Page 18 of Vaquero
When he didn’t say anything back, she lifted her chin. How embarrassing. She could see Craig over Julio’s shoulder, and the man was grinning from ear to ear. The shy Alcaldo brothers were watching too, when—
The baby mashed between Meg and Julio murmured, “Mum.”
“Dom’s talking,” sweet Maria announced brightly. “Quiet everybody! Dom’s got something to say. Go ahead, baby,” she crooned. “We’re listening.”
My goodness, she’d been kneeling on the ground right beside Meg all this time. She’d seen everything. Even that hotter than hell, chaste kiss.
Meg covered her mouth with one hand as, sure enough, Dom whispered, “Mum,” again.
“No, honey. Not mom. Meg,” she explained, her voice inexplicably hoarse. Obviously, Dom was still a little confused, and she was a little bit flustered. If only her heart would stop throbbing like a beast brought suddenly back to life.
“No, Meg. Mum,” Julio said quietly but sternly. “He needs a mother, and he just picked you out of everyone here. Say it with me. Mmmm-uuuu-mmmm.”
Funny guy. A smile had almost breached his unhappy lips when he’d exaggerated that perfect word.
Something very much like a hysterical laugh bubbled out of Meg at the mountain of restraint and humility behind this ruggedly handsome guy. He could’ve chosen to be slighted when Dom chose her instead of him. A lot of silly men would’ve had their egos bruised. Not Julio.
Instead of selfishness, there was a definite aura of sorrow about him. She could feel it. Almost see it. For a reason she couldn’t understand, she wanted to comfort this stranger. Her hand lifted automatically to his face.
He let her touch him, but there was no sense of acceptance coming from him. No invitation to draw closer. He didn’t close his eyes. He was simply allowing the contact, not embracing it. Even his kiss had been measured. Dry. Distant. Which meant he was probably married.
Well, darn. And here Meg was letting her emotions build this moment into something it would never be. Which made her the world’s biggest idiot. Flustered, she let her hand drop. Everyone here had watched her kiss this stranger. They’d also watched him keep that kiss chaste and pure and… Yeah. Unwelcome.
Well, okay then. Brushing a hand over her head to make sure her bandana hadn’t slipped and embarrassed her more, she swallowed her pride, and pulled her eyes off Julio’s breathtakingly handsome face. Honestly, she should’ve known he’d be married. The man had strength of character stamped all over his proud Hispanic features. His heart was taken. Well, so was hers. She’d given it to these orphans. So there.
Pulling Dom away from Julio, she put an end to her foolish schoolgirl expectations and locked her heart again.
The grand illusion of being Dom’sm-m-motherwas a frighteningly dizzying, yet awesome, concept to accept. She’d tossed all hope of ever achieving that sacred title after her stroke left her partially paralyzed. By then, Trevor had been deployed to some unknown valley in Afghanistan on a humanitarian mission. Ted? No one in her family would tell her where he’d gone.
She’d gotten his divorce papers in the mail, though. The coward. She couldn’t blame him for not having the guts to face her. He didn’t have the emotional depth to truly care for another person, either. But Meg blamed him plenty for being a chicken-shit and bailing on their marriage before they’d even hit their one-year anniversary. What’d he think marriage was meant to be, romance and sex every day?
But okay, that was then, and this was now, and things had changed. She’d moved on. She was still going strong, and Dom had called her Mum. Seemed simple enough. She could most certainly handle that role until a better, more physically-sound mother came along. She could do Mum. She’d been doing it for a year now.
Marta stood close by, fanning herself with an empty tin plate. “Praise Jesus, this man is the miracle we’ve all been praying for.”
Meg shot her a look. Jesus might have sent Julio, but she was quite sure He wouldn’t have if Julio hadn’t been a worthy soldier in the first place. Praise the Lord all you want. He still only sent honorable men to do His work. Which told her why Teddy-Boy wasn’t there and Julio—
BOOM!
One massively loud explosion sent an ear-splitting shockwave through camp. Trees leaned and saplings bent under the sheer force of the reverberation from the blast. Parrots and monkeys in the branches overhead squealed, chirped, shrieked, and scattered. The kids cried. Meg found herself pulled tightly against Julio, his hand over her one ear, her other ear plastered against his heart. Sweet baby Dom was soundly mashed between Julio and her.What just happened?
“Earthquake!” Marta shrieked. “It’s an earthquake. Run! We’ll all be crushed! We must run before that giant rock falls on us!”
“No!” the usually placid Joseph bellowed over the din of crying children and the hysterical German woman. “Explosion. Not earthquake.”
My gosh, his ears were bleeding. Meg looked to her kids, all of them crying as they ran to her and Julio. Their ears were bleeding, too.
“Come here,” she called out, waving them forward but not sure they could hear. “Explosion?” she asked Julio perhaps a little too loudly.
“Joseph is right,” he answered, shaking the effects of the shockwave off. “Oz must have other mines nearby.”
“There’s one in the quarry,” Meg replied as she looked straight into Julio’s eyes. There was sadness there, but she also saw the strength of a man who’d come prepared for combat.
Simultaneously, they both said, “That’s where the kidnapped villagers are.”
