Evenings at the Argentine Club (33 page)

“Driving to the Santa Monica site. What’s up?” Mostly she called to check on him lately. She didn’t like that he was alone.
Since she never worried about him in the past, he had thought that endearing. Carmen was growing up, too. Instead of leaving
everything to Victoria, she was finally showing some interest in her family.

“I wanted to talk to you about something before we see each other for Christmas.”

“Okay, I’m listening.”

“I was going to wait until we were face-to-face, but I don’t want to ruin the holidays.”

Only for an instant did he fear she’d confess she was pregnant or getting married or some other awful thing parents dreaded
to hear. But then he caught himself. Carmen wouldn’t be that stupid. He and Jaqui had raised her well. “Qué pasa, nena?”

She drew a breath. “I can’t continue to lie to you and Mom anymore.”

“Lie about what?” Now she had him worried.

“I haven’t been doing as well in school as I’ve let on.”

Was that all? A wave of relief made him actually sag in his seat and the cars in front of him ceased to be a blur. “Carmen,
you don’t have to lie about that.”

“When I started the bio degree, I was so excited and I loved it. But I’ve come to realize that I’m not as good as some of
the other students in my classes. And the competition for jobs in this field is tough. I’m never going to be able to compete
with my grades.”

“So take a lighter load and concentrate more on your studies.” He pulled off the freeway and waited in a long line of cars
for a streetlight to change from red to green.

“I don’t see the point in continuing with my bachelor of science degree.”

He wasn’t going to have a second daughter drop out of college. “Carmen, the point is that you don’t give up when things get
a little tough. You work harder.”

“I’ve
been
working hard.”

He tried to control his words even though it was on the tip of his tongue to say,
you’re going to finish because I said you’re going to finish, end of discussion.
“You’re less than a year from graduating. Don’t you think it’s a little late to realize you don’t like what you’re doing?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” Traffic moved again. “Are you kidding?” His grip on the steering wheel made his knuckles ache. “Do you think I’m
going to tell you I’m okay with you dropping out now?”

“I’m not suggesting dropping out, just changing my major.”

“No.”

“Dad, I’m not asking your permission.”

“What?” he shouted. “Someone in this family better damn well ask my permission. I’m sick and tired of you women doing one
stupid thing after another against my wishes.” He pulled off the side of the road, before he got in an accident.

“Dad—”

“Your mother decides she’s going to start acting like a single woman, Victoria is living with a man—living with, not dating—and
you think you’re going to throw away three years of college just because you don’t like what you’re doing? No way. Do you
hear me, Carmen?”

The line was quiet, though he thought he heard sniffling. “Carmen,” he repeated forcefully.

“How can I not hear you? You’re shouting,” she said in a weak voice. She was definitely crying.

“I’m sorry, but you just can’t do this.”

“I understand that you’re upset with Mom and Victoria, and that this is bad timing on my part, but listen to me, please.”

He didn’t want to listen anymore. But Victoria flashed through his mind. All the years he’d refused to see what was right
in front of his eyes. Dreams she’d buried to please him. The real self she’d hidden. He didn’t want to do the same thing to
Carmen. He had to at least hear her out. “Go on.”

“I’m not dropping out of college. I’ll finish, I promise. But it doesn’t make sense for me to get a degree in something I
know I won’t use. It’s better if I change course now than later. I know this is disappointing to you, but—”

“Yes, it is.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” She paused and sniffled. “I wish I’d done better. I did try.”

His heart ached. He wished he could wrap an arm around her. “I’m sure you did.”

“I know you always wanted Victoria to be the one in business. The one to help you with the restaurant. But Papi… I’d love it if you let
me
work with you.”

“Doing what?” He’d never considered including Carmen in his plans. She was too bright to get stuck slaving away at a restaurant. She could do so much more.

“I want to change my degree to business. I’ve taken quite a few classes in management and marketing, and I was so excited to hear about your expansion… I’d really love to… help out.”

Victor was stunned. He got out of his car and stood on the sidewalk of some residential neighborhood in Santa Monica. He looked up at the sky, wondering if God liked to mess with his mind. “You want to help run the restaurants?”

“I think the idea of building a chain of restaurants is fabulous, and then opening them up to franchises… When Victoria told me your plans, I knew I wanted to be a part of it, and I felt sort of guilty that I was happy she wasn’t going to be involved.”

He blinked at the brightness of the day, almost blinding him. Not Carmen. This wasn’t the life he’d envisioned for her. “So… you’re thinking of getting… a degree in business.”

“Something in the business field. I’ll have to look into it. But mostly I want to work with you.” Her voice grew softer. “I know your dream was for Victoria to be by your side. She was the first-born, and you’ve always been closer to her, but—”

“No. Carmen. No, it wasn’t like that.” He sighed and leaned on the car, his strength weakening. “You were so smart. Your teachers all told us how effortless learning came to you. You were in the gifted program and took advance placement classes, and I didn’t want you to waste a second of your life at La Parrilla. The whole world was yours if you wanted it. And I wanted you to have it. Your sister was different. She didn’t care to study much and never focused on anything long enough to excel. I figured I’d keep her close, show her what I knew, and maybe one day she’d have the restaurant to run. At least, she’d have that if nothing else. Maybe get married and have her husband provide for her. But I was wrong about Victoria.”

“Yes, you were.”

“She’s smart in her own way. And she’s talented.”

“She’s amazing,” Carmen agreed.

His eyes filled with tears, not because of the glare of the sun, but because all his life he thought he knew his family, and he didn’t know any of them. He hadn’t paid attention. They were strangers. “Carmen,” he said. “I’m speechless. I’m proud that you want to work with me, but I wanted something—”

“More. I know. But you said yourself, this is going to be an empire. And I believe you. I see it as if it already happened.”

She saw it.
His heart sang a strong beat, and energy started to flow though his body again. “When you come home for Christmas, we’ll talk some more.”

“You’re not mad?”

“I can’t be mad at you for knowing what you want, Carmen.”

“I love you, Papi. So much.”

“I… I love you, too.”

*   *   *

Today Victoria actually understood the feeling behind the phrase
being on top of the world
. She rushed home to start the design of the future La Parrillas. The architects had looked at and approved her preliminary designs. Now she had to create the actual plans. Her bedroom had turned into her design studio. She slept in Eric’s bed most of the time, so she didn’t use her own. Before they got an offer on the house, she kept it looking like a bedroom, because they had needed it that way for staging purposes. But now that Eric had a buyer, she’d moved the bed up against a wall so she had more room to work.

She went to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, and the doorbell rang. She answered it, finding the real-estate agent on the other side of the door.

“Hi, Victoria.”

“Hi,” she said. “Come in.”

“Is Eric around?”

“No, I’m not sure where he is.”

“I paged him, but didn’t get a call back.”

“Want some coffee? I was just getting a cup for myself.”

“Sure.”

They sat at the breakfast nook with their coffee cups.

“I’m afraid I have some bad news.”

Victoria braced herself. “About the house?”

“Yes. The buyers fell out of escrow. I’m sorry.”

“So we have to start all over from scratch.”

“We do.”

Eric walked in. “Hey,” he said, with a smile, carrying a bag of groceries. He placed it on the counter. “What’s going on?”

The real-estate agent gave him the bad news, and Victoria saw his smile fade.

“I think you might want to lower the price of the house another five thousand, Eric.”

He frowned.

“We want to stay competitive and a lower price will help you sell faster,” the Realtor added.

Eric shoved his hands into his pockets and leaned on the counter. “Every month I’m here, it costs me another four grand.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Take it down another ten,” he said.

“Will do.” She made a note, then stood. “You both have a good week. I’ll show myself out.”

Eric walked her to the door anyway. Then he stood at the entryway by himself. Victoria perched herself on the arm of a couch. “Eric, I’ve been thinking. I can start paying half of the mortgage.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” He walked past her, back to the kitchen. He pulled the grocery items out of the bag and started putting them away.

“I’m serious. I’m living here.”

“You worked for me. So far for free. You’re not paying rent.” He ripped open a bag of pasta and dumped it into a canister.

“But once we sell it, I’ll get paid. In the meantime—”

“In the meantime,” he said, his eyes flashing, “I’ve got it covered.”

“Why should you carry the brunt of the expenses when—?”

He slammed a can of corn on the counter. “I said no!”

She gazed at the can he’d used to hit the brand-new granite counter, and wanted to take the can out of his hands and smack
him
with it. And how dare he raise his voice at her? “I’m just trying to help.”

“It’s not a big deal, okay?” He turned away, tossing things into the fridge. “Sorry. But I’ve got things under control. I found one buyer, I’ll find another.”

“And until you do, this is our place. We should both contribute.”

“It’s not
our
place. It’s
my
place. I’ll take care of it.”

Feeling as if she’d been put in her place, Victoria swallowed the humiliation with as much composure as possible. But she had no control over the heat that rose to her face, nor the stab she felt in her heart. And he must have seen it—the change in her expression, the hurt look in her eyes, because all of a sudden he stopped his angry, jerky movements, and the color drained from his face.

“Victoria—”

“I’ll start looking for a place of my own.”

“Whoa, whoa,” he said, holding up a hand and coming out of the kitchen.

“It’s okay,” she said. “Don’t apologize.”

“I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I only meant the responsibility is mine.”

“You’re right about one thing. You hired me to do a job. My job’s done.” She picked up her coffee cup. “There’s no need for me to stay here anymore.”

“No, no, don’t do this.” He stepped in front of her and took the cup from her hand. “You know there’s a reason for you to stay. Come on, Victoria. I love you, you
know
that.”

She looked around at the house they’d fixed up together. Everything looked new and shiny and beautiful. But all of it was fake. Nothing inside belonged to them. Even their relationship was on loan. They were on a time clock. And that was what bothered her the most. “What I know is that none of this is real. It’s time for both of us to leave.”

He cursed. “I know, damn it.” He put the coffee cup back on the table and took her hands. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I shouldn’t have taken my frustrations out on you. But as I see this damned market getting worse and worse every day I get more and more… worried. Not because of the money, Vicki, but because I want things to work out with my business so I can stay close to you.”

Tears blurred her vision. “My heart tears in half when I hear you talk about California real estate sucking and how you’re going to move on. I can’t pretend it doesn’t bother me anymore, Eric. If it’s going to be over between us, then—”

“No. Remember when we decided not to define our relationship and just let things happen? Well, we have, and what’s happened is incredible, and Victoria, I don’t want to lose it.”

She fell into his arms. “Neither do I.”

He pulled her back and kissed her. “Then let’s not.”

She gazed at him with a deep sadness in her heart. “How can we hold on to it if you might not be around?”

“I’m going to be around.”

“Are you telling me you aren’t leaving town after you sell the house?”

“I’m telling you I’m not leaving
you.
I love you and I need you, and I want to hold you in bed tonight. And the next night. And the next.”

“I love you, too,” she said, not knowing how long this was going to last, but she was going to hold on as long as she could.

Eric stopped by the Torres house, hoping Victor was around. He noticed the door to the garage open and headed there first. He knocked on the outside wall. Victor was studying some papers he had laid out on a box.

“Sorry to bother you.”

Victor glanced up. “What do you want?”

“Just to talk.”

Victor stood and took a few steps forward. “I don’t want to talk to you; I want to punch a few teeth loose from your mouth.”

Eric blinked and raised his chin. If the man wanted to hit him, he’d take it.

“I have no respect for a man who lives with a woman instead of marrying her.”

“I understand. And I’d love to marry Victoria. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”

Victor frowned, but the harshness faded from his eyes. “Oh,” he said. “In that case, come in.”

Eric walked into the garage that Victor had made his house. He felt for the man. To come to his stage in life and be in this position. He’d never let this happen. “Sir, I love your daughter.”