had assumed Alex might want to sit beside her, but he joined Rafael in the other row. Leaving Gabriel to flank her opposite Bella.
When the guide handed out headphones to block the noise of the motor, Maria eyed her set askance, deciding that she’d rather be deaf than have that thing pressing on her injured head. Gabriel fished out a plastic-wrapped pair of earbuds from his pocket. “You may not need any of this. It’s up to you. But I brought you these, just in case.”
“That was sweet of you.”
He shook his head ruefully. “Merely my guilty conscience at work.”
As it turned out, the airboat was noisy, but not incredibly so. The pilot scudded rapidly through the waterways until they reached the Everglades proper. Now he slowed the pace, sliding over the surface of the water as they entered the grasslands. Birds flew everywhere. One of the first varieties of wildlife they spotted in the water was not an alligator at all, but actually a banded snake that turned out to be very rare.
In the midst of the beauty and wonder of it all, Maria forgot to be afraid. Almost. The vegetation was lush and the heat oppressive. Before starting out, she had pulled her hair into a high ponytail and donned a hat and dark sunglasses. Even so, the saunalike atmosphere was sweltering. Soon they were deep in a mangrove swamp. The creek they traversed narrowed in spots until there was barely room for the boat.
All the while she was conscious of Alex sitting behind her. What was he thinking? Maybe not about her at all. Perhaps last night meant nothing more to him than a bit of fooling around. The thought left a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. And the taste of shame.
It was one thing to initiate something that might be serious, but another entirely to think that Alex saw her as an easy mark.
When Gabriel touched her arm, pointing out a bald eagle, she forced herself to ignore Alex completely. The Everglades were fascinating, 4,300 square miles, a river of grass...unlike anything she had ever seen.
Again, she asked herself why the Montoros would choose to go home to Alma. For the generation sitting in the boat today, Alma was no more home than it was to Maria. She had chosen to move there so she could keep her job when the Ramons relocated their oil business. But for Bella and Rafael and Gabriel, there was nothing but the history in dry books to tie them to the island nation. Who could expect them to tear up roots and make a new home four thousand miles away?
After they had been touring for an hour and a half, the captain steered the boat to a halt and tied it to an outcropping of bushes. Maria looked around with a frown. “Why are we stopping?”
Rafael spoke up. “We like to explore the island. You can get a feel for what it was like before humans came.”
“Um, no thanks. I’ll wait for you here.”
The other four and the grizzled captain stared at her.
She shrugged. “I looked up fatal alligator attacks on humans on the internet yesterday afternoon. I’ll be fine right here. I promise.”
The captain chewed a toothpick in the side of his mouth. “Reckon you’ll be safer on land. No gator’s gonna go after six adults together. But one might take a notion to climb into an empty airboat.”
Maria scrambled onto shore without another word, enduring the laughter that followed her. The men set up a folding table and some deck chairs. Their guide started opening the coolers and pulling out packets of boiled shrimp and French bread.
The meal had a surreal feel to it. Though Alex still avoided her, she found a quiet pleasure in the day. This trip to the States might be her last chance to travel for many years. Her position paid well as such jobs went, but if she planned to help her mother retire early, there would be little extra money, certainly not for worldwide jaunts.
The negatives facing her had piled up; the negotiations in particular were not going well. Alex was giving her the cold shoulder. She had a bruise the size of a small country around her eye, with a headache to match. But even so, she couldn’t be sorry about today. The Montoros were fun and interesting people. She was seeing an ecosystem that was both fragile and starkly beautiful.
When the meal was finished, the Montoro siblings squabbled about how to pack up the leftovers. The guide headed back to the boat. For a moment, Maria and Alex were isolated in a bubble of silence a few yards away from the others. She summoned her courage and spoke her mind. “Are you angry with me, Alex?”
She saw a muscle in his throat work. “No. Of course not.”
“You’ve barely looked at me all day. I can’t help thinking the change in you is about last night.”
Beneath his tan he was pale. He glanced around, perhaps hoping for rescue, but the Montoros were oblivious. “I don’t know what you mean,” he said.
Her temper flared. “Oh, please, Alex. Don’t lie to me. Surely I deserve better than that.”
He clenched his jaw, perspiration beading on his forehead from the thick, heavy air. “It isn’t the time or place to talk about this.”
“This what?” she asked, her gaze curious, though she knew exactly what he meant.
“We made a mistake,” he said through clenched teeth. His voice was low, barely audible. “We’re here in Miami to do a job. We have to finish writing the proposal and we have to convince them to sign it. We don’t have the luxury of...” He trailed off, but his meaning was clear.
“I see.” Hurt made her breathless. Emotion stung the backs of her eyes, but she wouldn’t cry. Her injury and her restless night had left her defenses at low ebb. “I won’t mention it again. It was nothing anyway.”
* * *
Alex watched her walk away from him and wanted to curse long and loud. The very thing he’d hoped to avoid had happened. He had hurt Maria, and all because he hadn’t been able to resist touching her.
She joined the Montoro siblings, pitching in to clean up the last of the picnic debris. When Gabriel suggested a short walk, Maria nodded. That told Alex more than anything about the state of her mind. She would rather venture into a cypress swamp rife with alligators than remain in his presence one second longer.
He let them go, unable to stomach the sight of Maria’s arm tucked in Gabriel’s. As the foursome wandered off, Rafael and Bella joked about “lions and tigers and bears, oh my.” Gabriel merely kept Maria close to his side, promising to defend her to the death. His dramatic vow made Maria laugh. Alex kicked a root at the happy sound, his thoughts grim.
It was becoming clearer every day that Gabriel Montoro liked Maria. A lot. In a romantic way? Who knew...? But Alex needed to back off or risk damaging the relationships that were integral to the success of his mission for Alma.
As he sat on the airboat and listened to the old captain tell stories of the Florida that existed before Disney and the interstate highway system, only half of Alex’s attention was engaged. He was debating his options. He could send Maria back to Alma on some pretext. That would put an end to his temptation, and she would also be out of Gabriel’s reach.
But the idea lasted only a nanosecond. Maria was a gifted, hardworking member of the delegation, and she deserved this chance to shine. Alex had no right to kick her off the team; nor did he have the moral imperative to step in between her and Gabriel.
His
