He watched Kinley’s eyes widen as she tried to follow the woman’s rapid-fire Spanish and took pity on her. “She said they don’t have a menu. Today’s options are tamales, chicken pepián, or a shredded beef dish, and rice.”
Her head swung his way. “You speak Spanish?”
Nodding, he watched her emotions play across her face. She should never play poker.
Her rosy lips parted, then pressed together before one corner of her mouth quirked up. “Well, you get to do the translating from this point on.”
He appreciated that she didn’t throw a fit or get huffy that he’d let her struggle through speaking Spanish. He hadn’t done it on purpose—she’d taken the lead whenever anyone had spoken to them earlier and he hadn’t seen the need to tell her he spoke it.
“Deal.”
“The chicken pepián is a local dish and is supposed to be really good. I’ll have that with the rice,” she said.
He ordered four servings of the chicken and extra tamales as well as water and beer for everyone. Oakley and Ghost pushed through the low door as the woman returned to the kitchen. They scanned the small restaurant before heading to the table. As soon as they took their seats, the woman returned with drinks.
“I got ahold of the tour company,” Shane said, picking up his beer. “The driver was also our tour guide. There are no guides available for the next three days. Our options are to wait or go ourselves.”
“I say we go ourselves,” Ghost said. “Didn’t see the point of a guided tour anyway.”
Oakley swallowed his beer with a satisfied sigh. “I wanted a nice, relaxing vacation where I didn’t have to think about anything or plan anything.”
Ghost cocked a brow. “How’s that working out?”
“Fan-freaking-tastic.” Oakley raised his bottle and air toasted Ghost before downing half of it.
“Can I ask something?” Kinley rolled her bottle between her fingers.
“Shoot,” Shane said.
“How are you guys not freaked out about what happened? I was shaking the whole time I was in the shower.”
Damn, he hadn’t thought about her going into shock after he left her. “That was your adrenaline crashing. I should have made sure you were okay before leaving you alone.”
She shook her head. “I was all right. I didn’t expect you to babysit me.”
Oakley shifted in his chair and leaned back, affecting a relaxed pose Shane knew was anything but. “That was really nothing.”
Shane braced his forearms on the table. “What he means is we’ve faced more difficult situations.”
“How did you know what to do?” she asked.
“Training,” Oakley said.
“But you didn’t talk about what needed to be done—you just did it.”
“Lots and lots of training,” Ghost added.
“It was really impressive,” she said. “I froze up. I couldn’t even remember simple first aid like applying pressure to stop the bleeding.”
Shane took one of her hands in his, stopping her from picking at the label on the bottle. When she raised her gaze to his, he said, “It’s like any other skill you learn and practice. Take driving. You’re probably a much better driver now than you were when you first learned because you practice. Things you used to think about ahead of time, you now do from muscle memory. It’s the same idea, just a different skill set.”
She nodded at his explanation and he ran his thumb over her knuckles before letting her hand go. He didn’t want to, but it would be awkward to keep holding on. It could have been his imagination, but her fingers tightened ever so slightly before she pulled her hand away.
The woman came from the kitchen holding a heaping plate of tortillas in one hand and a large platter of tamales in the other. They moved glasses and bottles from the middle of the table to make room for the plates. She left and quickly returned with a tray laden with bowls of their food.
“This is a lot of food,” Kinley said.
“You think?” Oakley scooped a heaping spoon of rice onto his plate. “I’m already planning on asking for seconds.”
