Rio Grande Wedding Part 32

To us. My niece would have died if Molly..." He took a breath and blinked at the stab in his side. "I must let her go. There must be something. Some way?"

"Are you sure that's what she wants?"

"No." He raised his head, very sure. "She will wish to continue this marriage, because she thinks it is the best thing for us. But she will lose her brother. Her community.

The price is too high."

Troubled, Annie frowned. "Do you want me to see what I can find out?"

"Please. And please do not tell Molly that her brother lied to her. There is enough trouble between them. She does not need to know."

Molly stopped by the grocery store and found the place crowded as all the other locals stocked up in case of a nasty snowfall. Often they came at this time of year, huge snowfalls that stopped everything in the high valley while it came down, stilling the world with a fuzzy whiteout.

She got the groceries, including one full bag for Lynette, who hated driving in the snow. At her brother's house, she saw the cruiser was parked in front, and she carried the bag of groceries to the door, feeling a strange sense of awkwardness.Unbelonging .

A feeling that was not improved when Josh himself opened the door and stepped out onto the porch, putting on his hat in preparation for returning to work. He looked a little startled when he saw her, then remembered to frown. "We have plenty of groceries, Molly. We're not some charity."

"You can pay me for them if you think you need to. I wasn't doing it to help you, but your wife."

"She doesn't need you."

"And neither do you, right?" Molly said. She'd meant the words to be angry, bitter, but

to her horror, they came attached with the edge of tears in her throat

He bowed his head, and Molly found her eyes on the tender nape of his neck, below the close bristles of blond hair. It was a vulnerable place, one that showed his youth and stubbornness. "Josh, I hate this so much! You're the only family I have, and I can't stand for us to be in a fight."

For a long minute, he kept his head down,then looked at her, his defenses firmly in place. "We're not in a fight, Moll. We're just on different sides of an issue."

"So it's going to ruin our relations.h.i.+p if I hold an opinion that differs from yours?

Is that what's happening here?"

Lynette pulled open the door, scowling. "You two come in here right now," she said in a tone of voice that had been ordering around children for years. "You're not gonna stand on my front porch and air your dirty laundry." When both Josh and Molly hesitated, she put a hand on her hip. "Inside. Now."

They obeyed. Lynette pushed them to the kitchen, thanked Molly for the groceries and put them on the counter, before she bustled toward the door. At the threshold, she paused. "Thrash it out pretty quick. Thekids'll be home in a half hour, and I won't have them see you two fighting."

Molly leaned on the counter. "The sheriff stopped by the hospital a little while ago."

Josh sat and took off his hat. A lock of hair stuck up, and Molly ached to smooth it down as she always had. She put her hands in her pockets and waited for him to speak.

"I figured," he said.

"Why did you have to do it like that, Josh?"

"I had to, Molly. You're breaking the law. I know that wedding isn't real."

She opened her mouth to lie,then closed it. Maybe the time for lying was over. She thought of Alejandro's hands on her body this morning, thought of his mouth, kissing hers and said instead, "My feelings are very complicated right now, but it doesn't matter anyway. A wedding isn't enough to keep him here." Tears suddenly filled her eyes and she collapsed in the opposite chair. "And it didn't have to come to that. You didn't have to tell them."

An odd expression crossed his face guilty and confused. "I don't know what you're talking about."

She raised her head, das.h.i.+ng tears away. "All I know is what the sheriff told me he'll let Alejandro stay until Josefina is out of the hospital, but then he has to go back toMexicoand pet.i.tion to come back as my husband."

"I'm realsorry, Moll," he said, not sounding sorry at all, "but you're the one who got all n.o.ble, not me."

"n.o.ble? There's a lot involved here, but n.o.bility isn't really a big part of it."

Josh sighed. "Moll, don't take this wrong, but maybe you do like him. Maybe you really want somebody in your life. I can understand that. But did you ever consider that he might be using you?"

"No. He wouldn't do that."

"Cripes, Molly! Listen to yourself! D'youthink all those confidence men out there bilking old ladies of their savings are uglyswines who can't string a sentence together? You think that would work?" His blue eyes threw sparks. "This Sosa is real smooth. You should hear the women, all over town, who've seen him. It's like we have some big-time movie star in town. He could have love slaves from here toMexico Citywith the snap of a finger."

Molly made a sound of exasperation. "So if a man is charming and good-looking, he's automatically running a con?"

"No! But look at it from his side. Here's this lonely widow, with all that land, no man. How hard would it be?"

"It would be easy," she said, surprisingly calm. "Except that's just not his style."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. You aren't going to listen to me, but I'm not going to sit idly by and let you make a fool of yourself with this guy. What happens in six months or a year down the line when he starts sampling the wares of all the women in town?"

"Listen to yourself! You're acting like I'm a sixteen-year-old girl in heat! Like I have no judgment, like I can't make decisions for myself!" She narrowed her eyes. "I don't want to be protected, Josh. I want to live my life on my own terms and I'll take my chances on making mistakes."

"Fine, but do you have to start by falling in love with some-"

"What, Josh?"

His mouth hardened. "With a guy whose got nothing to lose by taking you for all you have."

"No, d.a.m.n it! Don't you get it? It might not be a mistake at all! Any more than buying that old house I wanted when I married Tim. I would have been happy in that house, and you know what? If you'd stayed out of my way and let me buy it when Tim died, I would never have met Alejandro."

"What the h.e.l.l does that have to do with anything? You're not even rational!"

She flung up her hands. "You know what, Josh? You are not hearing one word I'm saying.

I love you. You're my brother and I don't want us to be estranged, but if you insist on meddling in my life this way, I'm finished with you. I'm a grown woman. I raised my little brother when our parents died, and saw him safely married. I've been to college and buried a husband. I've lived alone and managed to thrive in spite of everything."

She shook her head. "Stay out of my affairs."

He didn't stop her when she left.

Chapter 12.

Alejandro went back to Josefina's room to wait for Molly. When his niece stirred, he played her a soft lullaby, singing softly as he strummed the gentle chords. She was soothed into sleep.

He set the guitar aside and stared out the window, watching dark fall and the wind whip into a fierceness that would bring winter with it. Leaves and dirt spun into whirlwinds, and somewhere out of sight, an empty can clanged over the blacktop. The sound was lonely.

His thoughts whirled like the leaves outside, and he felt dizzy, thinking of how much had changed in such a short time. It was as disorienting as when his sister died, two years ago. One day, he'd been bargaining with a food exporter about the price of his cauliflower. The next, he'd been bargaining with a coyote to shuffle him across the border to take care of Josefina.

Since then, his life had taken ona certain sameness. He'd hated it, all of it the shacks that pa.s.sed for living quarters in many places. The haphazard way Josefina went to school. Until his sister died, he'd been very rooted to one place, one lifestyle.

Ever since, he'd been as rootless asa tumbleweed .

And now, his situation had become very complicated. This wedding had seemed like an answered prayer. But he could not bear to make life so hard for Molly.