"Good thing you had Adrian's contact," Charlie says. "And that he was available on a Friday night." She tilts her head, deliberately. "My brother says he's quite the ladies' man, if you know what I mean."
I take another sip. I focus on keeping my grip even on the bottle.
"Speaking of your brother," Leonor says, "how is William doing? He is such a clever, hardworking young man. Did he get news about the scholarship he was trying for?"
And just like that, Leonor is lost in her mind again. She's gone back to my father's house, the house she spent years cleaning before she came here. Back to when the Martin family still lived on the estate grounds. She knew both our families in a version of things that no longer exists.
"Not yet, but I'm sure he will," Charlie says. Easy, practiced. She has done this many times.
Charlie pats Leonor’s hand in a soothing way. Then, she turns and says to me mimicking Leonor, "Speaking of William, what happened between the two of you the other day?"
The heat is in my face before I can do anything about it. I lift the water bottle, tip it back and find it empty.
Charlie watches every second of it.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Hum, hum." She adjusts the sling, settling in. "He dragged you to the kitchen. You were in there for a while. You came out all blushed, like you are right now and left. And he came out grumpier than ever"
"It happened what always happens with us." I look at the grass. "We argued. He hates me."
Charlie is quiet long enough that I almost believe she's going to let it go.
"You know what I think?" and she narrows her eyes at me. "I think what he's doing is what boys do when they pull girls' pigtails in the school yard. It really means he likes you. Fighting is foreplay for him."
Leonor brings both hands to her cheeks. "Oh my!"
I scoff. Stand up. Dust my jeans. "I'm going to check on Emilio. He's probably butchering the edges."
"Sienna." Charlie catches my wrist.
I stop.
She waits until I look at her. "My brother is a good man. He gave up a lot to practically raise me alone. He has had a hard life, and that made him hard. He comes across cold and demanding, and sometimes he is both of those things." A pause. "But he's a good person."
Something moves in my chest. "I know that," I say. "I know how much he's sacrificed."
She lets go. She grins and starts singing in an annoying voice while clapping her hands for rhythm.
"Sienna and William, kissing in the kitchen. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes lo—"
I am already walking.
Leonor's laugh carries across the garden. I don't turn around.
The sun has shifted. The shadows from the citrus trees stretch long across the path. Emilio is at the far end, trimming a clean line. He learns fast.
I crouch down beside the tree root and look at the structure of it. There's a natural split point near the center. If I start there, the saw won't bind. I pick it up from the ground and find the angle.
There is no way William is attracted to me. Whatever happened in that kitchen, whatever came over him or me or both of us at once was a moment of insanity. He resents me.
But…There is this energy zapping between us everytime we are in the same room. The specific tightness in my chest that starts before I've even registered him consciously. And the kiss... His mouth on mine, not angry, not arguing, certain in a way I don't have a word for, like the decision had been made somewhere else before he ever came to find me.
I put my fingertips to my lips.
I almost still feel it.
I’m startled from my thoughts by my phone ringing on the back pocket of my jeans.
