"Of course not. I may join you."
Lynette hugged her, and again Molly felt a rush of something. Love and relief. "I missed you," she said. It had only been a week or so, but it seemed an age.
"Me, too." Her plump arms were tight.
To her amazement, Josh stepped forward, too, and gave her a surprisingly fierce hug.
"Sorry, sis."
Molly almost lost it, but there was a step from behind her, and she managed to swallow her tears before she turned. Alejandro, wiping his hands on a towel, had emerged from the kitchen, and Molly gestured, bringing him into the group while she stepped back.
"You remember Lynette and Josh."
"Yes. It is good of you to come tonight." He extended his hand, and this time, Josh took it. "Things are nearly finished. Come."
He"d set the table with her pottery bowls, and put them on bright turquoise mats she"d almost forgotten, and he"d gathered candles from various places all over the house to put on the table. They burned brightly amid small bowls of marigolds and a tall thin vase of carnations. She"d never seen her own table look so festive, and when she raised
her head to tell him so, she saw him waiting for her reaction, his eyes oddly grave.
"Beautiful."
He held her gaze for one moment more, then looked away quickly, and seemed a little confused over what should be done next, looking at the stove and the counter.
"What can I carry?" Molly asked. A thick stew with what looked like hominy bubbled in a pot. A fragrance ofchiles and onion rose from it, and mixed with the scent of cinnamon from the coffee in another pot. Molly inhaled, closing her eyes. "Oh, this is going to be wonderful, Alejandro!" Without thought, she put her hand on his arm and turned to Lynette. "Wait until you taste his coffee. You"ll never drink American coffee again."
"No machine coffee," Alejandro said, smiling down at her. He put his hand over hers, squeezed it once and let it go.
Somehow, touching him gave her a sense of strength and the tight knot of loss in her chest eased a little. He might be gone tomorrow, but tonight he was here, and she would not lose whatever memories she could tuck away by mourning the loss in the future.
"What is this?" she asked of the stew.
"Posole,"he said, and Lynette cried out happily. He grinned over his shoulder. "You like it?"
"I love it," she said, and patted her round tummy. "But then, look at me I love everything." She laughed to show she didn"t mind. "Mainly, though, I really love, love, love Mexican food."
He carried the pot to the table. "Yeah? It"s good here. Josefina, my niece, has eaten well in New Mexico. I do my best, but I am not a cook like her mother was." He shrugged, went back to the stove, took a thick package of foil out of the oven and opened it, releasing the steam of an enormous stack of thick flour tortillas. "I had to buy the tortillas. I do not know how to make them very well."
They settled around the table, Molly at one end, Alejandro at the other, the candles and flowers between them. He filled their bowls with his rich stew, and talked lightly of many things, drawing even Josh into the conversation. Molly ate the stew with a pile of tortillas and drank a cold beer with her brother, and felt deeply satisfied.
Outside, the wind howled and snow began to fall, but in here, there was family and good food and warmth, and what else did a person need?
Josh stood up to get another beer, and offered one to Alejandro, who shook his head with a smile. "No, thank you." He lifted his chin with a little smile. "Molly will drink mine."
"You don"t drink?" His eyes narrowed. "You in AA?"
Alejandro gave Molly a puzzled expression. "Why do people always ask that? Only people who have trouble refuse alcohol here?"
Lynette cracked up, and put her hand on his sleeve. "No, I don"t drink either. I just don"t like it. You"re safe."
"I"ll take his, Josh," Molly said. "Don"t worry about it all the more for us, right?"
He nodded and carried the beers back to the table. "How"s your niece doing?"
"Very well. They will let her go tomorrow." He pushed his bowl away a little, glanced at Molly, then away. "That is why we are here tonight, since I will be moving in a day or two."
"That"s what Molly told me."
There was, suddenly, no point to either woman being at the table, for the men faced each other, looking each other in the eye. "We are both sorry for lying to you,"
Alejandro said. "It seemed there was no other way."
Molly quietly stood and began to collect the bowls. Lynette helped her.
"I was only trying to protect her, man," Josh said. "It wasn"t personal."
"Sure. I know." Alejandro looked at Molly as she took his dishes, and again, it was as if they entered their own little world when their eyes touched, a place where only the two of them knew the rules. "She is too trusting." He looked back at Josh. "But I am grateful. She saved my life, and the life of my niece. We can never repay our debt to her."
Molly took the bowls to the sink, where Lynette had poured soap and now ran hot water.
Lynette looked up at Molly, and widened her eyes, trying to give Molly a message she didn"t quite get. She frowned, shaking her head. Lynette pressed her mouth together, looked at the men. Shook her head.
"Now that this is out in the open," Josh said, "I need to know what happened, exactly, if you wouldn"t mind." He looked at his sister. "Did you really know the little girl before?"
Molly, the pot of stew in her hands, looked at Alejandro. Hesitated,then shook her head. "I found him at the foot of the bluff the morning after the raid." She put the stew down. "I know they say there are no shots fired, but he had a bullet in his leg and broken ribs and I couldn"t leave him there."
Josh bowed his head. "It was me."
"Whatwas you?"
He lifted his head, and in his too-young face she saw lines of weariness. "I fired that night. Twice. One went by, but I guess the other one-" He cleared his throat. "So in a weird kind of way, all this was my fault."
Molly sank into a chair. "Josh, how could you?"
He shook his head. "Don"t think I haven"t asked myself that same thing a hundred times, every night ever since." He rubbed his face. "It was so crazy that night. So many people scattering." Josh looked at Molly. "I lost my temper. It just p.i.s.sed me off that all these people were here, breaking the law. And Wiley just sits up there like a fat cat, pretending he doesn"t know they"re all illegal." His jaw went tight. "And you know,it really is a problem for the county. Crime goes up and the jail is packed, and the hospital fills up, and the county gets stuck with all the bills." He looked at Alejandro. "You seem like an all-right guy. I"m sorry for your troubles, but why do you have to be here?"
Molly opened her mouth to interrupt, worried that the conversation was going into dangerous territory. Alejandro lifted a hand, and she understood he wanted to field this.
Earnestly, he put his arms on the table. "I do not wish to be here," he said. "I love my home. InMexico, I am an important man where I live. My family has land and I have the respect of the men I do business with." He shook his head. "Here I am nothing."
"So why do it? Why drag that poor little girl all over?"
"I promised her mother I would take care of her. Josefina was her only child, and my sister wanted to raise her here."
Josh nodded.
Lynette said, "Molly, will you come with me for a minute?"
Startled, she glanced up, saw the urgent expression and followed her out.
Alejandro watched them go, and when they were out of earshot, he said quietly, "Senor, who Iam is not important now. I must ask you to do one thing."
"What?"
"You must help your sister buy that house she likes so much, the one in town."