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“After six years, shouldn’t I at least have a clue why?” I held up both hands. “It’s not my business. I get it. But maybe you’ve gotten a little too good at keeping people at arm’s length.”
She shot to her feet. “And you’re just everybody’s best friend?”
“No. I only want to be yours.” I looked up at her lazily, ignoring the jab.
She opened her mouth and closed it. “I don’t think I can do that,” she finally said, deflating.
“Because you want more?” Hope infused my words.
“I’m only here because you helped Vivian.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “And it’s just lunch,” she reminded me again.
I let it drop. “Let’s go for a walk.”
We strolledalong the bank of the creek. I stopped and picked up a rock, skipping it across the water.
“Vivian seemed better today,” I said to try to take away the awkwardness that had settled in between us.
Worry lines creased around Muriella’s eyes. “She says they’re back together, but she didn’t tell me why she was so upset last night.”
I paused mid-skip. “They’re back together? I would’ve thought she’d be happy. That was one hell of a jag she went on last night.” I couldn’t recall a time Vivian had cried, but she’d worn herself out in the stairwell of their building to the point I’d had to carry her to Muriella’s place.
She swallowed hard. “That’s what has me worried. I’ve never seen her so completely devastated, not even after Daniel left her. Whatever it is that Daniel’s done, it’s bad.”
As she nibbled on her bottom lip, it took all my self-control not to put my arms around her. “Can we try to see the positive? They’re together. That’s what we all wanted, right?”
“Yes.” She sighed, her expression somber. “I’m tired of the secrets. With Daniel, he’s never told me everything, and I haven’t expected him to. But now Vivian’s keeping secrets too, and they’re clearly very serious. I hate this instability. That’s supposed to happen out here.” She waved her hand around. “Not at home.”
I understood her all too well. “Sometimes we can’t filter out the bad.”
She pressed her lips together. “You’re right. I’ll focus on the positive. At least we’re a whole unit again.”
Yet again, she had me in awe of her strength. She and our friends had been up to their necks in mud, last night the pinnacle, but she forged on. Not many people could do that.
“How much do you believe in fate?” I asked.
“I don’t think anything happens by accident,” she admitted.
Until recently, I’d always been respectful of her personal space, but now I was ready to get all up in it. The time for tiptoeing around was over. I just had to figure out how to do this delicate dance with her.
“Do you think that’s how you ended up with Daniel? That the path was always leading to him? To Vivian?”
She swallowed hard. “Yes.”
“Neither of you have ever told me the whole story of how you met.” I handed her a rock and pointed my chin toward the water. I knew he’d found her as a girl, but I always had the distinct impression it wasn’t something they liked to talk about, so I didn’t.
She tried to mimic my technique, but the stone immediately sank.
“When I was fourteen, my brother stowed me away in a cargo ship headed here from Nicaragua. Daniel found me in a container, nearly starved. I’d rationed my food, but had eaten the last of it the day before he found me. When I saw Daniel, I knew he was the answer to my prayers.” She pressed her lips together and stared out across the bank.
I ran a hand through my hair. Damn, that was way more dramatic than I was expecting. To go through a thing like that, and so young? “How the hell did you survive? You must have been terrified.”
“Carlos, my brother, he cut a hole in the metal. During the day there was a small sliver of light. It wasn’t so bad then. I could see out.”
I reached for her and then dropped my arm, hating I couldn’t touch her. “Wasn’t it hot?”
“Unbearably so at times. But I’d spent a lot of time in the heat growing up.” She seemed to go right back to the past. “The dark was the worst. I’d focus on the sound of the sea. It became a lullaby just for me.”
A sharp and intense anger clawed my insides. “Why would your brother do that to you?”
