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“Oh,mi amor! Youmustwed onDia de Juan Santamaria, just as we did.” Reyna stiffens minutely, and Mari looks up with tears on her cheeks. “Yours is a true love match,si? Just like your abuelo and me,mi conchita linda.”
She twists about, checking what appears to be an old calendar on the wall by her bed.
“Yes, yes. Six months isplentyof time to prepare.”
Her smiling eyes catch mine, and she reaches for my hand, which I take with a genuine smile and a light heart. I can easily see why Reyna is the beautiful human she is today, having been reared by such a woman as Mariana Marquez.
“Come, mijo. The gardens are this way.”
I help her stand, gently hooking her arm through mine as Rey splutters, “The gardens? Why on earth are we going outside, Lita? You haven’t been mobile for…”
She trails off, clearly not wanting to upset Mari before she rephrases.
“Please, Lita. You might fall. You might get hurt. You might—”
She’s cut off by a grinning Mari. “And pigsmightfly,mija. Now, grab that door and tell Pen we’re on the move.”
* * *
The courtyard at Sunrise Harbor is enclosed in a square shape and filled with all manner of shrubbery and flowers.
Rey is standing to one side with Penelope while Mari and I take a seat on one of the many benches dotted throughout the place.
“I hope she dances to my favorite.”
I slide my gaze to Mari with a slow smile. “What’s that?”
She grasps my nearest hand in hers as she smiles, but doesn’t answer my question. Instead, she focuses on settling it on her own lap as though she’s known me my whole life, and the simple gesture is nearly my undoing.
I inhale through my nose to gather myself, entirely blown away by this tiny Costa Rican lady with a heart of gold. A heart that she has so blatantly passed along to her magnificent granddaughter.
“Alex, mijo.” She squeezes my hand without looking at me. “My Reyna is exceptionally talented—inmanyaspects of her life—but she is also utterly selfless when shelovessomeone.”
Mari slowly shifts her gaze to mine. “She is a free spirit who cannot be tamed, though she sometimes requires a strong hand. She is a caring individual who will place the needs of everyone above her own. She is the embodiment of my love for Thia, my dearly departed husband, and the antithesis of her toxic father, Victor.”
I desperately want to ask what she means, but as I open my mouth, she holds up a palm. “Love is the ability to see someone for who they truly are. Beneath the façade, behind the mask. And true love is the ability to love one another regardless, flaws and all.”
Before we can delve deeper, a guitar strums over the speakers, and my eyes are instantly drawn to Reyna. She’s slipped into a worn pair of ballet slippers, and she strides forward with pure elegance with a smile on her face that is all for Mari.
A piece of classical music sounds over a speaker, and it takes me a second to recognize it. Mari spots the confusion on my face and quietly murmurs for my ears only, “It’s her piece from The Nutcracker. The—”
I cut her off softly when awareness strikes. “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.”
Mari nods with a smile, then deadpans, “Though I am partial to the Bieber remix of Despacito.”
I barely contain a snort of laughter, and Mari chuckles softly as I turn my intrigued eyes toward Reyna.
Her body is moving in fluidity along with the music. She’s poised and graceful. Her face is so serene that I’m altogether sure that inside her head, she’s a million miles away, performing on stage under spotlights.
Because she certainly looks the part, even without the leotard and tutu.
I’m positively glued to her performance from beginning to end, and when she breaks into a series of spins, my mouth drops wide open.
Each intricate spin glides smoothly into another, and another, until she finishes with a flourish, arms raised elegantly, with a bright smile on her joy-filled face.
The courtyard erupts in catcalls and applause, and I realize with a start that we’re surrounded by, possibly, the entire population of Sunrise Harbor.
Rey steps closer to us, grasping mine and Mari’s hands in hers before dropping to her knees and placing her head atop our clasped palms as the commotion around us eases.
