The Enchanted Hacienda by J.C. Cervantes

Author:J.C. Cervantes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Park Row Books
Published: 2023-03-13T13:43:20+00:00

19

I wake languidly the next morning buried in sumptuous Egyptian sheets. Warm sunlight spills into the room, illuminating speckles of dust that drift in the air.

For one...two...three beats, I’m floating, remembering.

Ben. Those eyes.

And that kiss, his struggle, his surrender. All of it so delicious and also confusing, the push and pull, the yes and no. It was as if a force of nature was drawing us together.

I don’t think I should kiss you. Not the same thing as I don’t want to kiss you, I reason.

And yet...

After Helena caught us in the act, and graciously didn’t pry, I quickly put on my barely perceptibly stained dress and returned to the party. Ben and I mingled, we ate, we smiled, and all the while, I found myself resisting the urge to take his hand, to lean against him, to do all the things “couples” do, but one kiss doesn’t exactly make us a couple. Not even if it was the most incredible kiss of my life. And there’s no denying that the moment we both yielded something shifted in me; I felt that tug deep in my heart, the same one that tells me when magic is present. Except that Ben isn’t magic (well, not in the literal sense) and neither am I.

When the night was finally over, he walked me to my driver’s car. Others were departing at the same time, making the area too crowded for another kiss. So he merely gave me a tight hug and whispered into my ear, “Thank you.”

I thought it was an odd thing to say, and wasn’t entirely sure what he was thanking me for. Coming to Quebec? Agreeing to our truth pact? Not giving him a hard time for losing the dance competition? Surely he wasn’t thanking me for the kiss, right? That would just be weird.

By the time I got back to the hotel, I was floating in a strange fog of possibility and hope. Too wired to sleep, I found myself bent over my journal, hand flying across the pages, unable to keep up with the story.

Violeta felt like she could breathe for the first time in her life. The air at the farm was clean and sweet; it held the promise of a new life.

I stayed up late building Violeta’s story, word by word. I don’t even realize time is passing. I stretch my arms over my head just as the hotel phone rings. My smile is instant.

I sit up, clear my throat, and answer the cordless phone.

“Harlow?”

“Beverly...hi.” My heart sinks a little, wishing it were Ben.

“I’m so glad I caught you,” she says. “I wanted to know if I may take you to breakfast. So we can talk...about the message.”

I glance at the clock. It’s 8:15 a.m. “Of course. What time and where?”

“Downstairs, lobby level. Does an hour give you enough time?”

“Sure. I’ll see you then.”

I check my cell phone and find a text from Ben from twenty minutes ago: Good morning.

Smiling ear to ear, I return the message and begin to unpack what I didn’t have time to last night.

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