It didn’t matter.
Maria smiled, looking back at her mom, and then nodding at whatever Chris had told her. Pointing at a flower, he waited for Maria to give him the okay before he pulled a small pocketknife from his slacks. He cut the rose that the kitten had jumped on at the stem, dragging the blade down the length to remove any small thorns. Then, he tucked the pink rose into her daughter’s hair, right above Maria’s ear.
“Beautiful, like your Ma,” he said just loud enough for Valeria to hear.
Her throat tightened.
In her chest, her heart thundered.
Chris must have asked Maria something else because his head tilted to the side. Her child’s happy smile faded when she shrugged in her dress. She understood well enough what Chris said next because his lips moved to say, “I’m sorry, Maria.”
He said something else, and Maria quickly bounced on her feet, happy all over again as though nothing was wrong. The two of them laughed, and Chris pointed between himself, and then her daughter with a firm nod. Then, he pointed at Valeria, too, and gave Maria a wink that had her smile growing wide all over again.
“You understand?” she heard him ask.
Maria grinned. “I understand.”
“Good—I promise. I don’t break those.”
“Do you pinky promise?”
Chris shot Valeria another look from the side, but his stare didn’t linger long before it went right back to her daughter. Unquestioningly, he brought his hand out, and popped his pinky out for her daughter to catch with her own. Maria hooked their pinkies and tugged.
“Pinky promise,” he said.
“That’s the most important one, you know.”
“I know.”
Valeria wanted to know what they talked about—so badly. What was it the man said to her daughter that had her frowning and sad, but then had her smiling like the entire world watched and loved her in the next second?
The sight was sweet, really.
Maria didn’t take to strangers, but especially not men. Valeria blamed that on the fact there hadn’t been a lot of men in her daughter’s life when they stayed on the run for the last few years, but also because the man who should adore and treat her well made it his mission to ensure she saw his vile treatment of her mother. Her mom—someone she loved more than anyone else in the world. Her little girl with a heart of gold wouldn’t soon forget that, Valeria knew.
For whatever reason though ... Maria liked Chris.
“He’s good with kids,” Abril noted at her side, “and she’s not even his, huh?”
Valeria let out a sigh. “Hmm.”
“And stop staring, Val. You look like a woman who has found something she likes.”
Well, shit.
She averted her stare.
So much for avoiding him.
Not that it mattered, and her attempt to look away didn’t last for long, either. Chris stood, after giving Maria a one-armed hug and a kiss to the top of her head, and looked their way again. She sensed his gaze on her, even though she was trying to make it seem like she was looking out at the land beyond him, and not at him.
“Have a good day, ladies,” he murmured.
That was it.
He walked off.
The confusion, and heaviness in Valeria’s heart became worse. This—whatever was happening here—would lead nowhere good.
She was sure.
• • •
The next evening found everyone on the ranch celebrating a successful smuggle run into Texas that had been touch and go for a good month or more due to changes at the ports of entry. Valeria wasn’t interested in the flowing alcohol, or the laughter of her husband’s men that filled their house, and spilled out into the backyard where they had gathered in a large group.
She hung back on the rear porch of their home, forgotten by Jorge as he swallowed back more whiskey, and laughed at whatever the man next to him had said. It wasn’t like she would complain about his lack of attention, but that wasn’t what bothered Valeria at the moment.
Other things stuck to the back of her mind like sticky tar, dark and thick, promising it would stay there forever unless she handled it, and soon. Chris. And his little show the day before with her daughter.
For whatever reason, it wouldn’t leave her mind. Like his kiss that day in the stables, or that whenever he was within visual distance of her, he stared at her when no one else did.
All bad things.
And yet, good, too.
Even if it was crazy and dangerous. If Valeria were a smart woman, she would tell the man to stop. To leave her be and go his way.
Except he’d said something to her in the stables ...
He came here for her.
What did that mean?
This might be one of the few times she would be able to deal with the thoughts that plagued her, so she decided to at least try. Now or never because it was likely she wouldn’t get another chance soon.
And Chris came to Jorge’s impromptu celebration. He hung back like she did, but never stepped in on their conversations unless they invited him, or otherwise.
He didn’t want to be there.
Clearly.
With everyone’s attention on the row of fireworks that Samuel was setting off, while Abril kept an exhausted Maria safely away, Chris slipped inside the house. He had to pass by Valeria to do it, and met her gaze unashamed as he did so, arching a brow before he disappeared inside.
Without saying anything at all, his silent challenge sounded like, Well, are you coming?
Did the man read her mind?
She would soon find out.
It was foolish, no doubt about it. At least, inside the house, Valeria would be able to slip into another room should someone come inside, or even run upstairs. There were variables that worked to her favor here, and she figured it should be safe enough to at least try to have a private conversation with the man.
Valeria ducked into the house but she found the back hallway empty. Not knowing where Chris had gone, she walked further down the hall, a shriek dying in her throat when a hand snapped out to grab her at her elbow before someone yanked her into the downstairs bathroom.
“What—”
Valeria didn’t even get to finish her sentence before he slammed the bathroom door shut, leaving her in darkness. A form pressed her against the counter. She knew it was Chris who pulled her inside by the scent of him.
Intoxicating, she thought, like his taste, too. Crisp and fresh like a freshly fallen snow.
“Turn the light on,” Valeria said, air rushing with her words, trying to ignore the rushing desire in her bloodstream. “Please.”
Chris did just that, the space lighting up although it took a second for her eyes to adjust to the brightness. He backed up a bit, giving her enough room to breathe, but that was all he afforded her in the small bathroom. It wasn’t made for two people, and her body knew it given his proximity.
“We have, what, ten minutes before the fireworks stop?” he asked.
Valeria wet her lips. “About that. I have questions.”
“About what?”
“Whatever you said to my daughter yesterday.”
Chris blinked, the hard lines of his handsome face softening as a smile fettered over his lips. “That’s what you want to ask?”
“Yes.”
“Not about what I said to you in the stables? I figured that would be on your mind.”