continued slicing the peppers, "It usually is when you're in love. Its that Gordo boy you're constantly talking about, isn't it?" she said and put the knife down.

Miranda nearly choked on a mouthful of muffin. "Wh…What?" Forcing herself to swallow and after coughing for a moment, "I am not in love with Gordo," she said defensively.

Abuela Santiago smirk grew as she knew she hit a nerve. If her granddaughter wasn't, she wouldn't have reacted so strongly. "Maybe not love yet but you do have strong feelings for him."

"He…He's my best friend, of course I have strong feelings for him. He's a big part of my life," Miranda answered quickly. "It doesn't mean I like him as anything else."

Abuela Santiago just slowly nodded her head while Miranda continued. She had stopped trying to convince her grandmother and was now, trying to convince herself more than anything. "Yea, Gordo is a great guy and I guess he's kinda cute but that doesn't mean I like him. I've known Gordo since I was like four. I've seen him with a bloody nose, hell, we've seen each other throw up when we had the flu together." As she rambled, Miranda had started to pace around the kitchen.

Dropping onto one of the table chairs, she put her elbows on the table and put her head in her hands. "I can't be falling for Gordo," she mumbled softly.

"Why not?" Abuela Santiago said softly. "Why can't you fall for him? From everything you've told me, he's a very nice boy. When you get home you should tell him how you feel. Only a fool waits for the man to come to her, its how I got your abuelo. I saw him and I went after him."

Miranda grinned a little, "Its not that easy. He's…He likes someone else. This other girl, she's our other best friend and she's like a sister to me. I couldn't stab her in the back like that. Even if I did, I'd prolly get run over and lose anyway."

Abuela Santiago gave her granddaughter a sympathetic look as she saw the look in Miranda's eyes. She had no words of wisdom or sage advice for her and could only feel for her. Reaching out, she gently squeezed her granddaughter's hand. "Your time will come niña."

-----

After Miranda cleaned up Samantha and let her go out back to play, Gordo and Miranda sat down at the kitchen table to have breakfast himself. Glancing across the table at his wife, "I've always wondered something." Gordo watched Miranda look up at him. "When I met your grandmother at our wedding, she told me it's a good thing I finally opened my eyes and realized which girl I belonged with. Do you know what she meant?" he asked with a sarcastic grin.

Miranda smirked and looked down at her plate as she speared a piece of pancake with her fork. "Nope."

Gordo chuckled softly, knowing she probably did but wasn't going to tell him. "Well whatever it means. I'm glad I did. You defiantly make life interesting."

Looking up at him with raised eyebrows, "And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" she asked him while pointing at him with her fork. His grin widened but didn't say anything as he continued eating. Miranda rolled her eyes and went back to her breakfast as well.