They went back to digging while Alejandro started telling of his life in Mexico. When he was a child, his father broke his leg and couldn’t get to his bookkeeping job at a trucking firm. His parents were worried about how they were going to support the family. In frustration, his mother said that the only thing she knew how to do was cook.
“Is she any good?”
He rolled his eyes. “The best. Everyone said so. She pushed out a window in the kitchen and put up a sign that she was selling burritos. Everyone came running. A year later, Dad and Diego built a cover and set out four tables. The next year they rented a building with a covered terrace, and...” He shrugged.
“And you had a five-star restaurant.”
“A New York Times critic did stop by and he wrote a rather nice article.” He had to help Elise to understand all the words in that sentence.
“Wow! A New York Times restaurant review. Did you work there? Can you cook?”
“A bit. It was Diego and my brother Ricardo who got the most out of the place.” The way he was smiling made her want to know more.
“My mother hired a sixteen-year-old girl just out of school, then spent two years training her. She—”
“Let me guess. She became Diego’s wife.”
He grinned. “Right. Then my mother hired a second girl. Young, pretty, smart.” He looked at Elise.
“Your brother Ricardo took her?”
Alejandro laughed. “He did.”
“So that left you. What happened with the next girl? Or were you too young?”
“By then I was old enough, but my mother always said that I was going to university. No wife for me! To make sure I didn’t fall in love and take away her help, she hired a woman in her thirties who had two kids.”
When he stopped talking, Elise looked at him. “Are you blushing?” She drew in her breath. “You didn’t!”
Alejandro looked at her from under his lashes. “She taught me a lot.”
Elise leaned on her shovel and laughed. “Did your mother know?”
“I’m not sure. But one day I was yawning and she said, ‘At least you aren’t getting married!’”
“She knew.”
“Probably so.” He was smiling. “The next year I went to the University of Mexico.”
“And studied plants.”
“And English and literature and some other languages. All of it, according to Diego, useless.”
She suddenly realized that he hadn’t said a word about his sister. “What about Carmen? Did she fall in love with some gorgeous young man?”
“No.” He said the word in a way that showed he didn’t want to talk about that.
She lowered her voice. “Did she get into trouble and that’s why she’s now with you and Diego?”
Alejandro took a while before speaking, as though he was considering how to answer. “She just wanted to come to America. She’s like our father and good with numbers, so she does the bookkeeping for Diego.”
“I don’t mean to pry, but it seems like she’s changed. When we were teenagers, we were almost friends. I used to buy cinnamon gum and give it to Carmen because I knew she liked it. But one day she told me that she didn’t want any more of my charity. I apologized but I didn’t see it that way. I used to buy Kit Kats for my friend Lisa. It was just...” She shrugged.
Again, he took his time before speaking. “She...uh...she...”
When Elise’s phone rang, he looked like a weight had been lifted off him. “You’d better get that.”
“It’s not important. Did something awful happen to Carmen? Is that why she changed?” Her eyes widened. “An American didn’t do something bad to her, did he? Or she? Is that why Carmen suddenly seemed to think that I was an elitist and a—?”