"She told you about that?"
He shrugged. "We talked of many things. It is very important to her, that house, and she thinks she should not have it."
Josh"s mouth was serious, his blue eyes troubled. "She can"t do the work it needs."
"So, she can hire it to be done." Alejandro tried to think of a way to express the sense he had that Molly had to have the house. "Without something to believe in, something that belongs to only her, she will..." he frowned, thinking of a loaf of bread without its insides "-go hollow. No more of her, only the outside."
"Why do you care?"
Because he loved her. Because he couldn"t stand to think of that expression on her face when she looked at it this afternoon, so much longing, so much fear, so much certainty that anything she wanted that much would always be out of reach. But he could not think how to say all of that without revealing his heart, and he only shook his head. "She saved my life."
Josh smiled. "I"ll see what I can do, man. Maybe she can sell this place and do what she wants with the house."
Alejandro nodded. "Thank you."
Lynette hustled Molly into the bedroom and closed the door, then leaned against it.
"You want to tell me what"s going on here?" she said.
Molly frowned. "What do you mean?"
"With you and him."
"Nothing." She tried to say it innocently.
"Nothing is going on? Nothing?" She twisted her mouth wryly. "You"re going to tell me you have had that beautiful hunk of man flesh under this roof all this time and you haven"t slept with him?"
She crossed her arms. "Well, no."
"No, you didn"t, or no, you did?"
"No, I did."
Lynette"s eyes narrowed. "Don"t you think that was kind of dangerous?"
A sudden vivid and erotic vision rose in her mind, a vision of their first joining, the sun making her lids red, his hands and mouth on her body. "No," she whispered. "He"s a man of good character." It sounded old-fashioned, and she was embarra.s.sed, but didn"t take it back.
"That"s not what I mean, Molly. Not dangerous as in taking a knife and stabbing you.
Dangerous as in, can you stand to have your heart broken so completely again?"
Molly moved to the window, lifted the curtains and stared out. "My heart is fine," she lied.
"It can"t be, Molly. Remember who you"re talking to here, okay? I"ve known you all your life. I remember the boys you used to fall for. TheMedinabrothers, remember, in second grade? And Toby Espinoza. n.o.body was more shocked than me when you ended up with some big old galoot of a white guy."
Her fingers tightened on the curtain, and she remembered a story they"d both heard at a Girl Scout gathering once:The old women say there is a face carved on the heart of every woman...
"Alejandro is nothing like them."
"No," Lynette said, "he"s everything a man should be. He"s kind and good and smart and beautiful. And you are in love with him."
Molly swallowed. "I"ve been thinking so much about Tim," she said quietly. "Remembering all these things about him that I loved so much. His hands. He had freckles on the back of his hands. And he was so romantic in practical ways, you know?" She turned to look at her best friend. "I broke down one night, just remembering everything about him. It came flooding back, so hard, and I felt like I was going to die, it hurt so much. I wanted to die when he did. There just didn"t seem to be any point in going on."
"I know you did, sweetie," Lynette whispered.
"But you know, I picked myself up and I kept going. I don"t remember how, now." She brushed a tear away and breathed out slowly. "That night I lost.i.t, Alejandro came to me and just held me. He washed my face." She looked at Lynette, suddenly terrified and overwhelmed. "That day that I found him, it wasn"t him calling for his niece that made me hide him. He was just so beautiful I needed to look at him some more." The words came pouring out of her, bottled up for too long. "I never did anything like that before, and I didn"t even think about it. I just brought him into my house, like some antique or a beautiful painting, so I could look at him."
Lynette chuckled and brushed Molly"s hair back from her face. "Honey, I"ve looked at him, okay? He"s a lot better than a painting."
"You know what I mean. I never did that. And then, he woke up and there was something so special about him that I couldn"t let him go." She closed her eyes. "And now he"s in every corner of my life. He"s changed everything, everything, and it"s going to be like it always is, it"s going to hurt to let him go, but if I don"t, Lynette, if I don"t-"
she swallowed. "Right now, it hurts a little. Later, it would be more than I could stand."
Lynette laid her head on Molly"s shoulder. "Not everybody has to bury their parents and their husbands, Molly. Some people live a long time."
"But you never know, do you?" Molly said, and she could not hold back her tears. "There are no guarantees in this life."
"No," Lynette said quietly. "There aren"t." She put her arms around Molly"s shoulders and let her weep. "I"m so sorry, Moll. I"m sorry I wasn"t there for you this time. I"m sorry this got so out of hand. I"m..." She stroked Molly"s hair. "I"m sorry. If it makes you feel any better, I think you"re doing the right thing, letting him go."
But maybe that wasn"t what Molly wanted to hear. Clinging to Lynette, she could only think of the way Alejandro had washed her face with a cool rag, of the way his hands looked when he wrapped Josefina"s small hand in his own.
After a moment, she found the rush of emotion subsiding, and lifted her head, a backwash of foolishness making her laugh a little. "I must bePMSing bad, the way I"ve been losing it today."
"Maybe," Lynette said. "But maybe a lot has happened in a short time, too." She smiled.
"Either way, things will look a lot better a week from now."
"Will they?"
"They will. Now go wash your face. I"m going to get some of that coffee you said is so great."
When the snow began to come down again in earnest, Josh and Lynette gathered their things to go. Molly and Alejandro both went to the door, as if it was their shared home.
Josh extended his hand to Alejandro. "Best of luck to you, man."
"Thank you."
Lynette hugged Molly. "It"s almost over now," she whispered. "Hang in there." She pulled back, lifted her collar. "Call me tomorrow."
"I will." She waved,then closed the door against the cold night.
Alejandro stood where he"d been, his arms at his sides,an odd expression on his face.
Noticing her gaze, he summoned a smile, halfhearted. "You are very tired tonight, eh?"
She thought of the bed, thought of him there and knew there was no way onearth, no way she could let herself sleep with him again. "Yes," she said, knowing they spoke in code.
"There"s one thing more I would like to do, if you are not too tired," he said.
"What?"
He held out his hand. "Come."
And one last time, she allowed herself to touch him, let him take her hand in his and
lead her into the kitchen. The table was cleared of dishes, but the flowers and candles, now unlit, remained. "Are you Catholic, Molly?"