Rio Grande Wedding Part 31

Filled with a sense of betrayal, she stopped first at the station, but the woman behind the desk told Molly that Josh was out.

"Out? Do you have any idea where?" Molly said with veiled impatience, knowing the woman knew exactly where the deputies were at any given moment. "I really need to see him."

The woman languorously wheeled her chair from her computer to a log on the desk.

Blinking prettily, she said, "Sorry, Molly. I don't show a location."

Molly bit back a retort, took a breath and said, "Thank you."

Glancing at her watch, she saw it was midafternoon. Josh might have stopped off to get a late lunch. She stopped at the Navajo Cafe and hopped up on a stool at the counter, glad to see a familiar face. "Hi, Maureen," she said to the waitress. "Have you seen my brother today?"

Maureen didn't look up from her task of dividing a pie into serving sizes. Molly leaned forward, half smiling. "Maureen? Are you daydreaming?"

The woman looked up, met Molly's eyes and kept cutting.

Molly bit her lip, tried one more time. "May I have a cup of coffee, please?"

The waitress put down her knife, stalked over to the coffeemaker, poured a cup neatly and settled it in front of Molly, all without a word. She went back to her pie, put it in the safe and went into the kitchen to fetch an order.

Molly's heart felt as if someone were stepping on it. Sipping coffee, she glanced over her shoulder at the spa.r.s.e, midafternoon crowd, and was surprised by an expression of dislike on a woman's face. Tiny Moran, in her flowered dresses, had taught Sunday school to Molly as a girl, brought her treats when she was sick. Before Molly could wave or smile, Mrs. Moran looked away.

Turning back to her coffee, Molly had the sense she'd broken some code she'd barely been aware existed.

Behind her, someone laughed, and Molly found herselfcringing a little, wondering what they were saying about her. It wasn't that hard to imagine. No doubt Alejandro's good looks had been discussed in detail, and there were bound to be comments about an irascible charmer using the gullible widow to get a green card.

Not all of it would be mean-spirited. They were not, in general, a mean-spirited bunch.

They were ruggedly individualistic, as well, forged in the live-and-let-live world of the West. In no time, they would begin to sympathize with the plight of a man who needed to care for a little girl who depended on him all of them could relate to that, and because extended families were often so large and so common, there would be little distinction made between a niece and a daughter. Soon, everyone would forget that he had come to them an outsider. His charm, his good looks, his devotion to his duty would all win approval for him. The women would lead it.

How well she knew them! And in that moment of honesty, she could admit that she had not broken some vague community code she'd known nothing about. She had known, right from thebeginning, that she was risking their censure if they discovered what she'd done.

More, she'd done it willfully, and everyone knew it now.

Her crime was not one of pa.s.sion. They would have forgiven pa.s.sion. No, her crime was

much more basic: she'd lied.

She'd lied when she found him lied to her brother about Josefina visiting her, lied to her doctor and the pharmacist about a nonexistent sore throat, lied to her boss about being sick. And lied some more by saying she was in love with a man only so he could get a green card.

Lied,and they all knew it. Her punishment would be a form of banishment, an exclusion from their ranks that would last until she had had time to win back their trust. In some cases, it was likely gone forever. With the rest, it would take quite a while.

Maureen sailed by with the coffeepot and topped off Molly's coffee and bolted away before Molly could say anything. Which, now that she understood the lay of the land, she would not.

She had known what consequences she had risked by undertaking this business, and thinking of Alejandro, lying almost dead on her land that morning, she knew she would do exactly the same thing all over again. Her actions had saved a little girl's life, and even if she could, she wouldn't do anything to change that.

Still, it was with a vague sense of loss that she took two one-dollar bills from her purse and put them on the counter for the coffee and a tip and left, as an outsider would, without stopping to chat with anyone.

On the sidewalk, the wind sailed around the corner of the building and slammed into her body, ice-cold. Surprised, she lifted her head and scented moisture in theair, and to the west was a line of dark gray clouds, low and heavy. There would be snow before morning and right on time.

She still needed to find her brother. But just now, she had lost heart.

Alejandro sat with Josefina until she was calm again, and fell asleep, then remembered he had promised to keep his strength up, and went to the cafeteria for a meal.

As he sat there, the pretty nurse from Molly's floor came in. Spying Alejandro, she made a beeline to him. "Hi. Are you okay?"

He nodded, and glanced around, unwilling to give the wrong impression. "Yes, thank you." He went back to his food.

"Do you mind if I sit down for a minute?"

He had no wish to be rude, but he had not missed her flirtatious glances before, and perhaps someone would think the wrong thing. As he tried to think how to answer her, she smiled. "Don't worry. It's not the same here. No one will think anything if I sit with you." She smiled at his hesitation. "Promise."

With a gesture, he indicated the place across from him.

"I couldn't help overhearing what happened in the hallway this afternoon," she said.

"And, uh, I want to tell you that they're lying."

He raised his head. "Who is lying?"

"The sheriff. And Molly's brother." Her large eyes were grave. "I don't know what the law is exactly, but my cousin married a guy fromMexicoand he has a green card, not trouble." She shrugged. "They're just trying to scare you guys."

Alejandro put down his fork, narrowing his eyes. "So they cannot make me go."

The woman sighed, tapping her nail against the table. "I'm not sure, exactly. They could cook something up, trying to hurt you. If they actually deport you, it might be really hard to get back."

"Ah." He tore a section of tortilla. "What happens to Molly if I do not let them deport me? Can she be in trouble?"

"Not really." She made a sad little face. "No more thanshe's in already."

"She is in trouble now?"

"Not law trouble," she said matter-of-factly. "Just town trouble. n.o.body is talking to her."

He made a face. "They are making her the outsider."

"Right. It would be easier for her if she wasn't an Anglo. If her brother wasn't a deputy sheriff, if her husband wasn't a guy-" She broke off. "Sorry. I sound like I'm trying to make trouble between you, and although I think she's a very lucky woman, I'm really not like that." She started to stand up. "Sorry."

"Annie, is it?"

"Yes."

"Please, stay a little." He frowned, gesturing her into place. She settled uneasily, her palms flat on the table. "I did not know all these things," he said. "I understand about her brother. And if she wereLatina, like you, there would be a place for us, no?"

She nodded.

"But I do not know about her husband. Why does he make it harder for her?"

Annie took a breath, let it go. "Because everybody loved him. He was good people. He was handsome, and real strong, and nice to everybody. If you had trouble, he'd give you the s.h.i.+rt off his back." She warmed to the story, leaned forward. "One time? My grandpa's roof caved in on one side in the snow, and it was Tim who went there and fixed it for nothing."

"I thought," Alejandro said slowly, "that he must have been a very good man to have won Molly."

"Oh my G.o.d!" She put a hand over her mouth. "This is a green card wedding! I should have guessed! It's just like her to do something like this, and really, it seemed kinda weird that she was just all of a sudden in love so fast-!" She winced. "Sorry."

He shook his head. "I do not wish to cause her problems. She has been very kind to me.