No. I really want to kiss you. Do not laugh at me for it. I findyou utterly enchanting in every way possible. Had we more time together, I believe you would have come to love me as much as I fear I love you.
I know it is sudden but…“what is a few moments when our souls have known each other since the beginning of time?”
She grinned. He still quoted the sonnet wrong.
Carolina had laughed and cried over the note. She held it now as she paced in the garden.
Her energy was building, her irritation too. What if he didn’t come back to her?
No,she wouldn’t even let that thought grow in her mind. She would continue to hope.
She needed to focus on something else. She opened and closed her fist. It still ached from the night before. Rafa had slipped into Lalo’s room while Carolina sat by his side. One look at Rafa’s face and her annoyance bloomed. She stomped over to him and popped him in the nose.
“That is for trying to give Lalo my pony to ride,” she’d said.
Carolina punched him again.
“That is for being a torment to the man I love,” she’d added.
Rafa clamped a hand over his face. He held his other hand up in surrender. “Apologies!” he said through his fingers. “I came here to offer my apologies!”
A tiny bit of her vitriol had eased. “Why?”
“I was a selfish prick. I thought I could bully my way into being your husband, and it wasn’t right. I am sorry, Carolina. Honest.” His eyes flitted to Lalo’s prone form. “I heard about how you two risked everything on the mountain. I…I came here to commend you for being braver than any of us ever could be.”
When Rafa left, Carolina had cried some more. Lalo had been the brave one. He was best of them all.
She kicked a rock now, then watched it soar.
“Careful. Wouldn’t want to stub your toe. I’ve heard it’s rather painful.”
Carolina froze. That voice. That washisvoice.
She spun and gasped.
There, standing in nothing but a long child’s shirt, washerLalo.
“Are you real?” she whispered.
He grinned. And oh, what a beautiful grin it was.
“Why don’t you come and see for yourself?”
Carolina let out a sound that was part scream, part cry and bolted for him. She jumped, wrapping her arms around his neck. His skinny legs buckled, and they tumbled into the grass.
He groaned, taking the brunt of her weight and force.
“Trying to kill me again, I see,” he moaned, still grinning.
“You’re…you…”
“I’m here. And I am very much alive. Thanks to you.”
A sob escaped her. “You kept your promise! You came back to me!”
“I was too frightened not to.”
“Very smart of you.”
