enticing smile.
A rush of dizziness engulfed him, and he steadied himself by holding her arms. After weeks of living and working within a four-block radius, he had a desire to expand his horizon. “Anywhere,” he said.
They started down the avenue, past galleries filled with silver, pewter and antiques. They mingled with shoppers, workers and Indians dressed like Catherine and bureaucrats dressed like Josh. The sun was setting on the flatlands that surrounded the city, and a cool wind threatened to send Catherine’s hat flying. In front of the San Francisco Church at the end of the street, he stopped to take it off her head and smooth her hair. He longed to loosen the braid, to feel the masses of dark hair in his hands.
The stone-carved statue of Saint Francis in front of the church smiled benevolently, but they didn’t linger. Catherine took his hand and led him around the corner down an alley lined with small, elegant shops. In front of a store crammed with soft leather goods she paused.
“Have you ever been to a peña?” she asked.
He turned her hat on the palm of his hand. “I don’t think so. What is it?”
“An open-air restaurant with typical food and folk music. You’ve been in La Luz for a month and nobody’s taken you to a peña?” she asked incredulously.
“Nobody’s taken me anywhere... except to the Rodriguez Market. They told me I could find everything I needed there. They were right.’’ He gave her a smile that made her heart skip a beat. She folded her arms across her waist. Deliberately she tilted her head and surveyed his suit jacket. Her gaze lingered on his vest.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“It gets cold at the peña after the sun sets. You need a sweater.”
He opened the door for her to the brightly lighted shop, and they breathed deeply of the warm, earthy smell of leather.
“What about a jacket?”
“You’d buy a leather jacket just like that?”
“I need a leather jacket. I’ve always needed one. I just didn’t know it until now.”
Hearing this, an attentive clerk slipped up behind him and helped him remove his suit coat. His vest came off next. The first jacket he tried on was brown with wide shoulders and tucked in around the waist. It made him look like a World War One flying ace.
Catherine couldn’t stop staring. Where was the conservative banker, the one who ate at the same restaurant every night? She warned herself he was still there, just a breath away, under a layer of leather. But here was a man who was buying himself a jacket so he could go to a new restaurant. Here was a man who was taking a chance on a group of poor women on the strength of his intuition and her recommendation.
In a momentary panic she wondered what she’d started the day she had barged her way into his office. But it had begun before that. On the day he had walked up to her with mangoes in his hand and refused to bargain.
He was watching her face. “What’s wrong? Is it too casual?”
She shook her head. She couldn’t trust her voice. It was the warmth of the shop, the rich smell of leather, not the overwhelming desire to touch the jacket, to slide her hands inside and run her palms over the soft cotton of his button-down shirt across the flat planes of his chest, she told herself. He was waiting for her to answer.
“No, it’s fine, but...” She pulled him aside. “You can’t bargain here. The prices are fixed,” she whispered.
“I know,” he whispered back, his lips brushing her ear. While the clerk wrapped up his suit coat and vest he noticed a rack of leather belts, and examined the workmanship. “Do you think Old Pedro would like one of these?” he asked Catherine.
She ran her fingers over the thick cowhide and looked up inquiringly.
“I saw he carried his tools in his pockets,” Josh said. “There’s a pouch for his tape measure and loops for his tin snips.”
Touched by his thoughtfulness, she nodded. “Yes, I think he’d like it.”
He told the clerk to add the belt to his bill. After he paid, they left the shop and headed toward the Peña Murilla.
“Is it just a thank-you present?” Catherine asked, her hair loosened by the wind, curling in tendrils around her face. “Or were you thinking of asking him again to take you to the mine?”
He took her arm unconsciously and gripped it tightly. “I know there’s