Chapter Twelve #4
Shabina smiled at them. “You always make me feel happy when you like the food I prepare.”
Zahra sent her a smile, sweet and loving. “It’s your love language. No one says I love you like you do with food.”
“Don’t let Rainier hear you say that,” Stella said. “Her café is very popular. Men come from all over the world and eat there.” She turned her attention to Guadalupe. “She gets marriage proposals all the time. And I mean nearly daily.”
“Is that true, Shabina?” Guadalupe asked, wide-eyed and clearly shocked.
“Well, yeah,” Shabina admitted with obvious reluctance.
Harlow was proud that she didn’t look toward any of the hidden cameras when she said this. She rarely mentioned to Rainier the male attention she received at the café unless someone took it too far. He, Wilder and Rush had no doubt heard every word of their present conversation.
“Don’t they know you’re with Rainier?” Guadalupe asked.
That brought on another round of laughter. Guadalupe grinned at them and took another bite of the dessert. The expression on her face changed from that smooth, polished look to sheer bliss. She caught them all grinning at her. “Okay, okay, I surrender. I’m going to ask Shabina to marry me.”
“Get in line,” Raine said.
Shabina laughed, but color had stolen into her face. “Thank you. All of you. I do love to cook and bake. Much more than I love running.”
“Hear, hear, sister,” Zahra said.
It was Stella who circled them back to their excuse for asking Guadalupe to join them.
“We’ve been looking at a particular property for some time.
It has two amazing boulders on it, no house, but a barn Harlow considers historic.
I think it has quite a few acres to it. No one has done anything with the place in years.
We’re hoping the owner might sell. We’d need to know about the water and whether we would be able to get a permit to build.
We thought we could put a really nice house with multiple bedrooms on it so we can meet up to boulder.
It’s not quite at the halfway mark between my resort and Knightly, but we think it would be really nice to have a place we can meet and climb. ”
Guadalupe immediately pulled her tablet from her purse, all business.
She asked pertinent questions, raised her eyebrows at the address, and shook her head.
“That property has never come up for sale since I’ve been working in this area.
I’ll do some digging and find out who owns it.
Often, the property is inherited, and the family just hangs on to it but has no idea what it entails.
I’ll look to make certain the taxes have been kept up as well. ”
“Water is important,” Stella reiterated. “If there is no water available, that would halt everything. Also, how difficult it is to get permits. I have firsthand experience with that. It’s a great location, so we could go solar and save money.”
“The boulders are the best,” Raine added.
“Lots of snakes,” Zahra pointed out. When they all glared at her, she shrugged, unfazed.
“Just keeping it real. There are snakes and probably coyotes and bears and mountain lions. No one has lived there in decades. I’m not sure anyone ever did, which means they have more sense than the bunch of us. ”
“I can see you’re fully on board, Zahra,” Guadalupe said.
“As always,” Zahra agreed. “I am the voice of reason in this group of wild ones.” Her tone carried the slightly haughty, slightly superior note that was all Zahra.
Laughter burst from all the women. “Because she’s not wild,” Stella said.
In the short time that followed, Harlow didn’t take her gaze from Guadalupe, hoping to catch a glimpse of the real woman.
She seemed so perfect. Every response. Every action.
Each word that came out of her mouth. Harlow suddenly felt terrible for her.
Whether Guadalupe was the woman the senator had driven away or not, she had suffered terrible trauma.
Harlow didn’t like the feeling of deception that was suddenly coming over her.
She had done her best to show her friends her real self.
Maybe she wasn’t always good at it, but she tried to be authentic.
She’d lived an illusion her entire childhood, and she’d learned to deceive everyone around her just to survive.
Now she was adding to someone else’s trauma.
They discussed it after Guadalupe left, promising to research the property.
“We did our best to sow the seeds of doubt,” Vienna said. “Now it’s in her court.”
“She was acting,” Zahra said. “I’d never noticed that before. She seems so genuine, but she was acting.”
Stella nodded. “Absolutely, she was. It is kind of creepy how good she is at it.”
“Like me,” Harlow reminded. “She had to have a lot of practice.”
“We don’t know if she’s like you,” Vienna said. “You always give everyone the benefit of the doubt.”
“This will give me something to work on that Rush isn’t going to object to,” Raine said. “No real pressure. Give me a few days, and I’ll know quite a bit about her.”
Harlow had no doubt that it was true.