She seems nice.”
“Croatian, huh?” Maddie said. “How did she end up in Gunnison?”
“Some exchange program with the hospital.”
“And you just met her tonight and persuaded her to come to your family’s party?” She laughed. “You work fast.”
“We really hit it off,” he said. He didn’t know how to explain what had happened: one minute he’d been laughing at Zephyr’s antics and the Vinotok play, the next he’d spotted Alina in the crowd. Everything around him had faded—his sight became fuzzy, sounds muted—as he stared at the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
She wasn’t supernaturally gorgeous, the way a fashion model or actress might be, but the petite brunette with the heart-shaped face and violet eyes glowed with an inner beauty that drew him like a magnet. Though he rarely had trouble talking to anyone, he’d been a little tongue-tied around her at first. But when she’d smiled at him, his nervousness had evaporated.
“You really are into this girl, aren’t you?” Maddie grinned at him. “I’ve never see you like this.”
Eric blinked, and worked to assume an expression of indifference. “She’s cute, and I think she misses her family in Croatia, so I thought she’d enjoy hanging out with mine for an afternoon. That’s all.”
That’s all he could afford to think anyway. He liked Alina and looked forward to spending more time with her, but no matter how great she was, he wasn’t going to get serious about her.
As if reading his thoughts, Maddie asked, “Does she know you’re going to be a doctor?”
“We didn’t really talk that long.” He didn’t start medical school until next fall anyway. What were the odds he’d still be seeing Alina then? He’d never dated any other girl that long, but the thought that he and Alina might not last sent a pang of sadness through him.
“Your parents still giving you a hard time about that?” Marty asked. “Should I not bring it up at the barbecue?”
“Don’t bring it up.” The good mood Eric had brought to work was evaporating as he thought of his murky future. “It’s not that they don’t want me to be a doctor—they’re worried I can’t afford it.” Immigrants who had raised their standard of living while avoiding debt, Eric’s parents thought he was aiming too high.
He couldn’t get serious about a woman right now. He had to concentrate on his studies and medical training. Once all that was out of the way in eight or nine years he could think about settling down.
“Alina and I are just going to hang out, have a little fun,” he said. “That’s all.”
“Love isn’t all about timing and planning,” Maddie said. “We can’t always predict the future.”
“I know exactly what my future is going to look like,” Eric said. “The same as my parents’ and my brothers’ and sisters’ before me—I’ll marry a nice girl from the neighborhood, have a bunch of great kids, though maybe not as many as my parents, and spend my weekends playing ball with the children, barbecuing in the backyard and working on projects around the house.”
“Sounds nice,” Marty said.
“It will be nice. It’s a good life. But first I have to get through med school and internships.” When he was Dr. Sepulveda, his family would see he’d made the right decision.
Maddie rolled her eyes.
“What?” Eric asked.
“You guys,” she said. “You’ve got everything all neatly planned out, but life doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes the right person comes along when you least expect it.”
“Like you and Hagan,” Eric said.
“Well…neither one of us was interested in getting married and planning a future together when we first met,” she said.
“What changed your mind?” Marty asked.
“I guess love did. We went from not wanting to think about the future, to being unable to imagine one without each other.”
“You’re reading way too much into this,” Eric protested. “I saw a girl I liked and invited her to a barbecue. That’s it.”
“I’m just saying, you can never be sure about these things,” Maddie said. “I’ve never seen you this excited about a girl you just met.”
“You haven’t known me that long, either.” Yes, he was attracted to Alina, and he wanted to know her better, but no way was he ready to settle down. He and Alina could have some fun together, and right now, that was all he needed.
Chapter Two
“Are you sure it’s okay for me to come with you?” Marissa asked as she and Alina headed toward Eric’s house Sunday afternoon. “After all, I wasn’t invited.”
Alina checked the directions Eric had scribbled down for her and flipped on her right blinker. “I can’t go to a barbecue at a strange house, with people I don’t even know, alone,” she said.
“I guess not.” Marissa nibbled her lower lip. “Do you think there will be other cute guys there?”
“How should I know?” Alina made the turn, then slowed, reading street signs. Fall had come to the Gunnison Valley in a blaze of yellow, orange and red. Aspens and cottonwoods painted the landscape in fiery color, and already scarecrows and pumpkins and other decorations were beginning to show up on front porches.
Eric’s neighborhood was one of older, comfortable homes, mixed with newer residences. Children played in front yards and raced bicycles down the street. Alina smiled at a dark-haired little boy who waved at her from the end of his driveway.
“Maybe Eric has brothers who are even better-looking than he is,” Marissa said. “Though that’s hard to imagine. The man is hot.” She made a show of fanning herself.
“He’s okay,” Alina said. Her grandmother would have warned she’d be struck down by lightning for telling such a lie.
“Okay?” Marissa laughed. “Croatia must be full of amazing men if Eric only rates okay.”
“Maybe Eric is a little more than okay.” A thrill raced through her at the words. Eric was most definitely special if her initial attraction to him was any measure. If he were blond getting together with him would make a better story, considering Baka Fania’s prophecy, but then, life seldom worked out so neatly.
Alina told herself she was too modern to believe in old superstitions, but doubt pinched at her whenever she thought of her dear grandmother. Baka Fania had never been wrong about any of her predictions. She had foreseen each of Alina’s sisters’ husbands: the big Russian her eldest sister, Radinka, had wed, and the redheaded Scottish businessman her other sister, Zora, had married. Zora had laughed when Baka Fania had announced she would spend the rest of her life with a redhead. Very few Croatians had red hair. “Besides, I hate redheads,” she’d protested.
But the very next year, Baen McKay had come
