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Nora wriggled in her seat, not about to accept the setback. “I can teach you.”
Erin tried to keep the alarm from her features. “That’s sweet, but, for you to teach me, I’d have to, you know, get on a horse.”
“You don’t like horses?”
Erin tried with everything she had not to flinch. “No, they’re fine—from a distance.”
As the men sat silently listening to the exchange, Nora continued. “You have to learn. I need someone to ride with—”
The girl was interrupted when Rafael reached over and put a restraining hand on her knee. Erin glanced at Max and saw his eyes narrow at the other man’s action.
“Stop hounding her, Nora,” Rafael admonished. “She’s only just gotten here and riding doesn’t seem to be her thing.”
Nora seemed to freeze, moving her leg and glaring at her stepbrother before turning back to Erin with a hopeful smile. “No problem. I’ve got a brand new four-by-four we can take. It looks kind of like a golf cart—not at all like a horse,” she laughed. “It’s a Kawasaki Mule and it’s awesome—”
Max and Rafael interjected at the same time. “No—”
Erin only listened to the exchange, wondering at Max’s vehemence while Nora glared at the two men before retorting, “Why not?”
For a moment, Max and Rafael exchanged glances, almost comical in their male solidarity, looking as if they were desperately trying to come up with a reasonable objection to such an innocent outing. Nora rolled her eyes and jumped into the silence. “There’s no reason. Come on, Erin, it will be fun. Please, have pity on me. You haven’t been stuck here forever like I have—”
“You haven’t been stuck here forever, Nora,” Rafael said with flattened lips. “You’ve only been home from California for a few weeks.”
“A few weeks? I finished college months ago. Do you have any idea what it feels like out here in the back of beyond with you breathing down my neck as if I don’t have a whit of common sense?”
Erin sat still and listened to the byplay going on while surreptitiously watching Max under her lashes. He was not happy—but she had no idea why. He was glaring at Rafael, almost as if the man were crossing some sort of line. Abruptly, Erin knew something else was lurking here, something below the surface that she wasn’t privy to—at least not yet.
“We’re not going to discuss this in front of our hosts,” Rafael rasped at his stepsister. We will not be rude, do you understand me? And stop badgering Mrs. Villarreal, she’s only just arrived.”
A rebellious line appearing on Nora’s lips, she crossed her arms over her chest and when Erin caught her gaze, the girl rolled her eyes again as if her stepbrother was a thorn in her side that she couldn’t shake.
Trying to suppress a grin at the feminine camaraderie that the girl so obviously needed, Erin turned to Rafael. “Please, call me Erin.” Then she glanced to Nora once again. “I’d love to take your Mule thingy out for a spin whenever you feel like company—as long as you don’t try to get me on a horse, I’d be happy to hang out one day. You could show me everything.”
Nora broke into a grin. “That will be great—”
“You can’t go alone,” Rafael announced sharply, holding Nora in his sights.
Nora swung her head around and glared at her stepbrother. “I’m not going alone. I’m taking Erin with me.”
“Nora—not now,” Rafael warned.
Jumping into the fray, as if to soothe the younger girl’s feelings, Max announced. “Yes, we’ll all go out for a drive one day soon. Would you like that, Nora?”
As Nora sat back and turned her glare on Max, even Erin understood why. Was the girl in a prison over there? And was this going to be her own fate as well? As a ribbon of unease curled down her spine, she decided to go ahead and test out her constraints now. She turned to Nora. “You know, there’s another thing that you and I could do if you’d like. Max and I got married in such a hurry that I don’t have much of anything. I need to shop! Where do you go around here?”
Nora sat up straighter as excitement began to shine in her eyes. “Nowhere around here, that’s for sure. We’ll go to Buenos Aires—that would be awesome!”
As Nora reacted exactly as she’d wished, Erin glanced at the two men. Both were frowning, but it was Rafael who jumped in. “That sounds excellent. The four of us will go one weekend, isn’t that right, Villarreal?”
Max nodded in agreement, but although his words agreed his tone sounded anything but excited. “Absolutely. Sounds great. Always love shopping.”
The blatant falsehood shown by his lack of emotion was all the impetus that Erin needed. “Max, there’s no reason for us to drag you guys along—surely you’ll be bored out of your mind. Nora and I will be fine—”
