The Lemon Orchard (26 page)

At the sound of her voice, Bonnie barked. She didn’t even hesitate, but bolted back into the orchard toward Julia. Roberto caught Bonnie and stood with her in the clearing along the cliff. They waited for Julia, but she didn’t come. Roberto felt frozen with fear. Had she fallen, passed out?

He picked up Bonnie and held her tight, willing her not to fight him. Walked back into the smoke, getting his bearings, calling Julia’s name.

“Man, get the hell out of here,” a firefighter said.

“I have to find Julia.”

“Give me the damn dog,” the firefighter said. “And get your friend and get going.”

The animal part of Roberto’s brain took over. He heard Julia keening, and although the noise and smoke threw her voice in a million directions, he went straight for her. She had stumbled into the middle of the orchard, surrounded by wind-rattled trees. Water from the fire hoses dripped from thick green leaves as if they’d just had a heavy rain.

She fought him so hard, he wasn’t sure she knew who he was, or where they were. He couldn’t remember what he said to her, but he picked her up and walked her toward the emergency vehicles.

Julia

Bonnie was in a panic. She knew what people couldn’t know and felt what humans couldn’t feel. The day Jenny died, Bonnie had done the same thing: hidden under Jenny’s bed, to get away from the sirens and sorrow and death of the girl she’d loved most in the world. Back then Bonnie was a young dog, and Julia was too lost in her own grief to worry. She’d just set food and water at Jenny’s bedside, then sat leaning against the wall, a few feet away from where the dog was hiding.

Julia wasn’t thinking now, just running blindly after Bonnie. Bonnie was her only living link to Jenny. For five years Julia had thought that if she lost Bonnie, she’d want to die herself.

The land felt uneven beneath her feet. She tripped on a furrow, caught herself just before crashing into a lemon tree. She heard water spraying, the crank of the firefighters’ hoses.

“Bonnie!” she called, choking and coughing in the smoke.

She stopped to listen for Bonnie’s barking, but heard nothing but the terrifying noise of the wind, fire, and emergency crews. An animal rustled through the rosebushes, off to her left near the coast path.

“Bonnie!” she cried, and then she felt arms around her waist, pulling her away from the sound. She smelled scorched hair and skin.

“Julia,” Roberto said. “Come with me.”

“I don’t want to! Not without her.”

“She’s fine,” he said.

“No, she ran . . .”

“We have her,” Roberto said.

Julia shook her head, not believing him, straining to run toward the path.

Roberto picked her up, and she began sobbing into his shoulder. He moved fast, as if his feet knew the way, because she knew he couldn’t see a foot in front of them. He held her head so her face pressed against his neck, to keep her from breathing soot and ash.

“
Te amo,
Julia,” he said roughly, his voice almost too hoarse to speak. They got to the driveway, packed with emergency vehicles. An EMT rushed to them, put an oxygen mask over Julia’s face. The pure oxygen made her light-headed; she turned to look at Roberto and saw him standing right beside her. Bonnie was tethered to a fire truck with a rope.

“I love you, I love you,” Julia said, but she wasn’t sure who she was saying it to.

Roberto crouched down, held her hand. He’d saved their lives. He gazed at her so gently they might have been alone in the orchard, not surrounded by emergency crews. She smiled at him, and her eyelids began to flutter. She had wanted to die, and now she didn’t, but she couldn’t stay awake.

Now, lying on a gurney in the driveway, Julia opened her eyes and saw Roberto still watching her.

“Hola,” he said.

“Hola,” she said. “Thank you.”

“You’re my heart.”

“You’re mine.”

She raised her head to make sure Bonnie was still there, and she saw her lying right next to the gurney where Julia could almost touch her. But something was different—it was quiet, almost hushed. Some of the emergency personnel were gone, and the air was free of smoke. She glanced around. The house was intact, the lemon trees still standing, the entire scene coated with fine white ash. The lawn, the trees, the rocks, the lemons, the stone walls, and the tile fountain: everything looked as if it were covered with snow.

Julia looked up and saw blue sky.

“What happened?” she asked.

“You sleep for a long time, amor.”

“How long?”

“Twenty minutes, maybe.”

“What about the fire?”

“The wind stopped blowing,” he said. “The canyon and our fire line kept it away from the orchard just long enough for the wind to die.”

“The fire’s out?”

“They’ve contained it, but with the wind gone, it’ll die much faster.”

The police and firefighters were starting to depart. Their cars and trucks maneuvered out of tight spots on the narrow, hilly driveway, beep-beep-beeping as they went in reverse. Julia sat up. She gave Roberto her hand and he helped her to her feet. She wobbled slightly, then steadied herself.

Sheriff Hernandez walked over to them.

“Well, that was a miracle,” he said.

“Close, right?” Roberto asked.

“Whew,” Hernandez said, exhaling and pointing toward the north ledge. “Look—you can see the rocks are black where the fire cleared the top. We all saw it coming, thought this place was done for sure.”

“And the wind stopped,” Julia said. Her throat ached; her voice was hoarse. The sheriff nodded.

“Yeah,” he said. “Casa Riley was the last stop on the way to the ocean. You were spared. You still might want to leave.”

“Do you know about Lion Cushing’s house?” she asked.

“He’s on Turenne Road off Topanga Canyon, right?” Hernandez asked. “The fire missed them completely.”

“Oh, good. He always leaves when there’s a fire in the area. I’ll let him know.”

“He knows,” Hernandez said, laughing. “He has the direct line to my boss. The L.A. sheriff is a big fan of his.”

Julia smiled—that was Lion. “Thanks for everything you and everyone did,” she said.

Julia, Roberto, and Bonnie walked back into the house. The thick walls and leaded casement windows had kept the smoke out, just as they had in previous Malibu fires. Julia put down a fresh bowl of water for Bonnie. She lapped it up while Roberto wet a towel and rubbed the soot off her fur.

“She could use a bath,” he said.

They gave her one in the downstairs bathroom, filling the tub with warm water, lifting her in, and giving her a shampoo. Roberto seemed completely at ease, lathering up Bonnie’s fur, rinsing her with a pitcher from the kitchen. The bathwater turned black, so they let it out and filled the tub again.

Bonnie kept shaking herself off, getting them wet, making them laugh. Julia was used to it, and she loved seeing Roberto’s reaction. Bonnie had always loved her baths. When her coat smelled clean, they rinsed her one more time and let her out of the tub and used every towel in the bathroom to dry her.

“She feels better,” Roberto said.

“She does,” Julia said. They watched her go to her bed in the corner of the kitchen, circle once, and lie down. She rested her head on her paws.

“This is how I know the fire is really out,” Roberto said, nodding toward Bonnie. “Because she can relax. She senses everything.”

“Like when she was so scared, under the bed?”

“Sí. But also when she made her way to the cliff—the only place she could breathe.”

“She did?’” Julia asked.

Roberto held her face in his hands, looked into her eyes. “Yes. But when she heard your voice, she ran straight back into the smoke to find you.”

“You saved us, Roberto,” she said.

“I love this dog,” he said. “When she ran, it helped me get to you. I knew you needed me.”

You needed me
. Julia felt those words on her skin. She hadn’t let herself need anyone, or even want someone, in such a long time. Roberto held her close, kissed her. They headed for the stairs, walked up together, side by side, to take a shower and wash the fire off of them.

When they got upstairs, walked into her bedroom, Julia heard her cell phone beep. She glanced at the screen, saw that John, Lion, and Jack Leary had called. Everyone but John could wait.

“Roberto,” she said.

“Sí?”

She handed him her phone. “Will you please call John?”

“I’m sure he wants to hear from you and know that you are okay,” Roberto said.

“You can tell him that,” Julia said. “You’re the orchard manager, and you should call.”

Roberto looked proud as he took the phone. Julia showed which number to dial, then went into the bathroom to turn on the shower. While the water was getting hot, she stepped toward the bedroom door so she could listen.

“Señor Riley,” she heard Roberto say. “We had a bad fire, but the house and orchard were saved. Most of all, Julia is safe . . .”

chapter fifteen

Roberto

He had never done this before, taken a shower with a woman. The Rileys’ bathroom was large, and this was the biggest shower he had ever seen. He felt shy at first, but as soon as he stepped under the hot water with Julia, his inhibitions disappeared.

Kissing her while hot water flowed over them made him crazy in a way he’d never felt before. Every part of his body was alive, and she felt so warm and slippery in his arms—it was as if they were merging through each other’s skin. She rubbed his body with soap, and that showed him to do the same to hers. They washed each other’s hair.

Soot swirled down the drain. He had never felt this clean in his life. They stayed there long after all the black smoke had been washed from their hair and skin, just kissing and loving each other.

He felt Julia’s hands sliding down his back, her breasts against his chest, and when she reached down to touch him he realized what she wanted.

“Here?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said. “If you want.”

“I do,” he said.

Julia was so soft, and he wrapped her in his arms to protect her warm skin from touching the tile walls. As he entered her he lifted her up, and she wrapped her legs around his waist.

She felt light, and he held her with one arm while bracing them against the cool wall with his other. They were eye level, and he looked into her blue eyes, still so exotic to him. She barely blinked, hot water running down her face, and having her watch him that way brought them ever closer, beyond what he believed possible.

His body quivered with intense sensation, the water making their skin slippery, and driving him crazy. He cupped his hands around her ass, and her legs closed around his waist. She leaned her head against his, bit his shoulder and moaned. He heard her ecstasy and felt his own overtaking him.

He moved faster and faster. She held on, and that excited him even more; he heard the Spanish pouring out, his mouth against her ear.

When he finished, his legs were weak. He eased Julia down, and they smiled at each other.

“Julia,” he said, “I never did that.”

“In the shower?”

He nodded. Maybe he shouldn’t have told her. Not because she’d think he was naïve, but because he didn’t think it polite to talk about the past with women, and he hoped she wouldn’t tell him hers with men. But she must have felt the same way, because she didn’t reply. Just wrapped him in a soft, thick towel and led him to the bed.

They dried off, then climbed under the sheets. The sheets were softer than any fabric he’d ever felt, as if they were spun from clouds. Julia lay close to him, her head on the same pillow. Out the arched doors that led to the balcony were blue sky and the Pacific Ocean.

“Thank you for today,” she said.

“La, Julia . . .”

“Two hours ago we thought we were going to lose Bonnie, the house, everything. And here we are.”

“Este es mi cielo,” he said.

“How do you say ‘What?’ in Spanish?”

“Mexicans say, ‘
Mande?
’”

“Okay, then.
Mande?
”

“This is my heaven,” he said.

“The orchard?”

“No. In this bed, with you.”

“Me too,” she said.

As impossible as it was, he believed her. They lay together under the light sheet and she fell asleep first. He listened to her breathing, so quiet and steady, until it became part of his heartbeat. The blue sky began to fade, and sunset colors of orange, purple, and gold filled the doorway. He didn’t want this day to end. The sun set so early at this time of year, but exhaustion from the day’s events overtook them. He held Julia and knew this couldn’t last. But for now it was real, so he stayed awake as long as he could to feel what was honest and truly happening between them, and then he fell asleep.