When he stopped, Elise looked at him. “Go on. Talk,” she said. “I’m nervous and your voice calms me.” She made gestures to show what she mea
nt.
“Right now I’m very glad you can’t understand me,” he said. “Because I remember things. About us. But that’s not possible.”
For a moment, he watched her going through her clothes, her back to him. “If you could understand what I’m saying, you’d think I’m crazy. Sometimes I feel like I can see the future. But no! It’s like I can see things that have already happened—but I know they haven’t.”
He took a few breaths. “Yesterday I saw you pick a damask rose, and I also saw you cutting a dozen of them while I held a long basket. You said it was from England and it had a funny name.”
A trug, Elise thought but didn’t say. She was moving the hangers of clothes but not really looking at them. She was listening to every word he said.
“I know what you look like when you cry. I know that I wanted to hold you, but that I couldn’t. It was forbidden to get too near you, but I don’t know why. You looked like someone should hold you.”
Alejandro ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. Are these dreams? Are they the imagination of a sick man? It’s just that they’re so real that I can’t get them out of my mind.”
She wanted to tell him that what he remembered hadn’t yet happened—and now never would—but then he’d think she was the insane one. She pointed to a suitcase on a top shelf. “Go on talking,” she urged.
As he pulled the suitcase down, he said, “You always did like my voice. You said so. But no, you didn’t say that because we’ve never spoken.”
When Elise put a dress with blue-and-white flowers in the case, he said, “I know that dress! It has a blue jacket to match it.”
He sat down on the hassock in the corner. “How did I know where your room is? How do I remember your wallpaper? I said it was pink and you said it was peach.”
She looked at him. It was exactly what had actually happened. He had been sprawled on the hassock, his long legs stuck out across the floor.
Just as before, she had a thought of kneeling between his legs and... Quickly, she looked away.
Alejandro put his head back and closed his eyes. “How many times have I seen that look?” he said softly. “Never, but yet I’ve seen it a thousand times.” He opened his eyes. “Want to hear something funny? In every one of these...visions, dreams, whatever they are, I’m half-naked. Maybe they’re my wishes coming alive.”
He paused, watching her put things in the suitcase. “But yet, as clear as these dreams are, I never feel your skin on mine. I’ve tried to. This morning...” He let out his breath. “This morning I wanted you. Like I wanted to live, I wanted you. When you ran away, I felt that my heart might break. I wanted to feel your flesh on mine, my lips on your skin. Me inside you.”
He took a moment to breathe. “But that vision isn’t there. It’s as though I’m condemned to wanting you but to never having you—not even in my mind.”
He gave a scoffing laugh. “Diego says that when it comes to women, I’m an idiot. He says I should marry a girl from home and have a bunch of kids, and that will calm me down. His wife has a pretty sister and...” He trailed off.
Elise turned away so he couldn’t see her. She didn’t know how it could be that he remembered what hadn’t yet happened, but then, she certainly did. But her memories were different. When she’d been near Alejandro, she’d also been married to Kent—and endlessly trying to please her husband.
But now she didn’t have that conflict. Kent didn’t rule her life—and never would. She looked back at Alejandro. His eyes, so dark, so full of desire, were pulling her to him.
Not yet, she thought. I need more. More of what, she didn’t know.
Abruptly, she left the closet and went into her bedroom. She needed to get the cash she’d saved and hidden under the top drawer. Beside the money was her passport. Since she and Kent were only going a short distance away for their honeymoon, she’d left it at home. She was glad to see that it was in her maiden name, not her married one.
As Alejandro put her suitcase on the bed, he continued speaking in Spanish. “Ah, good. You have money. Now you can get away from us. I could drive you to JFK or LaGuardia. Your dad can’t cover those airports. You can go anywhere you want to. Somewhere far away from my family who has caused you so much pain.” He smiled. “You know something? I’m glad Carmen ran off with that cowardly—and very stupid—man you were going to marry.”
Elise didn’t know when she’d heard such honesty—and if anything was missing in her life it was truthfulness. Smiling, she removed a little art case from a drawer and put it in the outside zipper compartment. Maybe she’d help Diego figure out the plans for the Bellmont job.
As she dropped a handful of necklaces in the pouch that contained the cash, they heard voices downstairs.
Immediately, Elise went into panic mode. Her mind filled with that horrible trip in the trunk of Dr. Hightower’s car. In this version of her life, that hadn’t happened but it could. All the players were there. Her parents could—
After a glance at her panicked face, Alejandro closed her suitcase, threw it out the window, put his arm around her, and led her to the window.
She looked out. The bedroom was on the second floor. “You’re kidding, right?”
He went out first, stepped sideways onto the low roof of the one-story sunroom, and held out his hand to her.
Elise didn’t hesitate when she took it—nor did she look down. When she was halfway onto the lower roof, he jerked her arm and pulled her to him. For a second he held her against him, then released her. Still holding her hand, they ran across the steep roof. At the far end was the big rose trellis. Alejandro went down first, then held his arms up to her.