Tonight she’d decided to wear a gored, red floral skirt. On the left side, the hem angled downward into a sexy point against her calf. Her blouse was a white gauzy material that draped across her breasts and tied at the side of the waist. As for her hair, she’d decided to pin it all up in a curly mass atop her head and leave a few tendrils to hang at her ears and the back of her neck. At least with her hair up, she did look like a grown woman, she decided. Whether that was a sensual grown woman, Sierra could only hope.
Alex arrived promptly at seven and after helping Sierra get Bowie buckled safely in his own little seat, he drove the short distance to downtown Red Rock and parked in the massive lot behind the Mendoza restaurant.
Red was located in a converted hacienda that had once been owned by an influential Spanish family rumored to be related to Santa Ana. Thankfully Jose and Maria had been lucky enough to buy the place at an affordable price before anyone realized it was a historical treasure. The structure had been built with two stories, but her parents had chosen to only use the bottom floor for the restaurant. Part of the top floor had been renovated for office use and the remainder was simply used as storage.
There was a beautiful courtyard inside the square of the building, which featured an old fountain that supplied diners with the soft, musical notes of trickling water. Colored umbrellas shaded pine tables and chairs, which were arranged at odd angles among several tall, Mexican fan trees. Bougainvillea grew at every turn and bloomed vividly in fuchsia, purple and gold.
Sierra had to admit that the courtyard was her favorite dining area at Red, but she figured since they had little Bowie with them, it would be safer to keep him inside. The air had grown very hot and humid this evening and she didn’t want the baby getting congested.
Alex insisted on carrying Bowie as they walked around the building to the front entrance. Inside the restaurant, a hostess dressed in a long black skirt and a white gypsy-style blouse greeted Sierra by name, then turned to Alex.
“Right this way, Mr. Calloway,” the young woman said with a gesture for them to follow her. “We already have your table ready.”
Impressed, Sierra glanced up at Alex. “You made reservations?”
His green eyes twinkled down at her. “Of course. I’m a lawyer. I’m always prepared.”
They followed the hostess through the main dining area to one of the smaller rooms, which held only a handful of pine tables and chairs. Like the rest of restaurant, it was decorated in typical hacienda style with plenty of southwestern colored blankets and antiques dating as far back as 1845 when President Polk announced Texas the twenty-eighth state of the Union. Paintings depicting the battles between Texans and Mexicans to free the republic from Santa Ana’s rule hung along the dark wooden walls here and in the main dining area. No matter how many times Sierra walked through the door of Red, she was reminded how hard her parents had worked to embellish this place with an atmosphere that all Texans, especially those from Red Rock, would enjoy.
The hostess found a special seat to place Bowie’s carrier in and after Alex had secured the baby, he helped Sierra into her chair. As he took the seat angled to her right elbow, a waiter hovered to take their orders for drinks.
At the last minute, Sierra decided to be a little reckless and order a margarita. Since she wasn’t much of a social drinker, it only took a small amount of alcohol to go straight to her head. But with Alex already making her head spin, what did a little extra drunkenness hurt? she thought wryly.
“I always forget what a fabulous place this is,” Alex commented as the waiter disappeared from the room. His gaze roamed appreciatively around the dimly lit walls then came to rest on her face. “But I never forget your sweet face,” he added softly.
Feeling totally out of her depth, Sierra clasped her hands together on her lap and tried not to appear as nervous as she felt. “You’ve gone through a long line of women in your time, Alex Calloway. How do you keep my face separate from theirs?”
Amusement crinkled the corners of his eyes. “It’s hard. But I manage.” He made a motion with his hand at their surroundings. “I know you’ve told me that you love to eat in the courtyard, but with little Bowie, I wasn’t sure about getting a table out there.”
Sierra was totally surprised by his thoughtfulness. “You were right. It’s too hot and muggy to have him out tonight.” Propping her chin on the heel of her palm, she looked at him. “I thought you didn’t know anything about caring for babies?”
Resting his forearms on the tabletop, he leaned toward her and gave her a wicked wink. “I don’t. I’m just letting my common sense show. We lawyers have that, too.”
Her hand dropped away from her face as she laughed softly. “What on earth has Pauline been putting in your coffee? A lawyer with common sense? You’d be ruined.”
“You’re being downright cruel tonight, Sierra,” he teased just as the waiter appeared with their drinks.
The young man served Sierra a tall, frozen margarita and Alex a glass of red wine. As he was leaving, Maria walked in and headed straight to their table.
“Mom. I didn’t realize you were here at the restaurant tonight. I thought you and Dad were home resting,” Sierra said with a bit of surprise.
Maria made a comical face. “Dear daughter, your parents don’t need to be in a geriatric home yet. We do still have some life left in us.”
“Here, here,” Alex said with enthusiasm as he lifted his wineglass toward Sierra’s mother. “You look beautiful and vibrant tonight, Mrs. Mendoza.”
Clearly flattered by Alex’s compliment, Maria smiled at him and for a moment Sierra expected to see her mother pat her hair and bat her eyelashes.
“And it’s good to see you, too, Alex,” Maria said. “Have you been doing well?”
Alex glanced furtively at Sierra, before he turned his gaze back on Maria. “Very well. Thank you for asking.”
Maria moved around the table until she was standing over Bowie’s high chair. Her expression softened with tenderness as she gazed down at the sleeping baby. “Jose and I are very grateful to you for helping our Sierra keep Bowie,” she said to Alex. “At first we were a bit worried about her decision, but now we can see how happy the baby makes her.”
“Yes,” Alex replied. “And I think we’d both agree that Sierra deserves a little happiness.”
Maria looked up just as Alex reached over and lifted the back of Sierra’s hand to his lips.
Dear Lord, what was he trying to do? Sierra wondered as she watched her mother’s eyes narrow into shrewd, calculating slits.
“Uh, if you two don’t mind, I’d like to take Bowie upstairs. Jose and I are having a little snack and we’d like the chance to have the baby with us for a few minutes. Is that all right with you, Sierra?”
What could she say? Sierra wondered. It would sound silly to object, even though Sierra knew with a measure of certainty that her mother hadn’t just casually come downstairs to take Bowie off her hands.
“Of course, Mom. His diaper bag is sitting beneath the high chair. You might want to take it with you. Just in case he wakes and acts hungry.”
“Oh, babies are my specialty,” she happily crooned as she lifted Bowie and his carrier into her arms. “I know exactly how to take care of them. After all, I had three of my own. And now Gloria is expecting and you have Bowie. Maybe Christina will be next and the house will be full of babies.” She tilted her chin to a smug angle. “You know, Rosita isn’t the only one around here who can have grandchildren.”
Maria waltzed out the door with Bowie and the diaper bag. Sierra turned an amazed look on Alex. “I’m worried, Alex. Mom’s taken a hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. She’s been warning me not to get too attached to Bowie. Now she’s behaving like he’s her grandchild! And don’t think for one minute that she showed up here at our table just by coincidence. Someone told her we were here and for some reason she decided to take our boy off our hands.”
Our boy. The sound of that made Alex smile in
side, though he couldn’t explain why. The notion of him having a son of his own was scary as hell. Raising a child was serious business. If you didn’t do it right, you’d leave scars. He ought to know; he had plenty of them himself.
Through the years those scars had hardened until sometimes he wondered if he could ever feel anything for anybody, including himself. But then Sierra had always been around to scold and prod and shame him until she pricked his conscience and he gave in and tried to show her a softer side of himself. Which, most of the time, was always just an act to make her happy.
But in the past few days Alex had to concede that something had happened to him. Ever since Bowie had come into his life, he’d felt himself changing and looking at things in a totally different light. The baby and Sierra had brought an importance to his life that he’d never experienced before. He was beginning to think that maybe his existence did mean more than just courtroom tactics and getting some joker off the legal hook.
“Who’s Rosita?” Alex asked.
Sierra reached for her margarita. “Oh, you’ve heard me speak of her before, Alex. She’s the older lady who works as a housekeeper for Lily and Ryan Fortune out at the Fortune ranch. She’s been with them for years and years. Mom has tried to get her to retire, but Rosita won’t hear of it. I think she likes working because it keeps her in the thick of the Fortune family happenings. She’s a distant cousin to Mom and they’ve been good friends since they were children. Mom is jealous because Rosita has several grandchildren and she’s still waiting.”
“Oh, yes, I think I do remember you mentioning Rosita before. She’s the one who has the prophetic dreams, isn’t she?”
Sierra’s low chuckle was full of doubt. “Well, some of them have proved to come true. But her family takes all of her prophecies with a grain of salt.”
“Maybe we should get her to tell us our fortunes,” Alex suggested. “It might be amusing to hear what we’ll be doing a year or two from now.”
Shaking her head, Sierra said, “Rosita isn’t some sort of gypsy woman reading palms. These intuitions or dreams or whatever they are simply come to her. She doesn’t ask for them.”
Alex shrugged as he sipped his wine. “That’s too bad. It would be nice to know if I’m going to win my next case.”
Sierra rolled her eyes. As far as she was concerned she didn’t want to see what she and Alex would be doing a year or two from now. Especially with him acting so downright seductive toward her.
She shot him a coy look. “I thought you were always certain of a victory in the courtroom.”
Laughing softly, he picked up her hand and kissed her fingers. “Honey, you do know how to feed my ego.”
Upstairs, in a room that Maria and Jose had furnished as a living room/office, Jose took pleasure in rocking Bowie in an old wooden office chair. Nearby on a dark green couch, Maria shook her finger at her husband.
“I’m telling you, Jose, there’s something going on between the two of them. He was kissing her hand!”
Jose smiled to himself. “So.”
Maria rolled her eyes. “Ay! Ay! Ay! Do you go around kissing a woman’s hand if she’s only a friend?”
Jose glanced up from the baby’s angelic face. The moment his wife had discovered that Alex had made a reservation for two tonight, her calculating mind had gone into overdrive. She’d insisted that the two of them have their dinner up here in the office so that she could go downstairs and casually meander through the room where Alex and Sierra would be eating and offer to watch Bowie for them.
“Is that a trick question, woman?” Jose asked.
Maria let out a long, impatient breath. Sometimes men could be so slow, or maybe they weren’t actually slow, they just pretended to be, she thought.
“Jose Mendoza, I’m not questioning your fidelity. I’m just saying a man doesn’t go around kissing a woman’s hand out of friendship. Don’t you agree?”
Jose cuddled the baby in the crook of his big arm and turned his attention to his wife. “Maybe. And maybe Alex is attracted to our little girl. Are you worried that he’s going to break her heart?”
Maria thought about her husband’s question for a moment before she shook her head. “Not really. I’m more worried that she won’t take advantage of his attraction. Alex is just right for Sierra. I’ve never understood why she hasn’t noticed that before.”
Jose scowled at his wife as she rose to her feet and began to walk back and forth in front of him. “And what makes you think they’re so perfect for each other? They’ve been friends for years. Don’t you think something should have sparked between them before now?” Jose questioned.
Maria paused long enough to glance at her husband and bat a hand through the air. “Pooh! Sierra has always had some sort of boyfriend hanging on her arm. And Alex has been too tied up with his career to fall in love.”
Shaking his head, Jose clicked his tongue with disbelief. “Boyfriends. Careers. It takes more than that to keep people from falling in love. And while we’re on this subject, you need to forget all about pushing Sierra and Alex together. Let nature take its course.”
Comic outrage froze her features. “How can you say that to me? Look what I’ve done for Gloria and Christina! They’re happy—they’re both going to be married. That’s what I want for Sierra. And besides all that, nature takes too damn long.”
Marie picked up a finger sandwich from a tray sitting on the corner of a large oak desk and shook it at Jose as she went on, “Sierra is twenty-eight. She needs to get a life—a family of her own.”
Jose bit back a sigh and tried to answer as patiently as he could. “She will. When the time is right. And if Alex is the man for her, then I’m sure she’ll let him hear about it.”
Maria was thoughtful for a few moments and then a cunning smile spread across her face as she lifted the sandwich to her lips. “Well, at least we have Bowie with us tonight. The two of them can have a quiet, romantic dinner alone.”
“I feel lost without Bowie,” Sierra said some minutes later as she and Alex partook of a table full of food. For her main dish, Sierra had ordered one of her favorites, grilled chicken breast stuffed with spinach and topped with queso sauce. Every bite was hot and spicy and she found herself reaching frequently for the margarita to cool her tongue.
“I’m sure you do,” Alex replied, “but it’s good for you to have a rest. I’m glad your mother made the offer to watch him.”
Sierra started to tell him that Maria’s kindly gesture had been blatantly deliberate, but she didn’t bother. Alex had a strong mind of his own. He saw all sorts of people in the courtroom who were experts at manipulation. He certainly couldn’t be swayed one way or the other by a meddling, middle-aged woman hell-bent on marrying off her three daughters.
A half hour later, the two of them had finished their meal and Alex had related to Sierra several amusing incidents that had happened to him in the courtroom when he’d first started practicing law. The laughter and the alcohol had left her feeling a bit giddy and when he suggested they walk out to the courtyard, she was glad for the opportunity to get some fresh air.
As soon as they stepped outside onto the red-brick paving that formed a small patio beneath the eave of the building, the warm, muggy air wrapped around them like a velvet blanket. The trickling water fountain filled the gardenlike area with soothing music while chattering mockingbirds and the gentle cooing of gray doves added their own special notes to the song.
Alex placed his arm lightly against the back of Sierra’s waist and guided her toward one of the empty tables situated in the far corner of the courtyard. The space was partially hidden by a thick oleander dripping with white blossoms.
The moment the two of them stepped behind the bush, Alex tugged her into his arms.
“Alex! What—what are you doing?” she stuttered as her palms instinctively came up against the broad width of his chest.
With his head bending downward, he murmured, “Surely you don’t have to ask.”
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Sierra had never expected him to kiss her here, like this, where people were dining only a few feet away! Actually she’d not expected him to kiss her at all. Maybe that was naïve thinking on her part after the heated exchange they’d shared on the porch swing. But she’d pretty much convinced herself that his attraction for her was just a momentary thing. Something he’d get over quickly, like the three-day measles.
Now, as his lips sealed hers with a slow, seductive search, she realized she’d been very wrong. If anything, the desire she felt on his lips was hungry and reckless and totally shocking to her senses.
Stolen moments turned into risky minutes until finally Sierra’s knees began to give way and Alex was so starved for air he was forced to lift his head.
“Alex,” she said in a breathless rush. “Have you gone crazy? If someone sees us, they’ll complain of indecency!”
Nuzzling his cheek against the curve of her neck, he chuckled softly. “I’m a lawyer, remember. If we get charged I can get us off.”
Oh Lord, it was heaven to have him touching her, holding her like this, Sierra thought desperately. How could she resist him, when all she really wanted to do was curl her arms around his neck and hang on for dear life?
“Oh,” she said in a thick, drowsy voice. “How would you manage to do that?”
His hands began to move up and down across her back. Heat filled every inch of Sierra’s body and burned her face like the hot afternoon sun. Why hadn’t she ever felt like this before? Why had it taken Alex to wake up the latent woman inside her?
“Demand a jury trial and make sure it was made up of nearly all men. None of them could blame me for wanting to make love with you.”
“Alex,” she whispered sweetly, “you’re so silly.”
He brought his face back around to hers and said in a husky voice, “You know, you’re right. I’ve been very silly all these years not to realize how beautiful you are. Inside and out.”
Fortune's Heirs: Reunion Page 42