He paused with his fork halfway to his mouth. "What are you doing with a matador if you can't stomach a bullfight?"
"That's an excellent question, but the man sure can dance."
He looked at her askance. "Was it love at first sight?"
She shook her head. "No, not at all." She had noticed Rafael's scent, though, but no one ever said they fell in love with their nose.
He wiped his plate clean with the last bite of a roll. "Tomas has some lemon sorbet. Do you want some?"
She swallowed another spoonful of soup. "Thank you, but I think I'll pass."
Fox stood and then hesitated and returned to his chair. "Dr. Moreno usually doesn't say more to me than good morning, but today he asked when I'm going back to school. Doesn't that strike you as odd?"
"Odd how?"
"It could have been a warning that Miguel might not have much time left. It was the way he said it; maybe he was warning me not to go."
"Could be, but we know Miguel's not well, and that he won't get better. Do you have other family?"
"No, the Aragons are it."
She assumed her father had provided for Fox in his will, or he might have a trust from his mother's estate, but he was much too young to be on his own. "I've changed my mind. Will you bring me some of the sorbet?"
"Sure I will."
Once he was gone, she realized how little she'd considered the sad situation the rest of her father's family faced. This was probably her only stay in their world, and she could imagine what it would be like without Miguel to hold it together. Vida Ramos's two children could depend on her. The twins had their mother. She and Santos were grown, but Fox had the barest tie to the Aragon family, and Carmen and Cirilda were unlikely to do more than buy him an airline ticket back to school.
He had warmed to her, though, and she wouldn't abandon him to a sterile boarding school. An English boy would be popular at Catalina Foothills, but he would be a most unusual souvenir from her summer vacation. So would a dashing matador, and she could envision Craig's baffled disapproval. Thinking of him, she had a ready smile when Fox returned with the best sorbet she'd ever eaten.
"This is tart without being too sharp," he mused as a food critic would. "I like the sprig of peppermint too. Presentation is everything in a dessert, don't you agree?"
"I do, although a piece of chocolate cake on a paper plate has enormous appeal."
He nodded and lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "What do you suppose will be in Augustin's missing memoir?"
She answered just as quietly. "It's no longer missing, but I'm hoping for some honest comments about his home and family."
"I can't imagine Carmen ever being young and pretty."
"I'm just as sure she was, whether or not you can visualize it."
"Are you keeping a journal?" he asked.
She waited for a spoonful of sorbet to melt in her mouth. "I was, but somehow life has gotten ahead of me. What about you?"
"I started one once, even made up a code so my schoolmates couldn't snatch it away from me and read it aloud. I lost interest after a while. You feel well enough now to go downstairs and watch a movie?"
He was looking down at his empty bowl as though her answer didn't matter that much to him, but his shy glance proved otherwise. "Yes, let's do that."
He went downstairs to make certain Carmen and Cirilda had left the dining room and gone to their rooms before she joined him in the den. The sofa was cloud-soft, and she sank into her seat and pretended to watch a film she could not have described later as being a crime thriller or a space adventure. It passed two hours of time, however, and she was grateful for a mindless reprieve.
Sunday morning, Maggie woke up early, put on her bikini and went down to the beach to swim. The days were gathering heat building toward their summer highs, but the water was still cool. She swam out and then horizontal to the coast. The Costa Daurada was such a beautiful sparkling place, but all she wanted to do was swim past her fears.
When she grew tired long before that happened, she swam to the shore to find Fox and Rafael waiting for her.