Be Mine at Christmas(57)
Author: Brenda Novak

“Yep.”

“I see. But…you’ve never mentioned a housekeeper. She from around here?”

“At this point, we’re not sure where she’s from, how she got here or where she belongs,” he called back.

Cierra hadn’t been expecting that. “I am from Las Vegas,” she piped up, but she doubted Gabe could hear her and Ken didn’t pass the information along.

Slinging an arm over the steering wheel, Ken eyed her skeptically. “Is that right?”

“Sí.” She nodded. “Like I told you.”

He suddenly seemed more interested in her than in Gabe. “And what state is Las Vegas in, Cierra?”

His question took her by surprise. “You…don’t know?”

“I’m wondering if you can tell me.”

No one had ever asked her that before. Everyone knew what she meant when she said Las Vegas. Sometimes they even dropped the “Las.” How did you like Vegas…? There’s no place like Vegas…. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, huh?

“Ken…” Brent started to say, as if he’d help her, but Ken motioned for him to remain silent. “You know what state means, don’t you?”

“Sí.” States were similar to “departments” in her country, weren’t they? But she’d never heard the city Charlie lived in connected with any other name. So maybe Ken was trying to trick her. “Vegas is in…Vegas,” she said.

“That’s the state as well as the city?”

Her answer sounded plausible, and not too different from Guatemala City, Guatemala, where her sisters were living and waiting for her to send more money. “Yes.”

Rolling his eyes, he turned back to his stepfather. “See what I mean?”

“What did you say?” Gabe shouted. The storm was too loud. He’d missed it all.

“She doesn’t quite have her story straight,” Ken said. “But we’ll figure out where she belongs.”

CHAPTER FIVE

SEE WHAT I MEAN?

She’d answered wrong, given herself away. The fear that mistake created hung over every move Cierra made for the rest of the evening and the whole of the next day. But she kept a running tally of her debts to her new employer. By midafternoon, she owed Ken Holbrook—he’d finally told her his last name—for three meals, the coat, shelter from the storm and a bed. She also owed him for the toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo and soap he’d had Brent deliver to her bathroom last night.

It felt so good to have a few simple belongings, to be able to bathe and wash her clothes and brush her teeth. She was deeply grateful and determined to be fair. She’d stay and work, as promised, until he got settled in but no longer. At that point, he wouldn’t have enough chores for her to do. And as soon as he tired of her, he’d call the INS, if only because he didn’t know what else to do, and she’d be sent back to Guatemala, where she and her sisters would be turned in to the street.

Fortunately Cierra managed not to think about that too much, especially since every thought she had seemed to revolve around the way Ken looked or smelled or laughed. She knew she had no chance of attracting him—she was so different from those women they’d met at the diner—but she was equally certain that she was quickly becoming infatuated with him. Stupido! He’d barely acknowledged her today. She needed to be thinking about how she was going to care for Chantico, Nelli and Xoco instead of daydreaming about the minutes she’d been pressed up against him on that bed yesterday. Her problems would not solve themselves. Even her brother hadn’t been able to provide for the family, not until he’d started augmenting his income with drug money. And without a man to work in the fields, there was no going back to Todos Santos. So, legal or not, she had to make her immigration to America succeed, had to earn money wherever it was possible to earn money and send some of her wages to Guatemala. A little went a long way there. If she could stop mooning over this handsome American, get on her feet and find steady work, they should all be able to survive—

“Something wrong?”

She blinked. Ken had come to the door of the kitchen and caught her staring off into space. After the past few weeks of grabbing sleep and food whenever and wherever she could, and often going without one or both, her strength wasn’t what it used to be. But she went back to polishing the hardwood floor so he wouldn’t think she was lazy. “No, nada.”

Wearing a pair of faded jeans that rode low on his hips and a T-shirt that stretched across his broad chest, he seemed even taller than usual from her vantage point on the floor. Although he’d been working for much of the day, moving boxes around, unpacking, building shelves in the garage, he’d recently showered. Damp tendrils of hair fell against his forehead, and he smelled like the wood he’d used to start a fire. Brent had fixed the furnace, but they’d decided to light a fire for the effect. Cierra liked it, thought it made the place cozier.

“Cierra,” he said as he came toward her.

She rocked back on her haunches. Today, he’d ignored her or had Brent deal with her. Ever since she hadn’t been able to name the state that went with Las Vegas, she’d gotten the impression he didn’t like her. So why was he suddenly showing interest? Did he think she was slacking or doing the floor wrong? “Yes?”

“It’s time to stop.”

“Stop?” She couldn’t stop; she wasn’t finished yet.

“Right. Except for a few hours’ sleep, you’ve been working every minute since we got home last night. This place is coming together in record time. It looks good. That’s enough for one day, okay? Take a break.”

Was he getting impatient for dinner? She’d asked Brent to buy a few things at the store so she could make empanadas, and he’d left for town. But, as far as she knew, he wasn’t back. “Sí. Un momento. I am almost finish.”

When she resumed polishing, he squatted next to her. “Finish tomorrow. Got it?”

“Brent, he is here?” She couldn’t figure out any other reason that letting her continue her work would bother him.

“Not yet.”

“Then…why can I not clean?”

He touched her hand. “Because I want to watch a game, and you’re making me feel guilty. So…go to your room and…relax. Do something else. Get in the Jacuzzi. Read a book. Whatever.”

She set her rag aside, as if she planned to do as he asked, but the moment he walked out and the television went on, she returned to her work. She thought he’d be completely engrossed, that he’d forget about her, the way Charlie used to. But he was back a few minutes later.