Chapter 4
4
“ S o how did you meet my sister?” Dean asked. He could chitchat like the best of them.
“By the pool,” Greer said with a sideways smile at Bernice, who was engaged in listening to Aurora regale the family with stories of her kids’ antics.
His sister was purposely leaving him to chat up Greer.
“She was so friendly,” Greer added. “And since I was on my own, she invited me to the party. I hope that’s okay.”
Just as Bernice couldn’t abide an unmarried sibling, she couldn’t abide strays either, always making room for them. Dean smiled. “Of course it’s okay. As Ralph said, the more the merrier.” It was his sister’s matchmaking he wasn’t so fond of. Over the five years since his divorce, she’d tried to set him up with her best friend, her hairstylist’s sister, her massage therapist’s ex-wife, and countless others. And it wasn’t only him she tried to match up. His sister Fabiola, widowed ten years ago, had laid down the law, telling Bernice no more setups.
His was the lone divorce of all his siblings. He admired their marital success, was even sure that someday Fabiola would try again, when she was ready and found the right man. He was the only one who couldn’t make his relationship work.
He didn’t ask why Greer was alone at the resort. It wasn’t his business. Though he was sure Bernice had gotten all the details, because that was Bernice. And as his sister Bernice waggled her eyebrows at him, he knew he’d hear all about it later. So he chatted about the standard stuff. “What do you do back in San Francisco?” He made the assumption since she’d been on their nonstop flight.
Bernice didn’t give her a chance to answer. “She’s CFO at a huge manufacturing company.”
Greer laughed, perhaps self-consciously. “I wouldn’t call it huge.”
Ralph leaned on his elbows. “What does your company manufacture?”
Her answer was simple and quick. “Airport scanning machines.”
Ralph gaped animatedly. Dean found the subject interesting too.
But Ralph was a talker. “Wow. That’s pretty amazing. I’ve never met anyone who makes equipment like that. Do you get excited every time you go into an airport and see your company’s logo on a machine?”
Greer’s smile seemed hesitant. “They’re actually baggage machines, not the ones you walk through in Security. And I don’t get to the airport that much. I don’t go on many trips.”
Ralph held out a hand. “But you’re the CFO. Don’t you have to travel all over the country and even the world to see customers?”
Dean thought something passed over Greer’s face, maybe trepidation, maybe embarrassment. “Like I said, it’s not a huge firm. Marketing people work on the domestic contacts and right now we haven’t expanded into any foreign markets. I don’t get involved until we’re at the contract stage.” Then she broke the tension by asking, “And what do you do, Ralph?” efficiently taking the spotlight off herself.
“I’m an investment advisor,” he said airily, rubbing the top of his bald head. Dean thought Bernice would jump in to say he had his own firm with several employees and over a hundred clients, but she let Ralph toot his own horn today. “I love talking finance with anyone who will listen to me.” He flipped a hand between himself and Greer. “Maybe we need to talk.”
She smiled, but Ralph didn’t push. Instead, he put his hand on Jago’s arm. “Jago here is the most incredible mechanic you’ll ever find. Customers are backed up for him to work on their cars.” He nudged Jago. “Right?”
And Jago said, “We’re doing all right.”
“He’s so modest.” Ralph looked at Aurora for confirmation, and Dean’s niece immediately nodded. “If you ever need anything done on your car,” Ralph said to Greer, “Jago is the guy to see.”
Greer nodded, smiling, but said anything, and Jago added, “Thank you, Uncle.” Then he smiled at Greer. “You’re welcome anytime. We don’t have as long a waiting list as Uncle Ralph thinks.”
Ralph screwed up his face. “But you’re always telling me to bring my car in next week,” he groused, pointing a finger.
Jago just smiled. He was forty with buffed muscles but had the cheeky smile of a much younger man. A man who’d never been a gang member. A man who’d turned his entire life around for love. Aurora and her mother, Dean’s sister Sylvia, were immensely proud of him. Dean was too. The whole family was.
Jago starred Ralph down with a grin. “You don’t even need me to look at your car, Uncle Ralph. There’s nothing wrong with it. You’re just trying to give me business.”
Ralph put a hand to his chest in mock horror. “I would never do that.”
Bernice slapped his arm lightly. “Of course you would, dear.”
Everyone at their end of the table had a good laugh. Ralph had been one of Jago’s staunchest supporters right from the beginning, even when the rest of them had been leery. Especially Sylvia, who’d worried about her daughter’s future. But by the time the family met him, Jago was already out of the gangs. And it wasn’t like in the movies or TV shows where gang members came after him seeking revenge.
“And what do you do, Aurora? A stay-at-home mom with your three young ones?” Greer’s beautiful amber eyes seemed interested, though Dean was sure Bernice had already versed Greer in every detail of the entire family’s lives. Including his.
But his niece smiled prettily. “I’m a teacher. It’s a private school. And we’re allowed to bring our kids there for day care.”
“That’s wonderful.” Greer seemed to listen with interest.
Jago couldn’t help lauding his wife. “She’s an amazing teacher. People bring their kids to her school just so they can be in Aurora’s class.”
Those two had always supported each other. One hundred percent. Even more.
He and Jessica had never been like that. Maybe that was a huge part of their problem.
“And Rosa is a teacher here in Mexico and a sister of my heart too.” Aurora said.
The women beamed at each other. They often swapped teaching methods and funny stories about the parents.
Honoria, Aurora’s sister, grabbed her wife’s arm. “Zendaya is in education too. She’s a vice principal at Aurora’s school. And next year she’ll be the principal.”
Aurora clapped, and Rosa picked up the applause.
Until Zendaya held up her hand. “Honoria is counting her chickens before they hatch. With our principal retiring next year, I’m in the running, but no one has said I have the job.”
Honoria tucked her chin and rolled her eyes. “It’s in the bag, sweetie. You know you’ve got it.”
Greer added, “I wish you all the best.”
Then Zendaya put her arm around Honoria’s shoulder, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “And my beautiful wife is a nutritionist at our school as well.”
Greer gasped. “Wow, teaching is in this family’s blood.”
“Absolutely,” they all agreed.
Conversations resumed around them, and Dean felt almost alone with Greer once more. And he found he liked it.
“You’re in software engineering, right?” she asked.
His breath came out in a puff of laughter. “I see my sister’s been talking about me.”
Greer laughed with him. She had a lovely laugh, soft and sweet. “She told me about several members of your family, so don’t worry, she didn’t single you out. And you’re all amazing.” Then she explained, “I mean, your whole family is here to celebrate. It’s incredible that you’re all so close.”
Dean looked down the long table at his mother’s beaming face. “Nana gets only one ninetieth birthday, so we have to celebrate. Everybody wanted in on it.” Not a single kid or grandkid had turned it down. Not even his daughters.
“So how many of you are there for the birthday bash?”
Dean ticked them off on his fingers. “Mom’s got four kids and nine grandchildren.” Then he pointed to the younger kids seated at another table. “Thirteen great-grandchildren. And one great-great-grandchild.”
With what seemed like genuine enthusiasm, Greer said, “I’m an only kid. All this is so astounding to me.”
Dean chuckled. “I find it terrifying. There are a lot more daughters around here than sons.” He jutted his chin, indicating the other end of the table. “My two girls are down there, next to Nana.”
“So that’s twenty-seven. Plus all the spouses.”
He nodded. “We’ve been planning this for almost a year. And my mom didn’t have a clue until I picked her up to take her to the airport. Bernice packed her bag when she wasn’t looking.”
Greer put her hands to her cheeks. “That is just so sweet. I love it.”
A waiter came to stand beside Phillip, who acknowledged the man with a nod. Then Phillip called out, “The buffet is ready. It’s all traditional Mexican food. We’ll let Nana go first.”
There was a lot of noise and commotion after Nana started the line, elbowing anyone who got in her way.
Beside Greer, Bernice said, “I’ll let Dean explain everything that’s on the menu. But it’s all delish.”
Greer turned to Dean. “Thank you. I’d appreciate that.”
He wondered if she knew Bernice was matchmaking. Maybe she was even in on it. Though he doubted that. She probably thought Bernice was just being kind. But he knew his sister all too well.
Finally, it was their turn, and he politely pulled out her chair, leading her to the buffet. This wasn’t his first visit to the resort, and this time was no different. Phillip had his chefs prepare a smorgasbord of tamales, enchiladas, tlayuda , a sort of Mexican pizza, shredded beef, spicy shredded pork, seasoned chicken, all with warmed tortillas on the side. Of course, there were all the accompaniments, rice with cilantro and lime, refried beans, grilled corn, pico de gallo , guacamole, and mole.
Leaning close to Greer, Dean said, “You have to try the pozole. It’s a Mexican soup with pork and hominy in a spicy base. Then you add things like shredded cabbage, cilantro, avocado, and sour cream. It’s delicious.” He pointed to another warming dish. “And here you have Chile en Nogada , a roasted poblano pepper stuffed with picadillo in a creamy sauce and topped with pomegranates.”
“What’s picadillo?” she asked.
He stood next to her, breathing in her sweet scent along with the spicy fare before them. “It’s a mixture of ground meat, fruits, and spices. It’s delicious and superb in the poblano.”
“I’ll try the pozole and the Chile en Nogada ,” she said with decent pronunciation. Ladling the pozole into a bowl, she sprinkled in the condiments he suggested. On another plate, she added the chiles, a bit of the cilantro-and-lime rice, along with a piece of the grilled corn.
“Good choices,” he told her.
He liked her. She didn’t talk his ear off like Bernice would. He adored his sister—all his sisters—but she could talk until his head spun. Greer, though friendly, was more reserved. The quiet type.
Just as they’d seated themselves again, a couple of sparrows flew by, landing on the umbrellas over the tables. A moment later, a regal falcon glided through the poolside atrium, startling Greer before it landed atop another of the umbrellas behind them. The sparrows took immediate flight, scattering into the early evening sky.
“Oh my God. Was that a…” She didn’t even finish the word.
“A falcon,” Phillip told her. Then he pointed to the bridge leading to another of the pools. “And there’s her falconer. We have one at every restaurant, especially in the mornings. Those birds will steal the food right off your plate,” he explained with a smile, then pointed to the sugar holders in the center of the table. “That’s why we have covers over the sugar cubes. They’ll take those too.”
Having dispersed the sparrows, the falcon flew back to his handler, landing on the man’s gloved hand. Reaching into a leather pouch secured at his waist, the falconer retrieved a morsel of meat for the bird to eat.
“That’s unbelievable.” Greer snapped a picture with her phone’s camera. “I have to show my friends back home.” Then finally she tasted the pozole.
“What do you think?” Dean found he wanted to make sure she liked his choice.
“It’s tasty.” She looked at him. “I wonder if I could make this at home?”
“The recipe is easy. You make pulled pork—you can use a slow cooker for that—and add a basic enchilada sauce with tomato paste and chicken broth. Then add a can of hominy.”
“You sound like you know how to cook.”
He shrugged. His ex-wife had done all the cooking. But he’d learned a few things after the divorce. “Pozole is an easy dish that lasts several nights,” he admitted.
“I’ll definitely have to try it.” After another spoonful, she cocked her head. “The falcon. I think it’s an amazing way to keep the birds in check. And now I remember reading about them using falcons in Pacific Grove, down near Monterey and Carmel. They had trouble with seagulls on an old department store they’d renovated into luxury apartments. It was a terrible mess. And they brought in falcons to deter the seagulls.”
“Really? I’ve only ever seen them used down here.”
He’d stayed at the resort a couple of times with his wife and the girls before the divorce. Before the girls stopped speaking to him. He’d spent most of the time on the phone with one problem or another, or working on the computer up in the room. So they had a point. He didn’t vacation; he worked. Jessica had asked why he even bothered coming along.
“I used to visit Pacific Grove a lot.” Greer pulled him back from his thoughts. “My parents lived in a retirement home there.” Then she shrugged. “They both passed on a few years ago, so it’s been a while since I was down there.”
“I’m sorry you lost your parents.”
“Thank you.” Then she shrugged. “I don’t have any family in the area. All my family is back east in Canada, and I never see them.” Then she shook her head, smiling. “I never really knew them when I was growing up. They’re like strangers now.”
He laughed. “You take some of mine. I’ve got plenty to spare. Besides everyone here, there’s all the cousins on both my mom’s and dad’s sides. If we tried to bring all of them, we’d have filled up the entire resort.”
Greer laughed with him. “I definitely thank you for sharing. It’s delightful.”
The conversation flowed between them. Interesting and easy to talk to, she listened attentively, but she didn’t leave him to do all the talking either. She asked about his daughters; she told him she’d never had kids.
Maybe Bernice’s matchmaking wasn’t such a bad thing. At least for the duration of this vacation.