Dancing in the Moonlight - Harlequin.com

32 DANCING IN THE MOONLIGHT
decided to accept it with grace. “It was a long drive and
I may have overdone things a little. But I promise, I’m
feeling better this morning.”
“Good. Good. The clean air of the Luna will cleanse
your blood. You will see.”
Maggie smiled, then gestured to the tractor. “Mama,
why are you doing the planting?Where’s Tío Guillermo?”
An odd expression flickered across her mother’s
lovely features, but she quickly turned away. “Do not
my flowers look beautiful this year? We will have many
blooms with the rains we’ve had. I thought many of
them would die in the hard freeze of last week but I
covered them with blankets and they have survived.
They are strong, like my daughter.”
With Viviana smiling at her with such love, Maggie
almost let herself be deterred, but she yanked her attention
back. “Don’t change the subject, Mama. Why are
you planting instead of Guillermo? Is he sick?”
Viviana shrugged. “This I cannot say. I have not seen
him for some days.”
“Why not?”
Her mother didn’t answer and suddenly seemed
wholly focused on deadheading some of the tulips that
had bloomed past their prime.
“Mama!” she said more firmly, and her mother sighed.
“He does not work here anymore. I told him to go and
not return.”
Maggie stared. “You what?”
“I fired him, sí? Even though he said he was quitting
anyway, that I could not pay him enough to keep
working here. I said the words first. I fired him.”