Page 6 of Dina's Favorite Mistake

Until Diego.

Not wanting to think about the biggest regret of her life on such a happy day, she forced away those thoughts. She and Sky entered the grand parlor and found most of the family there welcoming the party guests. Since Jasper was so little and didn’thave actual friends yet, the family had decided to invite all the children of their employees to celebrate.

Already, there were dozens of kids running wild in the courtyard. Just beyond the courtyard, down the stone steps, more children shouted and laughed as they darted in and out of bounce houses and blow-up obstacle courses. A small petting zoo had been arranged off to one side. Carnival style booths offering face painting and games and all sorts of treats and drinks sat on the perimeter of the party space.

“Did anyone tell Mama that llamas spit?” Lola wandered over with a plastic cup of lemonade in hand. “Because there’s a big ass llama in that petting zoo, and it does not look happy about all these screaming kids.”

“A llama?” Sky echoed with concern. “I thought it was only supposed to have farm animals like goats and sheep and some rabbits?” She craned her neck and searched the crowd of adults. “Have you seen Rafael?”

“He had to deal with something business related.” Lola sipped her lemonade. “He went that way, I think.”

“I’ll find Rafael,” Dina said as Jasper started making noise across the room in Soila’s arms. “You tend to Jasper.”

As Sky hurried to her nephew, Dina’s gaze landed on Camila who had chosen to wear a cropped Farias Tequila t-shirt to the party with shorts that would have violated her school’s dress code. Every motherly instinct in her body demanded she storm over there, drag her daughter out of the room and march her upstairs to put on something more appropriate.

She fought that urge and turned to Lola. “Will you keep an eye on Camila?”

Lola gave her niece a once-over and sighed. “If I had tried to wear that, Mama would have forced me into a nun’s habit and had me locked away in a convent, but look at her now!”

Across the room, Soila fawned over her granddaughter and grandson and new daughter-in-law.

“I wish Camila and Jasper could understand that the woman they know as theirabuelitais not the same woman we knew as our mother,” Lola grumbled.

Wasn’t that the truth?

As she looked for her brother, Dina wondered if someday Camila would say the same thing to her children.Probably.

Dina neared Rafael’s home office and heard Beto’s voice and another male she didn’t recognize. They were speaking English which surprised her. They were all fluent, of course, but at home, everyone spoke Spanish.

When she lifted her hand to knock on the party closed door, Dina froze. Another male voice had joined the conversation. A very familiar voice.

One that had haunted her dreams.

And her fantasies.

But, surely, she had to be mistaken.

It couldn’t behim.

It just couldn’t.

Her hand trembled as she knocked on the door and called out, “Rafa?”

“Dina? Come in.”

She pushed open the door and found Rafael behind his desk, his arms crossed and a frown marring his face. Beto stood near the window overlooking the agave fields and had a similarly concerned expression. Two men in dark suits sat in the chairs in front of Rafael’s desk.

But it was the man leaning back against the bookshelf that held her attention.

Her heart fluttered wildly, and her stomach wobbled with shock.

It washim.

The Texas Ranger.

Her one-night-stand.

Steve.

---