Chapter twenty-four
The Oasis
Summer 1922
Caged bird?
“Y ou’re quiet today,” Carlos said, his knife pausing mid-stroke. His eyes flicked toward her. “You’re usually talking my ear off.”
Catalina leaned back on her hands, her gaze fixed upward. A faint smile touched her lips as she watched the birds flitted above. “Sometimes,” she said, her voice softer than usual, “I’m a little jealous of the birds.”
Carlos stilled, his knife lowering. “Jealous?”
She nodded, her eyes still following them. “They get to be free. They don’t have to follow rules, or pretend to be something they’re not. They can just—fly. But? I feel like a caged bird.”
Carlos’s chest tightened at the sadness in her words. He set the carving down, leaning forward slightly. “You’re not trapped, Catalina.”
She wanted to believe him. But she knew that eventually her parents would choose someone for her to marry. She would have no choice but to say yes.
She let out a soft, bitter laugh. “Aren’t I? My whole life is planned out for me—what I wear, who I talk to, who I’ll marry. I don’t even get to decide where I go half the time.”
He didn’t know what to say, so he stayed quiet.
She was always so full of life here. Her laugh was always so bright, filling the space like sunlight breaking through the trees. She teased Carlos relentlessly, and though he grumbled about it, her energy softened him, made him lighter.
They spent the rest of the afternoon in silence, the only sounds coming from the scrape of Carlos’s knife against the wood. Catalina’s fingers toyed absently with the grass as she sat, lost in her thoughts. He missed the cheerful teasing that used to get on his nerves. That used to fill the silence and made him feel less alone. But today, that teasing was gone, replaced by a silence he didn’t know how to break.
“I should go.” Catalina stood, brushing off her skirt.
Carlos hesitated then reached for the small wooden bird he’d been carving. He held it out to her. “You said you were jealous of the birds. But you can choose to be free, like the birds, Cata.”
She looked at him, startled, before taking the bird gently from his hands. Their eyes locked, the air between them shifted, heavy with something neither of them could name.
Her heart fluttered in a way it never had before. Before she knew what she was doing, she stepped closer, wrapping her arms around his waist.
Carlos froze, his muscles tensing beneath her touch. She was small compared to him—he towered over her at six feet, three inches, while she barely reached five feet, three inches. But as her warmth pressed against him, something inside him softened. Slowly, almost hesitantly, he leaned down, his muscular arms wrapping around her shoulders.
When they pulled away, their eyes locked together.
“Thank you,” she whispered as she clutched the carved bird to her chest.
Carlos nodded, watching as she turned and walked away, her figure disappearing into the trees.
She wasn’t just the cheerful girl who disturbed his peace anymore. She was the girl who filled his thoughts, his quiet, his everything.