“When was your last vacation?”
“Carly once paid for us all to go to Lake Conroe for the week. There were about twenty of us.”
“But that was with your family. When did you go away with friends, or by yourself?” He loved his family, but he didn’t want to travel everywhere with them.
“I never have.”
“Never?” He couldn’t believe it.
She set her empty mug on the coffee table and crossed her arms. “No. Mama needs me.”
“Do Bridget or Carly ever help?” She shouldn’t have to do it all.
“They have real jobs.”
He scowled. “But you have a real job.”
***
The familiar frustration welled up inside Zita and she shifted in her seat. “It’s not a job, it’s just something I do. I’ve done a couple of counseling courses, and I follow Mama’s lead.”
“Don’t you think what you do is valuable?”
“All I do is listen to the girls, help them with their homework, and talk to them in English so they pick it up quickly. It’s not hard.”
“Some people would find it difficult to listen to their stories, considering what those girls have gone through,” David argued. “I know I did.”
“You get used to it.”
“You shouldn’t have to.” He reached over and put his arm around her, pulling her closer to him.
She leaned into him, breathing in his musky scent.
“So what would you do, if you had a choice?” he asked.
No one had ever asked her that. She peered up at him, surprised. His blue eyes looked into hers, no judgment there. His hand was running down her arm, soothing her, warming her. She hadn’t expected this compassion from him. She sat up. “You mean if Mama didn’t need me?”
He nodded.
“I’d go to college,” she said in a rush, the thrill of admitting it quite terrifying.
“What would you study?”
“Law. I want to be an immigration lawyer.” Her heart beat rapidly as she waited for his reaction.
“So why don’t you?”
“I couldn’t take that much time away from Mama and the girls.”
“Have you spoken to Carmen about it?”
“Not yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because she’d tell me to do it. But she’d struggle on her own.” And Zita’s fear of failure was real, like a gaping pit at the tip of her toes. She wasn’t quite ready to confess her dreams to her family yet.
“Could she get other help?”
