Alejandro was staring at her.
Oh, she thought. She wasn’t supposed to know that she was to take the twin bed in his room. “No, no, no,” she said. “I didn’t dump one man to get another one.”
She saw that he had to work not to laugh at something he wasn’t supposed to understand.
She pointed at his bed, which was neatly made up and had one of his shirts tossed across the foot. Alas, he was wearing another one.
He was still staring at her.
Elise pointed at the bed. “Carmen?”
He shook his head and pointed toward the other bedroom. “Carmen there.”
For the second time, Elise thought that if she hadn’t known he spoke English, his unaccented words gave him away. “I get it,” she said. “Carmen the Coward. She’s knocked up by my boyfriend so she’s afraid to go to sleep in my presence.”
Alejandro shrugged, as though he didn’t understand what she was saying, but his eyes were sparkling.
“So how do I tell you what I mean?” She pointed at his bed and said, “Carmen,” then went to the bed on the far side of the room and pointed to herself. She pantomimed sleeping, then waking and tiptoeing to the other bed—where she put her hands around Carmen’s throat and started strangling her. Then she stabbed her. Then she pulled Carmen’s body off the bed by her ankle and slammed it on the floor three times.
When she stopped, she looked up at Alejandro and gave him a sweet smile. “Is that why she doesn’t want to sleep in the same room as me?” That needed no translation. Laughing, he nodded yes.
She followed him into the kitchen and watched as he pantomimed having to return to work. But no matter what he did, she acted as though she had no idea what he meant. After the fourth time, he narrowed his eyes at her and she smiled.
With a snort of laughter, he nodded at the dirty dishes in the sink, motioning for her to leave them alone. He opened the refrigerator door to let her know that she could help herself.
She pointed to her wrist, where she usually wore a watch, to ask what time he would return. He shrugged that he didn’t know, then he showed her how to work the dead bolt on the front door. But he still didn’t leave.
“Go!” she said. “I’ll be fine. As long as Carmen doesn’t show up, I won’t murder anyone.”
As he left, his eyes were twinkling.
Elise closed the door, bolted it, then sat down on the old couch. Now what? she thought. Where did she go from here? Yes, she had escaped marriage with Kent, but what had that accomplished? How was she going to do something in just three weeks that was so fabulous that it would change her life forever? When she got back to Olivia and Kathy, she wanted to tell them that she’d... What? Had a silly little thing with Alejandro where they pretended to not speak each other’s languages?
Or was this time in the past to be all about sex? Would she be able to tell Olivia and Kathy that she’d at last had some truly great sex? But they were four years in the future. How was she going to fill four whole years? Even the Kama Sutra wouldn’t take years!
For a moment she blinked back tears of self-pity. Out of one mess and into another.
She was in a dreary little house that had a dirty kitchen with the breakfast dishes in the sink. “Too bad I had to come back as myself,” she muttered.
Something they don’t tell you in college, she thought, is that when you get married you need a degree in domestic engineering. With what her father paid Kent, they should have had a lot of household help, but they didn’t. She hadn’t known that the cause was Kent supporting Carmen and their child. All Elise knew was that she’d done most of the work herself.
She got up and went into the kitchen. There are always choices and right now she knew that she could feel sorry for herself, roll in misery, or she could—
Make myself useful, she thought, then set about cleaning up the kitchen. There was an old washing machine inside a closet, and piled on it was a tall stack of filthy, muddy clothes from the men. She started a load.
The rest of the house needed dusting and sweeping. She found a broom but no vacuum cleaner. When the first load was done, she saw that there was no dryer. In the weed-infested backyard was a broken turnstile of a clothesline. Kent’s mother had insisted that all bedsheets be hung outside so that’s what Elise had to do for her husband. That his mother’s two maids hung out her laundry didn’t matter, just so Kent’s sheets smelled like sunshine.
Those thoughts made anger go through Elise. No doubt he was with Carmen right now, whining about how Elise had humiliated him. Poor man, everyone would think. Such a saint!
She picked up a rusty can that was hidden in the scrawny weeds, then another one. Within minutes, she had a pile. When she went back inside, she got some plastic bags, put another load in the washer, then went back outside and hung up the first load.
By the time she’d done enough physical labor to calm her anger, the backyard looked a great deal better. She swept the little patio area, pulled some weeds, then did more laundry and hung it out.
“Boxers,” she said aloud as she slipped a clothespin onto the line.
Inside, she made herself a sandwich and thought that she should sit down and relax.
And think about her life? Not something she wanted to do.
On the end of the kitchen counter was a laptop and a box full of papers. They were receipts for supplies and plants. Each one was marked with the name of the job they’d been bought for. Her parents’ name was on six bills. It looked like her mother had replaced the roses in the south garden.
Elise moved the box to the table and began sorting them into piles by job. That done, she wondered what Diego’s bookkeeping system was like.
She glanced at the laptop. A computer was as private as a woman’s handbag, but still...
She put the computer on the table and opened it. Maybe it had a password and she wouldn’t be able to get into it. But it didn’t. The background was a photo of Diego’s wife and two kids—number three hadn’t been born yet—and there was a folder for his landscaping business.
Elise hesitated for just seconds before she began entering the bills in their proper places. She was tempted to double what her parents owed but it wasn’t her name on the invoice.
Once the bills were complete, she set them up to be sent via emails to the homeowners.
Smiling, feeling that she’d accomplished a few things, she began looking for groceries to see what she could cook for dinner. Alejandro would be hungry when he returned.
The cooking courses she’d taken in an attempt to please Kent were coming in handy.
She went online, found a recipe for chili and corn bread, and got busy.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“It’s the fault of both of you!” Diego said in Spanish as he unlocked the front door. “You and Carmen did this together. Now what am I to do with her? Hide a rich girl until the law finds us? She—” He broke off when he stepped into the little house. It smelled clean and something good was cooking.
He flipped the switch to turn on the lamp in the corner. The clothes that had been thrown on the furniture were gone. The floor was clean and there was no longer a layer of dust on everything.
Turning, Diego looked at Alejandro in question, but he shrugged. He had no idea who’d cleaned the place. Diego’s eyes said it couldn’t have been the rich girl.
In the kitchen a pot of chili bubbled and beside it was a pan of corn bread.
“Look at this,” Alejandro said. He’d opened the computer to check email and seen that that month’s bills were ready to be sent out.
Diego opened the door to the closet that held the washer. No dirty clothes.
It was dark out, but Alejandro opened the back door and turned on the light. All the trash that had come with the house had been picked up. There were two full garbage bags by the gate. He went to the clothesline and
removed the three pairs of socks hanging there.
“Useless, huh?” he said, and pushed past his brother to go into the house.
He found Elise in the bedroom, stretched out on the bed, a five-year-old magazine on her chest. She was sound asleep.
He sat down beside her and gently removed the magazine. “You did a good job today,” he said softly in English. “And you showed us that you’re worth a lot—which I knew. The moment I saw you, I knew that...that you were different.”
He smoothed her hair back from her face. “I will carry the vision of you in that white underwear with me all my life.” He couldn’t help it as he ran his hand down her arm. She seemed so fragile, so beautiful—and so unattainable.
Before Alejandro came to the US, his sister had gained his sympathy with her story of being in love with a man who was being forced into a marriage with a coldhearted rich girl.
He’d arrived in the US believing every word she’d told him.
But then he’d started helping Diego, and Alejandro had seen Elise from a distance. To him, she was beautiful beyond belief. Carmen kept saying that she wasn’t womanly, but he didn’t see her that way. He’d heard her mother berate her, correct her, complain about her. All her father seemed to say was, “Get me another drink, would you, kid?”
Alejandro had made sure Elise never saw him watching her, but then she seemed to be living in a bubble of happiness about her coming wedding.
He had been torn between loyalty to his pregnant sister and wanting to warn this innocent girl of what she was getting into with her marriage. As it always did, family won out.
As he pulled the spread over her, he thought how he liked having her nearby. And he was very glad that she had cleaned and cooked today. Such things went a long way to winning over his stubborn brother. Diego took care of a lot of people and hiding his boss’s daughter was making him nervous.
* * *
Elise had wanted to be up to make breakfast, but the smell of bacon frying woke her. She had a frantic moment of fear that if she didn’t pull her weight she’d be abandoned. And what then? She had no doubt that her father still had men waiting for her at the airport. The moment she presented an ID, sirens would probably sound, and men in white coats would take her away.
She leaped out of bed, took a three-minute shower, put on her only other set of clean clothes, and went to the kitchen. Diego and Alejandro were sitting at the table digging into plates of bacon, eggs, and toast. Very American.
“I’m sorry I overslept,” she said to Diego. He was shorter than his younger brother, and heavier. He was handsome but not in the same class as Alejandro. “But then, yesterday was traumatic.” She glanced at his closed bedroom door. “Did Carmen come back?” Elise put two pieces of bread in the rickety old toaster.
“No.” Diego kept his head down, not able to meet her eyes since they all knew where his sister was.
As Elise waited for the toast, she looked at the top of Alejandro’s head. Hard to believe, but he looked even better in the early morning light. In that moment, she was pretty sure she was the only woman on earth who’d ever wished she wasn’t faithful to her husband.
When the toast popped up, she got a plate, sat down across from them, and looked at Diego. “I wanted to ask about your brother. No! Don’t look at him. I don’t want him to know we’re talking about him. Is he okay? I’ve heard him talk on the phone to Carmen, but when I’m around he’s silent. Does he hate me?”
Diego gave a bit of a grin. “He thinks you’re pretty.”
“Does he?”
“Yeah. Real pretty.”
Elise tried to keep her face straight. “But he thinks I’m useless, right? That’s what Carmen says I am.”
Diego frowned. “You did a good job here.” He nodded at the house.
“I’m glad you like it. Where are we going today?”
Diego’s frown deepened. “We’re going to the Bellmont house, but you’re staying here.”
Elise took a moment before she spoke. “I know their daughter, Tiffany. I went to school with her. Poor thing. She’s not too bright, but she married well. But then, it’s hard to understand who men will like. The man I was to marry doesn’t like me, but he does like your—Oops! Sorry to bring up the bad.”
Alejandro lowered his head, but she saw his smile.
As for Diego, he was staring at her. He’d been married for years so he knew when a woman was after something. Elise was putting guilt on him for a reason. “You can’t go. The law is after you.”
“For running away from my own wedding? I don’t think that’s an offense that can be prosecuted.” She batted her lashes. “I’ll help with the work.”
Diego snorted.
“I can plant fluffy ruffle petunias.” When he looked blank, she said, “It’s from a movie. Cross Creek? It doesn’t matter. Diego, please. I’m scared here. What if Carmen rats me out? Kent would be here in a minute. Then what? We have a threesome fight? Think I could win against Carmen? Will she—?”
“Let her go,” Alejandro said in Spanish. “She can sit in the truck and listen to music. It’s just for a few days, then I’ll take her to the airport.”
Diego glared at his brother. “I heard about what you said at that fancy hotel. You’d like to take her away to Mexico, wouldn’t you? She’s not for you! She’ll marry some other rich guy, not some teacher of horny women.”
Elise ate her toast and worked not to enter into the conversation, but it was interesting to know who was on her side.
“I want her near me so I can protect her,” Alejandro said. “Those men looking for her had guns.”
“And who do you think they wanted to shoot? Her? She’s the bait her greedy parents used to attract some guy they can control. Do you think this girl’s father will give his daughter away to some Mexican gardener?”
For a moment Elise stopped eating. This was horrible, but on the other hand, it was nice to hear that she was valuable to her father.
When she spoke, she tried not to sound as though she was shocked by what she’d just heard. “Mrs. Bellmont likes really gaudy colors, and she’s so vain she expects people to read her mind. If you’re thinking of putting in pale flowers she’ll get angry. Remember that ghastly red mulch you put on my mother’s flower beds and she made you remove it?”
She didn’t wait for Diego to answer. “My guess is that made you think all the women in the area would hate that mulch. But Mrs. Bellmont would love it. The gaudier the better. I could tell you what to buy so she’ll be happy with your job and not fire you as she did her last three gardeners.” Elise finished her toast.
“What if she sees you?” Diego asked. “I don’t want any trouble.”
“No offense, Diego, but has Mrs. Bellmont ever looked at any of you?”
Alejandro looked at his brother in silence, but with an I Told You So expression.
Diego grimaced. “Get a hat out of the closet and cover your face.”
Elise tried to keep the triumph out of her smile.
* * *
That night Elise had never been so tired in her life. All day long, she’d hauled flats of plants, planted shrubs, small trees, and what seemed to be thousands of bedding plants.
Every minute, Diego and his men had watched her, all of them expecting her to refuse to go on. But she never quit.
She made only one mistake and it was a big one. It took just three hours before Diego’s six workmen saw that she spoke Spanish. But she couldn’t help it. They told a joke and she laughed. She begged them to please not tell Alejandro. Since they knew he was pretending that he couldn’t speak English, they loved lying to him. Besides, they liked the tall skinny girl who worked as hard as they did.
At lunch, she rode in the truck between Diego and Alejandro when they went to a drive-through restaurant. “I hope you know that this stuff is awful for you,”
she said as she bit into a hamburger the size of a dinner plate and dripping three kinds of sauce. “Ooooh. Curly fries. What a treat.”
That night she took a shower, pulled on a huge T-shirt of Diego’s and the white yoga pants she’d worn under her wedding dress, then collapsed into bed. She slept so soundly that tornadoes wouldn’t wake her.
The next morning she awoke early. There was a bit of light coming through the bedroom curtain and she could see Alejandro asleep just a few feet from her.
In the two days she’d been there, she’d never seen him in the other bed, but now, she lay there looking at him. His eyes were closed, his whiskers dark, his lashes soft against his cheeks. The light cover was off one bare shoulder, which meant that underneath there was a lot of naked skin.
She wondered what he’d do if she slid into bed with him. She imagined saying nothing, just taking the two steps across the room, moving the sheet aside, and getting into the narrow bed with him.
What would it be like to kiss him? He had the most beautiful lips, so full and luscious looking.
When she looked down at his neck, she could almost feel her lips on his warm skin.
Yesterday he’d opened a big bottle of water and drunk half of it at once. Water had run down his chin, his neck, and onto his T-shirt. Elise had been planting some red geraniums and she’d stopped to watch him. Her mouth and hands seemed to dry out.
Miguel, one of Diego’s workmen, had seen her looking. “You better make your claim,” he said in Spanish, then nodded across the garden.
Tiffany Bellmont, a little dog in her arm, was also watching Alejandro.
Elise suppressed an urge to throw her sharp-pointed trowel at the girl. Why was Tiffany looking at Alejandro? She was married. And like her mother, she was a snob. If she wanted Alejandro, it was for only one thing.
Miguel and the two workmen beside him laughed at the expression on Elise’s face. He said she’d better be careful or her jealousy would set her hat on fire.