"Well, I was thinking about Father Whatsisname..."
"Father Matthew, you mean?" Clete nodded. "What about him?"
"Well, I know how important-"
"Don't lie to me, Cletus."
He looked at her helplessly, then blurted the truth: "Honey, I just want to be alone with you."
She threw herself into his arms, put her mouth to his ear, and whispered, "Me too."
He thought his heart was going to jump out of his chest.
"Can we go to your place on Libertador?" she asked, her mouth still at his ear.
"No."
"I don't want to go to the other house," she said, now pulling her face back so that she could look at him. "Why can't we go to Libertador?"
"You don't want to know," he said.
"Yes, I do," she said.
"Because Coronel Per¢n is there with a lady friend," he said.
"A lady friend, or one of his little girls?"
"You know about that?" he asked incredulously.
"Everybody knows about that, silly," she said. "What about going to the estancia?"
"I suppose we could. I have some things I've got to do at the estancia..." He paused as reality interjected itself into his mental image of the last time she was in his bed at Estancia San Pedro y San Pablo: "How the hell would you ex-plain being with me at the estancia to your father?"
"I'll leave a note saying that I'm spending a few days with Claudia."
"Your father won't believe that," Clete argued.
"No. But he'll pretend he does. Mother will understand why I have to be with you."
"You're serious, aren't you?"
"Of course I'm serious. Give me a few minutes to throw some things in a bag," she said.
"I told you, I have some things to do at the estancia," Clete said. "I won't-"
"Things you have to do tonight?"
"Not tonight. But in the morning..."
"Then we'll have tonight, at least," she said. "Before you showed up here, I had convinced myself that I was never going to see you again. I asked God to please, please let me see you just once more, just for a little while...."
"Baby..."
She kissed him very gently on the lips.
"I'll only be a minute," she said. "And if you're not here when I come back down, I swear, I'll kill you!"
She turned and ran into the house and up the stairs.