by Fred, Beth
“I—we’re—I…”
“What, baby?”
“I’m pregnant again,” she sobbed.
Everyone was quiet. Luke brought a hand up to her head and stroked her hair. “That’s why you’ve been so sick. I’m sorry. I should have known. But why didn’t you tell me?”
“I don’t have time! For anything. Lucí is already neglected. I’m too tired for words. I can’t keep working.”
“You can take medical leave if you need to.”
“You don’t understand. I can’t take care of one baby right and work full time. I can’t keep working!”
“Ahh,” he said before leaning down to peck her on the head. “Stay home. We don’t need the money. I’ve always told you that.”
She sobbed. “I can’t quit. You need me. You’re saving so much money having me in house. This is why I haven’t said anything. I can’t quit because I work for family.”
“I’ll hire another accountant. It’s going to be okay.”
She wiped her eyes. “So you’re okay with this?”
“Happy,” he said, pushing her toward the door. “Let’s get you in bed. I’ll take care of the baby until you’re feeling better.”
Enrique and I stood in silence for a moment. “That was different,” he said.
Our eyes locked for a moment, and finally I spoke, “I’m sorry I slapped you.”
“That wasn’t nice.”
“I know.”
“Why were you there?” he asked.
“I needed the money.”
“I told you I would give it to you.”
“I wanted to do it on my own.”
“Like that?” The words were hard, and that look he had that night at the club was back in his eyes.
“No! I didn’t know another way.”
“How long where you stripping?”
“That was my first night. I never stripped and I never planned on it. I was supposed to be dancing. I was told stripping was optional but more lucrative. I thought I could do well dancing.”
“You don’t need the money.”
“You know the situation.”
“The drug dealer is dead.”
“What?”
“My private investigator told me he got shot by a druggy he threatened to shoot. I wanted to tell you, but I was too angry to talk to you. I knew you were safe, so I thought I could deal with this later.”
I laid my head down on his chest, and he brought his arms up around me.
“Have you been there since then?”
“No,” I whispered. “Have you?”
“No. I’m sorry, too.”
“For what?”
“Avoiding you. It killed me that you’d rather strip than just take the money from me, and I didn’t think you were that kind of girl.”
“I’m not.”
“I know.” He ran his fingers through my hair with one hand and held me tighter with the other. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.” He brought his hand from my hair to my chin, lightly tracing my cheek with his fingers. Enrique brought his lips down to my own. He licked my lips, parting my mouth then traced the inside of my mouth with his tongue. A moan escaped me. The way he kissed me, the way he held me, it was like he wanted me—had to have me. But I couldn’t do this. It wasn’t right. I fought past the power and strength of the kiss to pull myself far enough from him I could use logic.
“We can’t,” I gasped. “Do this.”
“We’ve had our first fight. I think we’ve passed the fifth date thing.” He pulled me to him again.
I put my hand on his face and said, “It’s not that. I want this as much as you do, but I’m leaving in a few days, and this will only make it hurt worse.”
“Leaving? What? Why?”
“I’m going to dance with The Bolshevik Ballet for a year.”
“You’re—you’re going to Russia?”
I nodded.
“Why?”
“There isn’t much a mid-twenties dance major can do. I have to do this.”
“Audition for the Houston Ballet. Do the Los Angeles Ballet if you want, at least it’s on this continent.”
“Don’t make this harder, please.”
Luke came back into his office and picked up a tablet from his desk. “Ignore me, I’m just grabbing this.”
“Kammy’s going to Russia,” Enrique said.
Luke nodded.
“How long have you known?”
“I wanted to tell you.”
“But you didn’t. How long have you known?”
“A few days. I told you to take her calls. I can’t talk right now. Tiffany needs me.” He disappeared again.
“If I asked you to stay?”
“What can I do here? I think we know I’m not a good secretary.”
He laughed. “Chica, there must be something.ou” He ran his hand through my hair and kissed me again. “I have days to change your mind, and I can be very persuasive.”
“Don’t make this harder!”
“I won’t give up.”
Chapter 17
Later that night, I helped Tiffany with dinner. Well, more like she gave me a cooking class, and for the first time I noticed a little bulge in her belly. It sucked to know I wouldn’t be here when the baby was born. Enrique stayed for dinner, and we all watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
Enrique slipped his arm around me, and I snuggled into his chest. I shouldn’t be getting closer to him. I was already too far gone, but I couldn’t help it. “I can’t believe you’re going to Russia,” he said. “You don’t seem like the kind of girl who can live without hot water.”
“There is no hot water in Russia?” This was going to suck. It was the freakin’ tundra. I’d have to buy a whole new wardrobe just to live there, and apparently I was going to live in the arctic with no hot water, while my sister had a baby I wouldn’t be here to see and Enrique met some brain surgeon. I got up and ran for my room with Enrique following me.
Tiffany got up too, but Luke grabbed her. “Let Enrique go.”
I didn’t want him to though. I’d already proven I couldn’t do anything right if I stayed here, and I needed to get my life together. Enrique would just try to talk me into staying, and it would be easy to let him because I was not looking forward to leaving him. I turned to face him. “I need some alone time, please.”
“You’re about to have a year of it,” he pleaded.
“Enrique—”
“I’ll let you go, but I don’t like it.”
“Thank you,” I whispered.
The next day when I woke up, Enrique, Tiffany, Lucí, and an older Mexican lady were downstairs.
“What is going on?”
Tiffany smiled. “I’m going to work three days a week until a new accountant can start. I’ll train my replacement and quit. Gloria is going to watch Lucí here on my off days instead of her house, so I can spend more time with her, but I have help when I’m sick. And this guy,” she pointed to Enrique, “I don’t know what he’s doing here. I think I should charge him rent.”
He laughed. “This guy is not going back to work until after you’re gone,” he said.
“Luke will kill you,” I said.
Gloria smiled. “Luke took a couple of days off a few years ago to spend an extra day in Cancun. The girl he brought home was so sweet no one could fault him for it. I’m glad she had a sister. I just wish there was another Marlowe girl, because I have one more son.”
“Mamá, stop,” Enrique said.
I met Enrique’s gaze. “Can we talk?” I asked.
Enrique nodded and followed me to the kitchen.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to spend extra time together when I’m leaving in two days. It will hurt worse.”
“I’d like to spend every second I can with you until you’re gone. I’ll fly to Moscow sometime this year.”
“Enrique, you’re the best man I’ve ever known, but we both know long distance relationships rarel
y work.”
He nodded hard. “If you’re still single when you get back—”
“You’ll be the first to know.” I wasn’t prepared for the way he grabbed me, pulling me to his chest. Something about the way Enrique held me was sensuous. He could hold me in a crowded room, and it was more intimate than making love to my ex-husband had been. He held me like that for half an hour before finally moving away. “I guess I should go to work.”
I followed him back into the living room and waved as he walked out the door looking dejected. Letting him go was the hardest thing I’d ever done, but I knew it was the right thing. When I came back from Moscow in a year, he’d probably have some beautiful woman on his arm, who would undoubtedly be more accomplished than me. And that was the kind of thing Enrique deserved. It didn’t make it any easier though.
I sat down on the couch and stared at the door where Enrique had stood only seconds earlier. Gloria slapped me on the leg. “What did you do to my baby?”
I sighed. “I told him not to wait on me.”
She scowled at me, but it was Tiffany who spoke. “Why? I—well, you don’t tell me everything. I get that, but from what I’ve seen, you love him. He’s the best guy you’ve ever dated.”
“He is. He’s great. God, he,” I was about to go into a monologue of how great Enrique was when I remembered his mom was in the room and blushed. “He’s awesome, but long distance relationships rarely work.”
“If it doesn’t work, what do you have to lose? Not him, you just pushed him away.” Tiffany looked at me waiting for an answer.
“He offered to come to Russia to visit.”
“See,” she urged.
“We haven’t known each other very long. I don’t think it’s a good idea to start a transcontinental relationship.”
“You could not go,” Gloria said.
“Dance is all I know. There isn’t much I can do, otherwise.”
“It’s never too late to pick up a new skill. Ernique and I were in college at the same time.”
That surprised me. “Why?”
“I was in college when I got married. I got pregnant with Luke a few months later, and I felt too sick to do anything. I’d planned to go back when he started school, but the other two boys came and life got busy. I’m an interior decorator, and I didn’t go to my own graduation because Enrique graduated that same night.” She laughed.
“Finish school,” Tiffany said.
Right. I seriously had money for that.
“Hey, I’ll be back in a year, and if Enrique is still single, I’ll beg for forgiveness, but he’ll probably have some prettier, thinner, smarter woman on his arm.”
Gloria shook her head. “That boy has brought more girls home than both of his brothers combined, and I’ve never seen him look at a woman the way he looks at you.”
“Just figure it out,” Tiffany said. “Because you don’t have much time left. But I think he’s good for you.”
Chapter 18
The next two days were full of packing and preparing, doing things like picking up my visa. My plane was leaving at eight o’clock in the morning. I’d have to be at the airport by six, and it was a forty-five minute drive. Luke and Tiffany offered to drop me off, but she was pregnant and they’d have to get Lucí out. I told them I’d get there on my own.
So now I stood in the ticket line of American Airlines with my duffel bag and one suitcase, dreading this. I was excited to dance again, but Enrique was right. I was not the kind of girl to survive without hot water. Then there was the matter of Enrique. I knew I’d come home to find him engaged to some doctor or lawyer. He deserved someone better than me, and I wanted him to have it. But I wanted him more. Tiffany and I had just started talking again. I was leaving and wouldn’t be here when her baby was born. It was a lot to take in. So when I heard that sweet familiar voice that put goose bumps on my arm from somewhere behind me say, “If you get on that plane, you’ll break my heart,” I thought I was delusional. His words got harsher, and I knew I wasn’t imagining him. “Chica, don’t walk away from me.”
Enrique was standing outside the yellow rope for the ticket line. He was beside me now. “Is this ballet something you really want to do?”
“I’ll miss my plane.”
“That’s the point. Is this something you really want to do, or are you doing this because you don’t know what else to do?”
“Why?”
“Because if you really want this, I’ll telecommute from Moscow for the next year. It will change my job some, but I can do it. One perk of your name being on the building. But if you’re doing this because you don’t know what else to do, I need a dance teacher.”
It took me a second to take in everything he’d said. “Why are you learning to dance?”
“I’m not learning to dance. I bought a dance studio and I don’t dance.”
“Why?”
“To make a girl miss her plane.”
“God, you cannot just buy a dance studio to keep me here. What if I go to Russia anyhow? What are you going to do with it?”
“Your sister says I can sell it for an investment property.”
If Tiffany said it, it was probably true. But I needed to do something on my own. “Enrique, I don’t want to work for you. Or Tiffany. Or Luke. I need to be a grown up.”
“I’m not proposing you work for me. I think that would be dysfunctional. Your name is on the lease.”
“How did you do that?”
He shrugged. “I paid for it. You don’t owe anything, if that’s what you’re worried about. Your sister forged your signature.”
“Tiffany broke the law?”
“She thought you should stay.”
“Buying me a job is not cool.”
“I want you to teach enough dance classes to make the lease. I paid it out of a savings account, and I’ll use the lease payment to pay the savings account back. If you do it for two years, I’ll take my name off the lease. If you keep classes, but don’t profit the first two years I’ll give you another three. I don’t really think you can walk away from this. Professional ballets tend to retire dancers at a fairly young age and you’re pushing 30. So you see, I’m your best option.”
I laughed at the way he put that. “I’m barely pushing twenty-five. I’m waiting on you to say something else, and if you say it, I won’t get on the plane.”
“Kammy Marlowe, in case the blatant bribery wasn’t enough, I am madly in love with you. In fact, I have no intention of letting you get on that plane. If I have to kidnap you, your sister will post my bail.”
I dropped my bags as I threw my arms around him and crushed my lips to his. After a couple minutes, the high school kid behind me in line said, “The line is moving. Get a room!” I pulled away from Enrique, laughing. He reached over the rope taking both bags, and I slid under it to the other side.
“Chica, I need one thing,” Enrique said in the car as we drove to my sister’s.
“What?”
“You’ve got to make things right with your sister, so Luke will quit talking trash. I don’t want to have to kick my brother’s ass, and at this rate I may.”
“Tiffany is still mad at me?”
“I don’t know.”
Once we got to Tiffany’s, I ran inside calling her name. I wanted to tell her about the dance studio, although she already knew since she’d forged my name.
“I’m up here,” she called. Hand in hand, Enrique and I climbed the stairs. The door to Tiffany’s room was open and she stood inside making the bed. I started in, then hesitated at the doorstep. “Is Luke going to freak out if I come in your room?”
She laughed. “He’ll be fine.”
Enrique moved his hand from my hand to my waist and locked his arms around me as we walked through her door.
Tiffany looked at Enrique and smiled. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
“Thank you for breaking the law for me. I never saw you as a rebel,” I said.
> “Luke would make sure I didn’t get convicted.”
“Tiffany, I’m really sorry about everything that happened with Emmett.”
She dropped the mattress she’d been tucking a sheet around. “You mean the affair and then marrying him?”
“Yes, I’m sorry.”
“Was this your idea or someone else’s?” Her eyes flicked to Enrique.
I sighed. “I’m really sorry. I have been for a long time. I was sorry when it happened, but I married him because at twenty-one, I thought I loved him. I never apologized because I didn’t know how to bring it up. Recently, I had some encouragement though.”
She picked up the mattress again and set back to work. “It’s okay. I was ready to break up with that loser anyhow. What was I going to do with a skate boarder? It was more the betrayal than anything. All I ever wanted was an apology. I don’t care about Emmett. Luke’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Am I?” Luke asked, walking into the room. “And what are you doing lifting a mattress?”
She giggled. “Yes, you are. And you do not get to be overprotective this time around.” He walked over to the bed and lifted the mattress for her.
“Luke, I’m sorry I never paid you back for the hotel room in Cancun. I think I can start working on that in about six months. It’ll take me that long to build my dance classes,” I said.
“Don’t worry about it. Consider it an early wedding present.”
“Damnit Luke!” Enrique said.
“Wedding present?”
Tiffany giggled again.
“I didn’t mention it at the airport, because I didn’t want you to freak out and get on the plane. I told you I wasn’t learning to dance, but I’m expecting to have a wedding in the next year and I’ll need to be able to dance with my bride, so I’m expecting a lot of one on one time.” He sighed. “I planned to take you to the ballet tonight, but since Luke let the cat out of the bag…” He pulled a small velvet box from his pocket and flipped it open to display a huge solitaire with smaller diamonds on either side and rose gold accents at each end. “And it’s not CZ either.”
I laughed. “Did you steal it from a drug dealer?”