Seduced The Unexpected Virgin - By Emily McKay Page 0,55

Forget that. He was just in love.

And it just sucked. Because she was so obviously not in love with him. Even if she thought she was now, she sure wouldn’t be for long. She’d pegged him on the crap about the Alvarez. She’d see through the rest of it soon enough.

If he was a stronger man, he might wait around for her to walk away on her own. But he didn’t think he’d survive her leaving him. Which meant it was time to quietly extract himself from her life.

Twelve

Once people started serving food, Ana gave up all pretense of maintaining a conversation with her aunt and went searching for Ward. She found him sitting on the cement block border that edged a flower bed. He sat with a plate carefully balanced on one knee, the dark waves of his hair shining in the dappled sun that filtered through the lemon tree. She sat down beside him with her own plate loaded with cabrito and charro beans.

She finished chewing her bite, then asked, “Has it been awful?”

“Not so bad.” He took another sip of his Dos Equis. “Humbling.”

“How so?” she asked, raising a glass of iced tea to sip.

“None of them know my music,” he explained with mock indignation. “Not one of them.”

She laughed, holding her hand to her mouth to keep from spewing her drink. Swallowing, she added, “Oh, you poor little famous boy.”

“Actually, it’s kind of nice. First time in decades I’ve gone to a party where no one knew who I was.”

“Oh, the women all know. Trust me. It’s been like a Senate hearing in there.” She stabbed her guacamole with a chip. “However, it is better than the last family get-together when I had to field thinly veiled questions about my sexuality from Aunt Celica, who just started watching Ellen and was convinced I was a lesbian.” She expected him to laugh at that. When he didn’t, she searched his face and found his expression oddly distant. “They’ve been okay, though? No one’s too pushy?”

“Not at all. I was surprised to see Ricky here.”

Now the boy stood in front of the food-laden picnic table. He was dressed much as he had been every other time she’d seen him. Like ninety-five percent of all American teenage boys, Ricky’s pants were too baggy and barely held on his hips by a belt. He wore a white tank top under an unbuttoned long-sleeve shirt. If he wasn’t in a gang already, he was trying very hard to look like he was.

Ana followed Ward’s gaze and frowned. “You know Ricky?”

“He’s the kid I’ve been mentoring.”

“My Ricky is that Ricky?”

He chewed for a minute and then explained, “I didn’t know you were related until just now.”

Ana stared at him, obviously surprised. “I had no idea Ricky had been to Hannah’s Hope.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe I didn’t figure that out. You must think I’m a horrible aunt.”

“I think you’ve been pretty busy.” He nodded in Lena’s direction. “If she’s your cousin, why wouldn’t she come in herself? Why did her son have to manipulate her into coming?”

Ana’s gaze wandered over to where Lena stood by the back door. Despite the fact that she was only a few years older than Ana, age and weariness already lined her face.

“Lena and I aren’t exactly what you’d call close.”

“Why not?” he asked.

“You know all those stereotypes I told you my parents wanted me to avoid? Lena followed every damn one of them. Her father is my dad’s older brother. Her parents helped bring my parents over. Lena’s three years older than me. We lived two blocks away when we lived in L.A. She got pregnant at fifteen. That’s when my parents moved us to Vista del Mar. She never finished high school. She works hard, but barely scrapes by.” Not for the first time, she tried to imagine herself in Lena’s shoes. Tried and failed miserably. “And now, she’s worried about Ricky staying in school.”

“I thought you said you weren’t close?”

Ana smiled wryly. “We aren’t. That hasn’t kept the family grapevine quiet.”

“Do you think that’s why she didn’t come into Hannah’s Hope herself?” he prodded.

Ana shot him a surprised look. “I don’t know. Maybe. She doesn’t like me.” She blew out a frustrated breath. “But she also has a butt-load of pride. That could be it, too.” And then she laughed, looking around the yard. “She’s not the only one. Half the people here work for Worth Industries in one way or