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Nick sighed and rolled his shoulders as the Uruguayan coast loomed ahead. The palm trees swayed in the warm, humid breeze. The stretch of beach welcomed him like long-lost love. He could already smell his aunt’s budín de pan even though he was still miles away from Tio Jose’s café. He gripped the railing as homesickness rocked through him.
Adrienne wrapped her hand around his arm and leaned against him. For a moment, he let his imagination carry him to a forbidden future, one that included Adrienne and their children, the beach, a warm tide, laughter. He longed to recreate for his own family the idyllic childhood that had been ripped from him with his parents’ deaths. And he wanted Adrienne to be a part of that…but she was the wife of his cousin and best friend. He edged away from her, frightened by his own hunger.
If Abuelo could read Nick’s thoughts, Nick would be hauled by his ear to see the priest.
If Abuelo could know of Seb’s infidelity, Abuelo would cut him off from the family and leave him for dead.
No matter. Nick couldn’t let Seb’s sins justify his own. He loved Adrienne as she loved him, as a friend. And nothing more. Someday, he would find a wife of his own and together they would bring their children to the beach to build sandcastles and bonfires.
“It’s such a relief to be here,” he told Adrienne.
“To see your uncle?”
“Yes,” he replied, “but mostly because no one here has seen those ridiculous videos.”
After a few toots of the horn, the ferry pulled alongside the dock. Nick guided Adrienne down the crowded gangplank and onto the sidewalk of Colonia del Sacramento. He spotted a taxi, hailed it, and placed his hand on the small of Adrienne’s back, urging her toward the yellow car.
Jose lived in a small fishing village about twenty minutes north of Colonia del Sacramento. Their driver, Manuel, a middle-aged man with a handlebar mustache, knew it well.
“Your wife is very beautiful,” Manuel told Nick in Spanish.
“Yes, she is. Although she is not my wife, but my cousin’s,” Nick replied.
“Too bad,” Manuel said.
Nick cut Adrienne a sideways glance. “And she speaks Spanish fluently.”
Manuel glanced at Adrienne in the rearview mirror and gave her a flirtatious smile.
“Gracias,” Adrienne said.
“’Tis but a truth,” Manuel said.
“Manuel, if you had millions of dollars, what would you do with it?” Adrienne asked Manuel.
“We’re back to that?” Nick asked.
“Yes,” Adrienne said. “I think that if God gives you the resources to do a tremendous amount of good, you have a responsibility to use it to make the world a better place.”
Manuel laughed. “I suppose I would send my children to the university and pray that they would do the world some good, but what if they didn’t? What if I paid for them to gain an education, but they did nothing more than become taxi drivers?”
“But would that be so bad?” Adrienne asked. “What if they really enjoy being a taxi driver? Shouldn’t they be free to choose a profession that makes them happy?”
Manuel snorted. “You’re right. I do not need a million dollars. I don’t want the responsibility.”
“That’s an interesting way to look at it,” Nick said as he watched the familiar landscape flash by his window. His thoughts drifted to Tio Jose and the life they’d shared before Tia Martha’s death, before Nick had been sent to the States. For the millionth time, he wondered if that move had been to his benefit. His aunt and uncle in Seattle had loved him and given him a good home, a wonderful education, and a stable upbringing, but maybe, like Manuel’s children, he would have been just as happy working with Tio Jose in Uruguay.
Manuel pulled the taxi alongside the curb in front of Jose’s café. After paying, Nick climbed out, and reached for Adrienne’s hand.
But once on the sidewalk, he froze. Immediately, he knew something was terribly wrong.
