Midnight Promises (17 page)

Elliott reached for her hand. “Marriage is way more complicated than I ever imagined.”

“That’s because all you really thought about was the steady sex.”

He looked shocked by her teasing comment. “That is not true,” he protested. “I thought about a thousand and one things I would love about spending my life with you.”

She met his gaze, seizing the opening to try to get back to the emotions that had brought them together. “Tell me.”

“I thought about holding you in my arms at night. I thought about waking up beside you and looking into your beautiful eyes. I thought about having a child with you, raising a family with you. I thought about sitting in rocking chairs when we’re old and talking about all the memories we’ve made.”

“The possibility of disagreements never crossed your mind?”

He grinned. “No, only the thought of make-up sex.” He heaved a dramatic sigh. “I was actually looking forward to that.”

She laughed. “And here I’ve denied you that.”

He winked at her. “But I’m still hopeful,
querida.
Maybe even tonight if I play my cards right for the rest of the day. What do you think?”

Her heart filled to overflowing by his earlier words, she nodded. “I think there’s a very good chance of that.”

Sex might not be the answer to all their problems, not by a long shot, but in his arms, she always remembered how safe and cherished he could make her feel. Sometimes that was enough to make it easier to get through the rough patches.

9

K
aren kept a very close eye on Daisy and Selena during dinner, but saw no evidence that the two girls remained seriously at odds. If anything, the ordinarily vocal Selena seemed quieter than usual. Karen couldn’t help wondering if it was because her father had never shown up and her mother had disappeared before the meal, rather than any awkwardness between her and Daisy.

Adelia’s abrupt departure without an explanation had set the family’s tongues wagging. It was the hot topic over Mrs. Cruz’s tamales.

“There is something wrong,” Mrs. Cruz speculated. “Something is not right with Adelia for her to just leave without a word to any of us.”

“And where on earth is Ernesto?” Elliott’s sister Laurinda asked, keeping her voice low in at least a passing attempt to keep Selena from overhearing. Selena and Daisy were at the main table in the dining room. The younger children were eating at a picnic table on the back patio, out of earshot of the conversation.

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Carolina chimed in. “He hasn’t shown up here on Sunday in quite a while now.”

“Enough,” Elliott commanded quietly, slanting a quick look toward Selena to make his point.

Unfortunately his sisters didn’t take the hint. The speculation continued. Suddenly Selena stood up, her complexion pale.

“He’s gone!” she shouted. “Stop talking about it, okay? My dad moved out, and I don’t think he’s ever coming back.”

Shocked silence greeted the announcement. Selena ran from the room with Daisy on her heels. Karen was about to follow, but Elliott was on his feet before she could even put her napkin on the table.

“See what you’ve done,” he scolded his sisters as he took off after the girls.

As soon as he’d gone, the men began offering their own opinions, most of them in total support of Ernesto, which was pretty much what Karen would have expected. After a few minutes of listening to them berate Adelia as a shrew who drove her husband out of the house, she’d had all she could take. Worse, not one of the sisters, or even Mrs. Cruz, rose to Adelia’s defense. This was the macho boys’ club mentality at its worst, and these women were letting them get away with it.

With the volume of the discussion turned high and none of the attention focused on her, Karen left the table and went in search of Elliott and the girls. She found him sitting quietly in the grass at the far edge of the backyard with a sobbing Selena in his arms and Daisy next to them. Karen dropped down beside them and rested a comforting hand on Selena’s back. Slowly the girl’s sobs quieted.

Elliott gave her a grateful look, then nodded toward the house. “Are they still going at it?” he mouthed over Selena’s head.

She nodded back.

“Selena, sweetheart, why don’t we get your brother and sisters and head over to your house?” he suggested.

Selena sniffed and looked up at him. “What if Mom’s not there either?”

“Then we’ll hang out until she comes home, okay? But I have a feeling we’ll find her there.”

“Okay,” Selena said eventually. “I don’t want to go back inside Grandma’s, though. Can I wait in the car?”

“Of course,” Elliott said at once.

“I’ll wait with you,” Daisy offered.

“Me, too,” Karen said. She had no desire to go back inside and risk putting her own two cents into the current discussion. She doubted her opinion was one they’d want to hear. “Elliott, you can round up the kids, right? And grab my purse.”

“Under control,” he said readily.

A few minutes later, Elliott’s van was packed with kids. When they arrived at Adelia’s, at the sight of Ernesto’s car in the driveway, most of her children spilled out of the car and raced toward the house. Only Selena hung back, obviously reluctant to face whatever might be happening inside.

Karen totally understood. She exchanged a look with her husband and murmured, “You can’t come up with enough money to bribe me into going in there. How about you?”

“I’d rather eat dirt, but I have to go in just to make sure everyone’s okay. If you want to wait here, believe me, I get it.”

“I’m staying with Karen,” Selena said, then gave her a pleading look. “If it’s okay?”

“Of course it is,” Karen said, giving her hand a squeeze.

“I want to go in,” Mack said from the back.

“No,” Karen said at once. “As soon as Elliott gets back, we’re leaving.”

At her words, Selena stood a little taller. Suddenly she looked a little too grown up and weary for her age. “Then I might as well go with Elliott now,” she said in a resigned tone.

Elliott held out his hand and clasped hers. “Come on then.”

Daisy was oddly silent as they left.

“I’m surprised you don’t want to go with Selena,” Karen said to her. “You could run in with them for just a second, give her a little moral support.”

Daisy shook her head. “I don’t like Ernesto. I’m sorry he’s back.”

Surprised by the reaction, Karen studied her daughter. “Is this about what happened at the dance?”

Daisy’s expression turned stubborn. “I can’t say.”

“What does that mean?” Karen asked, frowning. “Has he done something else? Daisy, if you saw something or heard something, it’s okay to tell me. In fact, it’s important that you speak to an adult if another adult does something upsetting or inappropriate.”

“I
told
you I can’t say,” Daisy repeated, looking miserable.

Karen was torn between getting to the bottom of whatever Daisy had seen or heard and allowing her to keep the promise she’d obviously made to someone, Selena more than likely. In the end, though, she needed to know the truth.

“Sweetheart, this is not one of those situations you can keep secret, no matter what sort of promise you might have made,” Karen said. “You need to tell me. What did Selena tell you? Or was it something you saw or heard yourself?”

Daisy remained silent awhile longer, obviously struggling with her own barely developed moral compass. “Selena told me,” she said eventually. “It’s something she’s not supposed to know. That’s why she said I had to keep it a secret.”

“Not from me,” Karen said firmly.

“Make Mack get out of the car and I’ll tell you,” Daisy said at last. “If he hears, he’ll blab to everyone.”

“I won’t tell,” Mack protested, looking mutinous. “And I’m not getting out of the car.”

“Just for a minute,” Karen told him, understanding Daisy’s need to keep whatever information she held as quiet as possible. “Please. Otherwise there will be no ice cream at the lake when Elliott gets back.”

Mack scowled at his sister, but ice cream was too rare a treat to risk missing out on it. He climbed out of his booster seat and slammed the car door behind him.

Karen noted her daughter’s pinched expression and waited. She knew Daisy was still weighing loyalty against a parental command. Finally, she whispered, “Selena says Ernesto has a girlfriend, that he’s been staying at her house.”

Karen had to work hard to keep from gasping, not only at the news, but at the idea that Ernesto’s twelve-year-old daughter knew such a thing about her father. Though she didn’t doubt for a second that it might be true, she couldn’t imagine even Ernesto being so indiscreet.

“Maybe Selena misunderstood something,” she suggested.

Daisy shook her head adamantly. “She saw them together. They were kissing.”

“Where?”

“Right in front of the girlfriend’s house, I guess. Selena was walking home from the school bus stop. Ernesto’s car was in the driveway. They were outside, kissing in the car, and then they went in together, holding hands. Selena said even though she’s grounded, she snuck out later and went back at night. His car was still there.” Daisy regarded her with worry. “You’re not going to tell Adelia about her sneaking out, are you?”

Karen had a million and one questions, but she wasn’t about to pursue them with her own nine-year-old. It was evident that Daisy didn’t fully understand all of the implications of what Selena had told her—at least Karen hoped she didn’t—but it was apparent that Selena did.

“Thank you for telling me,” she said, reaching back to give Daisy’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “Now, stop worrying about it. The grown-ups will figure it all out. Just try to be more understanding with Selena from now on, okay? This is a very difficult time for her.”

Daisy nodded. “I kinda get it now. I mean, why Selena gets so upset sometimes,” she revealed. “She’s really, really scared her mom and dad are gonna get a divorce.”

Karen wondered about that. Could Adelia honestly ignore something like this, just pretend it wasn’t happening, apparently right under her very nose if Selena was able to walk to this other woman’s house? Karen knew she certainly couldn’t, but the Cruz women had a different way of looking at marriage and different expectations about the way their men behaved. Did that extend to blatant infidelity?

She was still pondering that when Elliott and Mack climbed back into the car.

“Everything okay in there?” she asked.

Elliott shrugged. “On the surface.” He glanced into the backseat and, with an obviously forced note of cheer in his voice, asked, “Should we go to the lake?”

“Yes!” Mack said enthusiastically.

Even Daisy managed to muster a smile for him. “Mom said we could have ice cream.”

Elliott grinned. “Then we will,” he said, giving her a wink. “When your mom makes a promise, she always keeps it.”

Karen found herself reaching for his hand and holding on tightly. Elliott, too, kept his promises, and right at this moment, she was more grateful for that than he could possibly know.

* * *

Elliott felt completely emotionally drained after coping with the upheaval at his mother’s, Selena’s meltdown and then the tension inside the Hernandez house when he’d dropped off the kids. Even with the younger kids all over their father, shouting with noisy exuberance at his return home, he’d spotted the stress on his sister’s face and the way Selena had kept herself apart from the others, her expression angry. When Elliott had tried to pull Adelia aside for a private moment, she’d waved him away.

“Go,” she’d insisted. “Don’t keep Karen and the kids waiting.”

“If you need me for anything, you’ll call,” he said, making it more of a command than a request. He was unable to dismiss his concern as readily as she clearly wanted him to.

“I promise,” she’d said, but he knew better than to believe her. It was apparent to him she’d been keeping a whole lot to herself lately, trying to handle things on her own. That wasn’t the way things were done in their family, and it frustrated him to think Adelia might need help and was too proud to ask for it.

Still, he’d left, since she’d given him no choice. By the time he drove to the small, popular lake in the center of Serenity, all he wanted was to spend a quiet hour or so sitting next to his wife and counting his blessings that their problems, as complicated as they might be, were nothing compared to his sister’s.