“What are you doing here?” Carolina asked.
The sudden brightness of the day filled the coach. She could only hope Lalo was too busy suffering from the sunlight to see how rosy her cheeks were.
“Checking in on Jorge. What else?” Nena’s eyes flicked between the two of them. “Am I interrupting something?” She wiggled her brows.
“No!” Lalo said. Just as Carolina said, “Yes!”
She glared at Lalo, the miserable fool who thought he could regret her kisses, before starting for the door.
“We were stopping in to see how your brother is faring,” shesaid.
Nena waved her hand. “Don’t bother. Jorge is fine and resting. The sediento gave him a good swipe to the chest, but his wound will mend. Worse things have happened to him. Remember the time he threw a stone at that hornet’s nest?”
“How could I forget. I was standing next to him. My eyes were swollen shut for a week from the pests’ stings,” Carolina said.
“Oh yes! It was the prettiest you ever looked,” Nena teased.
“Hilarious.” Carolina inched toward the door, but Nena didn’t move. How was she going to sneak to the shed and snag extra weapons with nosy Nena to block her way? They were ten minutes into her plan of escape, and things were already going awry.
Fernanda’s head popped into view next. She narrowed her eyes. “Is my brother boring you to death?”
“I think it’s the opposite,” Nena said.
Fernanda grinned. “How scandalous.”
“Scoot over,” Nena commanded.
“What?” Carolina’s spine stiffened. “Why?”
“Because it’s hot, and I’m tired and I want to go home.”
Carolina didn’t budge. If Nena placed her bottom on the seat, Carolina knew she’d never leave el pueblo. Nena understood all of Carolina’s tells. She would notice something was amiss. The last time Carolina tried to hide a bag of sweets from Nena, she was onto her lies in seconds. Nena said she could tell by the way Carolina had acted. She was a bittoogood-natured and supposedly batted her lashes twice as much as normal.
“We aren’t headed home,” Carolina confessed.
Fernanda’s gaze kept flicking to her brother, who was hunched in the corner to stay away from the sun. He stared at nothing, rubbing the pads of his fingers over his lips.
“Is something wrong?” Fernanda asked. Clearly, she was aware of her brother’s tells, too. Carolina had to get away from these clever women.
“Your brother and I just kissed,” she admitted.
Both girls gasped.
Carolina let her chin quiver. “And now he feels as if it were a mistake.”
They gasped again.
“Is it because he is a sediento?” Nena queried.
Carolina shook her head. She pretended to dab at her tear-filled eyes.
“Is it because he has never kissed anyone?” Fernanda asked.
Carolina paused her performance. “Really?”
“Sí. Perhaps kissing was simply too…”
“I am right here,” Lalo deadpanned. “Please do not speak of me as if I do not exist.”
