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As Rey turns to me, she holds out her hand, palm up. I walk closer, taking her proffered hand and squeezing it lightly. “Lita thought I was insane, passing it up, but my gut told me that Ariana needed it more than I did.”
“And she did! Her parents were going through a divorce—something she hadn’t told anyone.” Rey’s grandmother’s chest puffs out with pride. “It was the first time we witnessed your gift. The first of many.”
“Your gift?”
Rey twists her head up toward mine. “My intuition, Alex. Lita has always said that it’s my gift.”
They smile softly at one another as the two caretakers exchange a glance. The taller of the two, Vanessa, steps forward and places a hand on Reyna’s shoulder. “I have a little paperwork for the insurance that requires your autograph, sweetie. Could you come to the office with me for a minute?”
Rey looks hesitantly from me to her abuela and back again. She rises to stand, and I immediately enfold her in my arms with a reassuring hug. “Go, Sunshine. I’ll keep Lita company.”
“It’s Mari to you, handsome.”
Reyna’s groan against my chest makes everyone laugh before she withdraws from my hold and gives both me and her abuela a serious look. “I’ll be back in five.Noexchanging horror stories, you two.”
She follows Vanessa from the room with a worried backward glance that I try to ease with an encouraging smile before settling into the seat opposite Mari.
I pick up the deck of cards from the table, shuffling them rapidly. “What would you like to play?”
Mari surprises me with a speed I wouldn’t have expected of her when her hand darts out to halt my motions. “Pen, give us a minute, please.”
Penelope looks up from her knitting in the far corner of the bedroom before nodding with a small smile. “Course, Mariana. I’ll be back in two.”
Once she’s closed the door, Mari turns to me with a serious face. “What are your intentions withmija? My Reyna is an exceptionally special person, and I refuse to allow her to settle for anything less than an extraordinary life,comprendes?”
I take a moment, soaking in the sheer love that this small, frail, ferocious old lady has for the woman who’s upended my life, and it fills my chest cavity to almost bursting.
I reach across the table, grasping Mari’s hands in mine and holding her gaze with a vehemence I feel in my bones. “I canpromiseyou that my intentions toward Rey are absolutely in her best interest. I…I…”
My sentence trails off as my forehead creases in thought, unable to find the words to express what she means to me.
“These eyes may be old, Alex, but they can clearly see that the bond you share is very real. The love between you both is palpable, and it soothes my soul to see she’s found it while I’m still here to witness.” Her brown eyes, so like Reyna’s, glisten with unshed tears. “So like the love I shared with my Thiago, Reyna’s abuelo, may he rest in peace.”
Silence hangs between us before something flickers across Mari’s kind old face. She leans closer across the table. “A girl like my Reyna deserves the world. And I believe you might just be the one who can give her that. She’s been burdened by our family for far too long. It’s time she got to live those big dreams of hers.”
“I will do everything in my power to see that happen, Mari. I swear to you now.”
She smiles, squeezing my hand lightly. “She’s always wanted to go home.” Her eyes take on a dreamy look. “Not back to Connecticut, I mean,myhome. Where my Thia and I immigrated from. To walk the streets of my girlhood, to swim the waters of my youth.”
She gestures toward her bedside locker. “In the top drawer, there’s a green book. Take it. Please, Alex. Read it yourself, if you like, butplease…give it to her.” Her eyes darken to almost black in their intensity. Goosebumps scatter along my skin, and I know she’s more aware right now than she has been in quite a very long time. “When the time is right.”
“How will I know, Mari?”
She smiles softly in a way that both fills my heart and breaks it at the same time. “You’ll know,mijo.”
Our gazes hold for a long moment until I stand to cross the space to the drawer and hold up the well-used green book within. “This one?”
She nods with a bright smile. “Now, that’s done. Come tell me all about how you plan on spoiling my little dancer.”
I find myself nodding, a smile blooming on my face. I’m completely unable to stop myself from uttering my next words when I slip back into my seat opposite her. “We’re getting married, Mari.”
Her eyes widen in a shock that rapidly transforms into sheer delight as I rush on. “And I promise to always take care of your girl.”
It’s at that very moment Rey steps back into the room. She’s clearly been crying, but I don’t get a second to question it because Mari’s eyes drop to Rey’s left hand, landing on the huge diamond ring that I put on her finger less than twenty-four hours ago.
“Ay Dios mio, mija! Come closer. Let me get a look at that rock.”
Reyna’s eyes dart to mine in question even as she closes the distance, perching her ass on the arm of my chair. I wrap my arm around her waist, tugging her closer as she holds her left hand out, much to Mari’s blatant delight.
