by Marin Thomas
Her mouth curved at the corners. “A celebration lunch sounds great.”
He held the door open and breathed deeply when she walked by. His memory hadn’t disappointed. Her fresh scent smelled the same as in his dreams.
“What are you hungry for?” She stopped next to her truck.
A gust of wind blew her hair across her face and he shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans to keep from brushing the strands sticking to her lip gloss. “I’ll eat anything but Mexican.”
Her eyes rounded.
Unable to resist, he tapped his finger against the tip of hernose. “Hey, I’m kidding.” Sort of. Aaron preferred seafood and steak. He seldom ate ethnic foods. Maybe it was time to broaden his food horizons.
She wrinkled her dainty nose. “Follow me.”
I’ll follow you anywhere, babe.
“THIS WAY,” Jennifer instructed after she and Aaron had parked their trucks on the street. Rosa’s Café sat tucked away in the back of an alley near Santa Angelita’s business district. “Beware. This place isn’t known for its ambience or imported beer. And forget Tex-Mex entrées. Rosa serves authentic Mexican dishes.”
“I’m not sure I understand the difference between Tex-Mex and authentic Mexican,” Aaron confessed.
“Rosa and her husband, Jesús, prepare the food themselves and use only boiled, shredded meat and white cheeses such as asadero in the dishes.” Good food aside, Jennifer had chosen the café because of its familiarity. Rosa’s grounded her. Reminded her of where she came from and where she belonged—the barrio. The place also reminded her of where Aaron hailed from—somewhere outside the barrio.
They entered the café and Jennifer spotted an empty table near the kitchen. She motioned for Aaron to follow. His gaze was on the handmade piñatas hanging from the ceiling and the bullfighting murals painted on the walls. When they reached the table, he held out a chair for Jennifer, then sat opposite her. She couldn’t remember the last time a man had shown her such courtesy.
A waitress appeared and Jennifer requested their drinks in Spanish. “I ordered us Coke. Rosa sells Coke bottled in Mexico.”
He sniffed appreciatively. “The smell in here is incredible.”
“I promise you won’t be disappointed.”
A moment later, a busboy set hot flour tortillas and small dishes of green and red salsa on the table. She tore off a piece of tortilla and dipped it into the green salsa. Aaron hesitated, then copied her and sampled the dip. He frowned. “You don’t care for the taste?” she asked, trying not to smile.
“No, it’s good.” With the seriousness of a scientist doing an experiment, he tore off another piece of tortilla and dipped it into the red salsa.
“Be careful, it’s hot,” she warned.
“Do you eat here often?” he asked, reaching for more tortillas.
“Once or twice a week. I went to school with Rosa’s daughter.”
“Does the daughter also work in the restaurant?”
“Carmen left the barrio. Earned a scholarship to USC, then went on to med school and became a pediatrician.”
The waitress returned with their drinks and retrieved a pad from the front pocket of her apron.
After swigging from the bottle, Aaron grinned. “This is good. Go ahead and order for me. You’re on a roll.”
Taking him at his word, Jennifer asked for two daily specials. When the waitress returned to the kitchen, she added, “After graduating from med school, Carmen joined a practice in Chicago.”
“Does she get back to the neighborhood often?”
“No.” Carmen had confided in Jennifer that once she found a way to leave the barrio she’d never return. Jennifer hadn’t understood her friend’s dislike of the community they’d both grown up in. Granted, the barrio had problems, but the neighborhood was home and always would be. “Carmen flies her parents to Chicago every summer for a month.”
“Who runs the restaurant then?”
“Her seven siblings.”
“Seven?”
Jennifer laughed at his shocked expression. “Carmen and her brothers and sisters are all adopted. Jesús claimed the reason he opened a restaurant was that he had to find a way to feed all his kids.”
Leaning forward, Aaron rested his elbows on the table. “What about you, Jennifer. Are you from a large family?”
At the mention of family, she waited for the familiar chill to scurry down her spine. Instead of her insides freezing up, they thawed. The gentleness in his eyes tempted her to confide in him. But opening up to a man she had no future with was foolish. The fact that she even considered unburdening her heart convinced her that she was entirely too mesmerized by Aaron. “I have a brother and a sister.”
“Let me guess, you’re the eldest.”
“Somehow I suspect that wasn’t a guess.”
“Your bossiness gave you away.”
Her feigned outrage didn’t stand a chance against his teasing smile, and she laughed. “I’m not that bossy, am I?”
His expression sobered and he clasped her right hand, rubbing his thumb across her knuckles. She expected a sexual innuendo. What she got was a compliment that made her eyes burn.
“I believe you’re a hell of a forewoman. You work as hard as, if not harder than, your men, who regard you with deep respect.” After a gentle squeeze, he released her fingers.
Uncomfortable with his admiration, she changed the subject. “Tell me about your family.”
“In a nutshell, I have two elder brothers. No sisters. My parents and grandmother died in a plane crash when I was one. And my grandfather raised me and my brothers.”
“I’m sorry.” And she really was. She’d suffered, still suffered, the pain of losing a parent. She couldn’t imagine losing both parents at the same time. “You didn’t even have the chance to know your mother and father.” At least Jennifer had had her childhood and teen years to love and be loved by her mother before she’d been killed.
“My grandfather made a better father than most. Us guys got used to being on our own.”
She pictured four males living on their own and smiled. Her father still had trouble matching socks when he folded laundry. “Do you get along with your brothers?”
“Most of the time.”
“And the rest?”
He shrugged. “They’re overbearing, bossy and insist they have all the answers.”
“My younger brother acts the same way.”
The waitress arrived with their food and Aaron dug in. He chewed. Closed his eyes. Then moaned. “Whatever these are, they’re great.”
“Chicken enchiladas.” Jennifer might as well have been munching a piece of cardboard, because she didn’t taste a thing as she watched him eat. He had the sexiest mouth. She tried to find something about Aaron that didn’t appeal to her, but came up with zilch.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Automatically she touched the tip of her finger to a spot of sauce at one corner of his mouth. “You have…a…” His skin was cool, smooth. After she wiped the mark, he grabbed her wrist. Her gaze traveled from his hand to his mouth to his eyes. The blue orbs glowed with…with…desire. For her.
His tongue flicked the red sauce from her fingertip…well, flicked wasn’t exactly the right word. Savored was more appropriate. He swirled his tongue around her fingertip twice before closing his lips over the end and sucking.
Heat flashed through her, setting her skin on fire. The clanking of plates in the kitchen echoed through the café, shattering the spell Aaron cast over her.
She tugged her hand free, then focused on chasing a small piece of chicken across her plate.
“You up for a game of Twenty Questions?” Warmth lingered in his eyes.
“Depends…” Good Lord, was that breathy voice really hers?
His mouth twitched. “On what?”
“On whether I ask the questions.”
His chuckle soothed some of the tension knotting her stomach. “You ask the first
question, and if I answer, then I ask the next one. And so on. Sound fair?” he asked.
“And if I choose not to answer a question?”
“Then I ask another and another until you answer.”
Aaron’s game of questions would undoubtedly lead to trouble, but she couldn’t resist playing. “Okay. Have you ever been married?”
“Nope.”
His turn. “How many serious relationships have you been in?”
“One.” One was enough. She was in no hurry to travel down that road again. “How many serious relationships for you?”
The humor evaporated from his eyes. “Two. One in college and one three years ago. None since then.”
Even though she understood anything long-term between them was out of the question, a twinge of jealousy grabbed her at the thought of other women having Aaron’s undivided attention for a short while.
He snapped his fingers in front of her face. “Hey, you still with me?”
“Sorry.” Aaron created havoc with her concentration.
“What happened with the other guy?”
More than curiosity shone in his eyes. Had she misjudged him? Did he feel something other than physical attraction heating up between them? “The jerk wasn’t the man I believed he was.”
“What do you mean?”
Pointing her fork at him, she accused, “That’s cheating. My turn.”
“Go ahead,” he muttered.
“Do you have any hobbies?”
“I took up surfing when I moved to L.A. How long ago was your serious relationship with the jerk?” He answered her question and asked his own in the same breath.
She considered lying. But didn’t. “Over nine years.” Instead of reacting with astonishment, he became contemplative, thoughtful, as if he gave her answer great consideration. Jennifer sensed that Aaron had a serious side he didn’t often show. “What did you do before you hired on with my crew?”
Silence.
A warning bell clanged inside her head. A simple question required a simple answer…unless he’d been involved in something illegal or unethical. No. Aaron might be secretive, but a sixth sense insisted he wouldn’t break the law or engage in an unlawful act. Don’t be naive, Jennifer. That’s what you assumed about Michael. And what a lowlife he ended up being.
“I worked in sales.”
A paper pusher—exactly what she’d suspected when she’d first met him. A suit-and-tie guy who sat behind a desk, talking on the phone and e-mailing clients. “Your sales job wouldn’t involve anything illegal like drugs, would it?”
The shock on his face appeared genuine. “I’ve never sold or used drugs.” He shook his head. “No, wait. That’s not true. I tried pot twice in college. And for the record, I drink socially but not every day. And I don’t hang out at bars until all hours of the morning.”
Relief filled her. She’d experienced firsthand the pain and destruction drugs wreaked on people’s lives. “I had a feeling you didn’t, but I had to be sure.”
Sliding his empty plate aside, he commented, “Sounds like you’ve had a not-so-good experience with drugs in the past.”
“I don’t want to talk about the past.”
Before Aaron fired off the next question, a voice interrupted them. “Who’s your friend, Jen?”
She spun in her seat. “What are you doing here, Antonio? Don’t you have class until four today?”
“Canceled.” Her brother inched closer to the table, his attention focused on Aaron. “Who are you?”
Angry at her brother’s rudeness, Jennifer snapped. “Knock it off.” She glanced across the table. “Aaron, this is my little brother, Antonio. Antonio…Aaron Smith. He’s working with my crew on Mrs. Benitos’s house.”
Aaron stood and offered his hand. “Nice to meet you, Antonio.”
Her brother’s mouth tightened as his gaze traveled over Aaron, who dwarfed Antonio’s five-foot-nine height. With Antonio’s dark complexion and bedroom eyes, he was a handsome young man used to female attention. But Jennifer understood how much her brother hated being short.
Motioning to the empty chair at the table, Aaron asked, “Do you have time to join us for lunch?”
Antonio shook his head. “I need to talk to you, Jen.”
“Shouldn’t you be in class?”
“I don’t have class until this afternoon. I’ve decided that after I graduate with a B.A. in economics next month, I want to get a master’s in international business.”
Jennifer clenched her hands beneath the table and prayed for patience. She loved her brother dearly, but he had a way of annoying her as no other. “We’ll talk about this at supper.”
“I need the tuition money by the end of next week or I won’t be able to enroll in the program.”
Apparently, her brother was determined to have his say regardless of who listened to the conversation. “How much money?”
“Four thousand.”
Four thousand! “Antonio, there’s no way I can come up with that kind of money. Next fall your sister’s entering college. I can’t swing two tuition payments.”
Antonio’s eyes narrowed. “There’re other ways I could get the money….”
Damn his brat-brother hide. He knew just where to stick the knife and twist. Lowering her voice, she threatened, “Don’t even think about it.”
He shrugged. “Easy money.”
“You’d risk your family disowning you?”
“Yeah, well, thanks to you and Michael, there’s not much family left.”
Chapter Five
Not much family left? And who the hell was Michael?
Aaron’s gaze bounced between a pasty-faced Jennifer and her angry brother, whom Aaron speculated had landed a low blow.
None of your business. Keep your mouth shut. He told himself that the intense urge to defend Jennifer was a guy thing and had nothing to do with his feelings for her. Feelings he didn’t want to acknowledge—such as the antsy sensation he got when they were apart.
Shoving the whys aside, he refused to sit by and allow Jennifer’s wet-behind-the-ears kid brother harass her. He cleared his throat loudly. Two startled gazes swiveled in his direction. Antonio lifted his chin, his eyes flashing defiantly. Fortunately for the young man, Aaron was an easygoing kind of guy. Unlike his eldest brother, Nelson, the king of short fuses, Aaron didn’t lose his temper often.
“If you can’t act in a civil manner and speak respectfully to your sister, who happens to be my date—” he ignored Jennifer’s soft gasp “—then vamoose.”
The steam fizzled out of Antonio. Sliding onto the seat of a chair, he spoke in rapid Spanish. At Jennifer’s scowl, he switched to English. “Always later. You’ve been saying that for weeks,” he accused his sister.
Perturbed by the young man’s combative demeanor, Aaron opened his mouth to send the kid packing, but stopped short when Jennifer cast a warning glare. Pride stinging, he sat down, wondering if she’d somehow sensed he’d had very little experience fighting his own battles, let alone someone else’s.
“I’m sorry, Antonio,” she apologized. “But work has been hectic. Tonight we’ll talk.”
“Hectic? I study for six hours, then bus tables for five. You go to work, then go home and watch TV.”
“Watch it, kid,” Aaron growled. Jennifer might not have gone to college, but that didn’t give her brother the right to belittle her. He’d bet his savings account she didn’t sit in front of the TV all night. Knowing her, she spent her free hours helping others or her family.
“With a business degree, you should be able to find a good job. In a year’s time you’ll have saved enough money to return to college,” she insisted.
Aaron admired her common sense and the calm way she spoke to her uptight sibling. Usually discussions between his brothers and him ended in an argument or a shouting match. He suspected his grandfather would wholeheartedly approve of this woman.
Hoping to ease the tension at the table, he butted into the conversat
ion. “Antonio, you mentioned that you were interested in international business.”
Antonio’s eyes narrowed. “Sí. I’d like to work with businesses in Latin America.”
Aaron considered asking the young man if he had any knowledge of the import-export arena but decided Jennifer might find the question suspicious, coming from a construction worker. Instead, he muttered, “Sounds ambitious.”
“Delia starts college this fall. There’s no way I can swing two tuition payments at the same time,” Jennifer reiterated.
“Delia and college…waste of money. She should go to beauty school. All she talks about is her hair.” Antonio snorted.
The sisterly love shining in Jennifer’s eyes captivated Aaron. He couldn’t remember his brothers ever looking at him with anything but frustration.
“I agree that Delia’s immature, but you were, too, when you began college, little brother.”
“She wastes her money on clothes instead of saving for school.”
Jennifer grasped Antonio’s hands. After a moment, his insolent glare wilted and his eyes softened. The soon-to-be college grad acted tough on the surface, but Aaron sensed that he respected his elder sister and valued her guidance and advice. “Delia’s not like you, Antonio. She’s not motivated. If she doesn’t begin college this fall, she never will.”
The idea that Jennifer had sacrificed her own dream of enrolling in nursing school so that her siblings could pursue a higher education humbled Aaron. During his lifetime he’d had little experience with selfless generosity. He couldn’t think of a thing he’d given up to ensure that his grandfather or his brothers attained their dreams. What had he done in the past to show his family how much they meant to him? Nothing.
“Don’t you get it, sis? I’ve been busting my butt these past four years. If I quit now and get a decent job, I’ll never return to school.”
What a crock of bull. Aaron sensed that when Antonio set his mind to something, he allowed nothing and no one to get in the way of achieving his goal. The kid was a lot like Aaron’s eldest brother—an over-achiever. To this day, he couldn’t understand why Nelson had such an all-consuming obsession to succeed.