14. Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Thirteen
“ W here are you sneaking off to?”
Startled by Steve’s voice, Dina yelped and clutched her purse to her chest. She glared at him as he stepped out of the shadows of the formal dining room. “What is wrong with you? Why are you lurking like a ghoul?”
“I’m not lurking. I’m enjoying a hot cup of coffee while watching those skinny little chicken birds caterwauling outside that front window.”
“Skinny chicken birds?” Dina had to see this for herself. She crossed the hallway and walked straight to the tall windows. She searched for the birds he’d described and found them hopping around the branches of a plumeria tree. “Those?”
“Yeah. Right there. The ones making all that racket.” Steve appeared behind her, his chest nearly touching her back. He pointed out the birds in question, his arm hovering over her shoulder. The woodsy manly scent of him drove her crazy, and she wanted so badly to lean back against his hard body and beg him to hold her.
“Chachalacas,” she finally managed to utter. “They’re noisy in the mornings and evenings. I don’t know what kind exactly. You’d have to ask Lola. She knows all the species of birds and flowers and trees and grass and animals around here.”
“Chachalacas?” Steve repeated dubiously. “That sounds like some made-up word my friend Pancho would have told me when we were kids so he could make fun of me later.” Steve stepped beside her and grinned down at her. “When we were seven, he convinced me the actual, real Spanish word for a Mexican banana was platanacas . I didn’t live that down until high school.”
Dina tried not to laugh. She really did, but it was too hard. She could just imagine a scrawny, gangly Steve proudly busting out that goofy word to prove he could speak Spanish. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t laugh.” She covered her mouth. “I’m sure that was embarrassing.”
“Don’t worry. I got him back for it.” Steve smiled fondly. “He married my cousin. That’s punishment enough.”
“That’s mean!”
“When you meet Valerie, you’ll understand.”
When? Not if. The idea of meeting his family shouldn’t have thrilled her but it did.
“I think you’ll like my sister, though,” Steve continued, his gaze fixed on the window and the birds outside. He looked calm and cool, but she suspected he was a nervous mess on the inside.
Just like me .
“You want me to meet your family?”
“I met yours. Seems only fair.”
“I guess,” she said uncertainly.
“Your mom and mine would get on well. Lola took me to see your mom’s stables and horses. My mother has raised quarter horses for most of her life.”
“So, you’re a ranch kid?”
“Yeah. I think Camila would like my family’s ranch.”
“Probably not,” Dina gently disagreed. “She was thrown from a horse when she was six and never got back in the saddle.”
“I bet my sister can get her up on a horse and have her riding like a pro in weekend.”
“A pro what?”
“Barrel racer,” he admitted sheepishly.
“Oh, absolutely not! That’s all I need. My daughter learning how to ride hell for leather on a beast of a horse!”
“It might be a good channel for all that teenage angst. My sister spent most of her high school years in the stables.”
“I grew up with horse girls. They all stayed out of trouble,” Dina agreed. “They were too busy braiding horse manes and mucking stalls and cleaning hooves to worry about boys and drugs and booze.”
“See?” He playfully nudged her with his elbow. “I’ve got good ideas sometimes.”
She laughed shortly. “I suppose.”
“So—where are you going?”
“Out,” she said, purposely keeping her gaze on the window.
“Out where?” Steve pressed.
“To see someone.”
“Someone like a school counselor who has been filling your daughter’s head with lies?” Steve’s unblinking stare finally broke her, and she chanced a glance his way. He looked both amused and worried. “Did Camila come clean to you?”
Dina nodded. “I’m glad she told me everything.”
“I wanted to give her a chance to tell you. I know it’s important for mothers and daughters to be able to talk about things openly and honestly.” Steve touched her shoulder in the gentlest way. “But I intended to come find you this morning to make sure you got the full story about her counselor acting as a go-between.”
“Thank you for giving her space to be honest with me.” Dina marveled at this man who tried so hard to do everything right. The bar for men was so low, and here was Steve, jumping as high as he possibly could.
“You’re welcome.”
As Dina gazed up at him, she wished more than anything that her morning was entirely free and open. She wished she could ask him to come with her into the city, to have breakfast at one of the better hotel restaurants and then casually ask if he wanted to see the suites upstairs. A day in bed with Steve was exactly the stress relief she needed right now.
And exactly the sort of distraction she couldn’t afford.
“I’m actually going to see Jose first,” Dina said, purposely drawing away to put room between them.
Steve’s face fell at her sudden step back, but he frowned when her words registered. “Jose? Why?”
“He’s Chavela’s uncle,” Dina said matter-of-factly. “I figured you knew.”
“I didn’t.” Steve looked extremely concerned. “Shit.”
“What?”
“I asked him to look at the video footage from the security cameras. He said there was nothing on it. Maybe he wiped them?”
“Maybe,” Dina replied uncertainly. “He’s her uncle, but only by marriage. It’s not a close family. If anything, he’d be more likely to turn Chavela in than help her get out of trouble.”
“Really?”
“Oh, yeah. It’s a complicated, messy family.”
“Aren’t they all?”
“It sure seems that way! You know Beto dated her when they were kids? I’m the reason they broke up.”
“I found out they dated last night, but I didn’t know you were the reason the relationship ended.”
“I found her going through his drawers in his bedroom.” Dina scowled at the memory. “She had a safety pin in her hand, and she was poking holes in condoms he had hidden in there.”
“No way!”
“Yes! I was shocked! They were still in high school, and she wanted to get pregnant!”
“Why?”
Dina shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe she wanted to trap him and become part of the family. Maybe she wanted someone to love her unconditionally. Maybe her parents put her up to it.”
“That’s awful.” Steve grimaced at the idea of parents trying to convince their teenage daughter to get pregnant for access to money.
“People are awful when money is involved.”
“I bet they are,” Steve agreed sadly. “I bet you and your siblings have seen more than your fair share of that kind of ugliness.”
“We’ve been lucky. Lola only had one boyfriend who was a gold digger. Rafa and Jaime never did.”
“And you?”
She smiled grimly. “Just my ex-husband. I haven’t given any man a chance to try it since.”
“How so?”
“I don’t date.”
Steve seemed taken aback. “Never?”
“Nope.”
“So...us?” he asked carefully.
“What about us?” she asked, unable to meet his piercing gaze.
“Could there be an us?” Steve shifted into her line of sight, all but forcing her to look at his handsome face. Earnest. Honest. Trustworthy. He was all the things she craved. “After all this settles down and things go back to normal?”
“What if things never go back to normal?” She hadn’t admitted it to anyone yet but she was terrified Diego would never be caught. “What if Diego stays a fugitive? What if he’s always out there, hiding in the shadows? Threatening us?”
“All the more reason to keep me close,” Steve reasoned.
She exhaled in shock and confusion. “How do you always say the right thing?”
“I don’t.”
“You do.”
“I’ll mess it up eventually,” Steve warned, taking a step toward her.
“I’ll probably forgive you,” Dina whispered, her heart pounding as Steve cupped her face in his strong hands. Her brain screamed for her to break away, to remind him that she could not get involved right now, but her body ached for him.
She closed her eyes as his lips met hers. He tasted bitter and sweet, like coffee and milk and sugar. He was so tender as he kissed her, just letting their lips linger for the longest, sweetest moment.
When he deepened the kiss, she grasped his powerful forearms, feeling the muscles ripple under her fingers. He groaned against her mouth, sending a frisson of heat straight between her legs. His fingers tangled in her loose hair, and he wound the strands around them, tugging lightly and setting her scalp alight.
She moaned and clutched at his shoulders, desperate to draw him closer. If she could have climbed him, she would have. Only the knowledge that anyone could walk by and see them kept her shoes planted on the floor.
“I want you, Dina.” Steve spoke raggedly between feverish kisses. “Not just for one night.”
“Steve,” she murmured, her heart torn between loving this man and doing what was best for her daughter.
“I know,” he soothingly reassured her. “I know.”
Did he? He must have some idea of the terrible battle she was fighting.
“I can wait,” he promised before kissing her so wickedly her knees wobbled.
“Um...sorry?” Lola called out from the doorway of the dining room. “I know this is a really bad time but...”
Steve groaned with frustration at Lola’s apologetic interruption, and Dina silently thanked her sister for stepping in before things spun out of control. Not about to let her go that easily, Steve kissed her chastely on the mouth and then the tip of her nose and right along her temple. “I meant what I said,” he reiterated in a whisper. “I’ll wait.”
Dina marveled at this steadfast man who had come into her life. Maybe he wasn’t a mistake after all.
“Listen, we have a problem.” Lola shifted Jasper from her right hip to the left and popped his pacifier back in his mouth to keep him soothed.
“What now?” Dina asked tiredly.
“Mama is missing.”