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Now, she leaned back in the seat and messed with his radio dial while they left the north side of Yucca Hills. He liked her like this, relaxed and playful, one long leg crossed over the other.
Ten minutes later, her smile tugged wider as they pulled into a different parking lot.
“My friend told me this is the best food in town,” Sully said, trying to keep the nervousness out of his voice. Would she appreciate his pick, or was the restaurant too low-key for her?
“Your friend wasn’t wrong,” she replied as the neon sign of Valentina’s Cantina glowed across the windshield. Sully got out of the car, scrambled around the front, and opened Alanna’s door for her. He took a gamble and offered her his arm.
She slid her arm through his and he guided her across the parking lot. The scent of vanilla wafted from her skin. He leaned in, needing to get closer.
“What’s your favorite seat in an airplane?” he asked.
She didn’t even hesitate. “Window. I like to look at the clouds.”
Interesting. He wouldn’t have pegged her as the dreamy type.
“… you know, during work breaks,” she said as if reading his mind.
Their shoulders touched. Electricity zagged through his blood. It felt like a Shakespearian tragedy when he had to slip his arm from hers to pull open the front door. Cheerful, instrumental Mexican music greeted them as they stepped into the colorful restaurant. Bright strands of papel picado dipped from the rafters, and the whole place smelled like an abuela’s kitchen—which is to say like love and a belly full of tortillas.
Alanna greeted the squat man with the impressive black mustache behind the hostess stand by name. The man’s eyes lit and pulled her into an enthusiastic hug. Sully stepped back, amused, as the man called into the kitchen, summoning a large, thick woman who hollered in joy at seeing Alanna.
“So I take it you’ve been here before?” Sully asked as the woman threw her arms around Alanna.
She gave Sully a slightly chagrinned expression over the woman’s thick shoulder. “I used to work here growing up,” she said. “Matías and Valentina were like my second parents.”
The two restaurant owners continued to gush over Alanna and her legendary memory—“Never used a pen pad and never forgot an order” Matías crowed—until she finally coaxed a menu from him.
“Which table do you want?” he asked.
“Actually, I was hoping we could order to go,” Sully said. Matías’s face fell and Alanna gave the couple a helpless shrug. The squat, enthusiastic restaurant host ushered them to a small bench near the restaurant’s entrance and handed them humongous plastic menus. Alanna ordered without looking and made a recommendation Sully gladly followed.
“I go make your food. Others can wait,” Valentina said to Alanna. The large woman turned and gave Sully the foulest stink eye he’d ever received. “This one,” she pointed at Alanna. “She act strong. But she have big, biiiig heart. So, be good to her, or I poison your food next time you come.”
“Valentina!” Alanna tsked. “I appreciate the threat, I really do, but if he treats me like shit,I’llpoison his food.”
“Te amo!” Valentina cried then stomped back to the kitchen.
“Should I be nervous?” Sully asked.
Alanna and Matías offered matching grins.
Before long, Sully pushed open the front door of the restaurant with one hand and carried a heavy plastic bag in the other. The bag smelled like heaven wrapped in a tortilla.
When he and Alanna were back in the car, he turned to her. “Matías said you were the best waitress of all time. The list of your talents seems to have no end.”
Alanna shrugged without looking at him. “I am a woman of many skills… and I desperately needed the money.”
Sully started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. During his Mr. Fix-It spree at Dede’s house last week, Alanna’s mother had mentioned raising the girls on her own. It was easy to assume Alanna’s flashy style came from a lifetime of monied coddling, but Sully knew she’d worked for every cent she owned. He admired the hell out of her for that.
“You’re on the right track with the food, but where are you taking me?” she asked now as he pulled onto Chaparral Drive.
“You’ll see.”
“A man of mystery. Okay, I’m game.” She sat back in the seat and fiddled with her phone. After a moment, she spoke again, “What’s your favorite animal?”
He pondered for a few seconds. “Dragon.”
“Cheater. That’s not an animal.”
