Milagros cleaned my cabins and she had two other houses in town she also cleaned. She’d had a business that was going pretty well, it allowed her to work and bring in needed money while the kids were at school, be at home when they got out. Then the recession hit and she lost five clients. That was when she went looking for work and I took her on.
Even though I gave her work and it was work she was good at that she liked because she could do it on her schedule, they were far from rolling in it as their lovely, but small (and especially small for seven people) house attested. Manuel worked as maintenance for some office buildings in Chantelle about thirty miles away. The pay was decent but the commute was a bitch, on time and gas.
But pay had to be freaking awesome to take care of a house and five kids.
Decent meant every penny had to stretch.
They didn’t complain. They just worked, did their best with what they had, loved their kids and each other, and were good friends to me.
In other words, they were the bomb and I was fortunate Milagros drove down my lane looking for work, and not because her doing it gave me free time.
What I didn’t know was at that moment, in her kitchen, she was going to prove that thought absolutely correct.
She stopped well away from the door and I came to a stop a couple feet in front of her.
I opened my mouth to speak but she got there before me.
“He stays with you.” This was an accusation.
“Uh…yeah.”
“Querida, you’re not married.”
I pulled up all my thirty years in the face of a woman who was only a few years older than me but reminded me of my mother on more than one occasion, except scarier.
“No, we’re not,” I replied firmly.
She held my eyes and nodded sharply, letting that go, and saying, “You’re very beautiful and he’s staying with you. Which means he doesn’t have to pay for a cabin.”
I fought back a smile. “You think he’s taking advantage of me.”
“He doesn’t touch you.”
Sheesh, she noticed everything.
“He’s not into PDA,” I explained.
“PDA?”
“Public displays of affection.”
Her head cocked to the side as she noted, “This is odd for a man like him.”
“Just saying, Manuel isn’t into that with you either,” I pointed out.
“Of course not, I’m the mother of his children,” she said and I was surprised she did that without gasping in shock that I’d suggest such a thing out loud.
Again, I fought back a smile. “Was he into PDA when you met?”
She leaned in to me, holding my eyes, “John Priest is not Manuel Cabrera.”
She could say that again. Not that Manuel wasn’t attractive and sweet, he just wasn’t a huge, hot guy, badass.
She looked to the door then to me and I didn’t like the expression on her face when I regained her eyes.
“I have a bad feeling about this, Cassidy.”
I didn’t like that either.
“Milagros—” I started but she shook her head.
“He’s very handsome. He’s good with the children. He’s respectful. But there’s just something…” she paused, took a breath, and finished, “off about him.”
At that moment I vowed that my next best friend was going to be blind, deaf, and learning disabled.
I got closer to her. “Honey, he’s a good guy.”
“You seem certain.” This was said in a way that shared she was not.
“I am.”
“How?” she demanded to know.
“Because he fixed my gutters.”
She leaned back. She got that. I’d been going it alone for a long time, but more, she knew there weren’t many men who would fix their new girlfriend’s gutters.
“And he thinks I’m the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen, and he’s told me that,” I continued. “Often,” I stressed. “He likes my cooking. When he was away the last time, he didn’t eat or sleep on his way back and it took two days to get to me.”
She pulled in a soft breath at that, but I wasn’t done
“Because he likes sitting on my porch with me. Because he listens to me when I babble and when I say that, I mean he listens to me. Because, when I talk to him about the cabins, he gives good advice. Because, when I have a situation at Glacier Lily—which he was there during what happened a couple of months ago, honey—he’s present but he doesn’t take over. He lets me run my business and defers to me. Because he knows I can take care of myself but he’s made it clear I need to budge on that because the man he is, he can’t not take care of me. Because he’s beautiful. And because I feel like I conquered the world just when I make him smile, but when I make him laugh, I feel like I could do anything.”
“You’re falling in love,” she said softly.
“Yes,” I replied softly.
She held my eyes then did the sign of the cross, put her fingers to her lips, looked to the ceiling, and started talking to God in Spanish.
Since God was multi-lingual, I let her deliver her message, standing there quiet while she did.
Finally, she stopped talking to God and looked back to me.
“If he travels, how can he be there to take care of you at the cabins?”
Suffice it to say I wasn’t falling in love with Milagros. I’d fallen, head over heels. Her concern that was based in love and affection was one of the many reasons why.