Rio Grande Wedding Part 7

She helped him limp across the hall, and left him, pointing out towels and soap and a plastic, wrapped toothbrush she'd put on the sink, before leaving him to it. "Call me when you're ready, and I'll help you get to the kitchen," she said. He gave a single nod.

Molly went back to the kitchen and without thought, she turned on the radio, and poured a cup of coffee and turned to the fridge, opened the door and stared for a long time without seeing anything but the fall of his hair, his bladed face, the red-gold burnis.h.i.+ng of his skin.

Slowly the vision faded, leaving her staring blankly at the contents of her refrigerator. Eggs. Right. She took the carton out, grabbed the b.u.t.ter,closed the door.

From around the corner came Leonardo, with that air of a busy tiger, a prize in his

mouth. Molly smiled. "Found a sock, did you?" He adored socks for reasons Molly couldn't fathom. He stole them from the laundry pile and the bathroom and bedroom floors, where she all too often left them, and carried them proudly to a corner of the dining room. He hustled now to that stash, where one green one and one pink-flowered one waited. The significance of the fact that the one he added now was white and therefore belonged to Alejandro, sunk in. "Oh no you don't.Wait a minute, Leo."

"Senora?"

Deciding she could rescue the sock later, Molly rushed back down the hall. "Yes?"

"I need ... um ... pants?"

"Oh!" Her eyes slid to the opening in the door, thinking of the silky hair on his thighs-

Startled by the vividly erotic memory, she blinked.

"Of course you do. I'll be right back." Pants. Hauling open a drawer in the heavy Spanish colonial pine bureau, she riffled through a stack of clothes that she'd been unable to bear getting rid of. "Ah-ha!" She grabbed a pair of drawstring gray sweats and hurried back. "Here you are," she said.

He stuck a hand out of the door, his face at the opening."Gracias."

"I'll wait this time."

In a moment, he opened the door and, holding on to the jamb, his shoulders hunched, he mugged an old man's voice and posture, his feet shuffling. "Elviejoneeds you."

Molly laughed and settled his arm over her shoulder and tried not to notice the feeling of his body close to hers. He smelled of soap and peppermint toothpaste, a somehow intimate scent.

At the doorway of the kitchen, he paused, lifting his head, his free hand still clasped to his chest. "Oh, very nice."

"Thanks," she said briskly and deposited him in a chair. "Coffee?"

"Yes, please."

"Anything to put in it? Milk? Sugar?"

He waved a hand as she settled a mug in front of him. "Everything."

Conscious of his frank gaze, Molly grabbed the sugar,then opened the fridge again for the milk, feeling a little heat in her cheeks as she thought of herself mooning over the eggs a few minutes ago. How embarra.s.sing she was acting as if she'd never looked at a man before.

But no matter how she tried to keep her body in a normal posture, move it in the ways she'd moved it a thousand billion times over the thirty years of her life, it was impossible. She was aware of her fingers around the neck of the milk carton, aware of the swing of her arm as she took it out, aware of her knees moving her across the buff- colored ceramic tiles she'd laid herself, on those very knees. She was aware, especially, of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s beneath herT-s.h.i.+rt, and of her rear end when she turned around to start cooking breakfast.

And worse, it was nothing he did to make her so aware. He did not stare inappropriately. His gaze did not particularly linger on her. He was polite and graceful, and openly looking aroundhimself to see where he'd landed.

It was just him. Having a man in her kitchen after so long, a man unrelated to her.

"Senora,may I ask what you learned about Josefina?"

The formality of his words, the dignity in his question brought her to earth. With relief, she seized the sense of normality and broke eggs into a bowl, turning on the burner at the same time to heat the cast-iron skillet. "Very little, I'm afraid. I asked a sheriff if any children had been taken in the raid, and there were no girls her age. So she's out there, somewhere."

"Thank you." He bowed his head.

Beating eggs with a fork, she said, "How did you come to leave her behind?"

He took a breath, blew it out. "She cannot run so fast. I hid her." He met her gaze. "I have no visa, no green card."

Molly smiled. "I gathered that."

Henodded, the dark eyes troubled. "This could make trouble for you."

She lifted a shoulder. "I know that, too."

"So why did you help me,senora?"

"I couldn't leave you there." Turning, she put b.u.t.ter in the pan. "No, that's not true.

I was going to call an ambulance, but you started calling for Josefina." She looked over her shoulder, and met his gaze honestly. "I could tell you love her, and you were worried."

He swallowed. Nodded.

She scrambled the eggs briskly, poured them onto two plates and carried them to the table. "Anything else?"

"No, no." He frowned. "Please sit. This is very good."

From the corner of her eye, she noticed that he put his napkin in his lap, and sat with his back straight, and he held his fork correctly. No, more than correctly. Elegantly.

What had she expected? The answer shamed her. Not this. She had expected ignorance and sloppiness. A hand clutched around the midsection of a fork that shoveled the food into a mouth that chewed openly.

"Where are you from?" she asked.

"A place calledJaral , Mexico. Do you know it?"

"No." She smiled. "I'm afraid I don't."

He swept a lean-fingered hand. "It is very small. A long way from here."

"You must have been here a long time. Your English is very good."

"Not so long." He sipped some of the coffee. "When we were children, we lived inMexico City. I had good schools. And when I came here, two years ago, I read the newspapers every day, to remember."

"Really?"

He straightened, putting his fork down. "You want to know why I am in those fields if what I say is true,no? "

Molly lifted her shoulders, let them go. "Yes."

He nodded. "I will tell you. Later. When you come back from Wiley."

She smiled. "Fair enough." Finished, she took her plate and gestured toward his. "Do you want something more to eat?"