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.The kiss, the loan and the truck.But when she saw him their eyes locked and held.And the unspoken message calmed her nerves and soothed her psyche.Yes, I remember, he telegraphed across the room, and she felt the heat rise to her face.She smiled at Josh.He smiled at the women.It was a beautiful day.It was an historic day.They went to a room where they heard a man explain the loan process, slowly and clearly with pictures, in Spanish and in Mamara.The women leaned forward, hanging on every word.Catherine’s eyes glazed over with joy.They were beginning a new era.She stood at the back of the room, too choked up to speak.Josh pressed his shoulder against hers.“Do you think it will work?”“It has to,” she said under her breath.After the session, the women went back to the market and Catherine stayed behind to look at the repossessed trucks parked behind the bank in a parking lot.She gave Josh her hat to hold while she raced the engines, pounded the tires and tested the brakes.“I don’t know,” she said, looking down at him from the driver’s seat.“I hate to think of our profiting from someone else’s loss.”He opened the door and held out his hand to help her down.“The somebody elses were drug dealers, if that makes you feel any better.The government confiscated their houses, their cars and their jewels.We got their trucks before they even got a chance to use them.”“Oh, well, in that case.” She didn’t allow herself to think of where this truck might end up if they had to default on their loan.“This one?” he asked.“This one,” she said firmly.“I can’t wait for them to see it.I can’t wait to drive it.”They walked back to the bank.“You’re not afraid?”“Afraid? I’ve been driving tractors bigger than this since I was fourteen years old.”He held the door open for her.He liked the way her chin tilted up.He admired the way her eyes sparkled when she was excited and he enjoyed the pleasure the truck brought her.If the whole thing failed and he wound up behind a loan officer’s desk in Boston, he’d remember her eyes, warm and soft or dancing with delight.But in the meantime.They stood on the wide front steps.The sun was directly overhead.A shoeshine boy appeared from nowhere and approached Josh.He shook his head absently and looked at his watch.“What about lunch?”She shook her head.“I’ve already missed a half day of work.I’m terrible at bargaining, but I’m useful in other ways.”A smile stole over his face.“I’m sure you are.”She looked down at her dusty shoes, then back to meet his gaze.“When can we have the truck? Today?”“If I stay late and work on the papers.Do you have a license to drive it here?”“I got one when I arrived, just in case.I’ll send the women home with Tomás.Next week they’ll apply for their permits.When should I come back?”He set her hat firmly on her head and let his fingers trail across her smooth cheek to her chin.“Soon.”She nodded and then she was gone, down the steps on rope-soled shoes before he could give her money for a taxi.He started after her, but she disappeared into the lunchtime crowd.The sun shone just as brightly after she was gone, and the air was just as warm.But there was something missing.Catherine.She was interfering with his work.She was disturbing his sleep.He wanted her around all the time, but that wasn’t possible.The next thing he knew she’d talk him into going to the mine or borrowing more money for something else.She came at five o’clock.He was pacing back and forth when she walked through the door.He told her the license was ready, but the ownership papers weren’t processed yet.They could check back later.What he didn’t tell her was that even when the papers were ready he wasn’t going to let her drive home alone in the dark, no matter how much experience she’d had with trucks and tractors.She nodded and he looked around.Customers were still waiting for tellers.Bank officials were in deep discussions with important clients behind closed doors.Banks and stores stayed open until 7:00.Josh usually worked late.But not tonight.Not with Catherine standing there with one braid over her shoulder, her face tilted up to his, her expression hopeful and expectant.He had a wild desire to grab her arm, run out the front door and get lost in the bustling, vibrant city out there.He did the next best thing.He led her firmly out the door with his hand on her elbow.“Where are we going?” she asked.“I don’t know.You know the city better than I do Take me somewhere I haven’t been before.That won’t be hard.I haven’t been anywhere.”“Anywhere?” Her eyes sparkled and her lips curved in an enticing smile.A rush of dizziness engulfed him, and he steadied himself by holding her arms.After weeks of living and working within a four-block radius, he had a desire to expand his horizon.“Anywhere,” he said.They started down the avenue, past galleries filled with silver, pewter and antiques.They mingled with shoppers, workers and Indians dressed like Catherine and bureaucrats dressed like Josh.The sun was setting on the flatlands that surrounded the city, and a cool wind threatened to send Catherine’s hat flying.In front of the San Francisco Church at the end of the street, he stopped to take it off her head and smooth her hair.He longed to loosen the braid, to feel the masses of dark hair in his hands.The stone-carved statue of Saint Francis in front of the church smiled benevolently, but they didn’t linger.Catherine took his hand and led him around the corner down an alley lined with small, elegant shops.In front of a store crammed with soft leather goods she paused.“Have you ever been to a peña?” she asked.He turned her hat on the palm of his hand.“I don’t think so.What is it?”“An open-air restaurant with typical food and folk music.You’ve been in La Luz for a month and nobody’s taken you to a peña?” she asked incredulously.“Nobody’s taken me anywhere.except to the Rodriguez Market.They told me I could find everything I needed there.They were right.’’ He gave her a smile that made her heart skip a beat.She folded her arms across her waist.Deliberately she tilted her head and surveyed his suit jacket.Her gaze lingered on his vest.“What’s wrong?” he asked.“It gets cold at the peña after the sun sets.You need a sweater.”He opened the door for her to the brightly lighted shop, and they breathed deeply of the warm, earthy smell of leather.“What about a jacket?”“You’d buy a leather jacket just like that?”“I need a leather jacket.I’ve always needed one.I just didn’t know it until now.”Hearing this, an attentive clerk slipped up behind him and helped him remove his suit coat.His vest came off next.The first jacket he tried on was brown with wide shoulders and tucked in around the waist.It made him look like a World War One flying ace.Catherine couldn’t stop staring.Where was the conservative banker, the one who ate at the same restaurant every night? She warned herself he was still there, just a breath away, under a layer of leather.But here was a man who was buying himself a jacket so he could go to a new restaurant.Here was a man who was taking a chance on a group of poor women on the strength of his intuition and her recommendation.In a momentary panic she wondered what she’d started the day she had barged her way into his office.But it had begun before that.On the day he had walked up to her with mangoes in his hand and refused to bargain.He was watching her face.“What’s wrong? Is it too casual?”She shook her head.She couldn’t trust her voice.It was the warmth of the shop, the rich smell of leather, not the overwhelming desire to touch the jacket, to slide her hands inside and run her palms over the soft cotton of his button-down shirt across the flat planes of his chest, she told herself.He was waiting for her to answer.“No, it’s fine, but.” She pulled him aside
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