Dancing in the Moonlight - Harlequin.com

140 DANCING IN THE MOONLIGHT
thing he had for her. He wouldn’t go so far as to call it
an obsession; before she came back to town, he could
often spend weeks without thinking about her. But then
he would bump into Guillermo or Viviana and she
would somehow sneak to the forefront of his mind for
several days.
But now as his gaze ranged over her—as he sat in
the darkened room, content to watch her sleep—the
truth seemed so obvious he couldn’t believe he’d so
stupidly missed it.
He was in love with her.
He wasn’t sure how or when it happened. Maybe that
terrible day his father died when she had reached out
past her hatred and anger to comfort him. Maybe slowly
over the years as he’d talked to her mother about what
she was doing and learned of the strong, courageous
woman she had become. Maybe that moment he had
pulled up behind her on Cold Creek Road and found her
crouched in the gravel changing a tire.
Maybe like that rare wildflower he had compared her
to earlier, his love for her had been growing inside him
his entire life, so quietly he’d never realized it was there
until it burst forth in full, spectacular bloom.
Spectacular to him, maybe. But he had a feeling she
would see it as a pesky weed that needed to be plucked
out at all costs.
He sighed. In love with Magdalena Cruz. Now
there was a recipe for disaster. He couldn’t see any
positive outcome for his poor heart. The woman was
prickly and argumentative, hated anything to do with
his family and was coping with a major life adjust-